"AMC pulls in good traffic, so people come downstairs to us from the movie theater and from the rest of the mall," John Patrick Lopez told KTLA in May. Lopez co-owns Wanderlust Creamery, one of the few businesses that stayed open inside Topanga Social through spring 2026. By then most of the hall's restaurants and both of its bars had shut.
What he described is how an ordinary mall food court works. Moviegoers come down the escalator, shoppers drift over between stores, and a counter with a person behind it takes the order. By late summer, Westfield had rebuilt Topanga Social around that same idea.
What the first version was built to be
Topanga Social opened in 2023 in the former Sears space at Westfield Topanga. It had more than two dozen places to eat, bars, live music, DJs and upscale décor. It was meant to be a destination, a step above the food court.
Business owners told KTLA that the crowds from opening fell off quickly. Guests said prices were too high, parking was too tight and the room was too loud. They also disliked the central ordering kiosks, which put every restaurant's menu on touchscreens spread around the hall.
In February, the company formed to run the hall said it would lay off 131 employees. Valley News Group reported a planned closing date of April 14 and said Westfield was considering what the space should become next. Many West Valley residents took that to mean the food hall was finished. In fact, the operator was leaving and the space was getting a new plan.
Three changes that turn it back into a food court
The version that opened in late summer changes how the hall works, and it changes more than the tenant list.
- The kiosks are gone. You order and pick up at each restaurant's own counter, the way you would at any mall food court. Management was direct about the reason. "Customers found (the kiosks) to be disconnected and less authentic than ordering at the stall with the availability to talk to a human," it said in a statement to KTLA.
- Kitchens aren't shared anymore. Each stall cooks its own menu.
- The bars are pouring again. They reopened as Chubby Cove and Chubby Social. Mr. Chubby, a local Asian food chain, has also joined the lineup.
Most of the empty stalls are filled again. New tenants include Umari Hand Roll Bar, Kabob Social, Cilantro Lime, Pompadour Café and Ozzy's Apizza. Westfield's current Topanga Social directory also lists Brewser's Coffee, Goooey and Nugtown. It still lists Wanderlust Creamery and Red Door Escape Room too, both holdovers from the first version. For things to do, there's Hole in One Mini Golf and The Loop, an anime pop-up shop.
Geoff Mason, an executive vice president at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the mall's parent company, called the new lineup "a thoughtfully curated mix of culinary concepts, immersive moments, and community programming." Most of what changed in practice, though, comes down to ordering at a counter and each stall cooking for itself.
Chain is built around the food court
The anchor tenant shows the new direction most clearly. B.J. Novak's Chain started as a pop-up that reworks familiar fast food and chain-restaurant dishes. It opened its first long-term residency at Topanga Social on September 2. Nicholas Kraft, Chain's chief creative officer, explained the choice to Eater. "The mall food court is one of America's greatest dining institutions," he said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Chain takes up four stalls, each with its own menu. One serves General Mills cereals turned into desserts, and one rotates collaborations with a retail food brand, which is Cheez-It right now. The other two serve Chain's house menu of burgers, curly fries, tenders and wraps, along with four dishes from guest chefs. Everything costs between $8 and $18.
Each chef's dish is based on a fast-food or food-court memory:
| Chef | Dish | What it's based on |
|---|---|---|
| Mei Lin | Cruncho Perfecto, with mapo-inspired Wagyu and chile oil | Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme |
| Roy Choi | Charred-chicken teriyaki bowl with Kogi's sweet garlic marinade | Free food-court teriyaki samples he grew up on |
| Mason Hereford | Spicy chicken sandwich with house hot sauce and Duke's Mayonnaise | Wendy's |
| Calvin Eng | Fried fish-and-shrimp sandwich with ginger-scallion tartar sauce | McDonald's Filet-O-Fish |
The Times reported that Lin's Cruncho Perfecto has been the best seller so far. Choi joked that he grew up on chicken teriyaki samples at the Glendale Galleria. Jared Dowling, Chain's culinary director, visited the Grove, Westfield Century City and the Galleria while planning the menu. The house menu includes a karaage-style chicken wrap, porcini-and-truffle curly fries and a Wagyu burger with mustard and caramelized onions. One counter also sells vintage fast-food glassware.
The General Mills stall includes Cinnamon Toast Crunch tiramisu, Reese's Puffs churros, a Lucky Charms ice-cream taco and a Trix slush.
The residency runs through February 2027. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Kraft told Eater that an extension past six months is possible. Timothy Hollingsworth, who co-founded Chain with Novak, is not part of the mall residency.
The AMC still brings in the crowds
If Lopez was right about the theater upstairs, the new layout works with that traffic. The AMC sits two stories above Topanga Social. Someone heading to a movie can now pick up a hand roll, a cone or a Chain sandwich without learning a touchscreen system first.
Through October, there are new reasons to stop by. The Crunchyroll x The Loop Phase Two event inside Topanga Social features Jujutsu Kaisen, The Apothecary Diaries and Chainsaw Man. General admission is free, and it runs through October 18. Voice actor Emi Lo will sign autographs at The Loop on Thursday, October 8, from 5 to 7 p.m. To get in line, you need a qualifying $35 merchandise purchase made between October 5 and 8.
Westfield's materials mention "community programming." So far, the only dated fall event we could confirm is the Crunchyroll one. We found no published live-music schedule for the hall.
What's still waiting
Not every space is settled, and some announced openings have no dates yet. Here's the status at Westfield Topanga and Topanga Village as of the end of September:
- Kura Revolving Sushi Bar. It already has busy locations at Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks and the Glendale Galleria. Kura's own Canoga Park page still says "Coming Soon" and gives no date.
- Great Big Game Show. This interactive game show was reported in July as targeting late summer. Westfield's listing still says "Coming Soon."
- Din Tai Fung. Expected in 2027.
- Cache 58. A fine-dining Mexican restaurant with cocktails from chef Ruben Barragan. WhatNow reported it on September 29, but no opening date or menu has been released.
- The former Pinstripes space. Pinstripes, a bowling alley, bar and restaurant, lasted less than two years in its 28,000-square-foot space. As of August 31, no plans for it had been announced.
- Bread Head. At Topanga Village, this focaccia sandwich shop is aiming for December 2026 at 6316 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Suite 1180, the former Veggie Grill. Founders Alex Williams and Jordan Snyder met at Trois Mec and plan to serve breakfast and rotating weekday specials.
The Pinstripes space and Topanga Social's first version both lasted only a few years, which suggests big, high-concept spaces have struggled at this mall. The new Topanga Social leans on places to eat that people already know how to use.
KTLA put it plainly in late August: only time will tell whether the changes take hold. No hall-wide sales or attendance numbers have been published. What's confirmed is that most of the stalls are filled again, you order at the counter, each stall runs its own kitchen, and Chain's four counters are open daily through February 2027. Westfield Topanga's address is 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Canoga Park, in the Warner Center area just off Woodland Hills.
At Malibu Premier Homes, we keep track of how places like Topanga Social change, because spots like these shape everyday life around the West Valley. If you'd like to talk about Woodland Hills, Warner Center or anywhere in the area we cover, contact us.
