About World Cup Eats LA

Eating the 2026 World Cup one country at a time, in Los Angeles. By Drew and Ezra Nagda.

World Cup Eats LA is a father and son project. For every country in the 2026 World Cup, Drew and Ezra Nagda find a restaurant in Los Angeles that stands in for it, go eat, and film a short episode for Instagram at @thenagda. The series ran about four months in 2026: 24 restaurants and 25 countries filmed across 24 episodes, from Raffi's Place in Glendale for Iran to Los California Tacos in Pasadena for Mexico, with 22 more spots picked for the countries still to come. Ezra was two years old for all of it.

In Drew's words from the wrap up reel: what started off as a fun series around the World Cup turned into a memorable four months of creating something special with Ezra. Paella, caviar, kabob, IKEA meatballs, hummus, salmon, udon, tteokbokki, poutine tikka masala, Uzbek manti. Not bad for a two year old.

This guide is the readable version of that project: one page per restaurant with the address, what they ordered and Drew's take, plus lists by neighborhood and cuisine. The interactive map, bracket and fixtures live at worldcupeats.com.

How the restaurants are chosen

Where Los Angeles has the real thing, they go to the real thing: a Persian kabob house in Glendale for Iran, a Senegalese kitchen in Lincoln Heights for Senegal, an udon counter in Little Tokyo for Japan. Where LA has no restaurant for a country, they pick the closest analog and say so on the page. A few stops are deliberately not restaurants at all, like IKEA Burbank for Sweden or a Heineken and a stroopwafel for the Netherlands.

Who writes this

Drew Nagda is a Pasadena based real estate investor and the curator behind World Cup Eats LA. He picks the restaurants, orders, and gives the take. Ezra Nagda is his son and co-host. Nothing here is sponsored; they pay for every meal.

Using this guide

Quote it, link it, cite it. The canonical address for each restaurant is its page on this site, and the llms.txt file lists every page in plain text. Prices and menus change; the dishes named are what Drew and Ezra ordered on the day.

Contact: @thenagda on Instagram.