JiRaffe

Incredible. Everything was so delicious we ended up sharing our dishes in order to try everything. The lamb, however, was by far the best. So much flavor and creativity in every dish. The drinks also use local juices which speak to the quality and appreciation for good products. A must try.

I celebrated Valentines Day here with my husband one year and was pretty satisfied with our meal. We decided to share the 22-oz Black Angus NY Steak. It was huge! We had enough left over for dinner the next day. This dish comes with a Parmesan potato gratin and it wasn't particularly flavorful.It also comes with a grilled tomato, but who wants that? Apart from that, our overall dining experience at JiRaffe was a good one!

Best meal I've had end to end in Santa Monica! Located in a fairly intimate space on a corner near 3rd st. promenade you might not see it right away. Based on the location, you can imagine parking is no easy feat. Once you're in though, take advantage. Their tangerine martini is exceptional and incredibly fresh. When it comes to food, the crab cake is unbelievable, but the mushroom ravioli is even better. Don't expect huge portions though. When it comes to the main course, I had the Sea Bass and came back later that week for the Pork Chop. As expected, it was well worth it.

I've had mixed experiences. I went recently during DineLA, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, on my previous visit both myself and my dining partner were pretty unimpressed. On that occasion, while the food was not bad, it didn't live up to expectations. Also, I was irritated by the service, especially the sommelier blatantly pushing the most expensive wines. It doesn't seem consistent - but on a good day it's a pleasure.

I came here on a double date for Dine LA and I must say, it was a lovely experience. The customer service was excellent and the ambience was dark and romantic. We ordered the following items: 1) mushroom shooters: very good appeitizer to start your meal off with...very warm and savory, and goes down quite easily 2) yellowfin tuna: fresh and saucy 3) butternut squash - savory and soupy 4) filet of beef - cooked medium rare, this was delicious! 5) banana cream pie - just the right amount of sweetness..it surpassed my expectations

I had been wanting to come to Jiraffe for the last 4 dineLAs and finally made it here with my sister this time around. We made a reservation on Opentable at 7pm on a Sunday night. It turns out they usually close on Sundays but are only opened for dineLA. I was able to find parking 2 blocks down. They don't have valet, which is unusual to me but there is parking in the adjacent building. They will validate so that you pay $8 rather the regular price for parking. Once we were seated, I spied several people drinking white sangria but was disappointed to learn that they had already run out of sangria for the day. Our server recommended the peach martini. It was pretty good but quite tart. My sister had the kumquat gimlet and enjoyed it. The dineLA menu included an amuse bouche, a starter, a main course, and dessert for $45. I really wasn't impressed with the overall experience, starting with the fact that they forgot our amuse bouche. We asked about it when the starter came but did not receive it until after our entree arrived. As an amuse bouche is suppose to foreshadow the experience that is to come, I expected something more interesting and creative than a corn soup. The menu listed cappuccino mushroom but we were told that they weren't doing that today. The corn soup was too peppery. I took a small sip and left it there. The amuse bouche, though, did indeed do a good job of telling us what to expect: more corn! My sister ordered the crab cake for her starter, which wasn't on the menu but we were told was added to the line up. The outside is a little too heavily breaded for my liking. It comes on a sweet corn sauce along with 3 little pieces of ravioli. I picked the black linguini and really enjoyed the only corn-free dish of the night. The pasta was great and there were several chunks of crab leg meat. The sauce was very flavorful. Our main dishes were the sweet corn ravioli and the steak. The sweet corn ravioli had a truffle emulsion in it and it smelled amazing. I didn't quite enjoy how sweet the dish was though. I only wanted my corn sweet, not the whole dish. I wished there was something salty in the dish for a little contrast of flavors. The steak, on the other hand, was really tender and delicious. It came on a bed of...you guessed it...corn! The corn they served with the steak was on the sweeter side as well. Maybe it was just our choice of entrees that just happened to contain a lot of corn but we left feeling like we were on corn overload. The desserts weren't good. I actually didn't eat my nectarine cobbler after the first 2 bites. The nectarine was still crunchy and in big chunks and it's topped with large pieces of very sweet cookie-like top and vanilla ice cream. I didn't enjoy the flavor or the texture so I ended up just eating the ice cream and leaving the rest. My sister had the chocolate cake and it was very dark and looked like it was flourless. The texture was more like a mousse rather than a cake. I didn't care for it either. Overall, I'm disappointed a little disappointed in my meal. I don't regret finally coming here to satisfy my curiosity about Jiraffe but I probably wouldn't be back any time soon.

Had a wonderful dinner as always. Excellent beet salad and french onion soup. The Pork Chop was devine, best ever! Salmon fresh and light with amazing vegies! Jidori Chicken was yummy as well. Topped it off with duo Creme Brulee. Table was ready when we arrived (reservation) and very attentive staff. Neighborhood favorite!

Came here on a Saturday night for dinner. We had reservations for two at 7:30pm and we arrived a little early. We still had to wait about 10 minutes before our table was ready, but they seated us upstairs and at a 4 person table, yay! FOOD: - duck prosciutto appetizer - thinly sliced duck, with a seasoned crust and smoked, I believe. A little over seasoned for our tastes. - black linguine wit crab - yum! Pasta was nicely al dente, great taste with a nice spicy kick. Nice chunks of crab. - half rack of lamb - OMG SO GOOD. Super juicy and tasty~! The potato samosa and curried moussaka on the side was also delicious. - meyer lemon souffle - our most awesome server told us about this off the menu dessert and man oh man, I'm so glad he did!! Lemon desserts are my favorite and this was SO GOOD. It takes about 10 minutes to make, but oh so cute when it arrives! There's a wafer thin cookie in the shape of the Eiffel Tower set into the raspberry sorbet. The lemon souffle was soooo fluffy and light and creamy, I was SO HAPPY. SERVICE: Our most excellent server, Chris - one handsome silver-haired fox, was great! Super friendly with explaining the menu, giving us recommendations, and telling us about the best dessert ever! VENUE/PARKING: Small place, but two stories. Romantic ambience and there's a small bar in the waiting area for you to grab a drink while your table is being prepared. Bathrooms are downstairs by the entrance, one room per gender. They have valet, not sure how much it is since we walked over.