Eponymous Wilshire Restaurant might have a new chef, but it’s still the same gorgeous setting in Santa Monica .
The indoor space is candle-lit and romantic, with exposed brick walls, and muted metals.
For a scene-stealer, thought, try to reserve a table in the bucolic patio, which was rated as one of the best outdoor dining spaces in the country by Bon Apetit. It almost feels like dining in a tree house—a really classy tree house, that is.
Chef Andrew Kirschner has trained in some of the best kitchens in town, including Lucques and Table 8.
To the trends of organic and local foods, he has added the element of sustainable foods on his menu, but the dishes he creates are complex, fresh and completely gourmet.
There are excellent selections for every appetite, but we recommend the fish, which is featured on the Asian-inspired menu.
Definitely try the mellow-tasting seared day-boat scallops with English pea puree, earthy black trumpet mushrooms and a hint of lemon.
The most impressive (and flashy) dish is the fried Thai snapper, which is brought to your table whole for you to pull tender chunks of fish right off the bone. Meat options include the gamy roasted duck breast with bok choy and kumquat chutney. Or try the succulent leg of lamb with curried quinoa, grilled eggplant and a dollop of fresh yogurt.
There are also homemade pastas, like the delicate ricotta gnocchi with yellow foot mushrooms and fava beans, and a more rustic rigatoni in homemade sausage sauce. Save your sweet tooth for desserts like “coffee and doughnuts”—warm homemade donuts sprinkled with sugar, served with homemade coffee and vanilla ice cream—and the fresh berry cobbler, made with the first ripe berries of the season.
The wine list is also one of the best in town, so be sure to ask sommelier Matthew Straus for a suggestion.
Dinner will definitely cost you more than a tank of gas—even these days—but at least you’ll go home happy, both from an excellent meal, and because you have been environmentally low-impact dining.