2 SoCal spots ranked among the best new restaurants of 2026

A new list of the 19 best new restaurants in the country has been released by Bon Appétit, and two buzzy Southern California spots have made the cut.

LA’s Broken Spanish Comedor. Opened in October of 2025, the restaurant comes from acclaimed Los Angeles chef-owner Ray Garcia, who opened the restaurant’s predecessor, Broken Spanish, in 2015, before closing it in 2020.

The restaurant features a twist on Mexican cuisine with menu items including refried lentils, ceviche, chicharron, and tortillas.

Garcia said the Culver City restaurant is meant to serve as a meet-up spot where diners can grab a regular meal with family and friends.

“You got an hour and a half? You’ve got an hour? Great,” Garcia told LAMag in October. “You can still have a good bite, leave happy and come back when you have more time to explore even further into our mezcal list or more of the dishes that we’re doing.” 

“The food speaks for itself,” Bon Appétit said of Broken Spanish Comedor. “His [Garcia’s] dishes are punchy, bold, and assertively spicy.”

Also on the list was Little Mountain in Montecito. Bon Appétit describes walking into the restaurant as “like walking into a land of milk and honey.”

Opened in late 2025, the restaurant focuses on local ingredients including fish and shellfish caught that day and fresh produce from local farms. Menu items include king salmon with pistachio and embered greens, bone-in pork chop with coal roasted apple, and wood fire-roasted chicken with yuzu and smoked chile.

“After spending many years navigating New York and the dining scene there, I decided that it might be time to search for a different place to lay roots. I’ve always chased ingredients, and California being so lush with materia prima, it seemed like the right choice for a new beginning,” executive Chef Diego Moya told The Santa Barbara Independent.

“Having traveled extensively, I can say that this place is magical for someone that loves bright ingredients with depth and vibrancy.”

Little Mountain’s 3,000-square-foot space features a 14-seat private dining room with a dramatic fireplace and warm terracotta flooring.

“Little Mountain miraculously nails the balance of California ease and deliberate refinement; simplicity itself is meticulously edited into perfection,” Bon Appétit wrote. “You’ll leave as if awakened from a coastal daydream.”

The publication also showed NorCal some love, including San Francisco pizzeria Jules also making the cut.

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