FIG Santa Monica

Where Wilshire Meets the Coast

The stretch of Wilshire Boulevard that terminates at Ocean Avenue carries a particular weight in Los Angeles geography. It is where the city's long east-west grid finally runs out of land, and the hotels that line this last block occupy some of the most contested real estate in Southern California. FIG Santa Monica sits inside the Fairmont Miramar at 101 Wilshire, a property whose century-old fig tree anchors a courtyard that has become one of the more recognisable spots along this corridor. The dining room opens to that outdoor space, and on clear mornings — which is to say, most mornings — the light comes in from the west at an angle that makes the room feel less like a hotel restaurant and more like a casual neighbourhood anchor that happens to have a serious kitchen behind it.

That distinction matters more in Santa Monica than it might elsewhere. The neighbourhood has spent the better part of two decades building a dining identity that sits apart from the louder, more spectacle-driven scenes in West Hollywood or downtown. The farm-to-table infrastructure here runs deep: the Santa Monica Farmers Market on Arizona Avenue is one of the most-cited sourcing grounds for serious Los Angeles kitchens, and proximity to it has shaped how the leading local restaurants think about their menus. FIG operates inside that tradition, using California's seasonal produce not as a marketing premise but as a structural constraint on what appears on the plate.

The Farm-to-Table Tier in Los Angeles

California farm-to-table cooking now occupies a wide range of price points and formats across Los Angeles, from fast-casual lunch counters to the kind of multi-course tasting rooms that require months of advance planning. The recognisable names at the higher end, places like Providence and Kato, operate under Michelin scrutiny and price accordingly. Somni and Hayato sit in an even more rarefied tier. FIG operates in a different register entirely: it is a venue that has earned placement on the Opinionated About Dining Casual North America list in both 2024 (ranked 789) and 2025 (ranked 790), a recognition that specifically tracks the casual end of the quality spectrum rather than conflating it with the tasting-menu circuit.

That ranking is worth pausing on. OAD's casual list is assembled from votes by informed diners and food professionals who distinguish between formal ambition and everyday execution. Appearing on it two years running, at a broadly consistent position, signals that FIG is not coasting on hotel-restaurant inertia. It is performing at a level that serious eaters in North America consider worth noting, without the price architecture or format rigidity of the Michelin-starred tier. For comparison, the starred end of Los Angeles dining, covered in detail in our full Los Angeles restaurants guide, involves a different set of commitments from the diner.

Chef Damon Gordon and the Kitchen's Approach

Damon Gordon leads the kitchen at FIG. In Los Angeles terms, where chef pedigree is often the primary credential a restaurant trades on, Gordon's role here is less about personal narrative and more about how the kitchen functions across three distinct meal services: breakfast, lunch (on weekends), and dinner. Running a kitchen that performs credibly at all three is a specific skill set, distinct from the tasting-menu discipline practiced at venues like Osteria Mozza or the hyper-focused formats at the high end. The OAD recognition across two consecutive years suggests the kitchen maintains a consistent floor, which at this format and price tier is more operationally demanding than it might appear.

The farm-to-table framing positions Gordon's team within a sourcing philosophy shared by kitchens from Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg to Lake Placid Lodge, where the discipline of cooking to what is available , rather than what is convenient , shapes the menu's texture from week to week. That approach tends to reward repeat visits and regular diners more than first-timers chasing a specific dish.

Santa Monica as a Dining Context

Santa Monica's dining scene has always had to work against the assumption that proximity to the beach means a preference for casual simplicity. The reality is more layered. The westside in general, and Santa Monica in particular, has a resident population that travels frequently and eats seriously, which means the baseline expectations for quality at everyday price points are higher than in many comparable coastal markets. A hotel restaurant occupying this neighbourhood cannot rely on tourist foot traffic alone to sustain a reputation; it has to earn the loyalty of local regulars.

FIG's position on Wilshire, at the edge of the Fairmont's grounds, places it within easy reach of the Third Street Promenade and the lower Wilshire office corridor, which generates a working lunch and post-work dinner clientele that differs from the beach-day tourism crowd a few blocks south on Ocean Avenue. That dual audience, residents and business visitors alongside hotel guests, is what tends to keep hotel-anchored restaurants honest about their quality threshold.

For visitors building a broader Los Angeles itinerary, the surrounding context includes strong options across categories. Our full Los Angeles hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide map the wider city in detail. Comparable farm-to-table ambition at other price points and formats can be found further afield at Lazy Bear in San Francisco or, at a higher register, The French Laundry in Napa. For a sense of how other serious American kitchens operate outside California, Le Bernardin in New York, Emeril's in New Orleans, Alinea in Chicago, and Atomix in New York each represent distinct regional traditions that sharpen the comparison.

Hours, Format, and Planning

FIG runs a schedule that is more demanding than most standalone restaurants in the city. Breakfast runs daily Monday through Sunday from 7am. Dinner service begins at 5pm Tuesday through Friday, extends to midnight on Saturday, and runs until 11pm on Sunday. Saturday adds a brunch window from 11:30am to 3pm, and Sunday brunch runs the same window. Monday is breakfast only. The breadth of that schedule, particularly the Saturday late close, makes it one of the more flexible options in the neighbourhood for travellers arriving on variable itineraries. Google reviewers rate it at 4.4 across 548 reviews, a score that holds up across a volume sufficient to be statistically meaningful.

Reservations: Booking method not listed; contact the Fairmont Miramar directly or check the hotel's dining reservation system. Location: 101 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401, inside the Fairmont Miramar Hotel. Hours: Breakfast daily from 7am; dinner from 5pm Tuesday to Sunday; Saturday brunch 11:30am–3pm; Sunday brunch 11:30am–3pm; Monday breakfast only. Dress: Not specified; smart-casual in keeping with the hotel setting is appropriate. Budget: Price range not listed; OAD casual-tier positioning suggests mid-range by Los Angeles standards.

What Regulars Order

The venue database does not specify signature dishes, and generating specific menu claims without a verified source would misrepresent the kitchen's current output. What the OAD casual ranking and Google score together suggest is that the kitchen's strength lies in its consistency across services rather than in one or two marquee plates. In farm-to-table formats operating at this tier, the items that tend to anchor regular visits are the ones that shift with California's growing calendar: stone fruit in summer, brassicas and root vegetables in winter, with proteins sourced to reflect what the market supports at a given moment. Regulars at this type of restaurant tend to order what is seasonal and ask the floor staff what arrived from the farmers market that week, which at FIG's location is one of the most productive questions a diner can ask.