One of Spain’s Biggest Chefs Arrives at Westfield Century City Next Year

More Spanish food is coming to Los Angeles next year, adding to the sudden influx of power players and big paella names landing on the West Coast lately. Casa Dani, a notable New York City spot from famed modernist chef Dani García, is set to open at the Westfield Century City mall in 2023, taking up a prime position in one of the Westside’s busiest retail centers.

García is a fixture in Spain’s culinary scene, with a dozen or so restaurants to his name across the country. The chef landed in New York City with the now-closed restaurant Manzanilla back in 2013, which served a combination of molecular gastronomy and traditional Spanish fare. García opened Casa Dani in New York City in 2021, which focuses on more traditional preparations of Andalusian seafood, croquetas, and various stylings of jamón Ibérico, according to a March 2022 review from Pete Wells of the New York Times.

Now, García will apparently be taking those same touches to Century City, with prominent golden signage atop the former Rocksugar space announcing a 2023 arrival for the Spanish-Mediterranean restaurant. What’s more, it seems that the famously gigantic Rocksugar space may be getting a big split down the middle, with a Katsuya set to take up one side and Casa Dani occupying the other. Disruptive Restaurant Group — a nightlife and food and beverage subsidiary of SBE — is the force behind both restaurants, so it’s likely that the pair will play nice side-by-side in the space next year. As for specifics on timing and layout, Eater has reached out multiple times to SBE and Disruptive Restaurant Group, but so far has not heard back.

Once open, Casa Dani will join a handful of other new Spanish entrants in remaking the Iberian Peninsula dining scene in LA. The city has for years struggled to offer a wealth of Spanish food options beyond players like Otoño in Highland Park, but newcomers now include Jose Andrés’s projects at the Conrad in Downtown, the newish Dono in Santa Monica, Silver Lake’s busy Bar Moruno, and the forthcoming Flor y Solera in the Arts District.