Diner Antonette — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Break out your flannel shirt, rolled up skinny jeans, and artfully scuffed "work" boots. Trim and coif that beard just right. Jump in your Prius, Subaru Outback, or on that obscure fixie you overpaid for (but was so worth it because no one's even heard of the blind Scandinavian artisan who built that frame). Be sure to ask Siri, on the way over, to name a few jazz musicians from the early sixties so you can pretend to like it (but make sure your dining companions don't know that your real playlist is just three and half hours of Train and Maroon 5). If it isn't clear enough yet, this place is a hipster haven, my friend. You're not even cool enough to eat here, bud. But if the ghost of Leonard Cohen smiles upon you and you're graced with the chance to be seated in this Mecca of awesomeness, take it! Don't think about it. Don't ponder if you'd rather have that bowl of phở (and heck yes you pronounced it properly, unlike those Philistines that call it fō). You don't want that stuff, champ. No, no, no... You take the gift of a dimly-lit booth at Ingo's, partner. Don't you dare pass it up!

Levity aside, the food here was quite good. I had a bacon cheeseburger with a house made steak sauce that was pretty tasty. It was cooked to the correct temperature, which is a thing most places can't seem to nail down, so that was a big plus for me. My kid had a chicken salad that she seemed to enjoy, minus the incredibly ill conceived recipe decision to add dates to this particular salad (not a good taste/texture combo). The service was good - not exemplary or anything - but definitely adequate. Though I did get a really strange look from the waitress when I asked for a straw for my iced tea, like the concept of a straw in a beverage was harder to grasp than Thai handwriting. The menu items seemed like they would all be pretty decent, so you'll likely find something you can enjoy.

All in all, I enjoyed the food quite a bit. The atmosphere left a little to be desired - a bit more lighting - not tanning booth bright, but not the single candle in a power outage that it's at now. I wouldn't know how to even start fixing it, but the place just had an overwhelming air of pretentiousness about it. I don't know if it is the combination of kitsch, mid-century modern furniture, and unearned arrogance when comparing Ingo and it's people with your level of coolness, but something just felt forced in that "trying too hard" kind of way - like prominently (yet "casually") displaying a McIntosh tube amp/HiFi setup that's cooler than every person in there. I don't recommend this place as a first date spot, but if y'all have been dating a while and you're not worried about having to talk over everyone else in the place, or are cool with some moments of silence because the ambient noise of every other conversation is overwhelming, then you'll be just fine here. If you're in the area, hit this spot up. If you're not around there, I would say don't go too far out of your way...

Dimly lit diner with lots of vegetarian-friendly options. Came here on a Friday around 7:30 without a reservation and it was about a 30 minute wait. They did have free chocolate sea salt cookies (similar to the ones at the Misfit, it’s sister restaurant) which I have to admit I munched on prior to getting dinner. I couldn’t help it - the cookies were the right balance of sweet and salty with a nice crunch. Once we were seated, our waitress came and took our orders pretty quickly. We got the broccoli with burrata, brussel sprouts, and mezze plate. The broccoli was huge and I liked the roasted garlic sprinkled throughout it. The crispy brussel sprouts were my favorite - they had such a good texture and had a nice glaze on the outside the was complemented well by the crunch of the Marcona almonds. If you like goat cheese, then you’ll also appreciate that it comes as a dipping sauce, although the brussel sprouts are good on their own. The mezze dips plate is a good appetizer choice that comes with 2 dips (one lebni that’s like a hummus, the other is a muhammara that reminds me of chunky Middle Eastern salsa except it’s made with red pepper and nuts). It comes with pita bread which our waitress was kind enough to bring us more of when we ran out, as well as radishes and carrots. They have jazz on Sunday’s and it’s also a chill, laidback spot to grab a cocktail. Overall, I enjoyed eating my vegetables here and appreciate the free cookies and...

This restaurant is just down the street from where we live in Santa Monica and my wife and like the vibe there and the staff is always friendly and welcoming. The first time we went there was for my wife's birthday and with my son and we had a great meal. Being French, I was particularly excited about the Steak au poivre which was really good. We have returned a couple times since then and that same steak au poivre was consistently overly salty. Last night we went back again with another couple. I wanted to give that steak au poivre one more shot but unfortunately, it was much too salty again and so were the fries. It's really sad how so many chefs these days feel like they have to over-salt everything to make it taste good, maybe it's a lack of confidence in their cooking abilities? We also ordered the Dungeness crab pasta which sounded great on the menu but turned out to be very mediocre. Maybe they have a new chef?... I don't know but that's too bad because I was happy to have found a great local restaurant and now I'm not sure we'll...