Where Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard cross at the western edge of Beverly Hills, traffic slows, the palms thicken and the city announces itself with hotels. The Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills stands at 9850 Wilshire, pale and composed, beside the gardens of the Beverly Hilton. On 18 February 2026 it opened a restaurant under one of the most familiar surnames in Los Angeles dining. Baldi is a Tuscan steakhouse, and the chef is Edoardo Baldi, known as Edo.
A family at the table
Edo's father, Giorgio Baldi, left Tuscany in the early 1980s and built a following with the Santa Monica restaurant that carries his name. Edo followed with e.Baldi on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, which marks twenty years in 2026. He describes the new restaurant as somewhere that feels like home to him, rooted in the family table and his house in Chianti, and talks about a less-is-more cooking philosophy that he traces back to the Etruscans. The hotel's owner David Alagem has called it the joining of two families.
A Tuscan farmhouse supper at the corner of Beverly Hills' two great boulevards.
The room
Ezequiel Farca Studio divided the ground floor into semi-enclosed pockets of terracotta, warm wood, stone, marble and leather, under woven lanterns and olive trees, with a mural by Drawing Room NYC of an Italian dinner party at the entrance. There is a central bar, a terrace dotted with open-air pods and a window from the dining room straight on to the grill. The room is big and high-ceilinged but a touch underwhelming after the hotel lobby, reading more luxury villa than Tuscan farmhouse, with an older, quieter crowd. It suits a business dinner or a treat for parents.
What to eat
Order the sweet corn tortellini first, with mascarpone and truffle butter. It is as incredible as the server promises, pillowy, with a white truffle sauce that does not smother the filling, and one per person is the right call. Then Roberta's beef polpettine, small meatballs in soffritto and tangy tomato sauce, are a must.
The steaks come from the olive wood fire, seasoned like an Italian Sunday lunch, with little more than herbs and spices, and each arrives with Edo's salsa verde and a tomato-based steak sauce. The list is an atlas of beef: USDA Prime from Creekstone Farms, Autonomy Farms and Double R Ranch; American wagyu from Blackhawk Farms and Snake River Farms; Australian wagyu tomahawk from Sher Ranch; and Japanese wagyu including olive-fed Sanuki beef from Kagawa. A bone-in Kansas City strip is well balanced between lean and fat, with an excellent sear and a juicy centre, and most steaks wear a rosemary-forward marinade, which the Japanese wagyu does not. If you want unadorned beef, pick that.
Around the grill sit a shaved fennel, artichoke and pecorino salad, fettuccine with porcini, mezze maniche with beef ragu, and grilled Dover sole with lemon. Dessert is Edo's apple pie à la mode, or a pancake soufflé for two finished tableside with a sauce of rum, strawberry and Grand Marnier.
The hedge is consistency. The kitchen is strongest on steak and pasta and less certain elsewhere: the prosciutto, melon and fig special can arrive soggy, the lobster spaghetti is not spicy and tableside service can feel a little clunky. It is better than the average hotel restaurant but still a hotel restaurant. Stay with pasta, beef and the polpettine. For something looser, the bar takes walk-ins nightly and serves e.Baldi's thin, crisp pizza, bruschetta and the lightly fried shiitake with pecorino tartufato that has been a family tradition for 36 years.
Drinks
Jim Kearns leads a program in the aperitivo spirit: a Limone Spritz with limoncello and Acqua di Cedro, a Bergamotto Tonica with Italicus and Tuscan dry gin, a Negroni Classico di Baldi and a Baldi Manhattan with rye and nocino. The wine list runs deep in Piedmont and Tuscany, Barolo, Brunello and Bolgheri names, so it rewards a good bottle more than a quick glass.
Early evening suits it best, when the sun drops towards Century City, Wilshire turns gold and the terrace pods begin to fill.
- The vibe
- Terracotta villa feel, olive trees, visible grill; polished, quiet, business-friendly.
- The food
- Olive-wood steaks, Japanese wagyu, sweet corn tortellini, beef polpettine.
- The drink
- Aperitivo list by Jim Kearns; Negroni Classico, Baldi Manhattan, deep Italian wine.
- A tip
- Walk-ins welcome at the bar; reserve the dining room through OpenTable.
