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# Destination Dishes: Santa Monica's Culinary Bucket List
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/destination-dishes-santa-monicas-culinary-bucket-list/
- Published: 2026-10-16T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T22:10:37.000Z
- Author: Sean Besser
- Tags: Food, Santa Monica

**Forget full menus—this week we’re ranking the legendary sandwiches, wood-fired showstoppers, and mouth-watering sweets that are the single items worth crossing town for.** 

Santa Monica has no shortage of great restaurants. But sometimes you’re not looking for the best restaurant—you’re looking for **the thing to order**.

Every city has those dishes. The sandwich locals insist you try. The burger people have been arguing about for years. The pastry worth standing in line for. The ridiculous pasta that somehow tastes even better because someone tossed it around inside a giant wheel of cheese.

For the inaugural edition of **Destination Dishes**, I’m looking at the Santa Monica plates, bites, sandwiches and drinks that are worth making a special trip for. Some are legendary. Some are relatively new. Some are fancy enough to require a reservation, while others are best eaten standing up with a pile of napkins nearby.

The common denominator? **You should try them at least once.**

## **THE ICONIC STAPLES**

**The Godmother with The Works — Bay Cities Italian Deli (1517 Lincoln Blvd.)**

The undisputed king of Santa Monica sandwiches.

The Godmother piles prosciutto, ham, capicola, mortadella, Genoa salami and provolone onto Bay Cities’ famously crusty Italian roll. Order it “with The Works” for the hot or mild peppers, dressing and all the glorious mess that comes with it.

It is not a small sandwich. It is not a delicate sandwich. It is barely a sandwich you can eat without looking like you’ve been attacked by an Italian deli.

And that’s exactly the point.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-7b1e1b07-bfd2-42a1-842e-68823d291729.png)

**The Office Burger — Father’s Office (1018 Montana Ave.)**

This is the burger that helped put chef Sang Yoon and Father’s Office on the national culinary map—and it remains one of Santa Monica’s most recognizable dishes.

Dry-aged beef gets topped with caramelized onions, bacon, Gruyère, Maytag blue cheese and arugula, all tucked into a crisp baguette.

There is also the famous Father’s Office rule: **no ketchup and no substitutions.**

They've been enforcing that policy for years, so don’t be the person who walks in expecting to negotiate.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-542c418d-461c-4913-b8ac-34b254895df3.png)

**Classic Corn Dog & Fresh Lemonade — Hot Dog on a Stick (1633 Ocean Front Walk)**

This is pure Santa Monica nostalgia on a stick.

The original Hot Dog on a Stick opened here in 1946, and the Ocean Front Walk location still serves hand-dipped corn dogs and its famously fresh lemonade just steps from the beach.

It’s the kind of meal that tastes even better when you’re wearing flip-flops and have sand in places sand should never be.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-ca4341bd-6259-473b-a234-70d352bad2db.png)

**Chinese Chicken Salad — Chinois on Main (2709 Main St.)**

Wolfgang Puck helped redefine California cooking at Chinois on Main, and the restaurant has produced a number of dishes that became part of the local culinary canon.

The Chinese Chicken Salad is arguably the most recognizable.

It may not have the theatrical appeal of a flaming entrée or a duck being pressed tableside, but longevity counts for something. A dish that remains closely associated with a restaurant decades after its debut has earned its place on this list. Since you are here, you might as well double down and get another signature: the **Shanghai Lobster,** prepared with a rich ginger curry sauce and served over a bed of crispy spinach.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-b76cf4f2-a065-4c96-94d5-9b7fd8f9039b.png)

## **SHOWSTOPPING RESTAURANT PLATES**

**Egg Caviar — Citrin (1104 Wilshire Blvd.)**

If you’re going to put a caviar dish on a Santa Monica bucket list, this is the one.

Egg Caviar is one of Josiah Citrin’s signature creations, pairing a delicate egg with luxurious caviar and refined French technique. It’s an appropriate representative for the multi-Michelin-starred chef's restaurant, where the kitchen and dining room essentially become one culinary theater.

It’s a tiny dish with a very big personality—and a good reminder that “showstopping” doesn’t necessarily mean enormous.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-a4fde937-8c3e-4219-8acd-6883fe4b235e.png)

**Dalla Forma Pasta — Forma Restaurant & Cheese Bar (1610 Montana Ave.)**

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who think there is such a thing as too much cheese, and people who have eaten pasta tossed inside a giant wheel of cheese.

At Forma, freshly cooked pasta is finished inside large wheels of cheese tableside just before being served. The exact pasta preparation changes, but the spectacle remains the same.

Not for the lactose intolerant.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-87251f75-81a3-42e7-a327-d791dbe16613.png)

**Casunziei — Colapasta (1241 Fifth St.)**

Some dishes are destination dishes because they’re extravagant. **Casunziei** is a destination dish because there isn’t much else like it.

These half-moon-shaped ravioli are made with roasted beetroot, giving the pasta its striking red color, then finished with brown butter, Parmigiano and poppy seeds.

The combination sounds unusual until you take a bite: earthy-sweet beets, nutty brown butter and the tiny crunch of poppy seeds.

Casunziei comes from the Dolomites of northern Italy, and Colapasta chef Stefano De Lorenzo grew up in Cortina d’Ampezzo, right in the heart of casunziei country. His version is based closely on the pasta he grew up eating.

It’s beautiful, unusual and decidedly not another bowl of red-sauce pasta.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-4c8aab7d-229a-499d-80b6-ce675446e372.png)

**Corn Ravioli with Truffle — Capo (1810 Ocean Ave.)**

Capo has been doing elegant Italian dining near the beach for decades, and its Corn Ravioli with Truffle is exactly the sort of indulgence that belongs on this list.

Sweet corn and rich truffle flavors come together in a dish that manages to be both refined and seriously comforting.

Pair it with a bottle from Capo’s enormous wine cellar and suddenly Tuesday night feels like an occasion.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-37add451-a112-4276-91c8-0fea02c57e07.png)

**Raw Oyster & Crudo — Crudo e Nudo (2724 Main St.)**

If Santa Monica has a restaurant that tastes like the Pacific Ocean without resorting to clichés, it’s Crudo e Nudo.

The tiny Main Street restaurant focuses on sustainable, locally sourced seafood, with oysters and crudo changing with what is available.

The presentation is simple and beautiful: excellent seafood, carefully chosen oils, citrus and just enough seasoning to let the fish do the talking.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/image-5.png)

**Wood-Fired Garlic Knot — Milo & Olive (2723 Wilshire Blvd.)**

Somewhere along the way, the garlic knot went from humble pizza-shop side dish to something worth making a trip for.

Milo & Olive’s **Wood-Fired Garlic Knot** is a perfect example. The dough gets baked in the restaurant’s wood-fired oven, then finished with an immense amount of garlic, herbs, Parmesan and butter. The result is crisp and charred on the outside, soft and chewy inside, and unapologetically garlicky.

It’s technically an appetizer but it’s also very easy to convince yourself that ordering several counts as dinner.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-0bc3ea43-4200-4a56-aa0f-b2b885602290.png)

**Tableside Pressed Duck — Pasjoli (2732 Main St.)**

This may be the ultimate Santa Monica dinner-party flex:

**“You know that restaurant where they press an entire duck at your table?”**

Pasjoli’s pressed-duck dinner is a full-on culinary production, with the duck transformed into multiple courses and a special sauce crafted tableside using the whole bird. The restaurant describes it as a limited experience that must be reserved in advance.

It is elaborate, old-school French, gloriously excessive and almost impossible to replicate at home—which is exactly what you want from a destination dish.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-043ded01-847f-42f6-9568-3b5007c23143.png)

## **BREAKFAST & BRUNCH**

**Oatmeal Griddle Cakes — Breakfast by Salt’s Cure (714 Montana Ave.)**

Forget everything you think you know about pancakes.

Salt’s Cure’s signature oatmeal griddle cakes are crispy around the edges, soft in the middle and substantial enough that they don’t require a lake of syrup.

They’ve become the restaurant’s calling card—and, honestly, the reason many people are willing to wait for breakfast.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-cfbc095d-dd29-4e3b-aa4a-9cc87f96b830.png)

**Millionaire’s Bacon — Sweet Maple (1705 Ocean Ave., Suite 110)**

Sweet Maple’s signature bacon is cut a hefty 3/8-inch thick, coated with brown sugar, paprika, black pepper and chili flakes, then baked until the edges caramelize and the bacon becomes a gloriously sweet, salty, smoky and slightly spicy slab of pork candy.

It’s so popular that Sweet Maple serves it as a standalone order, or you can add it to eggs, scrambles, Benedicts, burgers or even ramen.

The restaurant also offers a **Millionaire’s Flight**, featuring four variations: Citron, Original, Cinnamon and Rosemary.

In other words, Sweet Maple has somehow turned bacon into a food group.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-47dfc0a9-ee76-43c9-a5da-3d799039e963.png)

**Gravlax Works — Jyan Isaac Bread (1620 Ocean Park Blvd.)**

The Westside bagel wars have gotten serious, and Jyan Isaac Bread has earned its seat at the table.

The naturally fermented sourdough bagel is excellent on its own, but the **Gravlax Works** takes it into destination-dish territory, adding house-cured and smoked Patagonian salmon, cream cheese, tomato, red onion, capers, dill, olive oil and lemon.

It’s a fairly compelling argument for getting out of bed.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-a561d31f-6804-4d7a-8a98-3773a0786f44.png)

**Sweet ’n Salty Caramel Iced Coffee — Dogtown Coffee (2003 Main St.)**

There are plenty of places to get a good iced coffee in Santa Monica. There are fewer places where your iced coffee comes with a little piece of local history.

Dogtown Coffee occupies the former Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions space at Main and Bay, connecting the café to the surf and skate culture that helped put Santa Monica on the map. The **Sweet ’n Salty Caramel Iced Coffee** adds caramel and sea salt to the mix, making for a sweet, creamy, slightly salty pick-me-up that feels right at home stumbling distance from the beach.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-cba8a84d-65fc-46e1-8f44-11102addf287.png)

## **BAKED GOODS**

**Butter Croissant — Bread + Butter (2645 Main St.)**

Bread + Butter’s Butter Croissant is the reason this tiny Main Street bakery regularly draws morning lines.

The laminated pastry has a deeply buttery flavor, a crisp, crackly exterior and the airy, layered interior you want from a great croissant. The bakery also makes chocolate, walnut, and ham-and-cheese versions, but the classic is the place to start.

And if you arrive early enough to get one warm from the oven, even better.

Just don’t be surprised if you suddenly start questioning every croissant you’ve eaten before.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-23072b58-82cc-45ca-8bff-f1267593a8a5.png)

**3-Baton Pain au Chocolat — Petitgrain Boulangerie (1209 Wilshire Blvd.)**

A great pain au chocolat is one of life’s simpler pleasures: buttery, flaky pastry wrapped around a couple of pieces of chocolate. Petitgrain Boulangerie takes that formula and basically says, “Why stop at two?”

The bakery uses three chocolate batons in its pain au chocolat, surrounded by beautifully laminated pastry that gets crisp and crackly on the outside while staying tender inside. It’s big, buttery, flaky and loaded with chocolate without becoming a chocolate delivery system.

It’s the sort of pastry that makes you understand why people will stand in line before 9 a.m. for baked goods. And if you somehow manage to leave without three or four items, I admire your restraint. You are a stronger person than me.

Three batons. Zero regrets.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-9d0c8a9f-5bf3-469f-8777-60f90154e8bc.png)

**Butter & Salt Doughnut — Sidecar Doughnuts (631 Wilshire Blvd.)**

Santa Monica has plenty of doughnut options, but Sidecar has been doing its own thing since long before doughnuts became Instagram bait.

The **Butter & Salt** is deceptively simple: a vanilla-bean cake doughnut finished with brown-butter glaze and fleur de sel.

Sweet, salty, buttery and just substantial enough to make one doughnut feel like a legitimate breakfast.

It’s also a useful reminder that sometimes the best doughnut is the one that doesn’t have 14 toppings and a name longer than the ingredient list.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-730c3cea-b1f4-4356-b6ac-d9519f18734f.png)

**Caramel-Pretzel-Chocolate Chunk — Cookie Good (2448 Wilshire Blvd.)**

There comes a point when a chocolate chip cookie simply isn’t enough.

Cookie Good’s **Caramel-Pretzel-Chocolate Chunk** cookie takes the basic formula and throws restraint out the window, combining gooey caramel, salty pretzel pieces and generous chunks of chocolate in a soft, chewy cookie.

It’s sweet, salty, crunchy, gooey and just a little ridiculous—in other words, exactly what you want from a destination cookie.

The hardest part is deciding whether to eat it immediately or take it home.

The correct answer is immediately.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-41895187-1006-40ae-b2da-99cc643a9b9b.png)

**Fresh Mint Chip Ice Cream — Sweet Rose Creamery (225 26th St.)**

Yes, I realize ice cream is not a baked good. But this is my list, and I make the rules.

This list simply wouldn’t be complete without Sweet Rose Creamery’s Fresh Mint Chip Ice Cream. It’s made with real organic spearmint and house-made chocolate chips, giving it a fresh, minty flavor without the artificial green-food-coloring vibe of the stuff you probably ate as a kid.

It’s creamy, bright, packed with chocolate and bursting with flavor. The first time I tried it, it completely changed my idea of what mint-chip ice cream could be.

So yes, it’s technically in the wrong section. I stand by the decision.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-bfe65aad-bdf6-4c74-899f-35c0d82d2f99.png)

## **COCKTAILS**

**The Countess — Pasjoli (2732 Main St.)**

Pasjoli is known for its serious French cooking, but the cocktail menu deserves some attention, too.

The Countess combines gin, basil, St-Germain and fennel pollen into a drink that somehow manages to be both sophisticated and extremely drinkable.

It’s herbal, floral and refreshing, with just enough French flair to fit right in at one of Santa Monica’s most ambitious restaurants.

Consider it the cocktail equivalent of wearing a blazer to dinner but leaving the tie at home.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-0d5aad7e-bd46-4f37-bcc2-14c432dd1d12.png)

**Urfa Mezcalita — Calabra at the Proper Hotel (700 Wilshire Blvd.)**

Cocktails taste better when you’re drinking them on a rooftop overlooking the Pacific.

This is not a scientific fact, but I’m comfortable standing behind it.

Calabra’s Urfa Mezcalita combines mezcal, honey, blood orange, lime, sage, Urfa pepper and salt. The result is smoky, citrusy, spicy and slightly savory—the kind of drink that makes a standard margarita feel like it needs to step up its game.

And then there’s that rooftop Ocean view.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-3c753411-dd2f-496c-bab8-394d4bb1dbeb.png)

**Miss Monique — La Monique (1411 2nd St.)**

Leave it to a French brasserie to turn a Cosmopolitan into a science project.

Miss Monique starts with Tito’s vodka and gets clarified and coconut-oil washed before being finished with house-made cherry-nutmeg foam and a mist of rose water.

It sounds elaborate because it is elaborate, but the result is still recognizably a Cosmo—just one that has spent some time at a French finishing school.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/data-src-image-eb2e06c9-7ef6-4834-83ee-3bff455a45a6.png)

**Pacific Cooler — Circle Bar (2926 Main St.)**

Not every destination cocktail needs to be served in a room with velvet banquettes and a $30 bar snack.

The newly reopened Circle Bar brought back one of Santa Monica’s legendary watering holes in 2026, along with a refreshed cocktail menu.

The Pacific Cooler combines tequila or mezcal with yuzu and pamplemousse, making it a bright, citrusy drink perfectly suited to Main Street—and considerably more sophisticated than the dive-bar setting might suggest.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/image-6-1.png)

## **WHAT DID I MISS?**

Of course, this isn’t the definitive list. It’s Santa Monica. By the time you finish reading it, someone will probably have opened a new restaurant, created a new signature dish or convinced me that I’ve committed some unforgivable culinary omission.

That’s part of the fun.

The goal isn’t to name the “best” dishes in town. It’s to find the dishes that make you say, **“You have to try this.”** The legendary ones. The ones you occasionally dream about between meals. The new ones that might become legendary. And the neighborhood favorites that some locals would prefer to keep secret.

So now it’s your turn: **What did I miss?**

Send your suggestions to [sean@smdp.com](mailto:sean@smdp.com). If enough of you disagree with me, there’s always the second edition.