RED O

Great place for after work drinks and grabbing a bite to eat. The staff is super friendly and there is always great energy at the restaurant. Not to mention, live music on certain nights. You definitely have to check this place out! And if your at the bar, be sure to have Oliver make you one of his tasty margaritas or old fashioned’s. Enjoy!

When we walked in, the atmosphere was a little too bright and felt Las Vegas cheesy.
We ordered duck taquitos and goat cheese tamales to start. The duck taquitos had an off putting flavor of oil and day old meat. The goat cheese tamales had good flavor but the mesa was too dense. Was hoping for a soft, creamy texture.
Everyone went for steak or lobster or both. Steaks were ok, nothing to write home about. Lobster was rubbery. The steak comes with a side of onion knobs which just means an awkward tied up green onion. Really didn’t see the point of view on those. The plating of everything was terrible. I think there was a sauce for the steak but it looked more like blood run off.
The service was weird and unorganized. The bus boy was reprimanded a couple times for clearing our table and the secret service style head waiter was annoying. It seemed like this was their opening night…
I respect Rick Bayless as a chef and have been to a couple spots in Chicago. This just feels like it has his name on it with no one really running the show. There needs to be someone making sure his cuisine and brand are translated.

Food was excellent. Fresh mixed greens and enchiladas were very tasty. The wait staff was prompt, friendly, and professional. Would definitely eat here again.

I’ve been wanting to try this place in West Hollywood since it opened, needless to say, never got around to it. Until last night and DIneLa, I went to meet a girlfriend at the SM location. Service was great, from the Host David to our waiter. The location is beautiful, bright, airy and well lit. I’m sure during the day with the bright windows and patio, this place is happening. I wish the food was just as Happening. As everyone mentioned, SALTY! SALTY SALTY! This morning I woke up as a PUFFER FISH and that’s from not eating most of the portion of my Chicken Enchilada. It was too salty for my taste. Pretty disappointing with the overall meal. Ended up with the DineLa menu, which started with the Goat Cheese tamales. Tiny, but salty.
I took about 3 bites of my main meal and just ended it, since I couldn’t get enough water to drown my mouth. So many Mexican restaurants to choose from, I’m going to have to pass on the West Hollywood location, I would rather save my $ and go to Titos Tacos.

4* food — delicious, but nothing over the top amazing; yet definitely worth going for
5* ambiance — fun, lively, scene; appreciate that they take reservations
3* service — host stand was great, support staff great, waitress helping our table was terrible.
I went with a girlfriend on a Friday night. Gentleman at the host stand was friendly, helpful and polite. He kept checking in with us to let us know how long it would be until our table was ready. Waitress did not seem happy to be working that night. It was busy, she was likely overwhelmed. Had to flag her down multiple times as she never checked on us. We wanted to order wine with our meals and she never came around after the first drinks/​food were ordered. Finally saw her, had to flag her down to stop her and ask for a wine list. She said sure but never returned with one. Finally flagged down another staff member, asked for the list again. She brought one. A few minutes later I spotted the waitress and had to stop her to ask her for the wine we wanted to order. By the time it came our meals had been sitting in front of us for about 10 minutes which was really disappointing. Regardless, the food was tasty and the scene is vibrant and fun.

3 of us went to dinner at Red O for dine LA. The food is just awesome!
2 of us had the duck tacos with the wine pairings and my wife had the corn tamales. The wine pairing was Riesling which I thought was perfect but my cousin thought a Pinot would be perfect. They brought him a Pinot taster just coz he asked!
For the entrée we had the Filet Mignon, Carnitas and the Salmon. Everything was just about right. The flan for dessert was also pretty awesome — a tip, have all three together — the flan, the Horchata ice cream and the chocolate cake.
The manager Karen is absolutely amazing. Our seating was delayed by just 10 minutes (it was a busy Saturday) and she gave a free spicy guacamole. The service is amazing — they check on you to see if everything is taken care of at regular interval even though the place was packed.
We will definitely go back and I recommend you all give this place a try. Thanks Nicole and Karen for making this a memorable evening!

The whole concept of fancy Mexican food blows my mind. However, it was restaurant week so I decided to give it a go. Service and setting was great. Felt strange eating Mexican on white table cloth. However, the food was average at best. Not worth the prices they charge unless you can justify it for the location. Personally I would rather go to Mercado on 4^th st.

$ 100+ per person for this:
Awful «can’t be bothered» service. Wouldn’t split the bill for our party, but forced us to order from a limited menu.
Super loud, poorly managed environment. A live performer who was literally just playing backing tracks to top 40 songs then singing over them, karaōke style.
I returned a wine glass because of lipstick stains, and the replacement glass was also dirty. Wtf?
Ultra salty duck dish. Omg inedible $ 30 entrée.
Avocado sticker in our guacamole. When we told the server she took it away and never brought a replacement guac back. WTF???
We called ahead for one of our friends to have a vegan dish for one person at our table. When we arrived, nobody knew anything of it. We had to negotiate for a sautéed veggies dish because it wasn’t on our prefixed menu.
NOTHING MADE SENSE HERE. I would give it zero stars of it was possible. The absolute worse.

RED O. Management !!! What a wonderful quaint, intimate dinning experience. This little scenic restaurant is beautifully tucked away on ocean ave right next to the Santa Monica pier. The lively energy of ocean ave gets blown in to the restaurant through the open window seating by the ocean breeze, just magical.
On Thursday January 14^th I had such a wonderful time dinning at this beautiful spot.
We frequent Santa Monica quiet often and my husband and I are always excited for new brick and mortars to pop up. So when our anniversary came around we both were anticipating our reservation at red 0.
At first greet we had a wonderful manager Karen take us to our table. On the short walk to the table, she congratulated us and asked us how we met. She said she will personally make sure we were fully celebrated. That she did. We had a wonderful server who was hilarious and started us out with a complimentary toast, so we could start our anniversary off with some bubbles. After that we enjoyed the yellowtail and it went so well with our Sancerre geof suggested.
He did tour the menu with us in such a fun but detailed way. Making it clear that red o is a steak and seafood restaurant. So we took his suggestion on the tablita and side of corn.
As this impressive sizzling steak and lobster hit our table Karen came over and served our sides for us. Rice, beans, corns and other fixings that made such an amazing smörgåsbord. This all while our meal was being craved and de shelled. You can tell management here sees everything and is very interactive on a personal level with their guests.
We had beautiful red wine, I did have a couple of glasses previously so I don’t remember the producer. Still the memory lingers so strong on my pallet still.
Finishing off our meal with a reposado tasting. And our sweet server sending over a anniversary dessert.
A round of applause for the staff at red o. Especially management. I felt an obvious act of service and hospitality by both managers that touched our table that evening. I can’t say thank you enough for what a wonderful time we had.
Now we both know what it feels like to be vip. It is going to be hard for other restaurants to fill the shoes of red o. Standing ovation.

So my boyfriend just proposed and had reservations for this restaurant.
Upon arriving I loved the vibe and the staff. Everyone was beyond nice and helpful. The food is amazing! My fiancé had the steak and he said it was so good he could cry. He didn’t cry when he proposed, but he was about to cry over this delicious juicy steak!!!
Karen came by to check on us. We told her our good news and she gave me a hug and said congratulations. She was so sweet!!! She brought us champagne too!
This place will forever hold a special place in my heart. The food is amazing!!! Everyone has to try the queso with chorizo!!! Amazing!!! Will definitely be returning!!!

You know those reviews that start with…“I wish there was a ZERO star option”, well here you go, this is one of those.
1. Chicken was waaaaaaaaaaay too salty
2. They have lard in their beans, who the hell in Santa Monica puts lard in their beans? Is this an East Los type of hole in the wall Mexican place or this is a fancy place in Santa Monica? Do they realize that majority of their customers don’t consume pork and they don’t expect pork in their beans? Why don’t they disclose that in the menu that «hey our beans have lard int hem»
3. They dropped my Goddamn dish, so I had to wait another 20 minutes to get a new dish.
4. Shrimp was very mediocre for the price
Drum roooooooooooooooooooooooooole pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!
5. Imagine few of our guests (including us) being charged $ 10 000 extra and the waiters trying to convince you that it’s just a pre-​authorization. Listen you morons, even if it’s pre-​authorization if someone uses a debit card, they can’t access their funds for days or weeks until the pending charges are lift off and guess what? You actually DID try to charge my card $ 1000 the next day and my card company canceled my card. My other buddy’s card still shows thousands of dollars of pending transactions after a week. What a nightmare that night was and that nightmare doesn’t end.
Are you guys running a scam or bunch of incompetent people are running this place? Disgusting indeed! Mediocre food, horrible service and a horrendous experience! Stay away or at least try their other location on Melrose, I heard the other one is not as bad.

Went here with some homies as sort of a reunion of sorts. Number 1. Great freaking service. We started out at the cocktail bar and Megan was phenomenal. Attentive and sweet. Then we transitioned to restaurant seating and though they were visibly insanely packed, our server Lana did a spectacular job in making sure we were well taken care of. We had beers and their margaritas and then THE FOOD. Just saying, the food was on point. Was impressed with the appetizers (had like 4 of em to split). We did the duck taquitos, goat cheese tamales, ahi tuna tostaditos, and the queso fundido. All great options, but I was most impressed with the goat cheese tamales as the combination was actually really pleasant and rich.
The focus of the meal was the steak. I had that juicy 12 oz NY strip and it was beautifully cooked. I usually ask for medium rare thinking most places will over do it but I got what I asked for here. My friends also got the short rib enchiladas and the carnitas. That mole sauce (I think) was suuuuuper dope.
Overall great experience. I think we are about to get a dessert but I wanted to make sure I dropped a review before I forgot. Thanks for the experience! It changed my mind about eating in Santa Monica for sure. Would come back and recommend for sure.

2 stars is being nice
Place is so loud inside you can’t have a conversation without yelling. No joke, fix the acoustics, try and dampen the noise, maybe get rid of the live music, so overwhelming for such a small area.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is nice. The salsas are all very tasty.
The appetizer ahi tostaditas, was old fish. Can’t believe it, they either don’t know how to store the fish or use whatever they have left until it’s gone. Almost through up at the table. They place actually smells of fish. Fresh fish doesn’t smell. Sorry complete failure.
Ordered the rib-​eye for the main course. Just basic salt and pepper steak. Really nothing else to it.
Sides:
Plantains — I don’t eat these, so I can’t comment on them. But the rib-​eye comes with plantains. Would’ve been nice for the waiter to mention it so we didn’t have two order of them.
Mashed potatoes. Only thing I have to say about them is step away from the salt shaker. Too salty too eat.
I know it just opened but it needs to be revamped already. Seriously, Rick Bayless actually cooks crap food like this? Is this really representative of the lack of talent there is on the food network?
Waiter evidently didn’t have allot of experience. Service was lack luster. Water cup always empty. Felt a bit neglected
I guess what really started the downward spiral was the smell of old fish in the restaurant and the disgusting ahi tuna tostaditas.
I really hope management steps up and calls Rick because I would be embarrassed to have my name on this restaurant.

Viande parfaitement cuite et excellent service. Sommes arrivés 10mn après la fin du service et ils nous ont servi quand même !

This was my second time coming to RED O & every time it is so good. The chef is known for his lamb chops which are amazing, & they have a pretty great lobster (better than Boa & comparable to Water Grill) it is served with a tajin butter on top & that is what really sets it apart from other places to get lobster in the area. The filet was a little overdone & pretty standard, nothing special. The queso fundido is good but make sure to get the duck taquitos as an appetizer. The drinks here are so spicy & unique, I always make a point to get a cocktail, the staff is friendly & the servers seem to enjoy being at work. Great new addition to the strip of restaurants on Ocean Ave.

I don’t LOVE high end Mexican food usually, but Rick Bayless does a lovely job with bold flavors that aren’t the usual suspects. Since you already know its good lets start with the good, the bad, and the Jason Mraz. I would have given a higher rating if they didn’t have a coffee house singer playing a guitar and singing modern interpretations of Bieber sitting by me — kind of killed the vibe of the high end restaurant experience.
The good:
— Fresh Corn & Goat cheese tamales — YUM. they come in small portions and I ate about three of them. The corn is SO NICE, the masa holds up, the cheese isn’t overpowering DELICIOUS
— Beef Short Rib Sopes — beef had a nice flavor to it, a little dry on the sope but very tasty
— Carne Asada DANG so good, simple straight up carne asada — VERY tender, simple plating
— Carnitas — my FAVORITE of the night, a really nice sweet savory rich light sauce its in, I honestly can’t say enough good things about it (but I will)
— The Butter Cake — LIVES UP to the name, crunchy and buttery and delicious — WINNER.
The bad:
— Entertainment — MEH, gives the restaurant a gimmicky feel — NOT into it. Coffee house music is for coffee houses, I don’t need a yung heartthrob playing hot hits with an acoustic guitar
— Guacamole — its a smooth guac (I prefer mine chunky), wasn’t a fan of the consistency
— Street Corn — while I LOVE Elote, this was a bit of a drier version, don’t know that it was worth the cost

Amazing location, right across the street from the pier. The restaurant itself is beautiful — romantic lighting, nice layout, definitely a trendy place to be on the weekends. Seems to get busy so make a reservation!
Don’t get the butternut squash soup. DO get the ceviche. I’ve had better (and cheaper) chicken enchiladas elsewhere, but the margaritas are on point (read: STRONG). Awesome guacamole, with unlimited chips and salsa. We were a big group, and the servers were very friendly and accommodating. Fun spot to get a bite before a night out. I’ll be back for the happy hour!

I’ve been to Red O before, but this location is by the beach, which automatically has my attention. There’s big open windows so you can enjoy that view and the breeze. Try your best to request a table by those windows! The whole place is very trendy and has more of a LA vibe than Santa Monica (so get dressed up!). We walked in without reservations on a extremely busy Saturday night and assumed we’d have to snag bar seating. The host was incredibly friendly and accommodated us with a table pretty quickly. He handled the large crowd really well and was very attentive and friendly to everyone! Best host I’ve seen in a long time! Food and drinks were fantastic!
We had:
Yellowtail crudo (⁵⁄₅ stars): watch out this is spicy! You wouldn’t believe it, because it’s so light and refreshing, but wow oh wow has a kick. My mouth was on fire, but so worth it!
Queso fundito (⁴⁄₅ stars): a white cheese dip with caramelized onions. If you are looking for cheesy and a bit greasy (hey sometimes it’s needed!) this is where it’s at. Plus it’s made with real cheese! So often these dips are not.
Caesar salad (²⁄₅ stars): eh boring. There’s way better on the menu.
Enchiladas suizas (⁴⁄₅ stars): a unique taste sensation of sweet and savory, I highly enjoyed these. My sister and I were sharing them and they kindly split it onto two plates with a generous serving of the sides for each of us.
All our cocktails were awesome! The gimlet was the best I’ve ever had!
Oh and they have happy hour DAILY (weekends included!) from 4 – 6:30pm.
I’ll definitely be back!

I’ve been to the original Red O location a few times for both brunch and dinner and have always been blown away by the service and quality of the food. When I heard they had opened a new location in SM, I knew I had to check it out — especially for their amazing HH (4 – 6:30PM everyday)! The restaurant itself is on Ocean Ave and is very bright and airy. When we arrived around 5:30pm on a Friday, there were plenty of high tops available in the bar and we were seated right away. Our waitress was extremely attentive in asking if we needed anything when she walked by, taking drink orders before HH ended and making sure our old plates got cleared as new ones were added to the table.
Classic Guacamole — $ 5 HH — Great price for a healthy helping of guac to pair with your free chips and salsa
Mary’s Duck Taquitos — $ 7 HH — If you are a taquitos fan, you will not be disappointed, these are served warm and crispy without feeling heavy and greasy
Ahi Tuna Tostadita — $ 8 HH — Sushi grade ahi tuna is all you need to know — these are delicious and probably my favorite thing on the HH menu!
Classic Albacore Ceviche — $ 8 HH — Jam packed with flavor, plantain chips are interesting and definitely balance all the different components in the ceviche
Soft Tacos — Carnitas, Shrimp & Short Rib — $ 6 for two tacos HH — skip the shrimp, if you’re only ordering one set, opt for the short rib, the crispy thin potatoes bring these tacos to the next level!
House Margaritas — $ 7 HH — Well balanced flavor, they can make it spicy for no extra charge.
We will definitely be coming back soon!

Happy hour is from 4 – 6:30 every day. We came in for the first time around 6:00 and didn’t realize it was first come first serve seating. We approached the host and asked for a table for 2, and he asked us to wait while he went out of his way to clear a table for us and made sure someone else didn’t take it. The waitress came over not long after to take our order. Overall, great service.
Free chips and salsa arrived first. We ordered off the HH menu — $ 7 house margarita, $ 7 Mary’s duck taquitos, and $ 6 fresh corn and goat cheese tamales. HH pricing is definitely worth it for the great food. Overall, everything we ordered was amazing so I highly recommend those items (although the duck taquitos def take it). I have also heard good things about their guacamole and the shrimp and calamari ceviche but wasn’t too hungry so didn’t order it.
There are a lot of lots to park at that offer 90 minutes free parking before 6PM. It’s only a short walk to the restaurant. Overall, great experience!

This location is ok. I prefer the Melrose location. This one (rightfully so) has more of a laid back, beach vibe. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a total scene. I’ve ever seen so much horrible plastic surgery outside of Beverly Hills.
Drinks — One of the best skinny margaritas I’ve ever had. They have an extensive tequila menu.
Food — Good. The corn & goat cheese tamales are probably excellent when served hot. Ours came out cold but our waiter immediately took it back and replaced it. The second batch unfortunately came out barely luke warm. The flavors were nice; would have been nice if they were served hot. The beef short ribs sopes were pretty good. The meat was a little fat but not too bad. Heck fat adds flavor. I had the carnitas and they were pretty good.
Service — Ok. Our waiter was definitely overwhelmed. Extremely nice guy. He really tried but he was too slammed. So much that after waiting a ridiculously long time to order another waiter came over (without our asking or complaining) to assist. Our waiter was around sporadically. Dude was literally dripping with sweat he was running around so much. We actually felt bad for him.
Overall for the price, my experience should have been all around better.