Ocean and Vine

Great View, So-​So Food and Service: We had a couple issues with our reservation that night. First and foremost, I was trying to call them about 30 minutes before our reservation time to let them know we would be about 10 minutes late. No one took the call. When we got there, we got a decent table, but it took a good 10 minutes before the server came to get our drink order. Then it took a good 15 – 20 minute to try and call the server down to place our food orders. Forget asking him any questions regarding the food or the orders. I had questions regarding what could or could not be made vegetarian but ended up getting just getting some appetizers, instead of any entrees because I was not sure. The food came out fairly quick (10 minutes) but it was very mediocre. For the price I paid and the ambiance of the restaurant, you’d expect better, more gourmet food. That was not the case. It was very hard to get a hold of the server after that but they were fairly quick in bringing the check. I was disappointed. Even the view was not great, though. We had a bunch of electric poles and wires blocking the view of the ferris wheel. Unfortunately, I will not be returning.

Greasy quesadilla, not ripened avocado and tasteless chicken on the salad. And very expensive. Great view but the food not worth any price.

Family came in for Thanksgiving from out of town. I was too lazy to cook. So I suggested the easy way out… Thanksgiving brunch. My sister-​in-​law requested Thanksgiving by the beach… which brought us to Ocean and Vine.
Let’s get this part out of the way. It was expensive! 79 dollars per adult, 39 per kid under 12. You definitely are going to be paying a pretty penny for the luxury of not having to shop, cook and clean up. And let’s be honest, you are not coming here for the food. I mean, the food was fine. More on that later. But I usually don’t expect buffet food, regardless of the venue, to be mind-​blowing.
What you do get for your money is a great view of the Santa Monica pier and a partial view of the beach. It was a bit disappointing that the view of the beach was obstructed by several buildings. I felt a bit gypped there.
Service, however, was outstanding through and through. Our waiter was the best. Friendly, attentive, funny, professional. I wish I got his name so I could give him a proper shoutout. He constantly refilled our mimosas without our asking. It seems like whenever I turned around, he was right there.
The workers at the carving stations were
great. One gentleman even offered to go get my son some plain mashed potatoes from the kitchen (the buffet offering was mashed potatoes with horseradish, which was too strong for him).
The buffet offerings were wide and varied. There was a carving station with prime rib, ham, turkey and salmon. There was a made to order omelette station. A huge assortment of desserts. My fave was the chocolate lava cake with salted caramel. There were crab legs, shrimp, clams, smoked salmon, eggs Benedict, smashed potatoes, cheeses, salamis, prosciutto, and a variety of greens.
The food itself was just average. Prime rib was super rare, a bit too rare for my liking. Turkey was a bit dry. Gravy was salty. I thought the best items were the crab legs, smoked salmon, eggs Benedict, kale and walnut salad, and lava cake. The mimosas were delicious, and usually I’m not a fan of mimosas.
After our brunch we walked to the pier and watched the sunset. The proximity to the pier was a great feature of this restaurant.
So essentially you are paying for the location, service, view, an impressive buffet selection, and the relief of not having to prepare a lavish holiday dinner. I liked the vibe of the place. It felt casual and relaxed and all of the employees (both at the hotel and restaurant) were incredibly nice.
My family enjoyed our experience at Ocean and Vine. Like I said, it is pricey. But I felt like the experience was worth the money, especially for a special occasion and for out of town guests.

We brought here by friends while visiting them in Santa Monica and this is one of their favorite spots. Nice seafood selections and extensive oysters and sushi. Salad was smaller than anticipated, and a little fru-​fru but delicious. Salmon entrée was cooked perfectly and crab rolls were delicious which we shared across the table. Skipped desserts as they were a little pricey and we’d already had plenty to eat. Everyone at our table enjoyed their meal and would come back. Service excellent.

Had the corn beef and coffee with a fruit tart for dessert. This place is delicious. Variety of foods to choose from

Great food folks !! A bit slow so it doesn’t have the vibe that a great great restaurant needs .
Freaking rack of lamb is off the charts !!!

Dining outdoors right on the cusp of Venice, Santa Monica, and Silicon Beach is going to be delightful, expensive, and trendy…
The simple lunch menu had me drooling over the chilled poached shrimp, chicken skewers, and salmon salad.
The chicken skewers with mango aioli were very delicious and reminiscent of Thai food. The salmon comes with the option of asparagus & rice or on a bed of kale salad. I replaced the rice with sauteed spinach, avocado, and olives. The salmon was tender, crispy, and perfectly cooked.
The espresso I ordered was also amazing. I was surprised they didn’t have almond milk (The only alternative is soy milk in 2015?), but the nourishment was so tasty that I didn’t mind.
Would gladly come back for dinner!

This place rocks. The food is great. The service is pretty good and their deserts are about the best in Santa Monica! Nice comfortable and elegant dining experience.

Very bad service. One needs to call several times to make a reservation. No one answers the phone during business hours, all you get is voice mail. After leaving 3 messages, no return phone calls. We even left a message to the restaurant manager, he never bothered to return the phone call either.
We finally got a hold of the manager at the front desk. She was able to finally get us in contact with someone at the restaurant.
We wanted make a reservation for their Sunday buffet bruch 2 weeks out. We requested for the reservation to be for a table outdoor. They said that they could not guarantee that.
At this point we were getting fed up with their bad attitude.

This place was disappointing. We spent the weekend at the hotel and decided to have dinner here for valentine’s day. The service was terrible (took 30 min to get a drink and an hr to get our dinner) — I’ve had better service at an Olive Garden! The food was nothing special. The ambiance we expected was also lacking. Just make reservations elsewhere –this place is not worth it.

The other night we redeemed a voucher for a «Groupon-​exclusive» menu, a 3-​course prix-​fixe dinner for two, pushed by Groupon on their website as representing a $ 126 value.
But instead of finding «phenomenal food», «ample portions» and «excellent service» as promised by gushing reviews published on the Groupon’s deal page, we found Groupon-​sized portions and excessive wait times between courses (a full 20 minutes between appetizer and main course — FAIL!) that had us thinking maybe their chef quit his job in the middle of the dinner service. And this was on a slow night with only 5 or 6 tables in the entire restaurant being occupied…
There are plenty of outstanding culinary alternatives within a 5 minute walk from the Loews hotel which probably explains why the restaurant was empty on a weekend and in need of running Groupon campaigns. Yet instead of wowing us and making us want to return (we are local SM residents who go out for dinner several times per week) the experience at Ocean and Vine confirmed that there is no need to be dining here when other nearby options abound.
Lesson learned: Be very careful about these «special» Groupon-​exclusive menus as they appear to be watered-​down versions of the real thing; designed to look good on paper, but nowhere near the value they purport to offer.

Gorgeous views is the reason we booked this for a group Sunday brunch. The outdoor eating is fabulous complete with heat lamps overhead. Great start.
The menu was super annoying. We came here for BRUNCH hence expected the brunch menu that was posted online. We discovered they had a $ 49 buffet (yuk to buffets, in general) which included unlimited champagne… good deal you say? Well yes except half of us have crazy dietary restrictions and buffet anything is not appealing, in general. So basically they made us order off the lunch menu. Again, we wanted brunch food which was posted on their website… they told us that menu is only good Monday-​Friday. Are they nuts? Brunch is a weekend thing! Get with the program, please! Your view can only carry you so far… please serve a proper brunch menu for those who may indulge in the buffet madness. You would reach more people.

Was chilling by the pool area for AFM and decided to have lunch. This is a really expensive cheeseburger at $ 14. The iceberg lettuce was made into a slaw. The bun was WET and SOGGY even though it was grilled. If I could give a negative I would. This is my second meal here. The first one was in the restaurant 3 days ago and the service was terrible. The Cobb salad was so so. Nothing to be excited about to write home. Such a shame because great location with beach/​sunset view. But when it comes to terrible food and service… enough said.

I’ve been in LA for over 12 years now and finally checked out this place on a weekday to catch the sunset — I’ve been on a streak to find spots to find watch the sunset.
4 stars for the décor and looks of the hotel. The outdoor pool area has great views of the santa monica pier.
I’m giving this place 2 stars because the food was really bland and DO NOT get the kale chips — it sounds amazing… miso and kimchi flavored but it was soggy and way too salty. The ceviche was also really bland and flavorless. The waiter told me to watch out for seagulls who are known to steal food, guess they like really like fish. I wish that they would have snagged a bite because that would have been entertaining and I would have gladly fed some seagulls.
Great place for watching the sunset and grabbing a quick drink but I recommend skipping the food.

We had an amazing graduation celebration lunch here last week. read my full review at:

I really loved my meal here, not because everything was perfect… because there were definitely some issues with a few dishes, but overall, it was great!
Came here with three others, and immediately got a table on the back patio facing Santa Monica pier and the beach. Two of my friends were from out of town, so this was the perfect place to «experience» LA. In any case, we decided to move in despite the view because a few of us were slightly cold. The inside is really cool too. Beautifully decorated with a central open fireplace. The restaurant is located in the Loew’s Hotel, which looks amazing, both its indoor and outdoor space with ridiculously high ceiling in the main lobby. Fancy schmancy.
So on to the food.
1. Bread basket: yum, large assortment of different types of breads, came with a delicious fresh pepper oil sauce as well as the more traditional butter
2. Chef’s special (free): test dish of tuna on cucumber with a strong sauce. Personally, I don’t think it works well. Not a huge fan.
3. Seafood salad: This dish is seriously huge, with two different salads with various toppings, including shredded crab meat, scallop, shrimp, and others. Loved it! All the tomatoes tasted extremely fresh
4. Crab cakes: Liked the flavor, good but not that memorable
5. Dragon roll: I love Dragon roll. How can something with both eel and avocado not be amazing. There. Done.
6. Lobster mashed potatoes: Yum yum yum. Perfectly flavored. Not too salty. Chunks of lobster meat mixed in.
7. Beet and roast duck pizza: This was seriously amazing. Everything worked together so well, and the pizza bread was the perfect thinness.
8. Veggies and Burrata salad: I loved this dish. From the tomatoes to the well-​cooked squashes to the burrata, this dish worked.
9. Chicken ‘n Vine: I thought this dish was a fail. The mushrooms and onions were covered in this thick, very salty sauces. The chicken was also way too salty and a bit dry. This was the worst dish of the night…
In any case, most dishes were excellent. A few were off. However, ambience is great. Check it out!

«Ocean and Vine,» (almost) divine. There are fewer and fewer classy establishments to be found off the Venice boardwalk these days — but in truth, this isn’t accessible from the boardwalk. It’s found within the «Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel,» and it has an ocean view if come before sunset. Brunch all you can eat was offered, but we ordered right off the menu. Straight up, the BBQ Glazed Salmon with Fried Horse Raddish Chips was terrific, even though I asked for medium rare and it came medium. Why bother asking for medium rare? Fish is hard enough to prepare, I suppose, so I should be grateful for what I get. The other entrée was good but short of exceptional, Shrimp in Indian Curry was just grilled shrimp in curry glop — but what good glop it was (But yeah, it’s a slapped together dish even though it tastes just fine). Crème Brulee was big enough for two, a little fruit on top. #fickle

Really a lovely spot with an elevated beach front view. They have a really nice patio that is great for brunch.
They offer a buffet with all the usual brunch items for $ 32, but we opted for items off the regular menu. The food was fare to good. Nothing we had that really blew me away, but decent enough. Their coffee is pretty good.
Pleasant and attentive service. $ 6 bucks validated parking and I’ve seen 1000 points offered on open table, so keep an eye out for that.

Here’s the deal — go during the day. Don’t go at night. At night, it really really looks like a hotel restaurant. And the ocean could be a brick wall for how dark it is. If you didn’t know where you were, you’d have no idea the Pacific ocean was out there.
The service — fantastic. Thank you to our young dark-​haired gentleman server — I really appreciate friendly and attentive service.
The food — meh. I was hoping to like it more, but really — just a-​ok to meh. Here’s what I recall:
Sushi — pretty decent. Nothing out of this world. But fresh, yummy fish.
Calamari — calamari. (it’s like pizza to me — unless it’s really bad, it’s pretty good)
Vegetarian Lasagna: bland
Fish dish 1: average
Fish dish 2: pretty good
If it’s sunny, clear skies, you’re in the area and craving sushi from a nice fancy-​ish hotel restaurant you found your spot.

Thumbs up:
Bread basket: so much to choose from! the pretzel bread and sourdough were basic/​normal but the jalepeno one was really tasty! Didn’t dig the oily red pepper spread stuff
Day Boat Scallops: Three huge, perfectly cooked cylinders of sweetness.
Ambience: perfect setting for two old friends who had lots of catching up to do
Thumbs down:
Drinks: Only was able to take three sips of my sidecar. Tasted like some sizzurp.
Server: (Monique) she seemed really annoyed and impatient. She also said she does not handle our parking validation and directed me to the manager standing by the hostess stand. I didn’t mind going to the manager (who was super nice and sweet) but you would think that a $ 120 meal pre-​tip would warrant hassle free parking validation.
Malibu Platter: our oysters were gross (not so fresh), the tiny tuna poke more like avocado poke and the three shrimps were lonely looking and laughable. The crab was average. (See pic)
I am on the fence about this place but I want to again and try the duck.