Perse: A Modern Persian Dining Experience in Brentwood

The name comes from the French word for Persia. The room looks like a five-star hotel dining room. The food is Persian — koobideh, ghormeh sabzi, saffron lamb chops — elevated with white-tablecloth presentation and a wine list that includes Château Lafite Rothschild. Perse, which opened in early 2025 on San Vicente in Brentwood, is the most ambitious Persian restaurant to open on the Westside in years, and one of the best new restaurants in West LA full stop.

The restaurant is run by siblings Farbod and Farinaz Pirshirazi, whose family also operates Toranj in Westwood — a casual Persian spot well-loved by the neighborhood. Perse is their formal statement: what Persian cuisine looks like when it's given the same treatment as French or Japanese fine dining. The answer, it turns out, is extraordinary.

“Perse isn’t trying to make Persian food seem more Western. It’s presenting it with the care and context it deserves — and the result is one of the most distinctive fine dining experiences on the Westside.”

The Room

The interior was designed by Kelly Architects and takes Persian culture seriously as a visual language. Moss-green velvet banquettes, blonde wood walls adorned with Persian art and photographs of Iran, bookshelves staged with novels, and a glass wine cellar as the room's centerpiece. It looks like the kind of place that exists in Paris or New York — the fact that it's on San Vicente in Brentwood, above a Sweetgreen, still feels slightly improbable.

The Food

The menu moves between traditional and French-coded Persian without losing its identity. The Torsh Filet Chenjeh — filet marinated for 24 hours in a tart, herb-forward marinade — is one of the best beef dishes currently being served in West LA. The Short Rib Ghormeh Sabzi takes the classic walnut-pomegranate stew and slow-cooks a short rib into it, deepening a dish that's already one of Persian cooking's greatest hits.

Saffron Lamb Chops arrive as lollipop cuts with saffron yogurt — visually arresting and perfectly seasoned. The bread service (Sangak and Barbari with the traditional herb plate, marinated feta, and house accompaniments) is the right way to start. The caviar service — Caspian beluga, presented as tartlets with slivered chives — is worth the addition if the occasion calls for it.

The Drinks

The bar program takes Persian ingredients and memory as its starting point, producing cocktails that feel connected to the menu rather than decorative. The wine list spans California Chardonnays to serious Bordeaux — the glass wine cellar isn't just aesthetic. For a neighborhood restaurant in Brentwood, the level of ambition here is genuinely unusual.

Why It Matters

West LA has a large Persian community, and Persian cuisine has long been underrepresented at the fine dining level relative to its depth and complexity. Perse changes that. It's a restaurant that treats the food with the seriousness it deserves, in a room that matches the ambition of the kitchen. The result is one of the more important restaurant openings on the Westside in recent years.