Michael's Santa Monica is a californian restaurant in Downtown, Santa Monica.
Editorially verified August 18, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Must order: Whatever the market plates are that week; the garden room is the point
Tip: Alumni include Jonathan Waxman and Nancy Silverton; chef Job Carder now runs the hyper-seasonal menu. Book on Resy.
Address: 1147 3rd Street, Santa Monica, CA 90403
Elephante stacks a coastal Italian kitchen onto a 2nd Street rooftop in Santa Monica, whipped eggplant, pizzas and pasta with the ocean over the rail.
Order: Whipped eggplant dip with flatbread, then a pizza as the sun drops
Tip: Go before sunset for the light and stay for the DJ; weekend mornings it runs ricotta pancakes from 09:00.
Calabra spreads Mediterranean-Californian plates across the Santa Monica Proper Hotel rooftop, a circular bar and garden terrace with Pacific views.
Order: Challah french toast at brunch, mezze and crudo at night
Tip: Proper Hour runs 16:00-17:00 weekdays and 15:00-17:00 weekends; the poolside alcoves take groups up to twelve.
Xuntos fills a 1926 Art Deco building in downtown Santa Monica with Sandra Cordero's Galician tapas, razor clams, percebes and vermouth over two floors.
Order: Razor clams, jamon iberico and a porron of Basque cider
Tip: The menu runs from jamon iberico to Galician empanadas; ask for the mezzanine seats above the bar.
Tar & Roses has held its downtown Santa Monica corner since 2012, a wood-fire kitchen of oxtail dumplings and whole fried snapper that improves with age.
Order: Oxtail dumplings, then the whole fried snapper with soba
Tip: The whole fried snapper with cold soba is built for two; smaller plates share better than they look.
Fia fills a big garden dining room on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica with coastal Italian cooking, burrata with prosciutto and figs, raw fish and steaks.
Order: Burrata with prosciutto and figs, then the Wellington steak
Tip: The garden brunch with pastries and bottomless pours is the weekend play; book OpenTable for patio seats.
The Georgian Room, in the 1933 Georgian Hotel on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, pairs Tuscan chophouse cooking with live jazz around a Steinway grand.
Order: New York strip, then the spumoni-style baked Alaska
Tip: Friday and Saturday it runs to 02:00 with live music; Spaghetti Sunday closes the week with a set menu.
Elephante stacks a coastal Italian kitchen onto a 2nd Street rooftop in Santa Monica, whipped eggplant, pizzas and pasta with the ocean over the rail.
Order: Whipped eggplant dip with flatbread, then a pizza as the sun drops
Tip: Go before sunset for the light and stay for the DJ; weekend mornings it runs ricotta pancakes from 09:00.
Calabra spreads Mediterranean-Californian plates across the Santa Monica Proper Hotel rooftop, a circular bar and garden terrace with Pacific views.
Order: Challah french toast at brunch, mezze and crudo at night
Tip: Proper Hour runs 16:00-17:00 weekdays and 15:00-17:00 weekends; the poolside alcoves take groups up to twelve.
Xuntos fills a 1926 Art Deco building in downtown Santa Monica with Sandra Cordero's Galician tapas, razor clams, percebes and vermouth over two floors.
Order: Razor clams, jamon iberico and a porron of Basque cider
Tip: The menu runs from jamon iberico to Galician empanadas; ask for the mezzanine seats above the bar.
Tar & Roses has held its downtown Santa Monica corner since 2012, a wood-fire kitchen of oxtail dumplings and whole fried snapper that improves with age.
Order: Oxtail dumplings, then the whole fried snapper with soba
Tip: The whole fried snapper with cold soba is built for two; smaller plates share better than they look.
