Lady & Larder — Local services in Santa Monica

I wish I could go back in time and re-eat the sandwich I just had from Lady & Larder. I came here to pickup a pre-ordered cheese "cake" for a wedding ceremony and I had to finally try one of the sandwiches, which was 100% a great decision. It was the Hot Girl Salami and it was so scrumptious!! The cheese on it was mmm mmm good and the shredded lettuce mixture complemented it perfectly. The Secret Lunch menu is available from 12-3 but I chose a sandwich straight from the counter. It was $12.

The cheese cake is my favorite party favor — I brought one to my friend's engagement party and she loved it so much she requested one for her ceremony! And they are so beautifully done, the cheese "cake" is totally wedding ready with all of the flowers and fruits they decorate it with. The cheeses they carry are so high quality, its not your average grocery store cheese! The 3-tier is around $100 with tax and you have to pre-order these.

The store at Lady & Larder has a nicely curated assortment of specialty items. I recommend stopping here for little gifts especially for foodies, wine lovers, and picnickers! They also have a selection of high end of vermouths, olive oils, shrubs and more. From this I brought home a bottle of plum shrub by Sideyard Shrubs, a wine spritzer by Martha Stoumen, a bottle of red from Stolpman Vineyards, a rainbow iridescent waiter's corkscrew, and a loaf of Bub and Grandma's House sourdough. The worker's here are so helpful and wrap everything for you gift ready. This is a place to come for goodies to treat yourself and...

The food is delicious! You can trust it to be extremely good. I have had a dozen of the grab and go lunch sandwiches and they are utterly craveable and a decent size for a lunch. Sometimes they get super busy and you will have to wait what seems like an extraordinary long time for a sandwich to be made - about 25 minutes. So, I just try to do the grab and go now. We also had one of the charcuterie plates for a small event and it was just gorgeous and delicious and the order and pickup all went as planned. A bit pricey but a great treat for a special event. Finally, you can't call and ask for your sandwich to be made, then walk over - they want you to stand there and wait - so it can be hard when I have a limited lunch break - sadly end up having to run over to Subway, for a sandwich...

I ordered a gift basket for a dear friend well in advance and got a cracked basket prominently featuring the crack on the front side (see photo). I realize these are difficult times we are all going through re COVID-19, but for the store to then tell me that this is an intentional imperfection is disheartening given that they could have rectified the situation and handled it more professionally. Instead, they responded with attitude that they were "dead serious" such imperfections were intentional. I suppose if you want a cracked basket as the face of your custom gift, go ahead and order? Otherwise, be aware that their customer service is unhelpful and less than empathetic as they try to pass this on as some sort of intentional...