Chinois On Main — Restaurant in Santa Monica

We were greetly warmly by the sweet older lady but after that it went all downhill.

The following are my notes that unfortunately had to be taken during my birthday!!!

No greeting upon arrival by Hector

Few drink refills.. had to ask 3x

Manager(male) was on the phone and did not visit the table, but lovely lady in green wished happy birthday and was very sincere (she was great!)

Lobster was forgotten or poorly coursed

Dessert menu was brought before the lobster arrived

Birthday was forgotten despite prior mention but later remembered

No check-back after the main meal was served (catfish and lobster)

Lobster came far after only after we had finished the fish and what appeared the be the expo had to clear the plates

Manager never came by to address the issue; was instead on the phone

Server hector did not check back on the late lobster — it was either not rung in or misfired

General lack of attentiveness in the dining room

Manager fails to visit or "touch" tables

Excessive texting by male manager during shift, as seen in photos

Male mgr focused on texting, to go order issues and pictures of food rather tha guest interaction

JOEL!!!! He made my birthday special, he remembered my name, sliced my catfish with personality and even said bye to us BY NAME when we left!!!!!

WHAT A GAME CHANGER!!

The rest of the team I had interaction with (not other servers or support) seemed to lack the fundamentals of service: Greet,smile, refill, upsell, check back, fire, course items, etc. Really unfortunate for first Wolfgang experience.

Ive served at Per Se, Jean Georges, and 11 Madison and this experience was definitely not Michelin worthy.

For $300, I'd expect much higher standards.

See picture of manager on phone with foot on wall!!!!!!!! ...while my drink is empty

Then support staff on the phone!

Then Joel being a rockstar! And then my lovely girlfriend

Im really sorry to have to publish this...

STILL THE BEST RESTAURANT EVER!!! Will be back to celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary. Having been fortunate enough to dine at Chinois on Main when it 1st opened almost 40 years ago and we continue to patronize to this day. While traveling back to California from our new home out of state we dined at Chinois 2 nights in a row. In fact we scheduled our trip to allow us to eat at Chinois as many times as possible.

Chinois never disappoints!!! Having eaten over the globe at some amazing restaurants we always return to Chinois ranking as our favorite and top of the list for fine creative and delightful dining. Bella is delightful as always and has been able to retain staff that exceeds even the most particular of patrons while at the same time maintaining a warm and welcoming ambiance. Waiters and bar tender Victor always remember who we are and our favorite dishes as well.

My favorite foods are Ahi with uni sauce for a truly taste explosion combined with the finest quality of ahi. I always order a side bowl of the uni sauce because it is so truly wonderful. Exquisite grilled Lamb chops exceed any lamb found anywhere. Shanghai Lobster with fried spinach remains a true extravagant presentation of lobster at its finest. Chinois chicken salad remains a delightful staple as well.

All is all Chinos remains our favorite restaurant in the world!!

A MUST RESTAURANT FOR ANYIONE LIVING NEAR OR...

We were in town for the weekend and found this gem of a place! Being a person familiar with authentic Chinese/Asian flavors, I had my hesitations entrusting our evening with Chinois on Main because of general distrust of “Asian fusion” restaurants…. But BOY was I pleasantly SHOCKED by how great our meal was!! I also think we order well with classic flavors and a today’s special with a dish we know we’d enjoy. We loved loved loved the Chinois chicken salad (aka the OG Chinese chicken salad), the duck fried rice, and a crab cake/scallop with lobster lemongrass sauce. Everything was superb and honestly this is a place you come and enjoy their creation without any prior idea of what you’re getting. We would 100% come back here again for a meal!

We were also really happy with the service here, they’ve got the old school respect for service and even with the full house, every staff person did they job and more! Really a great experience and I feel silly having any doubt just because they have been around for while. I mean, this place is an example of a well run business with a well designed menu, and a trained staff that can have succeed for decades and maintaining their regular customers and still impressing new ones like us.

Make your reservation and come here to...