3 on Fourth

4.5.
Quite possibly the best restaurant in Santa Monica. The food was superb and the service was fantastic. Each small plate had a delicious and unique approach. As a mushroom fan I was pleased to find healthy helpings of truffles and morels on the pastas. The textures were paired brilliantly. The salmon was cooked perfectly and melted in my mouth. Our waitress was extremely knowledgeable and arranged the order of our small plates to be best received by the palette. For a real treat order the blueberry pie!
This is my new favorite spot…

DineLA is trying to sabotage my nutritional program! And empty my wallet! 3 restaurants down… 1 more to go!
After devouring the amazing short ribs at Baleen, I was really excited to see that the prefix menu at 3 on Fourth also offered short ribs off the bone… but man… there was no contest… the ribs here totally paled in comparison. It looked like just a slab of beef on top of some brown sauce and a few fingerling potatoes and carrots. It was tender but lacked flavor — thank God for salt! It was also really fatty and had to remove chunks of fat from my plate.
The pumpkin soup replaced the cauliflower soup that was initially on the menu and it was good… not great… and had a piece of saffron flavored crème brûlée in it.
The olive oil cake was also lacking. It tasted like a lemon cake and kinda had the consistency of pound cake… but it was served a la mode, so that was a nice surprise. All this was $ 44… and yet I was still a little hungry when I got home.
I also ordered the wine pairing, which was $ 15, that included a 2 oz serving of Riesling, 2 oz glass of Shiraz and 2 oz of some dessert wine which was way too sweet.
Service was excellent… and quite nice to look at… so overall it was a pleasant experience. The company was supreme… not to be confused with The Supremes… although, that woulda been kinda cool too!
No rush to come back.
.

I really need there to be 3−½ stars available to me here on Unilocal!Maybe I’m eternally damned to this abyss between 3 and 4 stars that I seem mired in so much of the time. God damn, OK well i digress…
I love the concept of 3 on Fourth. I have been here three times (I also love the symmetry of having been to 3 on Fourth 3 times and debating over whether to give it 3 or 4 stars). This is a perfect spot for a date that involves conversation and a nice, longish meal. But I want to be clear that the meal doesn’t HAVE to be long. It’s a user-​regulated type thing. I agree with other reviewers that the absence of loud music is refreshing. This is not a loud, cavernous place, although it does have very high, dramatic ceilings. Somehow the conversations seem to stay close to their participants, making your conversation all the more enjoyable. It is clean both architecturally and from a design standpoint. It does not look like a place you would expect to find next to the John Cassese «The Dance Doctor» Dance Academy. Based on concept and the awkwardly endearing location on Fourth, I’d give this place 4 stars.
Food-​wise I’d go with a 3-​star rating. The menu is varied and gives you the opportunity to go in lots of different directions. This can be a simple small plates meal with a couple glasses of wine. It can also be a heartier ordeal with tons of tapas options and several very nice entrée offerings. Any way you slice it, the food holds up, especially given the breadth of the menu. Some things are tremendously delicious, others are not. That said, nothing is bad. Go to 3 on Fourth with an empty stomach, a full wallet, a pretty girl, a sense of adventure and a hankering for some good beer and wine.

We ate here last night (⁹⁄₂₀) and had a wonderful experience. Ambiance was great. Very relaxed. The first thing we noticed was that thankfully there was NO loud music! We’re not old by any means but this has seriously gotten out of hand at restaurants. I realize that there are married couples/​families/​friends that don’t want to talk to each other but were not one of them.
Great wine and cheese list. Service was A+. We started with the heirloom tomato w/​blue cheese and vinegar and the tuna sashimi w/​foie gras and grilled watermelon (weird right? but sooo good). Entrees were the Branzino (a fish… who knew?) and the filet w/​vegetables and I added the marrow and toast (Awesome.). Dessert? Of course! Panna Cotta, Chocolate Mousse, and Crème Brulee.
Definitely, on the pricey side (ended up being $ 100/​pp) but totally worth it. This has become one of our favorite restaurants.

I came here a few months back for an elite Unilocal event. I am constantly amazed at the number of restaurants I’ve missed when I was out in the area. If I had known about 3 on Fourth, I would have gone more regularly.
The décor is definitely my sort of place. However, the food we were served was probably not the best representation of the overall menu. I didn’t enjoy any of the tidbits except for the chocolate covered strawberry (and the own libations I made for the special mixology class I took here).
We met the owner/​chef and he explained they are a beer and wine type of place.
Staff was really nice and so with the overall vibe, I will be returning. And considering it’s so close to the Promenade (just a few steps from the parking structure and across from Border Grill), I definitely will consider it an option for dinner.

To my surprise, Aunny e-​mailed me and said there was a cancellation for this Elite event. So I get to go. I get off of work late so I arrived about 30 minutes after everyone arrived but got there for the first drink we were all learning how to make. I was certainly hungry so I was more interested in the food that was coming out. So we were all up on the 2^nd floor. We had food pairing with our mixology drinks. I remember a strawberry mojito and a chocolate covered strawberry. A sweet vodka drink with an endive salad. A chocolate drink with ice cream? Not sure after the second drink but dinner was also offered after our event for anyone who would like to stay. It all looked really good but was not interested in a $ 30 plate. I did stay to chat with a few others and got a card for a free appetizer upon my next visit.

I really like the ambiance here. I came for the Unilocal Elite Mixologist event and they had some pretty DAMN tasty appetizers (I’m TOTALLY obsessed with their fries). Looks like a really great date place and I’m a fan of their balcony seating area. My cousin devoured their sashimi and she never even eats raw fish. Needless to say, great sashimi.

The truffle fries were de-​lish! Did try the halibut for dinner and some of the other appetizers during the Unilocal Elite Mixology Event but the fries were the standout item!
Overall a nice restaurant and good service. Would have to go back again and not have 4 cocktails before eating to be able to give it 5 stars! Food never stands out when the drinks are flowing!

Came here for a Unilocal Mixologist event and I had a great time. The ambiance is great. One of the best I have seen in LA. I felt like I was transported to a hip charming place in NY. Service was great and the chef himself came out and greeted us. In general, we didn’t try that much food, just some light fare of sashimi, endive grapefruit salad, etc. however it was all pretty good. Very clean flavors in a great space.
Would I go back and try it again? Perhaps however the prices seemed pretty steep. I wouldn’t really call this place «cheap eats» but definitely worth checking out if you are interested in fusion fancy.

I try to steer clear of fries but the truffle fries were so damn yummers that I caved and ate a handful or two. Seriously yum! So check 1 right there because I was snarfing down fries!
This may sound crazy but… their bread and butter was the best bread and butter ever. Like EVER. It was thinly sliced and toasted perfectly with soft butter. I don’t know how they made it so good! I asked for more but unfortunately we didn’t get more. We did score more truffle fries but by that point I figured I might as well just spread them on my stomach because that’s where they would be today!
After the delicious Unilocal tasting I wasn’t starved but I was still hungry so I opted for an order of brie and their scallop appetizer. I always worry when I order scallops because half the time they are always cold and raw in the center but I had a good feeling Chef Daniel would rock it and he did! They were cooked perfectly and delicious! I was bummed there were only two small scallops since they were so good. Oh well there is always next time!
The brie was good but I was disappointed my bread wasn’t toasted like earlier. Had it not been so hustley and bustley I would have asked them to toast it because quite honestly I only ordered the damn brie so I could have that bread!
The blueberry pie looked divine and must have been because our two table mates polished it off. I’ll add that on my list for next time as well!
My favorites were the goat cheese w/​beet/​berries, the endive salad (needed pepper), and the scallops!
Oh oh oh! I also tasted the steak and it was fantastic. Actually everything I had was a winner except the fluke sashimi, The fluke was pretty darn fishy… ew.
Go and give it a try you won’t be bummed!

We stopped in here unexpectedly, while trolling for dinner after an excursion to REI. The place has real potential, and I’m certainly open to eating here again.
We started with a couple cheeses, followed by the scallop appetizer. All were outstanding. Cheese selection is excellent – we had goat cheese and an Irish blue cheese. The grilled scallops were perfectly prepared – they melt in your mouth.
For dinner, I had a burger and fries. The burger was excellent, flame broiled, goulda cheese, mmmm. The fries were too greasy, and cut annoyingly short. My partner got the wild atlantic sea bass, which was less than ideal. So much excellent sea bass in LA, they should either take if off the menu or figure out what cuts they want to serve and serve them well.
The service was excellent; knowledgable and attentive (the waitress knew which cheese to recommend eating first). The wine list is quite developed.

What a concept! French, Japanese, Cal fusion = 3^rd on Fourth. This lovely little restaurant is tucked away on 4^th Street just far enough away from the madness that is the 3^rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It is right next to Harvelle’s Jazz Club, for those of you who are familiar. Well I had the pleasure of being invited to sample from their menu last week.
We started with the kampachi and marrow with toast as an appetizer. The kampachi was good, nothing extraordinary (especially compared to my Providence kampachi earlier in the week) but the marrow with toast… wow! Soooo very good. I could have eaten at least 3 plate of that. For our main courses we had the veal chop along with a type of fish I had never heard of, which is prepared on the bone was was a little difficult to eat. The deserts, however, were amazing. We had a nougat ice cream combo that isn’t normally on the menu, but was prepared special for the day. The ice cream was homemade and reminiscent of an egg nog flavor but not as strong. Realllly yummy!
The restaurant is a bit pricey, but for the portions given I think it is well worth it. This is a very romantic place if you want to impress a date. The ambiance is low key, very interesting art on the walls and the wine/​beer/​sake list is incredibly diverse with plenty of options.
I will definitely be back because I didn’t get to try but I was eying their truffle french fries. I’d also love to come back and try their lunch menu. They have a great website too, by the way. Very interactive.

I was desperate to find a good spot to take my work colleagues and searched Unilocal and got this hit.
The food here was good, nothing special though. I got the set meal with shrimp for appetizer, steak fritte for main course, and pear pie for dessert (since they ran out of blueberry). The wine tasting to match the meal was good, the Pinot Noir and Beaujolais were really good.
I’m not sure I would go again. The restaurant opposite the street has much better seafood and ambience.

DineLA’s Restaurant is a godsend for people who don’t want to drop a lot of cash on a decent meal, but want to try something new.
I was excited by the lunch menu as was my co-​worker. I chose the Crispy Coriander Ginger Shrimp with Thai Sweet Chili Sauce and New Zealand Ocean Trout with Roasted Potatoes dill and crème fraîche,
My co-​worker got the grilled apple salad with Buffalo mozzarella, crispy prosciutto and honey roasted walnuts and the Niman ranch ground chuck burger with caramelized onion, wild boar bacon, arugula, cantal and gouda.
They were inspired choices, but when we got back to work, we both found that our choices (minus his salad) were… salty. My meal was so salty that all afternoon no matter how much water I drank, I couldn’t get rid of the salty taste in my mouth and throat.
I feel bad, because it’s a great looking restaurant and the waitress was top notch. (I believe her name is Kat.) I will say, however, the mascarpone cheesecake which I brought home and shared much later was spectacular. My only complaint was that it wasn’t bigger! Ha!
I would have preferred a simpler menu without the sodium assault.

God Bless DineLA Restaurant week. 3 on Fourth was a spur of the moment, random reservation I made when I discovered they were one of the participating restaurants.
I originally made the reservation for me and the roomie, but she’s in Vegas… so I almost cancelled, but offered a last minute invitation to Edgar C. who happily came along.
Here are some of my handy-​dandy notes before I start getting too detailed about my meal:
Easy parking (garage just a couple businesses down)
Cute, open restaurant, semi-​dimly lit with candles
Nice hostess
Attentive, but not in your face server
VEGETARIAN OPTIONS (!!!)
After dining at Grace the night before, the bar was set pretty high for 3 on fourth. But really, they didn’t disappoint. I was REALLY pleased to see that the DineLA menu did have vegetarian choices (though, I was disappointed to find out the butternut squash soup was made with chicken stock). I ordered the grilled apple salad with pecans and buffalo mozarella. Yum. Fresh. Good. For my main course I had the butternut squash ravioli. TO DIE. TOOOO DIIIEEEE. And the portions were HUGE! I couldn’t finish all of my ravioli. Unlike every other «upscale» italian place that gives you four ravioli, my plate was piled. The «sauce» was just a light butter sauce with sage (?). It wasn’t heavy at all. Finished up with a chocolate hazlenut dessert — which was again… to diiiiieee and couldn’t finish that either. But there was such a nice balance of the chocolate and the hazlenut. (one of my favorite combos EVER).
Edgar had the butternut squash soup (which looked like baby food) and the steak frites (steak fries?! haaa!) with actual fries… I stole a couple of those and they were pretty good. well seasoned and fresh tasting… with housemade ketchup and a garlic butter sauce to dip. I’ll let him tell you what he thought of the steak.
And reason #1 I love going to dinner with Edgar. He. does. not. like. desserts. So – lucky for me, the restaurant was willing to pack up the marscapone cheesecake for me to take home.
The food and experience beat out Grace — both get five stars… but I was much more impressed with 3 on Fourth.
(I’m going to eat my cheesecake now…)

I have to admit, my reviews are based on expectations vs. what is actually delivered. Essentially my expectations of the setting, the service and the overall price for the experience.
My expectations about 3 on Fourth were admittedly pretty high. Nice setting, nice hostess, nice website and these guys are on open table as well. I walked in with high expectations and 3 on Fourth simply did not deliver.
For the price there are much better alternatives in the area. I found the food to be a bit hit and miss. Some items were good, some were not so good. For a restaurant that is trying to be upscale, it should have been much better and more consistent in quality.
What we ordered?
Crispy Zucchini Blossoms (Yuck, we should have sent them back)
Veal Chop (Pretty tasty, a solid showing)
Grilled Lamb Chops («Interesting» but not worth the hoopla or the price). The waiter suggested this and represented the dish as one of their marquee offerings. I found it «interesting» in the sense of the flavors were close to being really good, but were still being perfected. In other words, not quite there yet.
Overall it was not a bad experience, just one of those that when you leave you say:
Eehhhhhh, we should have gone to Boa, Lobster, Chaya or even Houston’s.
In Summary: 3 on Fourth is trying much to hard to be something it is not.

It was a couple of months ago that my friend finally convinced me to go back (I’d been when it first opened and wasn’t that impressed) and I have to say that I really, really enjoyed the food. Great steak frites, truffle fries and pumpkin soup. I recently went back with the SO just to make sure that last trip wasn’t an anomaly, and was again surprised at how good the food was.
Last time was a quick meal; this time I splurged a bit. Fois gras terrine (made with soy sauce) was perfect, seared scallops with sunchoke purée were tender, and the special grass-​fed rib-​eye steak was seared to a precise medium rare. I’m not completely sold on grass-​fed beef, as it tastes so foreign to my American tongue, but this one was fantastic.
The cheese service here deserves a separate paragraph. I’ve never heard of anyone doing this before, but you can order cheese by the piece. Normally you are bound to a selection of 3 or 5, but here you are not. I stuck with what I knew — Epoisses and Brillat Savarin — and the chef brought me an extra piece of bright orange blue cheese from Ireland that I had never heard of before. It was very nice of him, and it was honestly one of the best blue cheeses I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, he told me that I can’t find it anywhere in LA — not even the BH Cheese Store!
Our dinner was polished off with some nice beer instead of wine. I love the vino, but the beer selection was so interesting that I had to try it. I ended up trying an Eisbock that will knock a giant troll on its feet (like 11−14% alchy or something like that). Hmm… maybe THAT’S why I enjoyed dinner so much!
All in all, it was a great dinner with the boy, a great time getting to bust out my foodie knowledge (with the cheese) and a great time stumbling back to the car (don’t worry, he drove). I recommend it for a date spot, a dinner with close friends and anyone who loves stinky cheese.

Is it AOC, Lou, or bin 8945? No way.
But its simple, small, has a fanstastic beer list, a decent burger, cheese, fries, and other things to nibble on. The prices are reasonable.
The menu needs to be 30% smaller and the food needs to be 30% better for it to really contend in the food department.
For me, it is a good way to mix it up instead of going to bodega (too nightspot like and not enough food), father’s office (to hectic), library alehouse (food not to my liking), robata bar (weak beer list). All of those places are excellent when I am in a mood for them, but it is good to have other options.
On a food level, it is a small step below beechwood.

I used open table to book a table here. I had been wanting to try it out for quite some time, because the website made it seem like this great place to check out… perhaps I should have checked Unilocal first.
A rating of 3.5 stars is much more appropriate.
The place is a lot smaller than I thought it would be from the website, but no biggie, I have lived on the east coast I can deal with small spaces. The initial service took forever and almost seemed like we were intruding on her time. The major plus for that night was the on staff sommelier. He helped pair our food with our wine quite well.
Our starter plates were pretty tasty. After months of watching Anthony Bourdain, I thought I better try something out of my comfort zone and opted for their eggs and sea urchin with black truffles. We also ordered the filet. So the filet was good, but the egg & sea urchin concoction still leaves me with a weird response. Let’s just say, I tried it. And with that I have bragging rights, because I ate most of it. the GM was circling around asking how things were. I was polite and said «good.» He noticed my plate wasn’t completely empty, and asked how the dish was. Sooo, he asked… «It was unique.» With that response, he comp’d our chocolate dessert which was pretty yummy.
I was pleasantly surprised when our bill came and wasn’t as much as I had expected. $ 120 for 2.

Service was slow for us being the only people in the joint. I got the smoked salmon, which was pretty tasty. The best part of the meal was my friend’s sweet potato fries! I’m on a burger fast right now, but I’ll definitely be back to try their burger with those puppies. Like other Unilocalers have said, the food really is hit or miss. Hurry and get the foie gras, while it’s still on the menu.