Warrior: I am fond of the light, nuanced, ingredient-driven cuisine of Rustic Canyon. That sourdough pasta with seaweed is one of the best things I’ve eaten in the past year. So beautifully al dente, so full of oceany umami. But I would be happy just eating the simply prepared vegetables. This is my favorite restaurant in Santa Monica. (We haven’t been to the new Citrin except for takeout during Covid, and we haven’t been to Pasjoli.)
Peony: I really liked all our dishes in this meal. Really like how they used simple flavors to bring out the best of the natural taste of the beautiful ingredients. All the dishes looked inviting and tasted healthy! Would definitely love to come again.
Peony: I’m feel Rustic Canyon has improved significantly over our past visits. While Warrior likes how simple and classic their dishes are, I’m excited by their creativity. I was particularly impressed by the white chocolate and hazelnut snap peas, the persimmon / cream / horseradish endive, and the turnips with melted gouda sauce. The fresh pasta was as tasty as we expected. I look forward to again and find out their new creations!
Warrior: I am fond of Rustic Canyon. Its vegetable-centric cuisine suits my palate and feels comforting and right. We haven’t eaten there as often as I’d like, but our daily dining options expanded when we bought our first car recently. My favorite dish tonight was the caramelized sweet potato with miso ice cream. The flavors were delightfully earthy and funky, but in a subtle way. I would recommend all the dishes we ordered tonight. That said, I preferred the drier sourdough linguine with seaweed on our last visit to the saucier sourdough linguine with mussels on today’s visit.
Peony: I like how creative they are with the dishes. It’s exciting to find interesting combinations from time to time.
Warrior: I agree. And I like that the food is centered on food and vegetables. I am a fan of Rustic Canyon. I wasn’t fond of tonight’s chicken, however. I found it dry.
If you’re that far west it’s the one of the only places that comes close to the restaurants you listed. I’d say it is more of a neighborhood restaurant than any of those, but they execute at a similarly high level with produce from the farmers market a couple blocks away.
In my opinion, the food is more refined than any of the places you listed (which are all excellent).
Last visit in July, every single dish we ordered was a hit. Recall rockfish, fennel sausage, and pork chops as being pretty great.
We also prefer Rustic Canyon to all four listed restaurants. But I would give the caveat that it is not a restaurant where we often go “wow.” We are more impressed with the nuances and refinement. Some dishes at Bavel and Majordomo have greater wow factor. Of the four listed restaurants, Republique is the one most similar to Rustic Canyon. Kali is even closer.
For restaurants similar to Majordomo and Bavel, I’d recommend Eszett and Dunsmoor.
Horses didn’t impress us very much in our one visit, but it’s possible we were just being moody.
Ok so not just me neither about Horses. Got the pasta Herman and the Burger. Was not that impressed and everything tasted a bit too salted for my liking.
either.