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A Santa Monica mainstay for 20 years and counting, Rustic Canyon has been serving the best locally sourced meat and produce to tourists and neighborhood regulars alike long before farm-to-table menus became fine dining de rigueur in L.A. Now helmed by Executive Chef Elijah DeLeon, who served as chef de cuisine since 2024 before stepping up after Jeremy Fox's departure, the kitchen hasn't missed a beat—and DeLeon's Mexican-Filipino heritage has been quietly influencing the menu. The kitchen changes seasonally, though you'll always find the wonderfully snacky lavender almonds alongside locally sourced seafood and sustainably farmed pork and beef, offset by the season's finest produce. Devotees of Fox's iconic beets and berries will note its absence—raspberries and castelfranco with walnuts and whipped cream cheese are its spiritual successors.
Start with the à la carte bread service—sonora flour bolillo with cultured butter and wildflower honey, one of L.A.'s best bread offerings—then the bright, citrusy bluefin tuna crudo with blood orange, chipotle and dried olive. Among the latest seasonal additions, Hope Ranch mussels arrive in a piquant white-wine and green-garlic sauce with mint and leeks. You’ll want another bread to sop up the sauce. The white cheddar-covered steak tartare tostada, while inventive, would benefit from a lighter hand with the cheese—or none at all, if you're a tartare purist. No matter what you order, though, Rustic Canyon's dishes are fresh and comforting—there's not a lot of pomp and circumstance in these plates, though the flavor's always there (vegetable or no).
Behind the bar, Justin Dicken shops the same farmers' markets as the kitchen and runs a zero-waste cocktail program—stone-fruit pits become house orgeat, corn husks turn into mezcal infusions, and every citrus rind from the kitchen gets a second life as an olio or shrub, all of which show up in drinks like the Orion's Belt, a seasonal stunner of mezcal, kumquat kosho, Meyer lemon, yuzucello, Salers and lime. On the wine side, Rustic Canyon is among the few that offer proper half pours, and we love them for it.