Local Kitchen & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Update: 7/27/2025. I am a local. I live 2-3 blocks from this restaurant. My wife and have been walking over and eating here for years since its inception. And yet, no one seems to know us, nor remember us. It's weird.

Compared to other places that we frequent regularly, we often receive a warm smile upon our return, or even a "welcome back" or "good to see you again" by our servers and wait staff. We hoped LOCAL would be our local hangout. Nope. I realize now, after years, that we've never really felt welcomed. Not warm. Yet, we'd still come back time after time for our favorite dishes: But now they've changed this too. Frustrated, I've changed my ratings. They've changed my favorite mushroom truffle pizza (it came cold) and the mussels "lost its chili flakes bite" (plus super tiny tiny mussels this time.) At least the manager removed the mushroom pizza from our bill. That's good service.

On top of this, one of the hostesses is not very friendly, depends which one you get. I always expect that a hostess should make you feel welcome. A warm smile and greeting. Nope.

Our waitress was friendly, but new.

Not my local favorite anymore. I'm hoping they'll improve. I was routing for Local to be my favorite local restaurant.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: One of my favorites new restaurants on Ocean Park, only a few blocks away from my house. It's great to have such a nice restaurant within walking distance. Not only convenient but excellent food, cocktails and wines.

One of my favorites is the mussels with sourdough bread. Great for sharing, but you must pay extra for the toasted sourdough bread which you must have to dip into the wonderful seafood broth (perfectly spiced and seasoned.)

The second is the mushroom truffle pizza. Ghisallo, known for their pizza, is a block or 2 away, but i think Local's pizza is better. Better cheeses, less oily, crispier, thinner crust. The best IMO.

Lastly, the 24 oz bone-in aged ribeye. This is a great dish to share. I love the chef's version of this classic dish. Again, other places can serve bone-in ribeye steak, but the smoky, grilled flavor is amazing. The only negative is that sometimes the ribeye may have a lot of fat. Sometimes, I'm cutting away 20% of the steak. I'll have to search back and find a picture of their ribeye and post it.

Overall, as a local, I enjoy eating here and trying their different dishes. They're all pretty good. Coming out of the pandemic, they had the best outdoor patio seating arrangement: cozy, front patio and a large parking lot patio, all with ample patio heaters. I prefer the indoor seating but it can get really loud when busy. I also gave only 4-stars for service, because sometimes, they seem understaffed. The service staff are good and friendly, but can be overwhelmed during peak hours. Thus we eat early and leave early, often taking our leftovers and walking back home. It's great to take a nice walk...

Had a good meal until dessert. We ordered the Olive oil cake. We were served a piece of cake that was burnt top and bottom to an almost black point. It was dark in the restaurant and we were engrossed in conversation, so we did not notice when it was brought to the table, First bite, we both tasted it. We did not want the drama of flagging down the waiter in the busy dinning room and sending it back in the middle of what was an intense conversation. The middle of the cake was not terrible, so we ate that. We paid and then casually mentioned it to the waiter. This is where it all went wrong. His response was in part “I know oil cake is supposed to have a dark crust on it.” That was disturbing. He was trying to tell us our perception was wrong and it was proper to serve cake that was burnt. I was so surprised that I came home and looked up olive oil cake recipes to see if there was a burnt crust version. There is no such thing as a burnt or even dark crusted olive oil cake. It is supposed to be golden brown. After an otherwise great meal, it was disappointing to have been served such a subpar dessert and then have the waiter justify it. This cake should never have been plated for a guest much less come out of the kitchen where the light would have clearly shown the cake was burnt. Then to have the waiter justify and defend it by implying almost charcoal black is the desired consistency of a cake crust was not ok. I am not sure it it was that we were two middle aged women or something else that empowered him to imply our observation of the burnt cake was wrong, but in any case, this has left a bitter taste in my mouth and I will be unlikely to return no matter how good the rest of...

Before writing this, I emailed the restaurant with my complaint. If I'm going to leave a negative review I'd rather leave it directly with the establishment, than online. I received no reply. My husband and I visited for the first time last week. I ordered the osso buco which was tough (and the sauce overly sweet) so I sent it back. The server didn't seem at all troubled that the meal had been a disappointment. She offered to replace it with something else. Of course, as well all know, once a meal is returned, the other party is eating theirs, or waiting, so the entire dining experience is ruined at that point. The pasta was slow to come out. My husband was done his meal. The server brought the bill and noted the osso buco had been removed from the bill (of course. Why wouldn't it be? I had sent it back.) The entire experience smacked of a restaurant who didn't much care about a customer's negative experience. Most places would have sent over a manager, or might have even offered a desert on the house to in some way rectify the situation and send the customer home less disappointed. Not here. I should also add we shared a calamari appetizer that was supposed to be grilled but came out coldish, and pale, and bore no evidence of having been grilled. Very overpriced appetizer for the size too. The pasta dish I ended up getting was fine, though unremarkable. But we won't be back. There is a lot of tremendous dining in Santa Monica at the higher end. There's no need to frequent a place that clearly must not appreciate...