About Somni
Somni — the Catalan word for dream — is the project to which Chef Aitor Zabala has devoted his professional life. It opened in its original form at the SLS Beverly Hills before a long closure, and reopened in 2024 in a dedicated space at 9045 Nemo Street in West Hollywood that Zabala designed precisely around the experience he intended to deliver. The Michelin Guide responded in 2025 with three stars, making Somni one of the two highest-rated restaurants in Los Angeles and one of the most acclaimed in the United States.
The experience begins in a private garden. Guests arrive to find their first five or six bites already waiting — small, hand-assembled compositions that set the register for what follows inside. The wooden chef's counter seats exactly fourteen. Over the next three to four hours, thirty-two bites arrive in a sequence that Zabala constructs as a complete narrative. His Catalan and Basque heritage appears in the technique and the philosophy; Southern California provides the ingredients. The collision is perpetually surprising.
The $645 per person pricing makes Somni the most expensive tasting menu in California, and the transparency with which Zabala defends it is instructive. The kitchen operates at a scale — fourteen covers, full brigade — that has no precedent for efficiency. Every course involves technique and sourcing that would be implausible at commercial restaurant margins. The wine pairing at $225 per person (Spain and California only) and at $415 per person (full range, included in private dining) is among the most considered in the country.
Reservations release in batches and are claimed within hours. The waitlist operates on its own terms. This is the restaurant that, as the Hollywood Reporter put it, "even Jeff Bezos can't buy his way into." Plan six to eight months ahead for any event that matters.
Somni is the proposal restaurant for the person who knows that the gesture must match the relationship. Fourteen seats at a single counter means every guest is equally immersed — there is no background table at Somni, no lesser position in the room. The three-to-four-hour progression builds a shared experience so specific and so extraordinary that the proposal becomes one moment in an evening of them. Tell the reservations team your intention. They have a protocol, and it is excellent. The garden arrival, the first bites, the intimacy of the counter — by the time you ask, the setting will have been making your case for hours.
A chef's counter designed for complete engagement makes Somni ideal for the solo diner who eats alone as an act of intention, not default. You will interact with the kitchen throughout the meal — Zabala's team explains each course, answers questions, and engages with genuine interest. The counter creates a community of fourteen strangers who share the same sequence of experiences, and conversations form naturally. Eating at Somni alone is one of the highest expressions of solo dining that exists anywhere.
Diner Reviews
Occasion: Proposal
I waited four months for this reservation and it was the correct decision for the most important question of my life. The garden arrival, the thirty-two bites, the way the kitchen noticed and responded without making anything feel scripted — the entire evening was designed, without knowing it, around the moment I needed it to be. She said yes before I finished the sentence.
Occasion: Solo Dining
I travel for work and eat alone constantly. Somni was the first restaurant that made eating alone feel like a privilege rather than a practical necessity. The counter places you in conversation with the kitchen and with the other guests. By course twelve I had made two new acquaintances. By course thirty-two I had had the best meal of my professional life. I will go again alone, deliberately.
