Eyal Shani's Malka Is Open in Beverly Hills, With Kosher Cooking Built on Open Fire

A Michelin-starred chef, a kosher kitchen built around open flame, and a menu organized by how the food is cooked rather than what it is.

Malka has opened at SIXTY Beverly Hills, the first West Coast location for the kosher restaurant Eyal Shani founded in Tel Aviv in 2018. The Los Angeles project is a partnership between Shani and LA-based Pagani Projects, and it joins existing outposts in Tel Aviv, Manhattan, Brooklyn and West Palm Beach. The name is Hebrew and Arabic for queen, or sovereign.

Shani is not a small name. Born in Jerusalem in 1959, he is the chef behind roughly 50 restaurants worldwide, a judge on MasterChef Israel, and the force behind Miznon, HaSalon and Port Sa'id. He earned a Michelin star for SHMONE in Greenwich Village. In Los Angeles he already runs Miznon at Grand Central Market and in Beverly Hills.

Where the cooking came from

Shani has said his grandfather, an agronomist and a committed vegan, walked him through markets, fields and vineyards as a boy, and that is where the cooking started. He opened his first restaurant, Oceanus, in Jerusalem in 1989, building a culinary language around olive oil, fish, tahini, seasonal vegetables and above all the tomato.

With partner Shahar Segal he now operates HaSalon, North Abraxas, North Miznon, Lilienblum, SHMONE, Miznon, Port Said, Romano, Mirage, Dvorah and Malka under Good People Group. He has described the ambition behind Malka plainly: that there is a world of kosher food carrying a precision and elegance many diners have not yet imagined.

Why the fire matters here

The thing worth paying attention to, beyond the name attached, is the kitchen. Shani has built the concept around open-fire cooking, which he has said is something that has never existed in Jewish cuisine. The claim is worth unpacking: kosher kitchens have historically leaned on braising, roasting and stewing, and the rule against mixing meat and dairy removes the butter and cream that carry a lot of Western fire cooking. Building a kosher menu around live flame and vegetables instead is a genuinely different proposition.

At the West Palm Beach location the menu is organized by station rather than by course: Knife Works, Cast Iron Works and Fire Works. Signature plates developed with culinary director Loel Muller have included a pumpkin steak charred on the hibachi, a whole fish roasted over open fire, and a black bean masabacha crowned with vegetables.

The schnitzel

The dish that made Malka's reputation is the schnitzel, pounded paper thin and filled with mashed potato that spills out when cut, typically served with sauerkraut, mustard and a beetroot relish. It drew both kosher and non-kosher diners in Tel Aviv and New York, and it is the plate most likely to define the Beverly Hills room's first reviews.

The broader philosophy, per the restaurant's own description, is a seasonal menu built on ingredients from farmers and growers the team knows, with the kosher certification treated as a given rather than the point. Shani has put it plainly, saying that every day he bows to the divine creation in his own way, and that sometimes it is called zucchini and sometimes it is called lettuce. His grandfather, an agronomist and a committed vegan, walked him through markets, fields and vineyards as a child, and that vegetable-first instinct runs through the whole portfolio.

Timing and service

Shani has said he intends to spend time walking Los Angeles markets and absorbing the city before settling the menu, so the opening list is expected to shift as the room finds its footing. Malka locations observe Shabbat, closing Friday evening through Saturday evening, with Saturday night service returning in winter months when the sun sets earlier.

Visiting

Malka is at SIXTY Beverly Hills, 9360 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, on the corner of Wilshire and Crescent Drive, a short walk from Rodeo Drive. The hotel offers valet parking, and metered street parking is available along Wilshire and the surrounding blocks.

• Certification: kosher certified. Agency details for the Beverly Hills room had not been published at the time of writing.

• Shabbat: Malka locations close Friday evening through Saturday evening.

• Hours and reservations: not yet published for Beverly Hills. FJM will update this post when they are.

• Parking: valet at the hotel, with metered street parking along Wilshire.

• Elsewhere in LA: Shani's Miznon opened at Grand Central Market in 2025 and added a standalone Beverly Grove location at 8370 W. Third Street in March 2026, with a Culver City site at Platform in the works, all with Giancarlo Pagani of Pagani Projects.

Menus and updates for the US locations are at malka-usa.com, and the restaurant posts on Instagram.

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