Hillstone — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Ok, so I came here with the #TTTLA (Talk Tech Tuesday Los Angeles) group (12 of us in all). The reservation was made weeks ago and only one of our tables was ready. Not a great start but they did quickly rectify the situation by making the party move. Not to be rude but our group did reserve weeks ago for this event as they always do with each restaurant so that's why the 4 stars. The waitress was amazing! Friendly, knowledgable of the menu and quick. She was an absolute delight! I ordered the Hawaiian Rib-Eye which came with a loaded baked potato. The portion was generous for me but I eat small portions. I had my steak medium and it was to die for! It had a citruscy taste (ok so I made up my own word cause I needed to lol) and since my hubby kept dipping in my plate, I saw he loved it as well. Talk about loaded! They topped off the potatoes with everything, sour cream, scallions, cheese and other flavorful toppings, YUM!!!!!!! Everyone seemed to like their food and agreed that the portions were decent. They don't have blended drinks but the drinks they do have are all freshly made and taste like it. I settled for a Mai Tai cause I love blended drinks and since they had none, that's my fall back drink...simple and international lol. My hubby had Sushi and although he forgot what he ordered which was something our wonderful waitress suggested, he said it was tasty but not quite what he wanted for Sushi. I'm not a Sushi fan so according to him, it had Macadamia nuts on it, avocado and coconut chips. He said the combo of those ingredients made it taste creamy and Sushi shouldn't taste creamy....again according to him lol. Someone else in our party ordered the fish (I think Salmon but not sure) but they liked it. In terms of price, I didn't have to pay lol however- if I did, it is pricey, but I would be willing to pay it. The ambience is great, in my opinion for friends, groups and gatherings without kids. It is kinda loud but not too loud that we couldn't hear each other. All in all we had a great time and I would come back here again and...

FANTASTIC! So glad we found another great restaurant in the area besides BOA (BOA is still the best steaks I've had in the area, but this place is GREAT). My girlfriend and I started with the spinach & artichoke dip, pretty strandard fare. I also had the Caesar salad, it was good but not your typical Caesar at all. I'm not quite sure what type of lettuce was used but it wasn't romaine, it was similar to the texture of kale. There was also corn in it and corn bread squares as croutons (soft not crunchy). The dressing was delicious and plate was chilled perfectly very pleasantly surprised by this. Overall it was good, just different (BOA has my favorite Caesar in Los Angeles).

After that my girlfriend had the avocado roll and I had the nigiri plate, both were great but the spicy mayo did taste different from what we're used to and my girlfriend didn't like it. For entree my girlfriend had the veggie burger with fries, the burger was OK, neither of us really liked it, but the fries were good. I had the Hawaiian Ribeye with fully loaded baked potato, both were outrageously good, probably the best baked potato we've ever had!! The Ribeye was definitely different from what I'm used to, it was covered in a sweet Hawaiian sauce, but still tasted great and the sear and temp were perfect (medium rare).

We finished with the brownie a la mode. I liked it a lot, but my girlfriend wasn't a huge fan. The brownie was a standard chocolate fudge brownie with nuts but also raisins I think topped with French vanilla ice cream with espresso chips. It was a few interesting flavors in one but I thought it worked!

Overall I highly recommend, we...

we arrived at 5:30 for a 5:45 reservation sunday night after leaving a chargers game. my boyfriend was wearing his visor with his hair in a bun sticking out of the top. we were greeted and about to be taken to the table when the lady at the hostess stand told him he needed to remove his hat. he looked around the restaurant and spotted multiple women, one in particular that was standing directly behind the hostess, that had hats on. she responded with “oh uh we only ask the gentlemen to remove hats” we then said we would go elsewhere for our dinner. when we turned around to the door we heard her mumble something under her breath so we turned back around and she had the most disgusting off putting look on her face as we walked out. severely disappointed because this place was recommended to us by another couple and we drove all the way to santa monica for it. whats even more disappointing is this is not even a five star restaurant and others that were dining were dressed EXTREMELY casual. we have attended various 5 star restaurants in california, vegas and miami that have never, ever asked him to remove an accessory or article of clothing. highly disappointed but will not be...