Best Casual Restaurants in Dana Point / Monarch Beach

Food is consistently good. Our server was excellent. This is one of our favorites when we come to town.

This one has popped up on OpenTable many times and with both kids gone on a Friday night my wife and I decided to try. We arrived a little before our reservation and informed it would be about 10 mins. Time enough for us to sit at bar and have a drink. Very friendly bar staff and we engaged with a regular who said they had the best happy hour in DP. Not halfway through our beers (oh their beer menu is not 99.999% IPA like many around. It's ok, try something new) we were seated at our table. We had a challenge deciding which appetizer to choose and opted for potato tacos as this is not something we've ever had, delicious! We did see the brussels sprouts delivered to tables to our left and right and would get those next time. Wife has meat protein allergy so was thrilled to finally find a risotto that wasn't made w/ chicken stock, she added halibut and loved every bite. I had recently ended >5 yrs of not eating meat and the smash burger was screaming at me. Incredible, this burger. My only complaint would be the fries. Shoestring cut is my LEAST favorite cut. Nobody eats those 1 by 1 so why do that? Our server (forget her name) was fantastic. We've had wonderful dishes ruined by crap service, but she elevated the experience and solidified us wanting to return. Inside it has a warm, cozy feeling. It's not too big and they only had 2, single unit restrooms and one was out of order so the line backed up. Given the overall experience I found the total cost to be a fantastic value. We'll be back (did you say that in your best Arnold impression) :)

Wonderful local restaurant with great service and food. Able to carry on a conversation as the noise level was low. The eggplant part is incredible!

We love this place, we drive from Long Beach to Dana point just to eat here. Bri’s service was amazing and timely, and as always the place was vibrant, but not noisy with welcoming staff. Will come back always.

Absolutely amazing food, we were a group of 5 and we shared meals, everything we ordered was fantastic, especially the house made lobster ravioli !! My only suggestion would be to have a more extensive wine list, the live music was fabulous, really added to the ambiance