There’s a word that chef Elijah Arizmendi uses to describe his food at newly opened Lucien, a 12-course tasting-menu restaurant that opened in downtown La Jolla in July: challenging.
That might sound like a red flag word for the traditional steak-and-potato crowd. But if you’re up for a delicious culinary adventure, Lucien’s menu is exciting, fresh and surprising in a very good way.
How surprising? Check out the chilled third course on the night I dined there: A savory scoop of uni (sea urchin) ice cream was served with crispy ribbons of Japanese sweet potatoes, threads of salty-sweet rishiri-kombu seaweed, an earthy mushroom gelée and drizzle of white soy sauce. I was gobsmacked by the unexpected presentation, mix of textures and umami flavors.
There was also a wonderful wagyu sausage-stuffed chili pepper from Chino Farms, juicy pine-smoked and sweet soy-glazed Hollander Farms squab, a bright and tart aquachile-inspired raw seafood dish topped with passionfruit sauce, a melt-in-your-mouth five-day-aged Pacific thornyhead fish served in its own bone broth with N25 Kaluga caviar, and an elegant dessert of silky Japanese eggplant tofu with tapioca, crunchy bits of Asian pear and black cardamom foam.
These dishes were on the menu I ate on Oct. 4, but Arizmendi admits that he’s constantly tweaking his menu to incorporate whatever is coming in to season (coming soon: pumpkin, red curry and kabocha squashes, quince, pears and porcini mushrooms).
“I’m always looking to capture the seasons here and what’s best,” he said of his Lucien ethos. “That makes it fun and keeps people stimulated. And for the chefs, it keeps them on their toes and pushes them to learn. We focus on the execution and synchronization of service, where we go to the tables to give our spiels and then let the dishes tell their own stories.”
Asked about his uni ice cream plate, Arizmendi said that was the kind of dish intended to challenge the diner’s idea of the taste and texture of the spiny shellfish. He’s been pleased by how well it has been received by diners.
“I meant to challenge the diner and excite people’s palate and do something more original,” he said. “I very much like to have fun. I’d have things like this on the whole menu, but it can be polarizing. I expected people to really love it or not like it at all.”
Lucien chef and co-owner Elijah Arizmendi with his 2-year-old son, Lucien, who is the inspiration for the La Jolla tasting-menu restaurant that opened in July 2025. (Lucien)
The sea cave-style dining room of 30-sea Lucien fine-dining restaurant in La Jolla. (Jenny Siegwart)
Uni ice cream with Japanese sweet potato ribbons, mushroom gelee, rishin kombu threads and white soy. (Pam Kragen – The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Aged Pacific thornyhead fish with seaweed, N25 Kaluga hybrid caviar and a sauce made from the fish’s bones at Lucien restaurant in La Jolla. It’s served on colorful dishware created by chef Elijah Arizmendi’s artist mother. (Pam Kragen – The San Diego Union-Tribune)
A pot of botanical infusion tea is served with a side of pain citron at Lucien restaurant in La Jolla. (Karli Cadel)
A ceviche-style dish of local spiny lobster, Santa Barbara uni, gooseberries and watermelon radish, topped tableside with passionfruit puree at Lucien restaurant in La Jolla. (Karli Cadel)
The first course at Lucien restaurant in La Jolla is something chef/co-owner Elijah Arizmendi calls the “egg royale,” where egg dashi custard is topped with chantilly cream and served inside the egg’s own shell, then topped tableside with N25 Osetra caviar. It’s served with a slice of banana buckwheat toast. (Kimberly Motos)
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Lucien chef and co-owner Elijah Arizmendi with his 2-year-old son, Lucien, who is the inspiration for the La Jolla tasting-menu restaurant that opened in July 2025. (Lucien)
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Lucien is a French-Japanese restaurant, meaning Arizmendi uses French and Japanese cooking techniques in making his sauces and dashi, how he processes and cooks seafood and meats, and how he pours his love into vegetable-centric courses. But almost all of the cooking ingredients he uses are from California and the West Coast.
Arizmendi grew up in Sacramento and has been working in restaurant kitchens for nearly half of his 30 years. Before moving to San Diego last year with his wife and their now 2-year-old son, Lucien (who is the restaurant’s namesake), Arizmendi spent eight years working for some of New York’s most acclaimed Michelin-starred chefs, including Thomas Keller (at Per Se), Daniel Boulud (Restaurant Daniel), Günter Seeger (Günter Seeger) and Mitsunobu Nagae (l’Abeille).
Arizmendi was chef de cuisine at the French-Japanese l’Abeille in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood in 2022, when it earned a Michelin star just seven months after it opened. After that, Arizmendi felt he was ready to strike out on his own.
Originally, he planned to open his first restaurant in his native Northern California, but he changed his mind after his close friend and fellow cook from Per Se, Brian Hung, moved with his wife, Melissa Lang, to Rancho Santa Fe in 2023. They wanted to invest in his restaurant as partners and they found the La Jolla location that Lucien now calls home.
Arizmendi said he spent a full year before opening Lucien building one-on-one relationships with local and California producers like Chino Farms, Schaner Family Farms, Thompson Heritage Ranch, Masami Ranch, Hollander Farms and many more. He also connected with many local fishermen, who often bring him their day’s catch still alive, so he can harvest it fresh when he’s ready to serve.
Lucien occupies the former Sushi on the Rock space on the third floor of the La Plaza La Jolla complex on Girard Avenue. The 30-seat restaurant has an outdoor bar and small tables arranged around a live calamansi citrus tree (its tart-sweet fruit is used in several dishes and drinks). Diners begin their meal outside with an appetite-stimulating tomato water-and-herb drink and a trio of bite-size canapés highlighting local fruit, vegetables and Wagyu beef.
Then the diners move inside the mood-lit restaurant, where the booths are carved into the wall like sea caves, black sea pebbles are nestled in planters by each table and even the blue drink coasters on the stone tables have an oyster-shell design. Much of the restaurant’s visually stunning and colorful dishware was created by Arizmendi’s mom, a Placerville-based ceramicist and pottery teacher.
For those craving sunshine, there are some window-side tables in the back of the restaurant with a beautiful ocean view. Central to the restaurant’s custom-built kitchen is a French-made Molteni stove and a wood-fired hearth, used for smoking, fire-roasting and finishing dishes.
Executive Pastry Chef Bella Alicea (formerly of Per Se and La Bernardin) has an ambitious bread and pastry program. The dinner’s crave-worthy bread course is a house-baked sourdough boule made with an ancient Persian Gulf grain and served with a side of cultured seaweed butter. Alicea, 25, also incorporates pastry and different bakery techniques into the full menu, and sends diners home with a petite French canelé cake.
Beverage director James Meringer’s extensive drink program features mostly California wines by the glass, as well as French Champagnes, and wines by the bottle from the West Coast as well as Italy, France and Australia.
The dinner service does include three complimentary drinks, including the tomato water starter on the patio, a cocktail served before the dessert courses (on my visit it was a lovely, fruity drink made with an Earl Grey tea aperitif and pluot-infused Japanese sake), and a pot of botanical tea served with a bite of citron cake.
Diners don’t receive a menu until the end of service, but servers explain each course in detail, often while pouring on finishing sauces, spooning caviar or sharing a sneak peek of future dishes, like the full squab in a roasting pan before it’s cut and plated.
The menu is described as “12-plus” courses. I counted 17 individual dishes, when you include the three canapés, pre-dessert cocktail and take-home pastry. Diners should plan for a 2-1/2-hour to 3-hour experience.
The cost for dining at Lucien is $312, including tax and tip. That’s about the same as Lilo, the 22-seat Carlsbad tasting-menu restaurant that earned a Michelin star just two months after it opened last spring. Arizmendi’s restaurant is also worthy of Michelin recognition, offering not only an exquisite meal, but something very different and surprising for San Diego diners.
Lucien
Hours: 5-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays
Address: 7863 Girard Ave., Suite 308, La Plaza La Jolla, La Jolla
Phone: 619-786-3082
Online: luciensd.com
Dining and Cooking