20 restaurants to support in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga Canyon
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L.A.’s coastal and canyon communities are resilient and rebuilding since the Palisades fire destroyed nearly 7,000 structures, including some of the city’s most locally beloved and iconic restaurants. Those that survived the blaze have become even more vital as communal linchpins and gathering places of Palisades, Topanga and Malibu residents.
Iconic restaurants across L.A. County have been destroyed by fires, including Moonshadows and Gladstones in Malibu, and Fox’s and Side Pie in Altadena.
In the Palisades, Sunset Boulevard snakes past swaths of burned-out lots, some punctuated by scaffolding and excavators beginning the rebuilding process. It winds past signs for road closures, park closures, business closures, and past signs that declare “REBUILDING TOGETHER” and “THEY LET US BURN.”
Make your way to the fabled mountain community that’s full of whimsy, beauty and neighborly love.
Neighboring Topanga Canyon saw fewer destroyed structures than the Palisades but faces its own extended rebuilding. Powerline repairs and landslides blocked the canyon’s PCH entry for much of 2025, and this access point, when open, is often whittled down to a single lane. Restaurants, the weekly farmers market and other businesses regularly post to social media to raise awareness that “Topanga is open.”
Farther north along PCH, Malibu restaurants are just beginning to recover. The scenic highway closed to nonresidents for the first five months of 2025. In the time since, business has gradually returned — but chefs, restaurateurs and staff say it still feels far more depleted than before the fire. Even toward the northern edge of the city, where Lily Castro sells burritos far from the Palisades fire’s reach, the popular restaurateur says business fell as much as 50% last year.
It’s peak season in Malibu, but these small businesses are still struggling after the Palisades fire
Businesses that survived the Los Angeles fires are still hoping for a return to normalcy and grappling with the impact the destruction has had. As customers slowly return to a changed landscape, some wonder how long it will take to get back to business as usual.
Some online listings and maps still mark destroyed restaurants as currently open, misrepresenting how affected many of these businesses remain.
A few restaurants managed to relocate and reopen, such as Flour Pizzeria in Brentwood and Cinque Terre West in Venice, both previously in the Palisades. Others already had additional locations, such as Cholada Thai’s Long Beach outpost or Cafe Vida’s in Culver City and El Segundo. Some are gradually rebuilding and readying to reopen, such as Duke’s, which survived the fire but suffered more than a year of closure due to the ensuing mudslides and flooding. Some, like the Reel Inn, are navigating an arduous rebuilding process rife with red tape and mixed messages.
A year after the Palisades and Eaton fires, a popular Italian restaurant finds a new community in Venice to call home.
You can help by visiting and supporting local dining spots. Here’s how to eat your way through some of the best restaurants of the coast and Topanga Canyon, including new Malibu destinations for sake, sushi and oysters; one of L.A.’s most scenic farmers markets; some of the city’s best burritos; and the sibling restaurant to the iconic Moonshadows.
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Pacific Palisades
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Gladstones
Pacific Palisades Seafood American $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
A landmark at the intersection of PCH and Sunset Boulevard since 1981, Gladstones was forced to close for six months after the Palisades fire. Last summer, the seaside restaurant known for its clam chowder and lobster rolls debuted a new public deck and seating area alongside a truncated menu, with plans to reopen its dining room and a new speakeasy later this year. The long-term future of the restaurant remains uncertain, with a new restaurant from Wolfgang Puck slated to take over the location eventually, though construction has been delayed.
The expanded deck and public viewing area quickly became a local gathering spot and haven for neighborhood residents, with no purchase required to enjoy the open seating and shoreline views. Murals from local artist Jonah Never brighten the walls around a communal firepit, depicting a ’53 Corvette cruising down PCH from Malibu and storefronts of local businesses lost in the fire, including Reel Inn and Rosenthal Wine Bar, as well as mobile home park Tahitian Terrace.
The shortened food menu still has plenty of seafood favorites such as crab cakes, ceviche, fish and chips and lobster mac and cheese, plus a burger and steak for those who prefer turf over surf. The tiki-leaning beverage menu features refreshing cocktails that pair perfectly with a beach day, like a watermelon mojito, a strawberry daquiri and a house mai tai, as well as wine and draft beer.
The expanded deck and public viewing area quickly became a local gathering spot and haven for neighborhood residents, with no purchase required to enjoy the open seating and shoreline views. Murals from local artist Jonah Never brighten the walls around a communal firepit, depicting a ’53 Corvette cruising down PCH from Malibu and storefronts of local businesses lost in the fire, including Reel Inn and Rosenthal Wine Bar, as well as mobile home park Tahitian Terrace.
The shortened food menu still has plenty of seafood favorites such as crab cakes, ceviche, fish and chips and lobster mac and cheese, plus a burger and steak for those who prefer turf over surf. The tiki-leaning beverage menu features refreshing cocktails that pair perfectly with a beach day, like a watermelon mojito, a strawberry daquiri and a house mai tai, as well as wine and draft beer.
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Moku Sushi
Pacific Palisades Sushi Restaurant $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
This sushi bar of roughly a dozen years is well-loved in the neighborhood; just look to the Polaroids of smiling regulars that spell out “MOKU” for proof. They come to this Highlands strip-mall spot for the lengthy menu of house rolls, temaki and sashimi, as well as Japanese classics such as takoyaki and udon. But they also come for the curries and stir-frys: Over the years Moku’s menu has expanded with Thai flair, given the heritage of one of its owners, who added Bangkok-style crab fried rice, satay and more. It’s the kind of place where you’ll find both kakigori and mango sticky rice for dessert. Look for house specials such as the Super Bowl, donburi piled with toro, uni, marinated ikura and quail egg, or the Snowman, which tops lemon and Hokkaido scallop with mounds of garlic-butter crab, scallion and ikura.
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Palisades Garden Cafe
Pacific Palisades Cafe $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
As a stalwart of more than two decades, Palisades Garden Cafe has become a gathering place deeply rooted in the community — in addition to a chipper restaurant and coffee shop that serves sandwiches, all-day breakfast, pastries, Wagyu burgers, matcha, fresh juice, boba, teriyaki plates and milkshakes. Many of its surrounding businesses burned in the Palisades fire, but PGC survived with minimal damage and, after two months, reopened for business. It remains ingrained in the community, sponsoring numerous Palisades schools, events and organizations, and has taken on new, post-fire meaning as a casual gathering place for coffee meetings and more as the neighborhood rebuilds.
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Prima Cantina x Spumoni
Pacific Palisades Mexican food $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Palisades location of this Cal-Mexican local chain debuted just before the fire, and briefly closed after it. But shortly after it reopened as one of the few restaurants and bars serving the region, the team added items from Santa Monica sibling spot Spumoni to further cater to the neighborhood. Now you can find esquites, enchiladas, margaritas, tortas and tacos in handmade tortillas along with meatballs, lasagna bolognese and fried calamari. This particular Prima Cantina also uniquely offers an item that weds the two cuisines: the Mexicana, which adds Prima’s chorizo, red onions, cilantro and jalapeños to Spumoni’s Neapolitan-leaning pizza.
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Spruzzo Restaurant & Bar
Pacific Palisades Italian Restaurant $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Spruzzo is a family friendly, dependable Italian restaurant to Malibu locals, and a Zuma staple since 1994. But in 2022 the Palisades Highlands got its own version of the trattoria, which comes from the same owners: Its dining room is accented with dark wood and brass, and a bar that serves classics like martinis and spritzes alongside California wines. The nearly identical menu features years-long mainstays such as 16-inch pizzas, daily soups, house-made ravioli and grilled meats, and every meal begins with gratis fresh bread, olive oil and balsamic. The Palisades location closed for five months after the fire; it felt slow-going after the reopening but, staff say, it’s returning to normalcy now.
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Topanga Canyon
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The Canyon Bakery
Topanga Bakery $
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Find the Canyon Bakery in one of the rustic houses on the magical grounds of Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum under a stand of oak trees in the heart of Topanga. Longtime Topanga resident and baker Patrice Winter set up shop in the outdoor theater’s mountainside gardenscape in 2020, selling her whole-grain, wild-leavened croissants, tarts, bagels, cookies, blocky slices of cake and round loaves of breads. Locals line up on weekends for their fix. Children have been known to cry when Winter runs out of cookies. The quiche always sells out. So do the cinnamon buns. In the fall there might be vegan pumpkin doughnuts, and in the spring the roasted shallot buns are showered with herbs and flowers from the bakery’s garden. There’s no better place to enjoy these than under the trees.
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Endless Color
Topanga Californian $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
This locals’ hangout — tucked into a scenic bend on Topanga Canyon Boulevard (a.k.a. Highway 27) across from Inn of the Seventh Ray — serves pizzas, big California salads, spaghetti with meatballs, natural wines and kombucha on tap. Bask in its Antoni Gaudí-like interior, a celebration of organic architecture with curvy booths, blobby pink tables, green biomorphic lighting fixtures, plus an anachronistic accent wall lined with Gucci wallpaper. Order at the counter: 6-inch pizza breads, sandwiches and salads during the day, big pies and plates of pasta at night. In the center of the dining room is a display of LPs for sale. Browse the records and pick up that “On the Beach” album you’d been wanting while sipping on a spritz of agave wine with green juice. The evening crowd fills the patio, where sometimes live music is part of the nighttime slate of happenings. Karaoke is every Wednesday.
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Inn of the Seventh Ray
Topanga New American
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(Anna Sophia Moltke / For The Times)
There is real pleasure, particularly in a setting as densely green as Topanga Canyon, in occasionally surrendering to California stereotypes. Inn of the Seventh Ray, run by Lucille and Ralph Yaney since the 1970s, revels in its role as community New Age haven, complete with an attached bookstore full of crystals and volumes on spiritual esoterica. There’s no denying, though, that the setting does feel like a kind of communion. Follow a winding path down to the brick-lined patio, next to a creek with a burbling stream that’s especially worth visiting on a sunny afternoon after a day or two of welcome rain. The restaurant may have hippie origins, but the lunch and dinner menus endearingly hark more to the 1990s: turkey and artichoke panini with a just-melted layer of Brie, vegetable pasta glossed in sunflower pesto, oven-roasted Chilean sea bass drizzled with chimichurri, filet mignon perched alongside a buttery mound of roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Slowly making your way through a thick breakfast burrito while hypnotized by the beauty of the Santa Monica Mountains? Timeless.
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Topanga Farmers Market
Topanga Grocer $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
One of L.A.’s most bucolic farmers markets disappeared for six years before returning under new management in 2024. The Friday event relaunched at the community center — nestled into the mountains and surrounded by scenic views — offering fresh produce, bread loaves, handmade pottery, pickled goods, candles, clothes and beyond. But the Topanga Farmers Market ran for less than one year before the Palisades fire tore through the region. It closed temporarily, then reopened with its continued community mindset: free bags of produce for all affected by the fires, fundraising merch to aid the canyon’s fire station and more.
The last year hasn’t been easy. Its organizers say that the continued road construction is making attendance a challenge even for locals, stretching some attendees’ previously five-minute commutes into 30 minutes or longer. Still, the market continues on with its rainbow of produce, weekly music classes for children, feeding seniors in the area, and adding new vendors. Drop by for this great local market every Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The last year hasn’t been easy. Its organizers say that the continued road construction is making attendance a challenge even for locals, stretching some attendees’ previously five-minute commutes into 30 minutes or longer. Still, the market continues on with its rainbow of produce, weekly music classes for children, feeding seniors in the area, and adding new vendors. Drop by for this great local market every Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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Cafe on 27
Topanga Restaurant
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Brunch lovers come in droves for Cafe on 27’s breathtaking views of the best of Topanga’s landscape — chaparral-covered hillsides and lush corridors of coast live oaks, sycamores and bay laurel, fragrant and wild. The cafe’s terraced patio, covered with shade sails, is often described as an adult tree house, and the best seats “in the house” are the barstools directly overlooking the canyon. This is a daytime spot for taking in all those views. The restaurant is open seven days a week — 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends, serving breakfast and brunch all day: toasts (avocado or smoked salmon), several versions of eggs Benedict (the gluten-free one features tahdig), pancake combos, big salads, sandwiches, burgers and mains such as baby back ribs and chicken Milanese. Cafe on 27 recently started roasting its own coffee, bags of which are available for purchase in its shop.
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Malibu
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Basqueria
Malibu Basque $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Tucked in the hills of Malibu is Basqueria, a quaint market specializing in Basque pantry items — think: tinned fish, jars of brined lentils and spices sourced directly from Spain — along with candles, textiles and artisanal kitchenware. But it’s not the thoughtful market selection that has patrons lining up outside of the cottage before it opens each day. No, they’re waiting for founder and chef Sebastien Pourrat to arrive with a satchel of sandwiches that he makes fresh daily and which typically sell out within the first hour. On the day I visited, Pourrat had two options: duck-fat roasted chicken with coleslaw and a pork tenderloin sandwich, both served on crusty Spanish bread. The shop has all of the accouterments you need to complete your beachside picnic, like Spanish-branded potato chips and a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie, plus a full coffee bar.
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Broad Street Oyster Co.
Malibu Seafood Restaurant $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Malibu has, for decades, been a seafood destination, with stalwarts Malibu Seafood and Neptune’s Net drawing countless diners from around the globe. But in 2019 a more modern iteration planted its flag, and now those diners craving shellfish, lobster rolls and fried shrimp flock to a corner of the Malibu Village shopping complex. Founder Christopher Tompkins’ funky, nostalgia-tinged take on the seafood shack trades in high-low: There’s cheap beer, but also caviar on the hot dog. There are dependable staples like clam chowder and fried calamari, but also delicate seasonal crudos, spiny-lobster spaghetti, seafood towers and a range of natural wines. The merch and decor hark to the ’90s, and the all-outdoor setting is always a scene perfect for people watching.
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Clark's Oyster Bar
Malibu Seafood $$$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
One of the newest restaurants to open in Malibu is also one of the chicest: The Austin, Texas-founded Clark’s Oyster Bar debuted post-Palisades fire in the Cross Creek Ranch complex, shucking an array of oysters and pouring bracingly cold martinis and a few dozen wines and sakes by the glass. A range of caviars can be ordered alongside jumbo shrimp cocktails, crudos, ceviches, Louie salads and from-the-grill plates such as oysters with melted leeks and bacon breadcrumbs; just-charred Spanish octopus; an inventive take on shrimp toast; and the catch of the day. Finish with affogato or a Key lime tart — or simply order another martini from its ample selection.
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The Country Kitchen
Malibu American Food $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Blink and you’ll breeze past the Country Kitchen, but locals will tell you that’s a crime. This funky, beloved walk-up stand is situated at one end of a small strip mall along PCH, and has been a Malibu mainstay since 1972. Located near Big Rock, La Costa, Carbon and Malibu beaches, it’s a longtime favorite of surfers looking to fuel up — especially on Country Kitchen’s hearty but compact breakfast burritos, which can come loaded with chorizo, scrambled eggs, potatoes, sausage, ham, cheese, pastrami, carnitas, vegetables and more. But the Country Kitchen is also home to classics like burgers, chili dogs, fried zucchini, tuna melts and BLTs. Take your order down to the sand of one of the nearby beaches, or snag a seat out front of the charming hole-in-the-wall, then peruse the adjacent surf and scuba shops.
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Lily's
Malibu
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Lily Castro is a local legend. Before she served the most famous burritos in Malibu, the Salvadoran chef operated the storefront as a doughnut shop with her family. Soon she began incorporating some of her savory specialties, and with the encouragement of her late husband and their customers, rebranded the Point Dume Village shop as her own eponymous restaurant in 1989. Here she makes everything from scratch: the silken, flavorful beans, the piquant yellow-green salsa with its own cult following, the piled-high tortas, and of course the beloved burritos. She sells thousands of them each year, with local schools sometimes ordering 500 burritos at a time.
“Everything you see here is my own recipe: the salsa, the way we marinate chicken,” she said. “Nobody can compete with me because my food is my Lily style.”
But following the fires, Castro says she saw business dip as much as 50%. Thankfully, she added, business is returning now that tourists can access PCH again, and she is grateful to them and the Malibu community for their support in the last year — and over the last four decades.
“Everything you see here is my own recipe: the salsa, the way we marinate chicken,” she said. “Nobody can compete with me because my food is my Lily style.”
But following the fires, Castro says she saw business dip as much as 50%. Thankfully, she added, business is returning now that tourists can access PCH again, and she is grateful to them and the Malibu community for their support in the last year — and over the last four decades.
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Malibu Farm
Malibu Farm-to-table American $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Find Helene Henderson’s Malibu Farm cafe and restaurant at the beginning of the Malibu Pier, with seating that spills onto both sides of the walkway and an outdoor patio perched above the water. Order a quick coffee and pastry at the host stand and enjoy your selections at one of the public tables, or sit down for a full farm-to-table brunch or dinner, with highlights such as crab cakes stuffed with Maryland blue jumbo lump crab, zucchini crust pizza and hearts of palm linguine, with plenty of vegan, nut- and gluten-free options to choose from. Henderson is also behind the Malibu Farm Pier Cafe at the end of the pier, which is temporarily closed due to ongoing repairs.
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Malibu Seafood
Malibu Seafood $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The 4,000-acre Franklin fire encroached on one of the coast’s best seafood spots mere weeks before the Palisades fire. But Malibu Seafood — a stalwart of half a century — survived them both. The iconic roadside stop for fish and chips, steamed clams, fried oysters, ceviche and more began as a fish market in the 1970s, then developed its counter-service restaurant space, which stays true to its roots: Half of Malibu Seafood is still a fresh-fish market, while the other half takes orders for prepared foods. Make your way through the line — which can grow to roughly an hour’s wait on busy weekends — and grab your buzzer, then find a picnic table from the multiple patio tiers overlooking the ocean. It’s serving some of L.A.’s freshest seafood, as well as some of its best views.
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Sake House
Malibu Japanese Sushi Sake Bar $$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
Perched above Pacific Coast Highway, just across the street from Nobu Malibu, is the new Sake House. It’s a sprawling outdoor space with a mix of lounge and table seating that offers sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. It’s one of the best places to watch the sun set on PCH. The menu is a mix of traditional nigiri and what the restaurant refers to as “sushi tacos.” They’re temaki gilded with things like miso butter, caviar and freshly shaved truffle. The sake selection is sizable but not expansive, with a bottle or glass to pair with whatever you’re eating. If you need a recommendation, the staff is eager to assist.
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The Sunset Restaurant
Malibu American restaurant $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Moonshadows, one of the California coastline’s most iconic restaurants, burned in the Palisades fire. While the decades-beloved hot spot known for its ocean view and celebrity sightings is gone, its memory lives on farther up the coast, at sibling spot the Sunset Restaurant. The Sunset Restaurant, from the same owners, sits practically on the sand at the border of Westward and Zuma beaches. Though not hanging over the sea as Moonshadows did, its dining room still boasts an ocean view that’s particularly scenic at sundown, and even offers some of the same dishes that Moonshadows served through the years. That familiar, cylindrical stack of tuna tartare layered with avocado, seaweed salad and razor-thin cucumbers can be found here, as can the house-made pumpkin tortelloni in brown butter and sage sauce. Moonshadows’ takeout bags — one of the few remnants of the since-destroyed restaurant — are used at its counterpart in ode to the remembered restaurant, and much of its staff carried over too, filling the Sunset Restaurant with faces that will be familiar to Moonshadows fans.
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Taverna Tony
Malibu Greek $$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
The 35-year-old restaurant underwent a remodel in 2025, with a revamped dining room surrounded in white plaster walls that mimic the cliffsides of the Greek isles. The dining room may be brighter, but it’s the same Taverna Tony that diners fell in love with in the ‘90s. The skillets of saganaki cheese are still set aflame at the table. Mountains of Greek salad are built from fresh tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese. The house dip, a fluffy avocado and garlic paste, still makes its way to every table alongside a basket of warm, crusty bread. The surrounding storefronts of the Malibu Country Mart may change, but Taverna Tony remains a Malibu neighborhood staple.
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