Few restaurant openings in Los Angeles come with a backdrop quite like Skywalker Grill’s. The highly anticipated restaurant occupies the fifth floor of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on Exposition Boulevard, overlooking the city, with a 360-degree panoramic rooftop that offers sweeping views of the L.A. skyline.
Inside, the restaurant’s futuristic design feels like an extension of the museum itself. Sleek leather seats and contemporary touches create a space that feels sophisticated without sacrificing comfort. Whether you’re stopping by for a drink at the bar or settling in for a dinner with friends, the setting alone makes Skywalker Grill an appealing destination.
The hope with Skywalker Grill was to create a space for the museum that was “welcoming, elevated and distinctly Los Angeles,” said Chef Diego Cardoso.
Cardoso is responsible for curating the menu, which leans heavily into American comfort food, offering contemporary interpretations of familiar dishes. The idea is to make dining feel approachable yet elevated.
It’s a promising concept, particularly for a restaurant attached to a museum dedicated to the art of storytelling. For all the anticipation surrounding its opening, the restaurant’s menu feels more comforting than exciting.
The burrata salad offers a refreshing start. Its tomatoes taste as though they’ve been brought home fresh from the farmers market. Garnished with balsamic glaze and served with a side of multigrain bread, the ingredients speak for themselves.
A more playful appetizer is the “pigs in a blanket,” made with grass-fed beef raised on George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, California. The beef sausage is wrapped in croissant dough and sprinkled with everything bagel seasoning. Although the croissant dough lacks some of the buttery flakiness one might expect, the sausage offered a nice sweetness to cut the seasoning.
It’s served with a side of house-made mustard, creating an elevated take on a ballpark classic. The kind of snack that might bring back memories of watching a baseball game.
Wagyu plays a prominent role throughout the menu, appearing in everything from the appetizers to the main courses. Cardoso said his intention is to showcase the versatility of the beef throughout several fan-favorite American dishes.
In the burger, the wagyu brings juiciness and richness, balanced by the acidity of the tomato and the softness of the brioche bun.
The bolognese takes a different approach, incorporating slow-cooked wagyu into gemelli pasta and red sauce. The beef’s low-melting-point fat creates a rich, savory glaze that gives the dish a melt-in-your-mouth flavor profile.
For those looking to venture beyond the printed menu, Cardoso has another suggestion.
“Ask for their off-menu wagyu steak. They aren’t always available, so if the opportunity comes, don’t pass it up,” he said.
For all the attention given to wagyu, one of the menu’s unexpected standouts is the honey-miso glazed salmon. The combination of sweet honey and savory miso offers a balanced change from the heavier dishes, showing that the kitchen’s strengths aren’t limited to one ingredient.
That balance between familiarity and creativity is central to Cardoso’s approach.
“We’ll play with texture, sauces and accents, perhaps with a surprising garnish or an unexpected seasoning,” Cardoso said. “But the structure of the dish should always feel honest.”
No dish captures that philosophy quite like the chicken and mushroom crêpes, served in a rich chicken cream sauce.
The dish holds a personal connection for Lucas, who has memories of ordering similar crepes in the past. Cardoso took on the challenge of reinventing the dish for Lucas with a new, added twist.
“This dish is close to George’s heart. He shared memories of ordering it and the flavours he remembered, and we were excited to take on the challenge of developing our own version,” he said.
But that’s also where Skywalker Grill falls short of expectations. For a restaurant with such a distinctive setting and a celebrated name behind it, the food rarely feels as ambitious as its surroundings. The dishes are satisfying and thoughtfully conceived, but few offer the kind of surprise that would make the meal itself the main attraction.
Maybe that’s not entirely the point.
The restaurant’s greatest appeal is the experience surrounding it. The striking interior and impeccable fine-dining service create a space for diners to linger over conversation. There’s something refreshing about a restaurant that doesn’t demand a special occasion, even when its surroundings suggest otherwise.
“The museum celebrates narrative art, and we wanted the food to continue that storytelling,” Cardoso said. “A meal can be another chapter in the experience.”
Skywalker Grill may not be the culinary destination its anticipation suggested, but it succeeds in creating an experience worth returning to. The Lucas Museum is dedicated to the power of storytelling through images, but the Skywalker Grill suggests that stories can be told through food.
Come for the atmosphere, stay to watch the sunset fall over L.A. The food is just one part of the story.