Playa Provisions — Restaurant in Los Angeles

After watching Brooke Williamson for over 15+ years, I was finally able to plan with a close friend of mine, to plan a trip to one of her and her husband's places. It is a unique use of space, with a coffee/ice cream shop in the middle (king beach cafe), the main restaurant on "beach side", an outdoor "chill" area off the "cafe", and then a surprise speakeasy toward all the way down the hall.

If you are planning to get to this area early, there isn't much to do between 3-5pm. There also isn't much around to do, unless you want to chill on the beach or walk/ride a bike along the path. Luckily, they let us move up our reservation from 6:15 to 5:15, and we got to sit in the outdoor area. It is a cool space, but several younger children made it louder. They are open late on Fri/Saturday.

Emily, our server, had great suggestions, and Brooke/Nick's menu is so creative and non-typical. We started off with happy hour drinks that were around $10 and great. The pepper/garlic happy hour calamari were amazing, especially not being coated in breading or deep fried. We also tried a few oysters that had nice flavor but be careful with the very "rich" sauces, as it masks the oyster liquor, and the first two had such lovely descriptions. We then had the claim chowder but got a bowl and just did a loaf of sourdough as a separate side. Wow did it have a sour aspect, but amazing crust. The chowder had 3 nice large claims, and nice size fresh claims and fresh veggies in the soup.

While almost everything on the menu, including the fresh halibut, beef cheek bourguignon, king crab, steamed mussel/clams, and vegetarian Bolognese would be great with a larger party, we did the above and then the CT seafood roll. The amount of seafood on the roll, was perfect and worth the extra $1 over lobster roll. It would be a place you could go 3-4 times and enjoy all the unique menu/flavor profiles, that shows what an amazing chef Brooke and her chefs are.

Besides how friendly and helpful Emily was, the most amazing part was watching the busing and assistant staff, and how great they were at bringing things and how fast they cleared off the plates you were done with. The pace and quality were evident. We then asked about their whiskey bar. We were told about how to get there and the fact they had 200 different options, so we decided to go back there. Be ready for the light to dark transition when you go into the very unique speakeasy. It took me about 10 minutes to get my eyes acclimated. They have a cool menu, where you can get cocktails that are well known, and then you can rely on the bartenders to "create their own" options. We met with Liam and a regular customer (mark I think), and had some great discussions with how he and his staff create new drinks and recipes. We ended up having him and his staff make us 4 different drinks that fit what we liked and tastes we desired. Liam shared his Ted talks, knowledge, great personality, and even his new pending menu/notebook he had created. What a great experience and totally different than Old Lightning in Venice we had done the prior night. So approachable and great cocktail creations, while in a cool/dark environment.

Overall, I can't recommend this place enough. Such a variety of different spaces, but you can tell the creative staff is encouraged to provide a great experience and creative food that Brooke/Nick have created. I think they have a few other locations I will try next time I come back to Socal. We have all seen what a creative and hardworking Chef Brooke shows on competition/TV shows, but her food is really approachable and unique. It is so nice not to just see scallops/brussel sprouts/clams in wine&butter, mushrooms, etc. Their menu and...

A seriously delicious, casual, hip seafood restaurant in Playa Del Rey, right near the beach. It is owned and managed by Brooke Williamson, who is one of my favorite Top Chef winners. She really has some unique dishes on the menu and every single one has great flavors and preparation. I will say the only downside we experienced was we were a table of two and had to wait 45 minutes for our first appetizers to arrive at our table, but I’m guessing that was due to some sort of delay in the kitchen. Inside is really well designed and laid out well. It’s very spacious, modern and as indoor and outdoor seating options. I love that outside has a working fire pit with tables all around it and views of the sand dunes. They also have a full bar that was very busy when we dined in this past Saturday night and I did not see a single open table so I would recommend making reservations before stopping in. Parking in the area can be a bit tricky but we are able to find a free street space a few hundred feet away from the restaurant entrance. There is plenty of parking options near the water side, north west of the restaurant.

The menu has a ton of great options on it and our server was extremely polite. It took me a while to choose what I wanted to order because there were so many things that I wanted to get. The first dish that came was the Fried Crab Claw and we thought these were fantastic. We ordered two but they have a lot of meat in them so they are more filling than they look. The dipping sauces on the side were a great addition and I love the Old Bay seasoning with them. Next came the Clam Chowder and this was one of the best Clam Chowders I’ve had in a very long time. The pancetta inside was a great addition and it just had really nice flavors. We followed that with a Bluefin Tuna Tartare that may have been our favorite of the three appetizers. It had great flavors and a bit of a crunch to it, and I could taste the mix of flavors long after finishing the dish. For our entrées, we chose the Connecticut Style Seafood Roll and the Bucket of Clams and Mussels. We also ordered a side of the Sunchokes, which were fantastic. Sunchokes are in the artichoke family and taste just like an artichoke heart so if you’ve never had one, but like artichokes, I would highly recommend ordering this. Both our entrées were fantastic, the Connecticut Style Seafood Roll was filled with all different types of seafood and was much more filling than I anticipated. The bucket of Clams and Mussels was also great and the sauce it came in it was very light but packed with flavor. I was really impressed with all the dishes that we ordered and we did not have a single bad item. Aside from the delay getting the food items to us, it was a great meal and I would highly recommend to anyone in the area or even close by. This would be a great place to visit with friends/family or it would also be a nice date spot. I would definitely recommend and I plan to be back many times...

I like to go to Playa Provisions for work and for creating content for Google Maps. My reviews and media postings for Playa del Rey and surroundings generated 110 million views; and counting ;)

Update as of January 2023: The staff slowly but surely warms up and even was so kind to open the dining room area after a bit of “begging “. Thank you to the staff member with the beautiful manicure!

The dining room is extra special because it offers 2 fire pits and 1 fireplace. Ideal for cozying up during the downpour of an atmospheric river. See video.

A regular coffee rings up at about $5.50; not including tips. The staff seems hard working. Please consider a tip; cash?

Update as of December 2022 I used to go here a lot. However the prices for my Matcha latte were raised by 50% almost Therefore, I have not been back a lot. Today, I ordered the lentil stew It is pretty good; albeit it puts a hole in the pocket at $15; excluding tips

Update as of October 2022: I was in for a surprise this morning. The Matcha latte used to be $5.25and now it’s $7.57. The experience now rings in at about $8.57 including tips. Don’t get me wrong; it still is a nice place to spend the morning. For working and relaxing. The staff remains reasonably nice; although not really going out of their way for majority of customers (except for a few regulars).

Older reviews are below:

COVID-19 precautions are in place as of Feb 2022. This is a cool place for chilling out on California mornings in winter. See my picture.

Playa Vista Provisions features the king beach Cafe; among other business branches. This review is for the king beach Cafe. The cappuccino here is somewhat decent. It says it’s $4.38 for a small cup; As of May 20

The Matcha Latte is about $5.30.

Here is a little fun exercise. Thinking of best coffee places in the Playa Vista area and how I would rank them: Number one clearly is blue bottle for me. Number two is two guns coffee. Number three probably are Joliet in the Free market place in Playa Vista and Playa Provisions in Playa del Rey. Cafe Solar's Latte was not that good when I went there in February 2022. Cafe Solar on Manchester Avenue. The coffee tasted very bitter and earthy; probably due to origin of the beans and brewing process. Most Coffee Latte rang in at about $5 in this area in February 2022.

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