Santa Monica

A family-owned Italian grocery on Lincoln since 1925, with a deli counter at the back and shelves of imported tinned fish, pasta and oil at the front. The Godmother sandwich is the reason most people are in line. You can order it on the deli's own site and skip the counter entirely.

Wednesday to Sunday 9am to 6pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Online ordering closes at 5:30pm

A former Red Car trolley yard off Olympic that the city turned into a complex of more than twenty galleries, all free to walk into. The buildings are corrugated sheds and the parking is on site. Santa Monica opened its own municipal gallery here in April 2026.

Most galleries Tuesday to Saturday, roughly 11am to 5pm or 6pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. Individual galleries vary

Jay Fiondella opened this on Ocean Avenue in 1959 and it still has peanut shells on the floor and a jukebox people feed. The city has designated it a Santa Monica landmark. Steak and fish are served at the back and the front works as a bar.

Monday 5:30pm to midnight. Tuesday to Friday 2pm to midnight. Saturday and Sunday 10am to 1:30am

The coffee shop occupies the corner storefront at Main and Bay that was Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions, the shop the Z-Boys came out of. Alva boards hang on the wall alongside the espresso machine. Breakfast burritos are the volume order.

Daily, 7am to 2pm

The original Father's Office, on Montana since the beer list made it a Santa Monica fixture, where you order at the counter and carry your own drink. The Office Burger is dry-aged beef with blue cheese and arugula and the kitchen will not change it, so do not ask for ketchup. The taps are the other reason people are there.

Monday to Thursday 5pm to 10pm. Friday noon to 11pm. Saturday and Sunday noon to 10pm

Carmen and Gilberto Rodriguez bought an existing Pico Boulevard place called El Indio in May 1974 and added Gilbert's name to the sign. Both founders have since died and their nine children own it together. Tortillas are pressed in house and the bar runs on margaritas for people who live within a mile of it.

Monday to Saturday 8am to 9pm. Sunday 8am to 2pm

A dark steakhouse at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon, open on West Channel Road since 1949 and marking seventy-five years in business. There is a bar at the front that runs two hours past the kitchen, and it has been a gathering place for the canyon's gay community for decades. Kids are welcome in the dining part, which tells you how unfussy it is.

Wednesday to Sunday, bar from 4:30pm. Bar to midnight Wednesday and Sunday, to 2am Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Kitchen to 9pm, 10pm Friday and Saturday. Closed Monday and Tuesday

A counter-service storefront two blocks off the Third Street Promenade cooking Michoacán and Purépecha food, with corn tortillas pressed in the building. Chips and pickled carrots come with the meal and the aguas frescas change daily. Order the taconazo and they griddle cheese under the adobada or the asada.

Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm. Saturday 10am to 9pm. Sunday 11am to 6pm.

A turquoise diner that opened on Pico in 1958 and has never been redecorated, down to the matching turquoise stools and the red booths. Tarantino shot a scene of True Romance in it and Lords of Dogtown used it too. Breakfast runs all day and the plates are cheap.

Daily, 6:30am to 2pm

The oldest restaurant and bar in Santa Monica, on Main Street since 1934 and the first place to open on that street. Ron Schur has owned it since the first day of 1989; he bought it after a waitress would not give him the salad dressing recipe. The bar has not been changed since 1946, the Christmas lights stay up all year, and the phone number ends in 1934.

Daily from 5pm until close, which listings put at 11pm Monday to Thursday, 12:30am Friday and Saturday and 10pm Sunday. Happy hour 5pm to 7pm at the bar and the front patio.