Where to eat at and around Santa Monica Proper Hotel
The hotel has two tables of its own, and both take non-guests. Calabra, on the roof, serves Mediterranean and Californian plates: lunch on weekdays, brunch at weekends and dinner every night from 5pm to 10pm, with a Proper Hour from 3pm to 5pm when cocktails are $15 and a glass of wine $16. Palma, the lobby lounge on the ground floor, serves breakfast from 7am, dinner until 10:30pm and afternoon tea at weekends, and has a DJ on Friday and Saturday evenings. Tables at both can be reserved online. Downtown Santa Monica is a walking town, and the seven places below are all within ten minutes on foot, most of them along Wilshire Boulevard.
On our shortlists
Within ten minutes on foot
- 6 min walk
Bib Gourmand pasta trattoria · $$
A modern trattoria in the MICHELIN Guide with a Bib Gourmand for good-value cooking. Chef Stefano De Lorenzo's pasta is made by hand at a station at the front of the room, and the dishes to order are the calamarata with tomato, stracciatella and oregano at $19 or the bucatini with garlic and anchovy butter, also $19. Dinner runs from 5pm to 9pm Monday to Saturday, with lunch from 11am to 2pm on Friday and Saturday, and it is closed on Sundays. There are no reservations: seating is first come, first served.
Walk in1241 5th Street
- 7 min walk
Bakery and café of the Rustic Canyon family · $$
A farmers' market bakery, café and marketplace, open since 2009 and every day from 7am to 3pm, which suits an early breakfast and a simple lunch. Order the Huckleberry Breakfast at $20, with two eggs any style, bacon, hash browns and sourdough toast, or Dad's Pancakes at $19, and take a pastry from the case for later. The kitchen buys organic fruit, vegetables and herbs from the Santa Monica Farmers' Market.
Walk in1014 Wilshire Boulevard
- 7 min walk
Fish market, café and raw bar, since 1939
The company started in 1939 selling fish at the end of the pier and has been on Wilshire since 2009, as a market with a café and a raw shellfish bar. The raw bar lists six oysters, from Kumamoto to Kusshi, as well as red king crab legs and whole Dungeness crab, and the café menu runs to cioppino, fish and chips and a lobster roll in the New England or Connecticut style. The market is open every day from 9am to 8pm and the café from 11:30am to 9pm; tables can also be booked online.
Walk in1000 Wilshire Boulevard
- 8 min walk
One-star modern Californian restaurant · $$$$
Chef Josiah Citrin's restaurant holds one MICHELIN star and shares a corner building with Mélisse. It serves an à la carte menu or a four-course prix fixe at $165, and the bar takes walk-ins with the full menu from 5:30pm and a happy hour until 7pm. The dining room is open from 6pm to 9pm Tuesday to Thursday and from 5:30pm to 9pm on Friday and Saturday, and is closed Sunday and Monday. Mélisse, the two-star tasting room with its own entrance, seats 14, costs $399 a head and opens Wednesday to Saturday.
Reserve ahead1104 Wilshire Boulevard
- 9 min walk
Seasonal Californian restaurant and wine bar · $$$
A neighbourhood restaurant on Wilshire since 2006, in the MICHELIN Guide, that cooks from the Santa Monica Farmers' Market and keeps a wine list of more than 300 bottles. Dinner is served every night from 5pm to 9:30pm, or 10pm on Friday and Saturday, and the menu changes with the season: spaghetti alla chitarra at $35, a roasted half chicken at $39. The bar and lounge takes walk-ins only for a happy hour from 5pm to 6:30pm, with snacks from $5 and wine at $10. Book the dining room.
Reserve ahead1119 Wilshire Boulevard
- 9 min walk
Spanish tapas and natural wine bar · $$$
Chef Sandra Cordero's Spanish tapas bar, in a 1926 Art Deco building, has a bodega-style wine bar with more than 30 wines by the glass. Lunch runs from noon to 3pm, with three courses for $39, and the wine bar then stays open until 10pm from Tuesday to Thursday and 11pm on Friday and Saturday, with a short menu from 3pm to 5pm, including croquetas de jamón. Dinner starts at 5pm, with last seating at 9pm, or 9:30pm on Friday and Saturday, and a tapas tasting menu is $75. It is closed on Sunday and Monday, and the dining room is worth booking.
Reserve ahead516 Santa Monica Boulevard
- 10 min walk
Small bakery and coffee · $
A small bakery where the team shapes hundreds of croissants by hand each morning and covers its conchas in heirloom corn masa. A croissant is $6, a pain au chocolat $7 and a cappuccino $5.50, and the kouign amann goes on sale after 11:30am. It is open Wednesday to Saturday from 8am to 3pm and Sunday from 8am to 2pm, and closed on Monday and Tuesday. The shop limits each party to two cinnamon rolls.
Walk in1209 Wilshire Boulevard
Breakfast
Breakfast is not part of the room rate. Palma serves it on the ground floor every day from 7am to 11:30am: the Proper Breakfast is $38 with two eggs any style, a sprouted hash brown, avocado and kale, toast, bacon or sausage and juice or drip coffee, and the avocado toast and the breakfast burrito are $29, a croissant $8 and a cappuccino $9, all before tax and tip. At weekends brunch follows on Palma from 11:30am and on Calabra from 11am, and in-room dining runs from 6:30am to 11pm on Sunday to Wednesday and until midnight on Thursday to Saturday. Two cooked breakfasts at Palma come to $76 before tax and tip. The best outside option is Huckleberry, 7 minutes' walk away and open from 7am every day, where two cooked breakfasts are about $40 before coffee. Petitgrain, from Wednesday to Sunday, is the place for a croissant and a coffee.
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Questions people ask
Good questions about Santa Monica Proper Hotel
Where can I eat near Santa Monica Proper Hotel?
The hotel has two tables of its own, and both take non-guests. Calabra, on the roof, serves Mediterranean and Californian plates: lunch on weekdays, brunch at weekends and dinner every night from 5pm to 10pm, with a Proper Hour from 3pm to 5pm when cocktails are $15 and a glass of wine $16. Palma, the lobby lounge on the ground floor, serves breakfast from 7am, dinner until 10:30pm and afternoon tea at weekends, and has a DJ on Friday and Saturday evenings. Tables at both can be reserved online. Downtown Santa Monica is a walking town, and the seven places below are all within ten minutes on foot, most of them along Wilshire Boulevard. Colapasta, 6 min walk. Huckleberry, 7 min walk. Santa Monica Seafood, 7 min walk.
Our verdict
Book Santa Monica Proper to sleep inside a Kelly Wearstler interior in walkable downtown Santa Monica, with a rooftop pool for the afternoon. Pay the step up to a Landmark Garden Terrace for private outdoor space in the 1928 building, and budget for the $55 fee and valet.
Last checked: October 2026