WHY The seafood’s usually outstanding, including almond-crusted rainbow trout and pepper-crusted ahi with green-tea soba noodles.

WHAT JiRaffe epitomizes the California bistro, with its elegant chandeliers hung above cozy tables, first-rate service and the creative market-based California-French cuisine of surfer-chef Raphael Lunetta. Bargain hunters, take note of Lunetta’s fantastic three-course Monday-night dinner, a bistro-style menu for $38: perhaps duck confit with haricots vert, pan-roasted Alaskan halibut with a spaghetti of zucchini, and a lemon bar with crème fra’che ice cream.

WHO Santa Monica creative types, businesspeople and politicians, often celebrating an achievement.