Santa Monica's Greatest Tables
15 restaurants listedGet the complete Santa Monica dining guide.
New openings, reservation tips, and editor picks — updated quarterly. Free to join.
$ under $40 · $$ $40–$80 · $$$ $80–$150 · $$$$ $150+ per person
Mélisse
Josiah Citrin's two-Michelin-starred jewel — the closest thing to a Parisian grand restaurant on the Pacific coast.
Citrin
One Michelin star, California soul — where French technique meets the season's most perfect produce, and every deal feels closed before dessert.
Seline
Dave Beran's 38-seat masterwork — a James Beard Award-winner's most personal statement yet, told in fifteen courses of Southern California reverie.
Rustic Canyon
Farm-to-table before it was fashionable, still the most quietly compelling dinner in Santa Monica — where the market drives the menu and the room feels like a secret.
Water Grill
Ocean Avenue's most reliable luxury — where the Pacific delivers its finest to your table and the raw bar is the best argument for living near the sea.
1 Pico
Shutters on the Beach's dining room offers the finest view in Santa Monica — handmade pasta, fire-grilled seafood, and a sunset that turns every dinner into a memory.
The Penthouse
Eighteen floors above the Pacific — The Huntley Hotel's rooftop restaurant delivers panoramic drama worthy of any celebration that needs a view to match the occasion.
Pasjoli
Dave Beran's casual sibling to Seline — where hanging plants, decadent bar snacks, and a French spirit create the most charming second act on the westside.
Tar & Roses
Wood smoke and conviviality in equal measure — a sharing-plate legend that has gotten quietly better with every passing year and every passing season.
Fia Steak
Creekstone Farms prime beef presented raw on silver before it meets the flame — moody, reverent, and exactly the kind of steakhouse Santa Monica deserves.
Orla
Golden interiors and coastal reverence — where unforgettable evenings are practically guaranteed by the architecture alone, let alone what arrives on the plate.
Terrazza
Hotel Casa del Mar's soaring windows frame the Pacific like a living painting — Mediterranean warmth with the drama of front-row ocean access.
Muse
Art Deco bones, ambitious cocktails, and dishes like herb-crusted rack of lamb that remind you why Santa Monica dining deserves its elevated reputation.
SUGARFISH
The most democratic luxury on the westside — where pristine fish sourced fresh every morning arrives in a precisely curated "Trust Me" menu that never disappoints.
Holy Basil
The most exciting new arrival in Santa Monica's dining scene — elevated Thai cooking with the kind of bold flavor and vibrant energy that keeps the whole table talking.
First Date in Santa Monica
Rustic Canyon
Intimate booths, low lighting, a menu that changes with the season — first dates don't get more effortlessly impressive.
Pasjoli
Charming, unhurried, and just serious enough — exactly the register a first date should hit.
1 Pico
Showing up with a sunset over the Pacific already wins — let the handmade pasta close the deal.
Business Dinner in Santa Monica
Mélisse
Two Michelin stars send a message before anyone has touched their napkin — Mélisse is the table you book when the deal already matters.
Citrin
One Michelin star, an elegant bar, and a menu that demonstrates exactly the right level of ambition — never pretentious, always persuasive.
Fia Steak
Dark, serious, and built for decisions — a steakhouse with the theatrical gravitas that makes every business dinner feel consequential.
The Santa Monica Top Ten
Mélisse
Chef Josiah Citrin's two-starred flagship has been operating at the summit of Santa Monica dining since 1999, and it shows no signs of descending. The room is deliberately intimate — just fourteen covers tucked behind a discreet entrance within Citrin — and the tasting menu unfolds with the unhurried confidence of a kitchen that has nothing to prove. Signature truffles, wagyu, and the legendary dry-aged duck Rouennaise pressed tableside in an antique silver press remain inviolable rituals. The finest cutlery, the most precise service, a level of French decadence that verges on the gratuitous: this is why you live in Los Angeles. Book four to eight weeks ahead on Tock.
Citrin
The more accessible sibling to Mélisse, Citrin operates in the same building but at a different register — one that values the pleasure of an à la carte menu and the warmth of a lively bar programme. Chef Ken Takayama's cooking combines French technique with California's most extraordinary seasonal produce: artichoke agnolotti with Comté, crispy-skin rouget over bouillabaisse, and dishes that shift with the markets of the Santa Monica Farmers Market three blocks away. One Michelin star and an atmosphere that never sacrifices accessibility for prestige.
Seline
James Beard Award-winning Chef Dave Beran returned to California to open his most personal restaurant — a 38-seat tasting room on Main Street where 15 to 18 courses unspool as autobiography. Dark blue banquettes, soft lighting, an open kitchen as the dining room's centerpiece: Seline feels less like a restaurant than a kitchen you've been invited into through the backyard. At $295 per person, the meal is worth every cent for the ambition, the technique, and the storytelling. The Michelin Guide noticed immediately. Book weeks in advance via Tock.
Rustic Canyon
Chef Jeremy Fox's farm-to-table institution predates the hashtag by a decade, and it remains the purest expression of Santa Monica's agricultural identity. The menu changes constantly, driven by what the farmers brought to the Santa Monica Farmers Market that week. The lavender almonds are the only constant, and they are perfect. The room has the lighting of a good dinner party and the warmth of a place that genuinely wants you to stay. Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide confirms what regulars have known for years.
Water Grill
On Ocean Avenue directly across from the Santa Monica Pier, Water Grill is the city's pre-eminent seafood destination — the restaurant that first-time visitors and thirty-year regulars both reach for when the Pacific is calling. The menu changes daily based on the catch: oysters from a rotating roster of the continent's finest beds, whole roasted fish, lobster, Dungeness crab. The raw bar alone justifies the reservation. This is serious cooking of serious ingredients in a room that knows exactly what it is.
1 Pico
Dining at 1 Pico requires accepting that the view will dominate — and that this is entirely appropriate. The panoramic windows of Shutters on the Beach frame Santa Monica Bay with the authority of a Hockney canvas, and Chef David Almany's menu of handmade pastas and fire-grilled seafood gives you something worthy to eat while you stare. The coastal California-Italian synthesis is effortless. Tables overlooking the beach require advance planning; they are among the most sought-after seats on the westside.
The Penthouse
Perched on the eighteenth floor of the Huntley Hotel, The Penthouse delivers the most dramatic views in Santa Monica dining — a 360-degree panorama stretching from Malibu to Palos Verdes on clear evenings. The contemporary American menu is confident rather than showy, allowing the room's natural theater to take precedence. Beach cabanas, strong cocktails, and a celebratory atmosphere make this the default choice for birthdays and team dinners that need altitude to match their ambitions.
Pasjoli
Chef Dave Beran's more accessible Main Street address recently underwent a transformation — from serious French bistro to something freer and more joyful, with hanging plants, an expanded bar, and a menu that leans into decadent bar snacks and sharing plates. The personality shift suits it. Pasjoli now occupies the best territory in Santa Monica dining: serious enough to impress, relaxed enough to linger. A first date here lands exactly right.
Tar & Roses
The wood-burning oven at the heart of Tar & Roses has been producing some of the most convivial dining in Santa Monica for over a decade. Andrew Kirschner's menu is built for sharing: wood-roasted marrow bones, roasted cauliflower with harissa, lamb chops kissed with smoke. The atmosphere is warm, accessible, and genuinely fun — precisely what a birthday dinner with a mixed group of friends should feel like. The kind of restaurant that gets better with every visit.
Fia Steak
A relative newcomer to Santa Monica's upper tier, Fia Steak has quickly established itself as the westside's most atmospheric steakhouse. Creekstone Farms prime beef is presented raw on a silver platter before being cooked to order — a small ritual that correctly frames the meat as the point. The 14-ounce New York strip at $89 is the move. The dining room is dark, serious, and lit as though every dinner were a negotiation. Which, at the right table, it is.
Santa Monica — The Dining Guide
The Dining Culture
Santa Monica occupies a singular position in the Los Angeles dining landscape: it is simultaneously the city's most health-conscious neighborhood and the home of two of its most Michelin-starred restaurants. This apparent contradiction resolves itself over dinner. The Pacific is not merely backdrop here — it is philosophy. The proximity to the Santa Monica Farmers Market, one of the best in the country operating twice weekly, has shaped a generation of chefs who build menus from what they find on Wednesday and Saturday mornings rather than what the supply chain can deliver.
The result is a dining culture that prizes seasonal authenticity above almost everything else. Chef Josiah Citrin pioneered this approach at Mélisse over twenty-five years ago, and Jeremy Fox codified it at Rustic Canyon. Dave Beran's arrival — first at Pasjoli, then with Seline — added a new voice that honors California's natural abundance while asking more searching questions about what a fine dining experience should feel like. Santa Monica now hosts three distinct registers of ambitious dining, and the city is better for the plurality.
Best Neighborhoods for Dining
The Wilshire corridor between 11th and 14th Streets concentrates the city's highest-achieving restaurants. Mélisse and Citrin share a building at 1104 Wilshire; Rustic Canyon sits two blocks away at 1119. This stretch is walkable, residential in atmosphere, and intentionally removed from the tourist energy of the pier. It is where Santa Monica dines rather than performs.
Main Street offers the more bohemian register, anchored by Seline at 3110 and Pasjoli at 2732 — Dave Beran's adjacent visions of California dining, one formal and precise, the other loose and joyful. Ocean Avenue provides the view corridor: Water Grill at 1401 and 1 Pico at the southern end deliver Pacific panoramas that justify the premium. The Third Street Promenade area and the Pier vicinity cater to visitors; locals drift toward Wilshire and Main.
Reservation Strategy
Mélisse and Seline are the city's hardest reservations. Both book through Tock, which releases tables on a rolling basis — set an alert and check at midnight when new dates become available. A four-to-eight-week lead time is standard for prime Friday and Saturday seatings. Citrin and Rustic Canyon use Resy and OpenTable respectively; two to four weeks advance is typically sufficient, though weekend slots disappear quickly.
Water Grill and 1 Pico at Shutters maintain OpenTable reservations; ocean-view tables require two to three weeks' notice at weekends. The Penthouse at the Huntley Hotel is slightly more accessible. Most restaurants accommodate bar walk-ins, and Santa Monica's bar culture is strong enough that dining at the bar is a legitimate and enjoyable first visit strategy at Citrin, Rustic Canyon, and Pasjoli.
Dress Code & Customs
Santa Monica is noticeably more relaxed than comparable neighborhoods in other cities. Mélisse — despite its Michelin pedigree — has never enforced a jacket requirement, and the room's tone is hushed but not hushed in the way of a library. Smart casual is the practical minimum for any of the Wilshire corridor restaurants. Jeans at Citrin are not merely tolerated; they are common among regulars. The general principle is that you are expected to demonstrate some awareness of where you are, rather than conform to a rigid code.
Tipping remains standard: 20% at table service restaurants is the baseline expectation in Los Angeles. Many fine dining establishments now add an automatic service charge; read the check carefully before adding an additional gratuity. The Santa Monica Farmers Market philosophy extends to the dining room: sustainability, locality, and the seasonal menu are conversational currencies that servers appreciate and chefs have earned the right to discuss.