Best Restaurants in Santa Monica: 2026 Guide

Two Michelin stars and fourteen seats of Josiah Citrin's luxe French cooking. Book it for the Westside's top special occasion.

Melisse, chef-owner Josiah Citrin's flagship at 1104 Wilshire Boulevard, holds two Michelin stars and seats just fourteen, which makes it the most intimate top-tier room in Los Angeles. The cooking is French at its core, built on luxe ingredients, lobster and caviar among them, and finished with the kind of technique that earned the restaurant its second star.

The signature lamb arrives two ways, as an herb-crusted chop and as a spring roll, a dish that has followed Citrin for years. The tasting-menu format and the tiny room make a reservation hard to come by and worth the planning. Expect $300 and up a head before wine. Book three to four weeks ahead for a weekend seat.

Dave Beran's new tasting room just won the James Beard Best Chef California. Book it for the talked-about menu.

Seline, chef Dave Beran's tasting-menu restaurant on Main Street in the Ocean Park neighbourhood, opened in December 2024 and landed on the 2025 Michelin Guide within months. In June 2026 the work here won Beran the James Beard Award for Best Chef: California, which puts it at the centre of the city's dining conversation.

The seasonal menu runs fourteen to eighteen courses at $295, with dishes that read as familiar and strange at once: golden osetra caviar over hazelnuts with a coffee anglaise to close, dry-aged beef tartare with celery root and savoury granola, roasted leeks with a foamy eucalyptus sauce. Book three to four weeks ahead; the James Beard win has made tables scarce.

Josiah Citrin's one-star Californian room beside Melisse, with a la carte freedom. Book it for fine dining without the full tasting.

Citrin shares the 1104 Wilshire Boulevard address with Melisse and is Josiah Citrin's more flexible room, holding one Michelin star for modern Californian cooking. Where Melisse commits you to a tasting menu, Citrin offers the choice of a la carte or a prix fixe, which makes it the easier of the two to book and the better fit for a less formal night.

The kitchen draws on the same sourcing and technique as its two-star sibling but in a looser register, with market-driven plates that change often. It is the smart pick when you want Citrin's cooking without committing a full evening to it. Expect $120 to $200 a head depending on format. Book two to three weeks ahead.

Dave Beran's one-star French bistro on Main Street, famous for its pressed duck. Book it for a classic, charming night out.

Pasjoli, Dave Beran's French bistro at 2732 Main Street, opened in 2019 and earned a Michelin star in 2021. The room is breezy and charming, wood beams, exposed brick, and white kitchen tile, and the cooking is rooted in classic French technique with room for Southern California's produce and ease.

The pressed duck, prepared in the traditional canard a la presse, is the signature and the dish to build a meal around. With Beran's 2026 James Beard Best Chef California win for sister restaurant Seline, the kitchen group is having a moment. Pasjoli is the more relaxed, a la carte way into it. Expect $90 to $140 a head; book two to three weeks ahead.

The Westside's farm-to-table standard-bearer, daily-changing and wine-led on Wilshire. Book it for a relaxed, seasonal dinner.

Rustic Canyon, the wine bar and seasonal kitchen at 1119 Wilshire Boulevard, has set the Westside's farm-to-table standard since 2007. Founded by chef Jeremy Fox, the kitchen is now run by executive chef Elijah DeLeon, who stepped up as chef de cuisine before taking over, and the daily-changing menu keeps the market at its centre.

The room is warm and unpretentious, with a market-driven cocktail programme and an award-winning list of more than three hundred wines that makes it a strong choice for an unhurried dinner. It is the most relaxed of the serious picks here, the neighbourhood room that happens to cook at a high level. Expect $70 to $110 a head; book one to two weeks ahead.

A rooftop coastal Italian with an ocean view and lobster spaghetti. Book it for sunset drinks and dinner with a view.

Elephante sits on a 2nd Street rooftop at number 1332, the Westside's best-known room for an ocean view with dinner. The restaurateur Nicholas Mathers built it around light coastal Italian cooking and a long drinks list, and the terrace at sunset is the reason most tables are booked weeks out.

Executive chef Thomas Lim's kitchen is strongest on pasta: the lobster spaghetti and the gemelli with Dungeness crab are the orders. The food is good rather than ambitious, but the setting carries the night, which is the honest case for coming here. Expect $60 to $100 a head with a couple of drinks. Book two to three weeks ahead for a sunset table.

A century-old seafood room at the Santa Monica Pier with a full ocean view. Book it for classic seafood and the view.

The Lobster has stood at the corner of Ocean Avenue and the Santa Monica Pier since 1923, at 1602 Ocean Avenue, with floor-to-ceiling windows onto the water that make it one of the most recognisable seafood rooms on the coast. Chef Govind Armstrong has overseen the menu since 2017, bringing real technique to a room that could coast on its address.

The cooking is classic California seafood: whole Maine lobster, a strong clam chowder, and a daily catch handled simply. It is a tourist landmark, but the kitchen is better than it needs to be, which makes it a defensible pick when the view is the point. Expect $70 to $120 a head; book one to two weeks ahead for a window table at sunset.