Husband-and-wife team Azim Rahmatov and Gulnigor \u201cGigi\u201d Ganieva said they got goosebumps and were \u201cbouncing all over the walls\u201d when they learned the news that their Fairfax Uzbek restaurant, Zira Uzbek Kitchen, is now included in the Michelin Guide. The pair, along with Rahmatov\u2019s brother, chef Azam, debuted their restaurant and community space in 2024 as one of L.A.\u2019s few destinations for Uzbekistan\u2019s culture-crossing Central Asian flavors.<\/p>\n
![\"Rice](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774484834_205_.jpeg\")
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Zira Uzbek Kitchen\u2019s plov, a rice pilaf served with beef, carrots, roasted garlic and chickpeas.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very exciting news for us, to showcase our Uzbek cuisine,\u201d Rahmatov said. \u201cWe\u2019re proud of our heritage, proud of our cuisine, proud of what we serve: simple, delicious food.\u2026 This is an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zira Uzbek Kitchen \u2014 home to steamed manti, house-made pickle plates, piles of plov and beyond \u2014 is currently one of only two Michelin-recognized Uzbek-designated restaurants in the U.S. The other is Uzbegim, which can be found in Nashville.<\/p>\n
Rahmatov hopes that earning notice from Michelin Guide \u2014 and the country\u2019s potential inclusion in the 2026 World Cup \u2014 could help spread Uzbekistan\u2019s cuisine and broader culture to those who might be unfamiliar.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully it will give this kind of opportunity for guests to know about the history, tradition, heritage, country and the food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774484836_751_.jpeg\")
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Stuffed cabbage with abalone rice and tomato beurre blanc at Little Fish in Melrose Hill.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Roughly two miles east, in Melrose Hill, two more restaurants found their way into the Michelin Guide.<\/p>\n
Little Fish is the full-service restaurant from a former fish sandwich pop-up of the same name. In Melrose Hill, owners Anna Sonenshein and Niki Vahle expanded their more casual offerings<\/a> with daily crudos, a wine program, dry-aged seafood and detail-oriented dishes such as cabbage stuffed with abalone rice.<\/p>\n Around the corner is Corridor 109, the new fine-dining restaurant from chef-owner Brian Baik. This, too, began as a pop-up, with Baik hosting dinners inside his parents\u2019 Koreatown restaurant, Kobawoo House. Now he\u2019s serving a seafood-forward tasting menu to 10 seats, and sourcing most of his ingredients from Japan. Corridor 109 is also home to a tandem cocktail bar, Bar 109, which debuted in 2025<\/a> and serves genre-bending cocktails, plus bites such as Wagyu hot dogs.<\/p>\n In neighboring Koreatown, Korean-Italian pasta bar Lapaba made its way into the statewide guide. Husband-and-wife team Matthew Kim and McKenna Lelah, with support from Nancy Silverton, are serving bulgogi-informed meatballs, a cheese-corn riff on sweet corn agnolotti, cacio e pepe rice cakes, misugaru-tinged tiramisu and more.<\/p>\n Firstborn\u2019s signature Chongqing-inspired fried chicken.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angles Times)<\/p>\n In Chinatown a modern Chinese restaurant, Firstborn, just earned Michelin recognition. Chef-owner Anthony Wang serves dishes such as mapo tofu with braised sweetbreads; fried chicken showered in a morita-chile jus; and Wagyu beef tongue carpaccio with mala vinaigrette.<\/p>\n And in West Adams, Lugya\u2019h \u2014 from the team behind Poncho\u2019s Tlayudas \u2014 uses live fire and generational recipes to share Indigenous Zapotec dishes from Oaxaca.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not often that our food is seen,\u201d said chef-owner Alfonso \u201cPoncho\u201d Martinez. \u201cWe have culture, we have traditions, we have gastronomy. It\u2019s important that they have noticed Indigenous cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n Lugya\u2019h, located in global food hall Maydan Market, translates to \u201cthe face and heart of the plaza\u201d in Zapotec and serves Sierra Norte cuisine such as turkey mole; amarillo tamales; pepita tostadas and Martinez\u2019s famed tlayudas<\/a>. Martinez and his partner and interpreter, Odilia Romero, are thrilled with inclusion and hope for a star designation \u2014 but say there are many others who should also be included.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we think about Indigenous populations in the U.S., when we think about the agricultural fields of California, Indigenous people are the backbone,\u201d said Romero. \u201cThere\u2019s many Ponchos throughout California, throughout the U.S., that need to be seen in the Michelin Guide \u2014 not people that are appropriating our culture or inspired, but these people are here, in your backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n Farther north, Michelin inducted six other restaurants into the statewide guide: Little Mountain in Montecito; Dingles Public House, La Cigale, Naides and Wolfsbane in San Francisco; and Yeobo, Darling in Menlo Park. Find the full guide to Michelin\u2019s new additions here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 12 restaurants will be added to Michelin\u2019s California guide in 2026, and six of those are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":681921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[286594,1582,276,286593,9958,18120,89487,286595,20149,286597,2961,224,5337,2324,83453,286596,286592,8463,286591,1439],"class_list":["post-681920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-broad-culture","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-california-guide","tag-country","tag-cuisine","tag-delicious-food","tag-detail-oriented-dish","tag-indigenous-people","tag-ingredient-quality","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-martinez","tag-michelin-guide","tag-poncho","tag-rahmatov","tag-restaurant","tag-statewide-guide","tag-u-s"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116292646772880540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774484838_759_.jpeg\")
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