Where to eat at and around Shutters on the Beach
The hotel has three tables of its own: 1 Pico, an Italian dinner room open Thursday to Monday and for weekend brunch; Coast Beach Café & Bar, for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day; and the Living Room, for drinks, a short menu and live music. Outside, the walking is on Ocean Avenue and the first blocks of Main Street, all within nine minutes on foot: a wood-fired Italian dinner room, a jerk chicken counter, a surf and skate coffee shop, a Bib Gourmand Southeast Asian room, a 1959 Hollywood saloon and the pier's seafood house. The one place that wants a car or a taxi is a two-star tasting room, six minutes away.
On our shortlists
Close by, on foot or by car
- 2 min walk
Wood-fired Italian dinner room, since 1998 · $$$$
Two minutes away, in a freestanding red-gabled building with a fireplace in the corner, Bruce Marder's restaurant has cooked Italian over a wood fire since 1998, with Picasso, Hockney and Lichtenstein on the walls. The cellar holds a Wine Spectator Grand Award, with more than 2,500 wines, and the bar serves the full menu. Handmade pastas start around $42 and wood-grilled steaks around $94, so this is the big dinner of the trip. Dinner only: Tuesday to Thursday 6pm to 9pm, Friday and Saturday to 9:30pm, closed Sunday and Monday. Seating is limited, and bookings are taken by phone.
Book well ahead: tables go weeks out1810 Ocean Avenue
- 3 min walk
Caribbean jerk chicken counter and patio, since 1996 · $
A cheap and good lunch, on Ocean Avenue just south of Pico. A family-run beach-shack patio since 1996 serves Caribbean food with a Latin twist, and the order is the Cha Cha chicken, oven-roasted in mild, mixed or hot jerk sauce: a quarter with two sides is about $14, a half about $24. The ropa vieja at about $19 and the coconut fried chicken are the alternatives. Eat on the painted patio or carry it to the sand. Open 11am to 9pm Monday to Thursday, 11am to 9:30pm on Friday, 10am to 9:30pm on Saturday and 10am to 9pm on Sunday.
Walk in1906 Ocean Avenue
- 6 min walk
Surf and skate coffee shop for breakfast · $
A breakfast to walk to, on the corner of Main and Bay in the old Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions shop, a key piece of Dogtown skate and surf history. Order a breakfast burrito (the classic, with egg, white cheddar, avocado and pico de gallo and a choice of bacon or sausage, is about $14) and an organic house coffee at about $5, and sit outside. It is open every day from 7am to 2pm, so it is a breakfast and early lunch stop, and no booking is taken.
Walk in2003 Main Street
- 7 min walk
Thai and Malaysian dinner, MICHELIN Bib Gourmand · $$
A pink building with green trim on Main Street, listed in the MICHELIN Guide as a Bib Gourmand for Southeast Asian cooking with Thai and Malaysian dishes. Order the pork dumplings with chili crunch ($16), curry puffs ($14), butter chicken ($22) or beef rendang ($28), the wood-grilled gai yang chicken ($31) and a Thai tea pudding ($12) to finish; the Feed Me menu is $64 a head for two or more. Dinner is nightly from 5pm, to 10pm Sunday to Wednesday and 11pm Thursday to Saturday, with weekend brunch from 10am to 2pm. Book.
Reserve ahead2104 Main Street
- 7 min walk
Hollywood saloon and steakhouse, since 1959 · $$$
A classic Hollywood room, half a block south of the pier: a steak and seafood joint since 1959, a favourite of Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen and Judy Garland, and a Santa Monica Historic Landmark since 2012. Order the swordfish au poivre ($39, a recipe from the chef Josiah Citrin) or steamed clams ($20), take a cocktail and the famous peanuts, and ask for Table 10, the curtained booth. Most entrées run from about $30 to $55. Open from 2pm Tuesday to Sunday and from 5:30pm on Monday, to midnight, and to 2am on Friday and Saturday.
Reserve ahead1657 Ocean Avenue
- 9 min walk
Pier-end seafood room, since 1923 · $$$
Open since 1923 and listed in the MICHELIN Guide, the seafood restaurant at the pier entrance has wide views of the Pacific and the pier. Order a steamed Maine lobster ($66 for 1.5 lb), a lobster roll ($38 at lunch) or the seared crab cake ($24). The cheaper way in is happy hour at the bar and patio, 3pm to 6pm daily and all day on Friday. Open noon to 9pm Monday to Thursday, noon to 9:30pm on Friday, 11am to 9:30pm on Saturday and 11am to 9pm on Sunday; book for sunset.
Reserve ahead1602 Ocean Avenue
- 6 min by car
Chef's tasting room, two MICHELIN stars · $$$$
Josiah Citrin's restaurant within a restaurant, on Wilshire at 11th Street, is a chef's table in the full sense: 14 seats at five tables, two MICHELIN stars and a long tasting menu at $399 a head before tax and service. Seatings are Wednesday at 6:30pm and Thursday to Saturday at 5:30pm and 8:30pm; it is closed Sunday to Tuesday. Reservations open a month at a time, in the first week of the month before; a card is held, sales are final and there is no vegetarian menu. Citrin, in the same building with one star, takes walk-ins at its bar.
Book well ahead: tables go weeks out1104 Wilshire Boulevard
Breakfast
Breakfast is not part of the resort fee or the room-only rate, so check what your rate includes. Coast serves it daily from 7am to 11am, from a continental with a pastry, toast, a yoghurt parfait, juice and coffee or tea to a surf breakfast of two eggs, potatoes, meat, toast, juice and coffee, with eggs Benedict, avocado toast, a smoked salmon bagel and lemon ricotta pancakes in between. At weekends brunch runs at Coast from 11am to 5:30pm and at 1 Pico from 11am to 3pm, and the Living Room opens at 11am. In-room dining carries a $6 administration fee and a 20 per cent service charge. The best outside option is Dogtown Coffee, six minutes' walk away on Main Street, open from 7am every day, for a breakfast burrito at about $14 and an organic coffee.
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Questions people ask
Good questions about Shutters on the Beach
Where can I eat near Shutters on the Beach?
The hotel has three tables of its own: 1 Pico, an Italian dinner room open Thursday to Monday and for weekend brunch; Coast Beach Café & Bar, for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day; and the Living Room, for drinks, a short menu and live music. Outside, the walking is on Ocean Avenue and the first blocks of Main Street, all within nine minutes on foot: a wood-fired Italian dinner room, a jerk chicken counter, a surf and skate coffee shop, a Bib Gourmand Southeast Asian room, a 1959 Hollywood saloon and the pier's seafood house. The one place that wants a car or a taxi is a two-star tasting room, six minutes away. Capo, 2 min walk. Cha Cha Chicken, 3 min walk. Dogtown Coffee, 6 min walk.
Our verdict
Book Shutters on the Beach to sleep a few steps from the sand in Santa Monica, with the pier a short walk north. Pay the step to an Ocean View Room for the Pacific in view from your balcony, and budget for the resort fee and the valet.
Last checked: October 2026