"Of all the Hillstone proprieties, Hillstone's is the least successful at disguising the fact that it's a chain restaurant, albeit an excellent one. The air inside smells like tortilla chips, the overhead lighting is less than flattering, and a good portion of the room is made up of international tourists excited for their first "authentic" American dining experience. None of that matters when you show up to the giant, two-story space for a reliably wholesome evening at what remains one of the hottest tables in Santa Monica (book ahead of time). The red booths are large enough to fit your extended family, where you can make fun of your weird cousin’s social media posts over better-than-you'd-expect rainbow rolls, cheeseburgers dripping with Thousand Island, and a tender Hawaiian ribeye marinated in pineapple juice. The menu is an all-over-the-place compilation of dishes from the chain's other locations, but that's kind of why we love it." - brant cox, sylvio martins, garrett snyder