Reservations? Glad we had them. Granted, it wasn't too busy at 5:25pm on a Tuesday, but it got busy soon after. When I tasted the food, I knew why.Fun fact, Michelin Star restaurants are called such due to their origin from the Michelin Tire company which started a guidebook featuring restaurants of high quality and taste. Rustic Canyon is a Michelin Star restaurant! Don't be surprised when you see the Michelin Man holding toothpicks at the door. That's a good sign.The staff? Knowledgeable, friendly, and quick. The food? Perfectly portioned, exquisite, and tasteful. Everything we ordered was delicious, even if some dishes were surprising in their ingredients.Cousin to Birdie G's, make this a must in Santa Monica.
A 1 Michelin Star hyper-seasonal Farm to Table in Santa Monica. Chef/Owner Jeremy Fox is a James Beard nominated chef and pastry chef Erika Chan was named Michelin’s Outstanding California Pastry Chef in 2021. That being said I was very excited when booking this reservation and I was not let down. The whole staff was very polite and our server Marti did an exceptional job. Pricing is also fair for a Michelin star due to the fact they offer a la carte. Melisse right across the street is $295/per person for a fixed menu only so having the ability to pick and choose dishes is a real bonus. Parking is also very easy in this part of town, it will be a block at most to walk.I started off with the Beets & Berries starter and it was probably my second favorite dish of the night. The combo of the fruit and beets were a perfect level of sweetness. Next came the Spiced Lamb Sausage, which was pretty tasty but my least favorite dish of the night. It came with 4 small lamb meatballs so the meat yield was tiny and I felt it had too many peas. At the end it was just a ton of peas and sauce in the bowl so I would skip this dish. Next came the Dungeness Crab Toast and it was really good and felt almost like a breakfast dish. The combo with the onions was pleasantly surprising. For my entree I chose the Baja Halibut and it was my favorite dish of the night. The Halibut was perfectly cooked and the koji butter broth was heavenly. For dessert we had the Pavlova and it was a great end to the meal. A good sized portion and for $14 it was right in line, or maybe $2-4 more, with a standard high end restaurant.Overall a delicious meal and I would feel comfortable recommending it to anyone. The plates are meant to share and the interior is quite small so I would say it’s best suited for a date, celebration, or a dinner with friends or family.
One of the best meals I have enjoyed in a while. Great service and delicious preparation of vegetables, meat and fish. Love how they incorporate vegetables into desserts. Not to miss.
Cozy atmosphere, friendly staff, with incredibly talented chefs. Loved it!
Tried and true and always interesting. When nothing was open the other night, we took family that visiting from 3 different states and they all looved it. Many different palates were pleased. Beautiful creative mix of flavors and textures highlighting farmer's market produce. Service was great! I love that we have this excellent restaurant serving delicious high-quality food and for relatively reasonable prices so near to us.
A superb experience from start to finish. Wonderful combinations of flavors. Super service from well informed staff. Super fresh ingredients. We enjoyed an exceptional evening.
Delicious and inspirational cuisine. The endive and pork chop dishes stood out as our favorites, but nothing disappointed. Ingredients were fresh and well used in each. Complex and varied textures were a focus we both enjoyed. And while it amped up the brightness, food was a tad salty on some dishes. Both drinks we ordered were delightful: Bloodshot and The Good Decision. Well balanced and interestingly nuanced.Service was very attentive and knowledgeable and decisively improved the experience. Great work here!Rustic Canyon was a wonderful way to enhance our anniversary night.
Unfortunately, we had a below average experience on my birthday visit.I reserved a table for 3 at 6pm via Resy. When we arrived, the hostess asked "are you celebrating a birthday?". I was surprised and asked how did he find out about it? Then the hostess responded that it's probably through Resy system. I responded "it's interesting what data is gathered through the system". And he asked impatiently, "so is this for your birthday or no"? I said, yes, it's my birthday. So, the night started strangely, but whatever.While we were chatting and eating our appetizers, one busboy came over and asked if we finished the dishes, even though there are still food in the serving plate. Another 5 min or so, another busboy came by and asked if he could remove our plates. So quickly split up the remaining appetiziers and let him remove the plate from our table.After we finished our meal, the waiter came over and provided us dessert menu. I want to say in 2-3 min, the waiter came by and asked something like "do you want a dessert or your check?" And, in case you were wondering, it was only 7:05pm and the place was half empty. I really don't understand why are they rushing us to finish and leave.Oh, by the way, remember that the hostess asked if we were celebrating my birthday? Well, I'm not sure why he asked because we didn't receive anything, not even a "Happy birthday" from anyone.Appetizers were great and tasty. We weren't so impressed with their main dishes. Dessert was great. But due to their service, I wouldn't recommend this place and not sure why it earned a Michelin star.
Had dinner there last night. The pork and the chicken were outstanding and the gem lettuce delicious. The shrimp terrine was bland. Could not really tell it was shrimp and the texture was too soft. Dessert was the raspberry and rhubarb pie with ice cream. It was okay.
Very tasty food with great, mindful service. They had a snap pea dish which was perfect. There was a unique dessert in the photo. The fish was perfectly cooked.. This place deserves the Michelin star.