The Top 17 Restaurants in Santa Monica

Ice cream mid-savory-course is either a provocation or a mistake, and at Dave Beran's Seline it's very much the former. This is a high-concept California tasting menu built around themes like the arc of the seasons, where a miniature garden of edible succulents arrives before lamb with burnt strawberry jus. Beran holds a James Beard Award for Best Chef: California, and the room earns the attention it gets.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best Chef: California · Dave Beran
3. Los Angeles Times #13 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

You enter through a discreet side door, which sets the tone for Josiah Citrin's long-running Santa Monica tasting menu. Inside, the room feels like a velvet underground with good silverware, and the French decadence runs toward the gratuitous side, which is the point. Tableside saucing, antique silver press, dry-aged duck, truffles on everything. Two Michelin stars.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. Los Angeles Times #23 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Citrin sits in the same building as the tasting-menu-only Mélisse, but it offers a more flexible format, with prix-fixe and à la carte alongside each other. The kitchen runs on French technique and California produce, classical at the bone but with modern, global instincts. Caviar and truffle upgrades are available for the inclined, though the cooking holds its own without them. It holds a Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Dave Beran's Santa Monica bistro leans hard into France with no apologies and no asterisks. Wood beams, exposed brick, and white kitchen tile set the scene, and the pressed duck for two is the kind of centerpiece that makes the table next to you lean over and ask what you ordered. The marble bar handles a more casual drop-in just fine, with Champagne and caviar if you're feeling it. A New York Times pick for the city's best.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now

1. Time Out The best Chinese restaurants in America

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Jeremy Fox
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
3. Time Out #22 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar

The pink building with green trim on Main Street signals something a little different, and the floral wallpaper and mismatched furniture inside confirm it. Cobi's is a lively, affordable Southeast Asian restaurant running Thai, Malaysian, and beyond on one broad menu. The Michelin Bib Gourmand crowd tends to look pleased about the curry puffs, the wood-grilled mains, and the fact that dinner here rarely requires a difficult conversation about the bill.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50

A pasta station sits front and center at this modern trattoria a few blocks from the Pacific, so you can watch the dough come together before it arrives at your table. The menu is short and focused, running through a soup of the day, a handful of antipasti, and handmade pastas that are the clear reason to be here. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a room that feels neighborly but cooks with real seriousness.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

The menu lists the farmers by name before it lists the dishes, which tells you everything about this Santa Monica neighborhood restaurant. The room has been around forever, and the lighting and leather booths have earned their intimacy. Market-driven New American means the cocktails change with the seasons too, a detail the bar takes seriously. The Michelin Guide has it selected, and the Los Angeles Times put it on their 101 best restaurants list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times #48 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. LAist Chochoyotes · Best Bites

A rooftop restaurant on Second Street where a cactus garden gives way to a sunset room lined with wood and stone, and the Pacific sits just beyond the windows. The kitchen works the Southern Mediterranean register in shareable small plates, the kind where flavors land a little sideways in the best sense. Santa Monica's see-and-be-seen crowd fills the room, but the cooking holds its own without leaning on the view for cover.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. The New York Times Mozzarella Sandwich · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.

1. World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best New Restaurant

1. Los Angeles Times #60 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Los Angeles Times Don’t Mess With Texas taco · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles

1. Los Angeles Times Perron taco with carne asada · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles