Inside Sushi Park: The inconspicuous LA restaurant where celebs are snogging in secret
Dua Lipa is a big fan
Bright lights, Fanta-orange walls and a flatscreen TV don’t sound like a recipe for romance. But Sushi Park – an unassuming Japanese restaurant on the top floor of a two-level strip mall between a yoga studio and a beauty parlour on Sunset Boulevard – is the only place to soft-launch a relationship for Hollywood’s elite right now. Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, Harry Styles, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are all regulars. If these walls could talk, planets would collide—families would be torn apart.
It’s always sushi park pic.twitter.com/a12mS30tw5
— ari guts guide 26/03 (@happilyariii) January 17, 2024
A Sushi Park meal is – gasp here – $400. No photos (and certainly no social media) are allowed. They’re open from Tuesday to Saturday for just three hours a day (5.30pm-8.30pm) and if you haven’t been spotted walking along their balcony with your new boyfriend you may as well call up your agent and declare your career over.
Put a service station, Chiltern Firehouse and Nobu in a blender and Sushi Park is your outcome – such is the secrecy, sashimi and social significance. So, in the name of investigative journalism, let’s delve deeper into the lore and legend of Sushi Park: The inconspicuous LA restaurant where celebs are snogging on the sly.
So, who’s been spotted strolling out of Sushi Park?
please. not the sushi park pap stroll! https://t.co/WPvLkQkNYt
— internet baby (@kirkpate) January 17, 2024
Sushi Park is conveniently located – for Hollywood’s elite – about a two minute drive from Chateau Marmont. So, everyone from Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Elon Musk (on a date with Amber Heard!) have been here.
Hailey and Justin Bieber have basically got shares in the business the number of bills they’d racked up. And Meghan Markle even recommended Sushi Park in her lifestyle blog The Tig back in 2010.
Kylie Jenner e Jordyn Woods deixando o restaurante Sushi Park em West Hollywood – 15/07/23. pic.twitter.com/FSMdceqh6v
— Portal Jenner Brasil (@portaljennerin) July 16, 2023
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But the drama, the chaos – that’s what we’re interested in here, isn’t it? Notable pearl-clutching moments known to have taken place at Sushi Park (and on its adjacent balcony) in recent years include but are not limited to:
Harry Styles and Camille Rowe stepping out together after dinner, Taylor Swift on a girls night with Selena Gomez and Zoë Kravitz, Kylie Jenner rekindling her friendship with her former bestie Jordyn Woods, Kendall Jenner on a fun evening out with her boyfriend Bad Bunny, and Dua Lipa snogging the living daylights out of Callum Turner.
Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Zoe Kravitz after dinner together at Sushi Park in West Hollywood, California. pic.twitter.com/vhUfTRkuYr
— 21 (@21metgala) October 20, 2023
Plenty of catch-ups, kissing and re-kindling goes on at Sushi Park. It’s essentially the Infernos of WeHo, for people who can afford to blow half a month’s rent on some saké, tuna sashimi and a damn good time.
Right, what’s even on the menu at Sushi Park for $400?
“Attention. NO TAKE OUT! NO SALAD! NO TERIYAKI, TEMPURA! NO TRENDY SUSHI! NO CALIFORNIA ROLL! NO SPICY TUNA ROLL! We serve only Traditional Sushi! Sushi bar is chef’s choice only,” screams the sign outside Sushi Park.
There’s also no menu at Sushi Park. It’s omakase-only, meaning the chef will serve you whatever is fresh on the day – for the average price of $400. Essentially, piss off with your Gen-Z, TikTok-fuelled demands. You’re in the realm of purist Japanese cuisine. If you don’t like it, don’t come in.
However, there may will be a hack here to get around the hefty price tag as visitors have tweeted you can order à la carte options for much less.
And Sushi Park, it has been said before, offers the best sushi in Los Angeles outside of Japan. But not everybody is sold: “For the price of that place you might as well buy a plane ticket to Japan and have sushi there,” wrote one person on Twitter. “A place to get good sushi and papped without having to call paparazzi,” another added.
So if fame is your game, call an Uber stat.
But why exactly is Sushi Park so popular with celebrities and millionaires?
i can’t believe this is where sushi park is…like it’s a regular ass plaza with terribly limited parking 😭 pic.twitter.com/3xAxEYGuXZ
— S 💌 (@blueblrdhoneyy) January 18, 2024
Sushi Park is a mystery. There’s little online presence. No website. No Instagram. The owners don’t give interviews. Reviews are few and far between. It’s small and private— exactly why the young, rich and famous like it.
“Anytime you come in, it’s like family. And it’s very loving,” a local told The Face. “You’re going to have a very beautiful meal and you’re going to have wonderful people and you’re going to leave, and nobody’s going to bother you. And there’s no bullshit. Which is such a beautiful thing.”
drove by the sushi park railing today pic.twitter.com/qbIX6YaRkT
— annika💒 (@femaleweezerfan) January 19, 2024
“Other sushi at that price point in LA or New York is going to be way better, but it is just not going to be as fun – especially to 23-year-old billionaires,” podcaster Jason Stewart added. “You’re going to have some imported monkfish liver from Hokkaido or whatever, but Bad Bunny doesn’t give a fuck about that. He can’t tell the difference between them and he doesn’t want to have an 11-hour tasting menu.
“He wants it to be good, expensive, and to feel like a normal person, the way you don’t feel like a normal person when you go to Chateau [Marmont] or [members’ club] San Vicente Bungalows. You can kind of feel like a real civilian there.”
Related stories recommended by this writer:
• From stylish models to vibey chefs: A deep dive into Dua Lipa’s dating history
• Um, Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny were spotted ‘kissing’ and the internet is furious
• A-list stars and nepo babies: Inside Jacob Elordi’s long and winding relationship history
Featured image credit via A Perez Meca/Laurent Vu/SIPA/MediaPunch/Shutterstock