2 Santa Monica Restaurants Make Daily Meal’s 101 Best In U.S.

SANTA MONICA, CA — If you’re looking to dine out more as the weather gets warmer, we’ve got some tasty news for you.

The Daily Meal recently unveiled its list for the “101 Best Restaurants In America,” and the online food and dining site included two restaurants from Santa Monica.

Here are the best restaurants in our city, according to the Daily Meal’s rankings.

Dialogue

• Ranking: 14
• Address: 1315 3rd Street Promenade Suite K, Santa Monica, CA 90401

From Daily Meal: "Dialogue is an 18-seat restaurant and tasting counter from which chef Dave Beran and his team serve a seasonally inspired multi-course tasting menu. The market-driven menu changes on a near-daily basis depending on what’s fresh and in season, but Beran’s objective is to guide diners on a progression from the previous season, to the current, to the one ahead. Expect whimsically named dishes like “thoughts on oysters,” “three years of plums” and “onion, entirely…”"

Rustic Canyon

• Ranking: 48
• Address: 1119 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401

From Daily Meal: "Chef/owner Jeremy Fox’s Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica, California, earned its first Michelin star in 2019 thanks to its often-changing menu of simple, seasonal farmers market-inspired fare. It thrives on community and fosters a neighborhood atmosphere, and every dish is plated with sharing in mind. Representative items from executive chef Andy Doubrava's menu include Autonomy Farms chicken with hot honey and California pecans, and Channel Islands rockfish with sugar snap peas and carrot curry. And just like the menu, the wine list focuses on small producers."

Alinea, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago, was ranked as the No. 1 eatery in the United States, according to the Daily Meal. The top five restaurants were rounded out by Eleven Madison Park in New York City, Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, Le Bernardin in New York City and Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia.

“These 101 restuarants serve food that’s thoughtful and thought-provoking, and they also have a dining room and a level of service that suit the quality of what’s on the plate, a good beverage list and a true sense of personality, imagination and consistency,” authors of the Daily Meal rankings wrote in an introductory statement to the list. “Visiting one of these restaurants feels like a truly memorable culinary experience.”

To compile the rankings, the Daily Meal contacted hundreds of dining experts around the country to ask which restaurants they considered the absolute best in their respective cities. Those restaurants were then added to other establishments that have “garnered near-universal acclaim” and eateries that have been featured on previous Daily Meal lists.

The remaining restaurants were subsequently ranked according to metrics such as food, service, beverage options and environment.

The full list of the 101 best restaurants is available on the Daily Meal.