(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The 16 best places to indulge in caviar, for $12 and up
Caviar is everywhere, not just gracing high-end restaurant menus as in days past but offered in fun and approachable formats that have drawn the attention of a new crowd of diners.
And let’s set the record straight: Caviar isn’t just fish eggs. That’s roe, a delicacy that can be sourced from any type of fish. Caviar refers to unfertilized eggs harvested from the sturgeon family of fish — beluga, kaluga, ossetra, sevruga and Siberian sturgeon are some of the most prized species. The highest grades of caviar lend a feeling of immersion into the sea — the description of salty falls frustratingly short.
Historically, caviar was sourced from the Caspian Sea bordering Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Caviar was so beloved by the elite that overfishing led to the endangerment of many sturgeon species and an eventual ban on wild-caught caviar. But advances in aquaculture mean that modern diners don’t have to miss out.
“Producers started farming white sturgeon around the 1970s, which is the most commonly harvested of the sturgeon family because it’s the fastest to grow,” said Blake Shailes, executive chef at Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood. “More and more fish farms [have been] built since the ’70s, plus other advances like breeding programs. Inflation has gone up so the price is largely the same, it’s just more accessible.”
Increased availability has given chefs license to experiment with caviar. Founded by Russian immigrant Arcady Fixon in Paris in 1927, Caviar Kaspia quietly opened a second location on buzzy Melrose Place last fall. New, American-inspired dishes are exclusive to the L.A. location, including a grilled-cheese sandwich that’s smothered with a layer of the inky eggs.
“Caviar bumps” are just one way the delicacy is being streamlined, with a spoonful deposited on and eaten from the back of the hand. “The warmth from your hand helps the caviar open up in flavor,” Grandmaster Recorders’ Shailes said. The restaurant has an exclusive partnership with Petrossian, a century-old, Paris-founded caviar chain with a location in West Hollywood, and offers bumps of its Royal Ossetra for just $12 apiece — in contrast, full caviar service runs $160 for 30 grams of the same grade.
Here, we share some new favorite restaurants that are putting exciting spins on the classic indulgence, as well as a few with traditional service presented in settings that stand out. From celebrity-favorite Beverly Hills wine bars to Hollywood rooftops, sushi dens, modern Thai restaurants and East Coast-style seafood houses, here’s where to treat yourself to caviar. You deserve it.
Showing Places
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Anajak Thai
Sherman Oaks Thai $$
Fried chicken with a side of caviar is a blatant culinary flex — and yet, in the hands of Justin Pichetrungsi, the coupling transcends to genius. The bird needs no embellishment, to be clear: Battered in rice flour and scattered with fried shallots, the recipe is an adaptation of a fried chicken style from Nakhon Si Thammarat, a city in southern Thailand where Pichetrungsi’s mother, Rattikorn, has family. But dolloping on big, buttery beads of kaluga adds satisfying, salty harmonics and a soft pop against the sheath of crunch. The fried chicken is a mainstay on the daily menu and also appears most weeks as part of the restaurant’s famed Thai Taco Tuesdays. And what pairs better with fried chicken or caviar than Champagne? Anajak has one of the most compelling wine lists in Los Angeles, including two dozen sparkling options from France and beyond.
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(Jim Sullivan)
Asterid
Downtown L.A. New American Global $$$
This Ray Garcia restaurant next to the Walt Disney Concert Hall serves as the chef’s highly anticipated return to his hometown, with a far-reaching menu that references L.A.’s winding culinary pathways. While the entire menu is well worth exploring, the abbreviated bar menu offers a selection of indulgent snacks, like a honeynut squash tamal ($45) topped with crema and a generous heaping of Grand Selection Schrenckii caviar. It’s one of the more distinctive presentations you’ll find, with the briny eggs adding a pleasant saltiness that contrasts with the richness of the squash and a crumble of nuts providing a satisfying crunch.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Birdie G's
Santa Monica Jewish American Cuisine $$
There’s a lot that’s “semi-traditional” about Jeremy Fox’s Birdie G’s, the chef’s ode to the meeting place between his Jewish and Midwestern roots and his California sourcing and sensibilities. The dishes here are comforting and familiar but still creatively compelling, and almost none is so colorful as the caviar service ($129) with its 1-ounce jar of lightly salty — or “malossol” — Tsar Nicoulai estate caviar surrounded by a rainbow of “semi-traditional” accouterments. Everything-bagel seasoning, vibrant freshly cut chives, bright-purple pickled onion, crumbles of golden egg yolk and dark little spheres of fried capers fan out in individual bowls, each with their own delicate serving spoon ready to scoop the mix-and-match smorgasbord onto the accompanying latke waffles. The fluffy, almost mashed-potato-like interpretation of the latke is a sturdy and satisfying vehicle for the more delicate flavors of the California caviar, while the more interactive, build-your-own model encourages a kind of experimentation or play that brings a little fun and levity to the classic caviar service.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Broad Street Oyster Co.
Malibu Seafood Restaurant $$
Few restaurants play on the concept of high-low balance better than Broad Street Oyster Co., a modernized take on a classic seafood shack where Budweiser chills in the fridges next to custom-labeled natural wines. There are hand-breaded calamari steaks, fried oysters, live sea urchins served in their spiky purple shells and massive stone crab claws on ice, but the options for caviar service are what truly encapsulate that high-low line that founder Christopher Tompkins likes to walk. Care to spruce up your lobster roll? For only $15 more at every Broad Street outpost — be it in Malibu, Grand Central Market, Santa Barbara or on Sundays at Smorgasburg DTLA — one can add three mounds of California sturgeon caviar from Regiis Ova, a company helmed by French Laundry chef Thomas Keller and former Sterling Caviar CEO Shaoching Bishop. (Not to be outshone by the restaurant’s signature lobster roll, the tuna tartare and the uni spaghetti also offer the caviar upgrade at the full restaurants.) There’s also Broad Street’s caviar service: Available as a 15-gram “snack” ($40), a 50-gram “feast” ($105) or a 125-gram “party” ($235), this option pairs that same caviar with thick-cut potato chips, crème fraîche and chives for a spruced-up take on chips and dip.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Brothers Sushi
Woodland Hills Sushi Restaurant $$$
There’s something almost otherworldly about the way Mark Okuda augments the flavors of his fresh and dry-aged sushi with caviar. The owner of Brothers Sushi primarily uses Astrea Grand Schrenckii (though occasionally royal kaluga) caviar to add extra creaminess to thick cuts of salmon belly, a light salinity to his chawanmushi and pops of texture and brine to gloriously fatty toro. The bluefin tuna caviar sashimi ($52) can be found both in Woodland Hills as well as the newer Santa Monica location, and tops weeklong dry-aged tuna with a mountain of caviar and edible gold stars, all of which mingle with miso paste and seaweed over micro shiso for a dish so elegant and complex it’s almost guaranteed to elicit gasps from your table. The six-oyster plate of Seattle Kumamotos ($45) features two topped with caviar for a mellow taste of the sea, while the Ora King sampler ($36) juxtaposes the caviar-topped salmon belly with other fresh and dry-aged cuts. Keep an eye out for seasonal specials — such as live whole Hokkaido hairy crab with 30 grams of Astrea caviar — or opt for the omakase ($200), where the caviar-topped chawanmushi course is so comforting it’s almost transcendent.
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(Pablo Enriquez / Caviar Kaspia L.A.)
Caviar Kaspia
Beverly Grove Global $$$$
A roasted spud splotched with a heap of caviar sounds like a very American contrivance. But a dairy-rich, twice-baked version of the dish has been a specialty of Caviar Kaspia in Paris for decades. Russian expat Arcady Fixon opened the restaurant in 1927 after fleeing his homeland during the Bolshevik Revolution. In recent years, Caviar Kaspia has become a hangout for models and magazine editors; fashion industry investor Sam Ben-Avraham had become a fan and decided Los Angeles needed an outpost. He and Rahav Zuta opened the restaurant’s second location in an airy Art Deco space in West Hollywood last fall with two floors and several indoor-outdoor nooks. This is the place for extravagance: Tastings of two or three varieties of white sturgeon, oscietra or sevruga strains range from $240 to $1,170. The potato delivers all its promised luxury, and a grilled cheese overlaid with caviar created especially for Angelenos hits crisp, oozy, salty pleasure points. The restaurant serves wine but just received its full liquor license. One can sense that when vodka is finally available, reservations will be all but impossible.
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(Jim Sullivan)
Camphor
Downtown L.A. French $$$
Chefs Max Boonthanakit and Lijo George look to France for the baseline inspiration of their Arts District bistro’s menu, but their modernist retooling and canny use of spice pull dishes like beef tartare and roast chicken out of any usual sense of place or time. The caviar service fits right in among starters of curried anchovies and oysters with amaretto vinaigrette. Boonthanakit and George prefer Kristal from Kaviari, a variety with amber-gray beads and a hint of nuttiness to its salinity. Cracking the tops of the small crisp balloons of pomme soufflé and filling them with caviar and garnishes brings to mind preparing pani puri, the Indian street snack — though of course here you’re tasting crème fraîche, red onion and the sea. To sip alongside: Provence, a gentle vodka martini riff washed with French olive oil and scented with herbs de Provence and pear eau de vie.
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(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Ceviche Project
Silver Lake Latin American Seafood $$$
Octavio Olivas’ 28-seat restaurant in Silver Lake is a shrine to raw fish through the lens of ceviche. You’ll be presented with options like a tostada that’s piled with Mayan octopus and shrimp, buttery Peruvian scallops on the half shell, Thai snapper ceviche and limited seafood platters clustered with crab claws, just-shucked oysters and sashimi. Caviar service also is offered through this perspective, with 1 ounce of Olivas’ own California-sourced caviar delivered alongside neon-orange trout roe, crema, avocado mousse, micro cilantro and tostadas ($70). Break the crispy tortillas into chips to compose the most luxurious nacho you’ll ever consume.
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(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Dear Jane's
Marina del Rey Seafood $$$
A caviar diversion is practically compulsory at the swank, seafood-focused sequel to Dear John’s, the 60-year-old entertainment industry haunt given new life by Patti Röckenwagner and chefs Hans Röckenwagner and Josiah Citrin. Peer out of Dear Jane’s’ picture windows overlooking Basin C in Marina del Rey harbor, with its literal sea of boats, and graze on fish sticks striped with crème fraîche, dotted with kaluga caviar and accompanied by seven-layer dip covered in trout roe and scallions; this fun bit of Continental-cuisine camp hearkens to the caviar-studded “bougie tots” at Dear John’s. For a more traditional presentation, opt for kaluga (priced at $95 per ounce) served with a spread that includes buckwheat blinis, crème fraîche and sieved eggs.
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(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Found Oyster
East Hollywood Seafood Wine Bars $$
This cozy Virgil Village seafood and wine bar sources from general manager Joe Laraja’s family oyster farm in Orleans, Mass., as well as California purveyors. There are always fun limited menu items scrawled on the chalkboard that hangs above the seafood counter. Pull up a seat at the bar to watch the staff shuck and dress fresh oysters, and if you’re in the mood to celebrate, try them “Moscow-style” with crème fraîche, vodka and Dorasti royal ossetra caviar, a $10 add-on per oyster. There’s also an option to pile the pearls onto a lobster bisque roll for an additional $35, or opt for a simple caviar service, which includes a 30-gram tin with potato chips and crème fraîche ($180). There’s a natural wine list for pairing — you can’t go wrong with caviar and bubbly.
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(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Grandmaster Recorders
Hollywood Italian Australian $$
It’s only fitting that the genre-defying restaurant that once served as a recording studio for music icons like Stevie Wonder and David Bowie would take a rock ’n’ roll approach to caviar. Executive chef Blake Shailes claims almost every table orders the caviar cannoli ($22), two crispy cylinders spilling with the shiny beads and a cloud of crème fraîche in the center. Grandmaster Recorders offers caviar service with Petrossian royal ossetra ($160 for 30 grams) or royal daurenki ($220 for 50 grams), served with potato scallops that reference the fish-and-chip shops Shailes grew up with in Australia. There’s also a take on gnocchi fritto that’s rolled out until it’s crispy and thin, served with seaweed crackers for an umami punch, in addition to the traditional accompaniments. You’ll see caviar bumps offered alongside the alto martini for just $12 each, but don’t be afraid to ask if you prefer the bumps without the cocktail. For a true rock-star moment, order caviar on the rooftop and take in the view of the Hollywood sign.
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(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
Marché Moderne
Newport Beach French $$$
It’s been more than a month but I can still taste the red wine caramelized venison filet at chef Florent and Amelia Marneau’s French restaurant. OK, full disclosure. My husband ordered this dish but I couldn’t help but monopolize it after I took a bite of the roasted venison drizzled with a sweet-savory red wine sauce.The tender meat paired well with the sweetness and tartness from the Frog Hollow plums and Fuyu persimmon mostarda. The chanterelle mushrooms provided a pleasant earthiness to the dish. Make sure to order some extra baguette to help sop up some of the leftover sauce. I partnered the dish with a 2015 L’Aventure Optimus Estate, a full-bodied cabernet sauvignon, syrah and petit-verdot blend from Paso Robles.
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(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
Petrossian at Tiffany
Costa Mesa French $$$
Squint past the bling upon entering Tiffany & Co. and you’ll find a caviar oasis hidden in the back. Petrossian is a famous caviar destination, and this one at South Coast Plaza is quite the extravagant experience. The decor — white orchids, sleek floors below and gold mobiles above — gives a nod to the fancy dishes to come. The restaurant serves a traditional preparation with buckwheat blinis and crème fraîche. The Tsar Imperial caviar tasting features baïka, shassetra, ossetra and kaluga — all served on mother-of-pearl spoons. One of my favorite dishes was the finely minced beef tartare with a generous layer of caviar — the selection changes by day and sometimes by hour. But the real standout here is the indulgent potato mille-feuille — precariously perched, thinly sliced and buttery potato towers with a dollop of crème fraîche and caviar. The Tiffany Caviartini, the signature drink, made with caviar-infused Guillotine vodka and decorated with an olive plumped with caviar and crème fraîche, was a delight.
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(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
Populaire
Costa Mesa French Californian $$
This modern and casual restaurant with indoor and outdoor patios is a welcome departure from the high-end eateries that tend to showcase caviar. On a Saturday afternoon, it was nearly empty at this Cal-French bistro that used to house Lawry’s Carvery at South Coast Plaza. The nuggets of fried chicken adorned with strained yogurt and royal ossetra caviar disappeared quickly. It’s a smart move to swap out the traditional crème fraîche for labneh. I enjoyed how the lemon zest in the yogurt lent a fresh tanginess to the perfect pairing of crunchy chicken skin and the nutty and briny pops of caviar. No cocktails here, but the recommended flute of Louis Roederer Champagne paired well and cut through the delicious fat of the dish. The Baby Gem salad with sliced persimmon, Champagne vinaigrette and pistachios provided a nice, leafy accompaniment. And the complimentary tiny bricks of pink Bazooka chewing gum slid in with your bill is a fun touch.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Saltie Girl
West Hollywood Seafood $$$
There are many reasons to visit the new, marine-tinged West Hollywood outpost of Saltie Girl, a seafood house with locations in Boston and London. Critic Bill Addison hails the lengthy list of tinned fish, columnist Jenn Harris upholds the warm lobster roll as the best in L.A., and I’d like to direct your attention to the caviar menu, which features Saltie Girl’s line of caviar as well as ROE Caviar and several grades of Petrossian. All of the caviar dishes — caviar dip ($32), a caviar and smoked fish sandwich (market price), mezze rigatoni and caviar ($34), 1½ pounds of pan-roasted lobster with caviar and lobster sauce (market price) and a mini caviar roll (a $25 indulgence that’s only worth it if you add market-price, butter-poached lobster) are served with Saltie Girl caviar. Traditional service includes fresh crèpes, toast points and a flaky pastry coated in everything bagel seasoning with all the accouterments. There’s a long list of wines for pairing, including a Saltie Girl rosé, but the Saltie cocktail with your choice of vodka or gin, Castelvetrano olive, pickled onion and caviar is the obvious choice.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Wally's
Beverly Hills Wine Bars New American $$$
If you want to splurge on full caviar service, Wally’s, a high-end wine den with locations in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, is a prime option. Wally’s serves several grades of Kaviari in 28-, 50- or 125-gram portions, with accouterments including crème fraîche, chives, chopped egg whites and egg yolks, diced red onions, capers, potato blinis and potato chips. The move is to pile a single chip with all of the toppings and a spoonful of caviar pearls, then consume it in a single bite. Rinse and repeat. Ask the sommelier for a pairing recommendation from the extensive cellar.
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