The 18 Best Restaurants in Santa Monica | Eater LA

"It took six years for chef Michael Mina to open Orla in the Regent Santa Monica Beach hotel. The project was worth it — Orla offers one of the region’s most stunning views of the Pacific Ocean, an ideal complement to Mina’s seafood-centric menu. He incorporates recipes by his mother and aunts while highlighting the cultural similarities between Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines in dishes like Turkish chile pepper (urfa) big eye tuna and salt-baked seabream; the Yemeni spice hawaij flavors the prime New York strip. The round bar is the perfect place to sip on an Arabian Nights Negroni while watching the sun set over Santa Monica." - Matthew Kang