Gwen Butcher Shop & Restaurant

A decade in, Aussie celeb chef Curtis Stone’s European-style butcher shop by day, glamorous Michelin-starred steakhouse by night, remains a Hollywood hotspot and the place to meet your meat needs.

Like produce, animals have seasons, and Gwen moves with them, priding itself on unique cuts of beef, pork, veal, lamb—you name it—when they're at their prime. Animals arrive in complete, carcass-y form and are broken down to the smallest parts. Case in point: that powdery mountain giving cocaine vibes atop a grilled cipollini onion—served alongside a pristinely marbled, medium-rare flat iron Wagyu—is powdered beef tallow. And that Wagyu? The Stone brothers opened an import company to bring Australia's Blackmore Wagyu from the motherland to LA. One bite and you’ll understand why. If Wagyu ratings are your thing, you'll be salivating to know Gwen's is MBS 9+. For the non-geeks, that's an insane amount of intramuscular fat.

Wagyu aside, Gwen’s packing plenty more meat in its floor-to-ceiling glass dry-aging locker, which only men seem to waltz over to view—the long-dormant instincts of the ancient hunter still smoldering in the subconscious. Worth mentioning that Gwen was just awarded Gold Certification by The Beef Advocate, a first for any restaurant in North America. Depending on the nightly specials, you'll have your pick from Kansas's Creekstone Farms, Napa's Five Dot Ranch, and Australia's O'Connor—anywhere from 30- to 120-day-aged ribeye, short loin, T-bone, New York, porterhouse, zabuton, or something you’ve never heard of (besides zabuton, which is more commonly known as Denver steak). As you can imagine, the charcuterie board is cured in-house and stellar. Stellar also describes the smoky, exquisitely tender lamb ribs with pomegranate molasses, pomegranate crème fraîche and crispy grains. And the hyper-fresh stonefruit set in a bed of silky, smoked stracciatella and dotted with arugula pesto, chopped almonds and basil—a sweet, tart, herbaceous, nutty medley.

That last dish pairs beautifully with water. Yes, water water. Gwen once had one of the world's few water sommeliers, Martin Riese, and while he's moved on, his legacy remains in an extensive menu of sparkling and still bottles from around the globe. (No, all water is not created equal.) The pick, imo, is the sodium-forward but well-balanced Vichy Catalan—order it with the fleshy, juicy Ibérico pressa, which is perfect on its own but comes alive with tangy, earthy squid-ink jerk sauce and grilled scallions. The dish made my husband cry: a first, when it comes to food. You'll want something other than water for the steak—a red, maybe a Noelia Ricci Sangiovese Predappio, that has a decade of Tre Bicchieri nods from Gambero Rosso (the most prestigious Italian wine authority).

Before the parade of protein, though, you’ll break bread: warm, hand-pulled stecca—a free-form, baguette-adjacent loaf with a shattering crust—served with warm, rich Normandy butter. It’s some of the best bread service in the city. And beef aside, Gwen is just as fine a place to have Maine scallops with pork fat, corn foam and a lemon gel that tickles the tongue. Or pasta dishes speckled with guanciale, ‘nduja, or Italian sausage. In terms of sides, don’t miss the duck fat potatoes with chicken salt and vinegar. For dessert, definitely get the seasonal sorbet (a mango-ginger-carrot topped with alien-like ginger gelee and mint green tea foam on my visit) to accompany the caramelized chocolate mousse with vanilla creme fraiche and whiskey caramel.   

There's no denying Gwen's a steakhouse through and through. But there’s something wonderful and just a little bit trippy about every aspect. From the Art Deco-meets-dystopian-Gaudí dining room and tiered chandeliers, to the chef's counter, where executive chef Marcell Hatten locks in on a fennel-cucumber clarified gazpacho amuse-bouche; to the choose-your-own steak knife experience that feels more like a wand-choosing ceremony at Ollivander’s—each blade introduced with the story of its maker and materials. The Stone brothers may be the face of Gwen, but Hatten's been the chops since 2024, and his hunter and gatherer instincts are alive and well…but never well-done.