Best Date Night Restaurants in Laguna Beach 2026
Published · Updated
The date-night pick in Laguna Beach for 2026 is Driftwood Kitchen. Editorial runners-up: Broadway by Amar Santana, Selanne Steak Tavern, Las Brisas, Oliver’s Osteria.
Fourteen Laguna Beach restaurants sit in our directory. Six earn a date. The list opens at a table over the sand and runs through a Top Chef kitchen, a hockey legend’s chophouse and a cliff above Heisler Park.
Six Laguna Beach Tables for Date Night
The tagline is ‘any closer and you’d have to swim.’ Driftwood Kitchen sits over the sand at the Pacific Edge Hotel, 619 Sleepy Hollow Lane, behind floor-to-ceiling glass that faces the Pacific. It opened in 2013; executive chef Scott Brandon now runs the day-boat kitchen, and the Chilean sea bass is the order. Around $55 to $90 a head. The proposal table.
Amar Santana cooked at Charlie Trotter’s and Aureole, then finished runner-up on Top Chef Season 13. His flagship at 328 Glenneyre Street is Orange County’s most seriously reviewed kitchen — seasonal American small plates built to share, the blue crab crudo first out. Around $60 to $90 a head. The best-cooking date in town.
Teemu Selänne’s steakhouse fills a restored 1934 Craftsman house at 1464 South Coast Highway. Executive chef Vincent Terusa builds the room around Japanese Wagyu; upstairs, VIII by Selanne runs a permanent eight-course tasting. Listed in the Michelin Guide. Dark wood, a fireplace, around $90 to $150 a head. The anniversary date.
The bluff at 361 Cliff Drive, above Heisler Park, with the Pacific filling the windows. A restaurant has stood here since 1938; it was reborn as Las Brisas in 1979 and has been a landmark since. Scratch tortillas, rich salsas, the steak-and-lobster enchiladas around $43. Around $50 to $80 a head. The ocean-view institution.
Chef Erik De Marchi was born in Imola and trained in Emilia-Romagna, the region that gave the world Bolognese. His small room at 853 Laguna Canyon Road plates handmade tagliatelle Bolognese, about $32, and a lasagna classica beside it. Listed in the Michelin Guide. Around $50 to $75 a head. The intimate Italian date.
The 1937 Pottery Shack compound at 1200 South Coast Highway, reborn since March 2020 under Court of Master Sommeliers restaurateur Russ Bendel. Chef Jared Cook’s duck meatballs are the order that follows the room around, set against a serious cellar and a 90-seat patio. Around $50 to $80 a head. The patio-and-wine date.
How to Book
Driftwood Kitchen and Selanne want one to two weeks for a weekend, and a window or fireside table goes first. Broadway by Amar Santana fills quickly for its small-plate counter. Las Brisas, Oliver’s Osteria and Sapphire will usually seat a couple within a few days, though Sapphire’s patio books ahead at sunset.
Sunset. Ask Driftwood for a window over the sand and Las Brisas for a patio rail above Heisler Park as the light drops. Selanne’s upstairs VIII tasting is the move for a milestone.
Frequently Asked Questions
The editorial pick for 2026 is Driftwood Kitchen, the oceanfront room over the sand at the Pacific Edge Hotel, where the Chilean sea bass arrives at sunset behind a wall of Pacific glass. For the best cooking in town, Top Chef runner-up Amar Santana’s Broadway on Glenneyre Street plates seasonal small plates built to share.
Driftwood Kitchen is the most romantic table in Laguna Beach: a dining room set directly over the sand at the Pacific Edge Hotel, floor-to-ceiling glass facing the ocean, the horizon turning gold at sunset. Las Brisas runs a close second, perched on the cliff above Heisler Park with the Pacific filling its windows since 1979.
A date dinner in Laguna Beach runs around $90 to $150 a head at Selanne Steak Tavern, the top-of-range chophouse. Driftwood Kitchen and Broadway by Amar Santana land near $55 to $90, while Las Brisas, Oliver’s Osteria and Sapphire sit around $50 to $80 a head before wine. The VIII tasting at Selanne costs more again.
Book Driftwood Kitchen and Selanne Steak Tavern one to two weeks ahead for a weekend, and request a window or fireside table early. Broadway by Amar Santana fills fast for its counter. Las Brisas, Oliver’s Osteria and Sapphire will usually seat a couple within a few days, though Sapphire’s sunset patio is the exception.
For a date with a Pacific view, Driftwood Kitchen sits over the sand at the Pacific Edge Hotel, Las Brisas commands the cliff above Heisler Park, and The Cliff Restaurant steps down the bluff in tiers at 180 degrees of open ocean. Oak, on the second floor of the Village Faire building, catches an oblique slice of the sea from its patio.