Reviewing Belles Beach House: Hawaiian Food in the heart of Los Angeles!
I have been dying to try Belles Beach House because it is headed by the same hospitality team as the well-known Santa Monica restaurant Elephante and the Sunset Strip restaurant Eveleigh. I didn’t have to dig too hard to find this spot since it was coming up on my TikTok “For You Page” and my Instagram “Explore Page” for weeks. Reservations aren’t necessarily easy to get due to the current hype, but if you book several days in advance, you should be fine. Although parking is never easy in Venice, I lucked out with a meter spot a couple of blocks away. When I got to the restaurant, there was a line at the entrance where people showed their vaccine cards before entering. The two hostesses were diligent to get everyone checked in and lead them to their tables.
The restaurant’s entryway exudes an exclusive Miami club vibe, and once inside, you are instantly transported to a tropical environment, complete with a life-size tiki at the entrance and tropical prints on the pillows and couches in the lounge area. The restaurant is divided into three sections: a casual side with couches for seating, a more formal side with mostly tables and chairs, and a bar area that connects the two. It was packed, and the hostess directed our party to a table on the more formal side of the restaurant. I liked where we sat for Sunday brunch, but I definitely wouldn’t mind sitting on the more casual side for dinner because the atmosphere seemed more laid-back, communal, and experience-worthy.
The brunch menu wasn’t as extensive as we expected, but we lucked out because we each found something we really wanted. We started by ordering some drinks. We got two passion fruit mango spritzes and one pineapple cucumber spritz. Next up, we ordered our main courses.
I got the avocado toast, which included sourdough bread topped with avocado mash, hemp togarashi, and chives, as well as a lemon on the side. It was also garnished with some dainty yellow flowers, making the dish camera-ready. My friends both got the breakfast burrito, which came with soft scrambled eggs, sage and black pepper sausage, jack cheese, crispy potatoes, and scallions as well as sides of serrano aioli and hot sauce. The burritos were well-packed, but not overwhelmingly so. The best part of the burritos was the flavor of the sausage. I think the soft scrambled egg to crispy potato ratio truly made the burrito stand out and taste even better. They also added a side of Hawaiian fries with a truffle aioli dipping sauce. My two friends are big dipping sauce fans, and they agreed that the truffle aioli went great with the Hawaiian fries, while the hot sauce was perfect for dipping the burrito in. The fries were seasoned so well that I personally didn’t even think they needed a dipping sauce to accompany them.
The burrito’s side of arugula salad was a nice “healthy” touch to balance out the dish.
Due to the overwhelming of the staff, our waiter forgot two of our meals and ended up simply removing them off the bill because they were never served to us. Though I wish I could have tried the banana bread, perhaps next time. Unfortunately, since the restaurant was so packed, it was incredibly loud, and I had to raise my voice to be heard by my friends. The ambiance of the restaurant certainly makes up for these drawbacks and even the quality of the food. While the food was good, it was not as special as the food at their sister restaurants Elephante and Eveleigh. I think Belles Beach House has some room for improvement, but since they are so new and clearly quite successful thus far with their extreme growth in such a short time, I am very willing to give this establishment another shot in the future.