Connie & Ted’s

The Verdict

Connie & Ted's is not trying to be a fine-dining destination. The most common mistake visitors make is arriving with tasting-menu expectations at a room that is built around honest, well-sourced New England seafood in a casual West Hollywood setting. Under chef Sam Baxter, the kitchen has earned a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, plus back-to-back recognition from Opinionated About Dining's Casual North America list. That track record tells you something specific: this is a consistently reliable seafood house, not an occasion restaurant. Book it for the lobster roll and the shuck-to-order oysters, not for a milestone anniversary that needs white tablecloths.

The Space

The room at 8171 Santa Monica Blvd is deliberately generous in scale. This is not an intimate counter or a tightly packed bistro. The layout is modelled loosely on the open, airy format of a classic New England clam shack translated into a full-service California restaurant, which means exposed surfaces, communal energy, a noise level that rises quickly once the dining room fills. Seating options split between the main dining floor and a raw bar counter area, the latter being the better choice if you are a solo diner or a pair who wants to watch the shellfish work up close. Parties of four or more should aim for a booth or table in the main room, where conversation is easier to sustain before the evening rush builds. The spatial logic here favours daytime dining: at lunch, the room reads as bright and relaxed, the natural light softening what becomes a considerably louder experience after 7 PM.

Lunch vs Dinner: Where the Value Lives

This is the editorial question worth answering carefully for anyone deciding when to book. Lunch at Connie & Ted's delivers a materially better value-per-dollar experience than dinner. The kitchen is running the same menu, the same sourcing, the same execution, but the room is calmer, wait times for walk-ins are more forgiving, the overall pace allows you to actually taste what you are eating rather than shouting over it. At a $$$ price point, you are spending meaningfully less per head than at Michelin-starred seafood alternatives like Providence, which sits in the two-star tier for contemporary seafood in Los Angeles. The gap in formality is enormous, but the gap in seafood quality is smaller than the price difference would suggest.

Dinner is not a bad choice, but you need to go in knowing the room changes character. After 7:30 PM on a Friday or Saturday, the ambient noise climbs to a level that makes it a poor pick for anyone who wants a proper conversation-led meal. If you are coming specifically for the raw bar and plan to eat quickly and move on, evenings work fine. If you want to linger over chowder and a bottle of white Burgundy, the lunch service on a weekday is where Connie & Ted's operates at its most enjoyable register.

Booking and Timing

Booking difficulty here is moderate. Reservations are available and advisable for dinner, particularly Thursday through Saturday, where the room fills to capacity and walk-in waits can stretch beyond 45 minutes. Lunch is more accessible, with same-day reservations often available during the week. Plan two weeks ahead for a weekend dinner reservation to have comfortable choice of time slot. The OAD recognition and the Michelin Plate designation have driven consistent demand, so the days of treating this as a reliable walk-in option on weekends are largely behind it.

What to Know About the Awards

The Michelin Plate, awarded in both 2024 and 2025, signals a kitchen producing food worth eating, not food approaching star-level ambition. That is the correct read for Connie & Ted's. The OAD Casual North America ranking (Highly Recommended in 2023, climbing to #328 in 2024) comes from a survey of serious eaters who prioritise quality without formality, which aligns precisely with what this restaurant does well. Compare that profile to Kato, which operates in a different register entirely with a tasting menu format, or to Hayato for Japanese precision at a considerably higher price tier. Connie & Ted's sits in a different part of the market: it is the most credentialled casual seafood option in West Hollywood, that is a meaningful distinction when you are deciding where to eat well without committing to a $200+ per head evening.

For context on what serious seafood ambition looks like at the top of the market, Le Bernardin in New York City sets the global benchmark for the category. Connie & Ted's does not compete in that tier, nor does it try to. Its peer set is the well-run, sourcing-focused casual seafood house, within that peer set it is among the most reliably decorated in Southern California.

Who Should Book

Book Connie & Ted's if you want credible New England seafood in Los Angeles at a price that does not require a special-occasion justification. It is the right choice for groups who want a shared, convivial meal with good shellfish and without the ceremony of a tasting menu. It is not the right choice if you want a quiet table, an intimate atmosphere, or a progression of courses. For those needs, Providence or Somni will serve you better, at a higher price. For a broader sense of where Connie & Ted's fits in the Los Angeles dining scene, see our full Los Angeles restaurants guide. If you are building a full trip, our Los Angeles hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide are worth checking before you finalise plans.