Rumi's Kitchen Is in Preview at Century City, and the Rooftop Is a Persian Garden

Update, September 2026: Rumi's Kitchen has moved into friends-and-family preview nights at Westfield Century City ahead of its grand opening. Guests at the pre-opening service have already been posting about it, though the restaurant has not yet published public hours or an official opening date.

Rumi's Kitchen, the upscale Persian chain founded in Atlanta and grown into a five-market brand across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, is set to open at Westfield Century City on the mall's second floor at 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard. Per the restaurant's own future openings page at rumiskitchen.com, the new location is billed as "opening Spring of 2026." That window has passed without an updated timeline posted on the brand's site as of publication.

A Return to Los Angeles for Chef Ali Mesghali

Chef Ali Mesghali, who was born in Iran and grew up in Los Angeles, opened the first Rumi's Kitchen in Sandy Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta whose Persian community mirrors Glendale's. Bill Addison, now the Los Angeles Times restaurant critic, described that original Rumi's as the "crown jewel" of Sandy Springs while writing for Atlanta Magazine. Rumi's now operates in Sandy Springs (currently in a reopening cycle), Alpharetta (Avalon), Atlanta (Colony Square), Houston, and Washington's Mt. Vernon Triangle. Century City will be Mesghali's California homecoming and the brand's sixth market.

The Mall's Continuing Restaurant Push

Westfield Century City has spent the past several years explicitly courting higher-end dining concepts to sit alongside its retail lineup, and Rumi's Kitchen joins recent additions on the property. The Century City spot takes over the mall's former Pink Taco space on the second floor. The location is expected to include two private dining rooms. Rumi's is one of the higher-profile arrivals on our new restaurants in Los Angeles watchlist this quarter.

Where LA's Persian Corridor Stands

Los Angeles's Persian dining tradition is anchored in Westwood, Beverly Hills, Sherman Oaks, and Glendale, with a mix of long-running kababi restaurants, market-and-tea-house hybrids, and newer chef-driven concepts. Rumi's arrives with a chain infrastructure the LA scene mostly doesn't have and a chef with local roots. That combination positions Century City as the brand's boldest launch to date.

What We Have Our Eyes On

The Persian menu at Rumi's is built around kababs from a coal-fired grill, served over saffron rice with tahdig, the crisp golden rice crust that Iranian home cooks build a career on. Signatures to watch for at the Century City opening:

• Joojeh Kabab — saffron chicken kabab, the brand's most-ordered protein.

• Koobideh — the ground beef and lamb kabab and the yardstick for any Persian kitchen.

• Shirazi Salad — finely diced cucumber, tomato, and onion in citrus.

• Khoresh Bademjan — a slow-cooked roasted eggplant stew.

• Mast-o-Khiar — yogurt with cucumber, mint, and walnuts, the opener that tends to hit every table.

• Fried Eggplant — the classic starter, executed against the same standard as the kababs.

• Kunefe — a shredded-phyllo Middle Eastern dessert soaked in syrup, a Rumi's menu-page fixture.

For the full current menu and any updates on the Century City timeline, see rumiskitchen.com.

Where Things Stand Now

The spring target came and went, and for most of the summer the space sat behind construction walls. That changed in September, when the restaurant began hosting friends-and-family preview nights. Google now lists the location at Suite 2010, and the restaurant can be reached at (818) 922-7499.

Worth knowing before you plan around it: Rumi's own future-openings page still reads Spring 2026, while its Los Angeles location page already describes the Century City room in the past tense. Neither has posted public hours yet. Treat the grand opening as imminent rather than confirmed.

What the Room Looks Like

Per the restaurant's own description, the space is considerably more ambitious than a mall restaurant usually gets. A long porcelain-tiled entry is flanked by a traditional in-ground Persian water fountain and a custom mural by Dean Barger Studios. From there a winding staircase overlooks barrel-vaulted ceilings finished in Venetian plaster, with the kitchen set behind a custom antiqued mirror installation.

The outdoor dining area is the detail that stands out: a private rooftop designed as a Persian garden, planted with pomegranate and satsuma orange trees. The kitchen is built around live-fire cooking over charcoal.

The bar program leans into it as well, with an eclectic wine list that includes a rare selection of Middle Eastern wines dating back to the 1960s, and cocktails built on Persian culinary ingredients.

We will update this brief when a date is confirmed. For the rest of what is opening around town, see our monthly guide to new restaurants in Los Angeles.

Rumi's Kitchen Century City is at 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 2010, Los Angeles, CA 90067, on the second floor of Westfield Century City in the former Pink Taco space. Reach the restaurant at (818) 922-7499. Food Journal Magazine will update this post when public hours and an official opening date are confirmed.