"Thomas Lim's coastal-Italian rooftop trades on the Pacific sunset, not the cooking — book the Sunset Room for a first date."
About Élephante
Élephante opened on a Santa Monica rooftop in June 2018. The view came first. The food came second. Eight years on, that order has not changed.
The address is 1332 2nd Street, three floors up, with the Pacific filling the windows. It belongs to Nick Mathers' Wish You Were Here Group, and it reads its coastal-Italian brief loosely — Sicily by way of a Los Angeles design studio. The MICHELIN Guide lists it. That is recognition, not a star, and the distinction matters here. You come for the light off the water at sunset, which is the best table in the house and the hardest to get. The kitchen is along for the ride. More options in our Los Angeles dining guide.
The Kitchen
Thomas Lim is the chef partner who runs the Santa Monica kitchen; Phil Rubino, often miscredited here, cooks the group's Scottsdale room. Lim's menu is coastal-Italian small plates built to share, and it is competent rather than ambitious. The cacio e pepe pizza at $22 is the dish to judge it by — the cheese and pepper land, the crust holds — and it is the smarter order than the bucatini version at $26, which is the dish you could make at home.
Spend up and the lobster rigatoni at $49, in a tomato-marsala passato with mascarpone, is the kitchen's one real flourish. The gemelli with Dungeness crab is the other plate worth the table. None of it rewrites the genre. For cooking that does, the better Italian is two neighbourhoods east: read our Bestia review, or the best Italian restaurants worldwide guide.
The Room
The room is really three: an ocean-facing Sunset Room patio, a planted garden terrace, and a front bar that gets loud. After dark the noise is conversational-to-loud, not hushed; the lighting is warm and low; seating runs banquette and patio rather than tight. Dress is stylish-casual — the crowd dresses for the photographs. It runs late, to midnight or one on the weekend. Sit on the Sunset side or do not bother.
Best for First Date
Book Élephante for a first date for three concrete reasons: the sunset over the Pacific carries the conversation when it stalls, the shared plates keep the meal loose rather than formal, and the $22 cacio e pepe pizza is a low-risk order that rarely disappoints. Take a Sunset Room table at golden hour, before the bar crowd builds and the volume climbs. More picks in Best Restaurants for a First Date 2026.
Not For
Skip it for a serious dinner or a quiet conversation. After dark the rooftop runs loud and scene-driven, the plates are built for sharing rather than focus, and you will pay view prices for cooking that ranks below the city's best Italian.
Featured in
Best First-Date Restaurants in Los Angeles 2026
Élephante's sunset rooftop lands on our LA first-date list. See where it ranks and the full lineup.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Élephante worth it?
It depends what you are buying. Go for the Pacific sunset and the rooftop and Élephante delivers, and the kitchen under Thomas Lim is capable enough not to embarrass the view. Go for the cooking alone and you will pay scene prices for food that ranks below
Bestia or Bavel a few miles east. Book it as an occasion, not as a serious dinner.
How hard is it to book Élephante?
The view tables are the bottleneck. Reservations run through OpenTable and the restaurant's own site, and golden-hour slots in the ocean-facing Sunset Room go first, especially Friday and Saturday. Book at least a week out for sunset, or take an early or late table and get in easily. Quiet weeknights, the bar takes walk-ins.
What is the dress code at Élephante?
Stylish-casual, the Santa Monica rooftop register. A good shirt, a dress, smart separates; no jacket and tie required and none expected. The crowd dresses for the photographs as much as for dinner, so put-together beats formal. Bring a layer for the wind off the ocean after dark, which is real once the sun drops.
What should I order at Élephante?
Order the cacio e pepe pizza at $22, which is the kitchen's calling card, and the lobster rigatoni at $49 if you want the splurge. Add the gemelli with Dungeness crab and share across the table; the menu is built for it. Skip the dish you could cook at home and spend the money on a Sunset Room table at golden hour.
Reserve a Table
Reserve at Élephante →
Book via OpenTable · request the Sunset Room at golden hour
Affiliate disclosure: RFK may earn a commission on reservations booked through partner links. This never affects our scores, which are earned editorially, never paid.
Practical Information
Address1332 2nd Street, Rooftop, Santa Monica, CA 90401
NeighbourhoodDowntown Santa Monica
CuisineCoastal Italian
ChefThomas Lim (chef partner)
SignatureCacio e pepe pizza ($22) · lobster rigatoni ($49)
Dress CodeStylish-casual
RecognitionMICHELIN Guide · opened 2018
Best SeatSunset Room (ocean-facing patio)
ReservationOpenTable / direct
