After 31 years, the influential modern Vietnamese restaurant Crustacean will permanently close its Beverly Hills location on October 31, 2026. The Los Angeles Times first reported that the building on the corner of Bedford Drive and South Santa Monica
Boulevard was recently sold and the restaurant’s lease was not renewed. Crustacean’s owners, the An family, previously attempted to purchase the property in the early 2000s, but were outbid.
Following the initial announcement of a July 29 closure, a Crustacean spokesperson tells Eater that a lease extension agreement was arranged for October 31. The team is currently on a brief break and will reopen on August 5 through September 30 with limited operations. From that point forward, Crustacean will host special events and takeout until it ceases operations on Halloween.
The news of Crustacean’s closure transported me back to a 2022 visit that turned into a kitchen tour. Crustacean’s matriarch, Helene “Mama” An, produced dishes from a secret kitchen window labeled “Garlic Noodles.” A single lever pull from the bottom opened to a smiling Mama, who placed two plates in the compact display window. Since signing the lease in 1996, only a handful of staff members have been allowed in this corner of Crustacean’s kitchen to ensure the family recipes stay in the An family. The first dish I had was roasted Dungeness crab presented in a dramatic, lacquered shell. I could smell the second plate before seeing it: Crustacean’s signature garlic noodles.
A restaurant can call itself blessed to be known for a single dish. It’s even more challenging to create one that influences a city or state’s culture. For Los Angeles, Crustacean’s garlic noodles did that: Local restaurants have paid homage to Crustacean by putting similarly fragrant garlic noodles on their menus, including at Bleu Bird in South Los Angeles and the Kickin’ Crab. The garlic noodles embody the Ans’ modern Vietnamese approach to cooking, something that wasn’t as commonplace in the 1980s and 1990s, when the An family first got its culinary start in California.
In 1975, Mama An left Vietnam with her three daughters after the fall of Saigon, before settling in the Bay Area. The family immediately got to work growing one of San Francisco’s longtime destinations, Thanh Long, known as one of the earliest Vietnamese restaurants in the Bay Area, having been opened by another family member in 1971. The family still owns Thanh Long, where House of An got its start forming a restaurant group that includes Crustacean in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, AnQi Bistro in Costa Mesa, and previously, Da Lat Rose, which closed in 2019.
Though it seems impossible to imagine Southern California without Vietnamese food, the cuisine had a far less prominent presence in the United States before the mid-1970s. With thousands of Vietnam War refugees stationed in Camp Pendleton and scattered throughout the region, many Vietnamese immigrants settled in and around Los Angeles, Westminster, and Garden Grove. Orange County’s Little Saigon and San Jose have become the largest Vietnamese enclaves in the country.
As more Vietnamese arrived and settled, Mama An’s modern approach to Vietnamese food expanded. Thanh Long became a fundamental San Francisco restaurant, developing dishes with French and Chinese influences that felt accessible to U.S. palates. “Mama knew that authentic Vietnamese food might be too foreign,” Elizabeth An told Eater in 2019. “She knew that she could lighten up the flavors and be more well-received. And she enjoyed it that way.” The An family’s influence was celebrated by the Smithsonian, which honored Mama with a Pioneer Award in Culinary Arts in 2019.
Crustacean underwent a massive renovation in 2017. The dramatic bar and lounge in the front entry became the ideal spot to sip on a colorful drink before tasting smoky filet mignon satay, Dungeness crab puffs, or Jidori chicken rolls. Years ago, I took a young family member to experience the koi pond walkway underneath a glass floor, and she still talks about it to this day. Celebrities also found a home at Crustacean, often entering through a special V.I.P. entrance.
Though it’s a loss for Beverly Hills and Southern California, the An family is working to secure multiple new locations for Crustacean. The family has considered Calabasas and Pasadena as potential new homes for Los Angeles’s Crustacean. In the meantime, the family just signed a licensing agreement for Crustacean Atlanta, and will debut a Honolulu location on Waialae Avenue, and another in Sun Valley, Idaho. Both will open at the end of 2026.
Even though the An family first landed in the Bay Area decades ago, they consider Southern California home. They attribute much of their success to the Beverly Hills location. “Crustacean didn’t build its legacy alone,” says Elizabeth An. “Los Angeles embraced our family first, and everything we’ve become grew from that generosity. For that, I will always be deeply grateful.”
More for the table
- I’ll die on Erewhon’s Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie hill (it’s beyond delicious), but eye roll anytime I see an item like the new sacred water. The $12 cup of water was trolled by the Jimmy Kimmel Show.
- The James Beard Foundation announced the lineup for its Taste America series in Los Angeles. Tickets range from $175 to $225, featuring Little Fish’s Anna Sonenshein and Niki Vahle, Linden chef Jonathan Harris, Komal’s Fátima Juárez, and Betsy chef Tyler Wells.
- The Airliner in Lincoln Heights brought on chef Evelyn Yap to collaborate on the summer menu. Yap previously spent time at the Michelin-starred Bangkok restaurant Cadence by Dan Bark. The menu will stay on through the end of September with short rib rendang, Thai KFC wings, and Thai-themed fish and chips.
