Eyal Shani’s Kosher ‘Malka’ Expanding to LA This Summer

The Los Angeles kosher scene has been building momentum for a while now, with new openings landing across the west side over the past year. The next one is a headline-grabber: Malka, Chef Eyal Shani’s kosher Israeli concept, is coming to Beverly Hills, and it’s bringing the kind of live-fire cooking that’s never really existed in kosher dining before.

A Global Kosher Brand Lands on the West Coast

Malka is set to open at the SIXTY Beverly Hills hotel later this summer, marking the brand’s first location on the West Coast. The restaurant already has outposts in Tel Aviv, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and West Palm Beach, and the Beverly Hills debut is the work of a partnership between Shani and L.A.-based Pagani Projects.

Shani, who was born in Jerusalem and earned a Michelin star for his Greenwich Village restaurant SHMONÉ, built Malka around a philosophy of fresh, seasonal ingredients sourced from farmers and growers his team trusts. Malka first opened in Tel Aviv in 2018, then made its U.S. debut on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 2023. A Brooklyn outpost followed in Dumbo in September 2024, and a West Palm Beach location opened not long after.

Shani is also the celebrity chef behind the non-kosher restaurant chains HaSalon, North Abraxas, Romano, Mirage, and Dvorah, restaurants scattered across the globe that each reflect the city they’re in, as well as Miznon, which has both kosher and non-kosher branches. Kosher Miznon branches can be found in NYC (Times Square), New Jersey (Bell Works), Tel Aviv, and Panama, and one opening soon in NJ’s American Dream Mall.

What to Expect on the Menu

Malka’s West Palm Beach location is built around a custom wood-burning grill with hibachi stations, flat tops, rotisserie skewers, and a smoking cabinet, with a menu organized into sections like Knife Works, Cast Iron Works, and Fire Works. It’s not yet clear whether the Beverly Hills kitchen will follow that same live-fire format. Across Malka’s locations, though, expect the brand’s signature dishes to make an appearance, including the well-known schnitzel stuffed with mashed potatoes, branzino hraime, and vegetable-forward plates like a tomato farro risotto and gazpacho.

The concept is meat, which fits the ingredient-driven, produce-forward style Malka has built its reputation on. It’s a kosher cooking style built around seasonal ingredients rather than butter or heavy sauces, and it’s part of why Malka has drawn attention well beyond the kosher community at its other locations.

Why Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills already has a real base of kosher dining, and a name-brand opening backed by a Michelin-starred chef is a different tier of attention than the neighborhood typically gets. SIXTY Hotels founder Jason Pomeranc pointed to the emotional, ingredient-driven experience of eating at Shani’s restaurants in Tel Aviv as the draw, and Pagani Projects founder Giancarlo Pagani framed Beverly Hills as a natural fit for a concept built around seasonality and shared dining that also happens to be kosher.

Shani himself has talked about wanting to spend more time in Los Angeles before the opening, walking the markets and getting a feel for the city so the restaurant reflects L.A. rather than just being a transplant of the East Coast locations.

Malka is opening at SIXTY Beverly Hills, located at 9360 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, later this summer. Hours and kosher certification details have not yet been announced.