The 10 Best Restaurants in Laguna Beach

Orange County's only Michelin star. A serene, counter-seated ceremony of seasonality where every course redefines what California-Japanese cuisine can be.

Jordan Nakasone — a Peru-born chef trained in Tokyo — runs the counter at Rebel Omakase, and in 2024 it became the first restaurant in Laguna Beach, and the only one in Orange County, to hold a Michelin star. Two seatings a night, by reservation only, at an understated counter: this is Edomae omakase built on California seasonality, with the occasional twist — a wasabi sorbet, a sashimi riff on shrimp chowder.

What to order: there is no choosing — the dinner omakase runs roughly $260–$300 a person, a pared-down nigiri lunch about $160. Book three to four weeks out and clear the evening; the pacing rewards full attention. Laguna's hardest seat and its best, made for a birthday, a quiet deal, or a first date with someone who eats seriously. Read the full Rebel Omakase review.

A Michelin-recognised steakhouse inside a candlelit 1934 estate. The kind of address where serious people celebrate serious things.

Selanne Steak Tavern belongs to Teemu Selänne — the Anaheim Ducks Hall-of-Famer the Finns call the Finnish Flash — and since 2013 it has filled a candlelit 1934 estate on South Coast Highway, a tavern downstairs and a proper steakhouse above. The Michelin Guide flagged it as a discovery in 2023. It is the most handsome dining room in town.

What to order: a dry-aged ribeye, a bottle off a deep Bordeaux-and-California list, and a corner table upstairs. This is the Laguna room for a celebration that means something — a milestone birthday, closing a deal, or a first date you intend to over-deliver on. Read the full Selanne Steak Tavern review.

Top Chef finalist Amar Santana plates Laguna Beach's most inventive seasonal small plates. The restaurant equivalent of a standing ovation.

Amar Santana cooked under Charlie Palmer before Top Chef made him a name — runner-up on season 13 — and Broadway is his Laguna flagship, a New York-style New American room one block from the Pacific on Glenneyre Street. The cooking is precise and seasonal, built for à la carte or a tasting menu, and it reads as the most ambitious non-omakase kitchen in the village.

What to order: the tasting menu when you have the evening, or work the seasonal small plates and let the sommelier steer. A confident, grown-up room for a birthday, a first date, or impressing clients without a beachfront gimmick. Read the full Broadway by Amar Santana review.

Perched directly over the sand. Any closer and you'd have to swim. The finest ocean-to-table seafood in Orange County, with a view to match.

Driftwood Kitchen sits at the Pacific Edge Hotel on Sleepy Hollow Lane, built so close to the water the deck is effectively on the sand. Open since the mid-2010s, it does ocean-to-table the way Laguna should: simple, well-sourced coastal cooking — the day's catch, a raw bar, a clean Californian wine list — with the surf as the soundtrack.

What to order: whatever came off the boat that morning, plus a half-dozen from the raw bar at sunset. The view carries a lot of the night, but the kitchen holds its end up. A reliable birthday, first-date or deal lunch when you want the Pacific in frame. Read the full Driftwood Kitchen review.

Michelin Bib Gourmand Italian with a neighbourhood soul. Handmade pasta that transports you to a Ligurian hillside, at prices that won't demand a second mortgage.

Erik De Marchi grew up in Imola and trained at the IAL academy in Emilia-Romagna, and Oliver's Osteria — his neighbourhood room on Laguna Canyon Road — is the most authentically Italian kitchen in the city, recognised in the Michelin Guide. The pasta is made in house and it is the reason to come: tortellini in brodo, tagliatelle, the Emilian and Ligurian repertoire cooked with conviction.

What to order: whatever's on the fresh-pasta board, a wood-fired secondo, and a bottle from a list that punches above the room's modest looks. The best value on this list — serious cooking without a tasting-menu bill. A warm birthday, first-date or client dinner. Read the full Oliver's Osteria review.

The most iconic bluff-top terrace on the Southern California coast. Voted best waterfront dining in Orange County, and the Pacific sunset earns it every time.

Las Brisas has held the Cliff Drive bluff above Main Beach since 1979, on the site of the old Victor Hugo Inn, and no terrace on the Southern California coast frames a Pacific sunset better. The kitchen is coastal-Mexican — sea-to-table Baja cooking — and a recent revamp tightened it, but everyone here knows the view is the headline act.

What to order: ceviche and a margarita on the terrace at golden hour, then a plate of mesquite-grilled fish. Come for the setting and the occasion rather than a culinary pilgrimage. A crowd-pleasing birthday, first-date or celebration table. Read the full Las Brisas review.

Literally on the cliff. The most spectacular ocean view in Southern California dining, where the wave-spray is close enough to feel.

The Cliff Restaurant is built into the rock above Heisler Park on South Coast Highway, and the wave-spray really is close enough to feel from the terrace — the most theatrical ocean view in Laguna. The cooking is straightforward American and seafood, served all day from breakfast through dinner; come for the cliff, not a tasting menu.

What to order: the raw bar and a grilled local fish, a cocktail timed to the sunset. It is a view-first room and honest about it. Strong for a relaxed birthday, a first date, or a long lunch with the Pacific below. Read the full The Cliff Restaurant review.

Inspired global cuisine in the village. Where a serious wine list meets a kitchen drawing freely from Bali, India, and the Mediterranean.

Sapphire — now Sapphire, Cellar. Craft. Cook., run by Orange County restaurateur Russ Bendel since 2020 — occupies the historic Pottery Place on South Coast Highway, and it keeps the village's most well-travelled menu: a kitchen drawing freely from Bali, India and the Mediterranean, with a wine cellar to justify the "Cellar" in its name.

What to order: the globe-trotting plates that built the room's reputation, and let the cellar lead the pairing. A flexible birthday, first-date or client dinner for a table that can't agree on a cuisine. Read the full Sapphire review.

The lively oceanfront terrace that locals pack for birthdays — sharpened coastal food with a genuine party spirit, and a table almost on the sand.

The Deck is Driftwood Kitchen's livelier sibling, a few steps along Sleepy Hollow Lane and literally on the sand — Laguna's only true beachfront dining, on a site that was a wedding lawn until it opened as a restaurant in 2012. The food is sharpened coastal American; the draw is a toes-near-the-water terrace and a party atmosphere locals book out for birthdays.

What to order: the raw bar, a whole grilled fish, and a round of cocktails as the sun drops. Come for the celebration and the setting, not a hushed tasting. A natural birthday, first-date or group table. Read the full The Deck review.

Refined casual done exactly right. Polished service without hovering, a confident kitchen without the theatre, and a room that suits any group dynamic.

Nick's is the Laguna outpost of the Nick's Restaurants group, an 80-seat room on South Coast Highway done in abalone inlay and mosaic tile — refined-casual American, polished without theatre. It is the dependable middle of this list: a confident kitchen, a real bar, and a room that flexes from two to a dozen.

What to order: classic American comfort done properly — a steak or the daily fish — with a cocktail from a long list. The easy-yes table when the group can't decide, and a comfortable first date, birthday or client dinner. Read the full Nick's Laguna Beach review.