Restaurant in Los Angeles, United States

Pasjoli

Name: Pasjoli
Address: 2732 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90405, Los Angeles, US
Telephone: (424) 330-0020
Price range: $$$$

825Pearl Points

Serious French cooking, less serious format.

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About Pasjoli

Pasjoli is Dave Beran's Santa Monica French bistro and one of LA's most consistently ranked restaurants, placing #18 on the LA Times 101 Best and #70 on OAD North America 2025. The pressed duck with tableside service is the main event; book three to four weeks out for weekend seatings. A $65 early-bird format makes it accessible without sacrificing the kitchen's ambition.

The Verdict

Pasjoli is not the stiff French tasting-menu experience the price tag might suggest. Chef Dave Beran has deliberately moved the restaurant toward something more relaxed — prix fixe formats, a burger at the bar, early-bird pricing — while keeping the cooking precise enough to earn a spot at #18 on the LA Times 101 Best Restaurants 2024 list and #70 on Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in North America 2025. If you want serious French technique in a room that doesn't require a tie, this is the booking. If you want a full theatrical tasting arc closer to what Alinea in Chicago or The French Laundry in Napa offer, Pasjoli is a different animal.

What Pasjoli Actually Is Right Now

The most common misconception about Pasjoli is that it sits comfortably in the destination-dining category alongside Providence or Le Bernardin in New York City. It does not. Beran has recalibrated the format to straddle two modes: a neighbourhood restaurant with ambition and a special-occasion room with enough looseness to not feel precious. The two current prix fixe options, one anchored to the signature pressed duck, one a greatest-hits format drawn from five years of the menu, give the evening a clear narrative shape without the relentless pacing of a 10-course tasting.

The visual centrepiece of any duck-focused dinner is the service itself. Beran brings a medieval-looking press to tableside, breaks down the bird, compresses the carcass into a concentrated gravy in front of the room. It is genuinely theatrical, the kind of moment that makes the whole table pay attention regardless of what they ordered. For a special occasion or a date where you want a shared talking point, this alone justifies choosing the duck prix fixe over the alternatives. For context, comparable tableside drama at Hayato or Vespertine is baked into a far more expensive and formal structure; at Pasjoli the theatrics come without the rigidity.

Recent reformat also introduced a $65 three-course option for diners seated before 6 PM, a genuine value entry point at the $$$$ tier that makes the restaurant bookable for occasions where the full spend would feel excessive. At the bar, the marrow aioli burger and what one LA Times critic called the leading grilled cheese sandwich in the known universe sit alongside the expanded beverage program, meaning a shorter, more casual visit is a real option. If you are considering Pasjoli for a business dinner or an anniversary, the full duck prix fixe is the right call; if you are visiting for the first time and want to test the kitchen, the bar seats and the early-bird format are sensible starting points.

Booking and Timing

Pasjoli is a hard book. Given its consistent placement in the OAD North America rankings, #78 in 2023, #76 in 2024, #70 in 2025, and its LA Times positioning, reservation windows fill quickly. Expect to plan at least three to four weeks ahead for weekend dinner, be prepared for tighter availability around the duck-focused seatings specifically. The early seating (before 6 PM) is your leading route to a same-week booking. Hours run 5:15 PM to 9:30 PM Sunday through Thursday, until 10:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant is at 2732 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90405.

Practical Details

Detail	Pasjoli	Camphor	Kato
Cuisine	French bistro	French-Asian	New Taiwanese
Price tier	$$$$	$$$$	$$$$
Format	Prix fixe / bar à la carte	À la carte / tasting	Tasting menu
Booking difficulty	Hard	Moderate	Hard
Early-bird option	Yes ($65, before 6 PM)	No	No
Tableside theatre	Yes (pressed duck)	Limited	No
Bar dining	Yes (burger, bar menu)	Limited	No

Who Should Book

Pasjoli works well for a date or celebratory dinner where you want memorable cooking without the full formality of a tasting-menu institution. Pairs or small groups of four will get the most from the duck prix fixe. Solo diners wanting to experience the kitchen without the commitment of a full prix fixe should head to the bar. For groups larger than six, confirm availability directly, the room's intimate scale makes large-party logistics worth clarifying in advance.

For broader planning, see our full Los Angeles restaurants guide, our Los Angeles hotels guide, and our Los Angeles bars guide. For other French options in LA, consider Petit Trois, Lumière, or Perle. If you are planning a wider trip around serious French cooking, L'Effervescence in Tokyo and Hotel de Ville Crissier represent the format at its most formal end.

Frequently Asked Questions

How far ahead should I book Pasjoli?

Book at least 3 to 4 weeks out. Pasjoli has ranked in OAD's Top 100 North America three consecutive years (reaching #70 in 2025) and landed #18 on the LA Times 101 Best Restaurants 2024 — that kind of sustained recognition keeps the dining room full. If your schedule is flexible, bar seating is a lower-friction path to a same-week visit, with a shorter menu that includes the marrow aioli burger.

Is Pasjoli worth the price?

At $$$$, it depends on where you sit. The dining room now runs prix fixe, with a $65 three-course option available before 6 p.m. that meaningfully lowers the entry price. The full duck-centered experience — Beran breaks down a whole pressed duck tableside and renders the bones into a gravy in front of the room — is a set-piece that few restaurants in LA at any price replicate. If theatrical, high-craft French cooking is the format you want, the value holds. If you want à la carte flexibility or a lower-key evening, the bar menu delivers a lot of the kitchen's quality at a fraction of the cost.

Can Pasjoli accommodate groups?

Pasjoli is better suited to parties of two to four than to large groups. The room is a bistro-scale space on Main St in Santa Monica, not a private-dining venue. The prix fixe format simplifies ordering for a table, but groups of six or more should check the venue's official channels to confirm availability and any private arrangement options before booking.

What should I order at Pasjoli?

The whole pressed duck is the reason most people make the reservation — Beran performs the breakdown and pressing tableside, the resulting gravy is the dish's centerpiece. Foie brioche is a longtime carry-over that remains available for the table. At the bar, the marrow aioli burger and what the LA Times called the best grilled cheese sandwich in the known universe are the draws. The crepes with caviar feature on the current menu for those who want something between the two formats.

Is lunch or dinner better at Pasjoli?

Pasjoli is dinner only, open from 5:15 p.m. every day of the week. There is no lunch service. If you want the full prix fixe experience at a lower price, arrive before 6 p.m. on any night for the $65 three-course option.

Is Pasjoli good for solo dining?

Yes, particularly at the bar. Solo diners get access to the marrow aioli burger and bar menu without committing to a prix fixe, which makes the visit lower-pressure and less expensive. The dining room's prix fixe format is designed around a shared table experience, so the bar is the more practical solo option.

What should a first-timer know about Pasjoli?

Pasjoli is a French bistro that has shifted away from stiff fine dining toward a more approachable format, but the cooking is serious and the duck is a genuine event. The dining room now runs two prix fixe tracks — one built around the pressed duck, one covering greatest-hits dishes from the restaurant's five-year run. The bar operates more casually with a separate shorter menu. If you book the dining room, decide before you arrive whether you want the duck: it requires advance ordering and is the clear centerpiece of that prix fixe.

Location

2732 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90405

Los Angeles, United States

Compare Pasjoli

Award Winners Like Pasjoli

Venue	Awards	Price
Pasjoli		$$$$
Kato	Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best	$$$$
Hayato	Michelin 2 Star	$$$$
Vespertine	Michelin 2 Star	$$$$
Camphor	Michelin 1 Star	$$$$
Gwen	Michelin 1 Star	$$$$

Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.

Also Consider

Kato, New Taiwanese, Asian, $$$$
Hayato, Japanese, $$$$
Vespertine, Progressive, Contemporary, $$$$
Camphor, French-Asian, French, $$$$
Gwen, New American, Steakhouse, $$$$

At the $$$$ tier in Los Angeles, Pasjoli competes with a short list of restaurants that take the format seriously. Kato is the stronger choice if progression and conceptual tasting-menu architecture matter more to you than French technique, it ranks higher on OAD and the experience is more tightly choreographed. Hayato is the right call if Japanese kaiseki is your format; it operates at a different level of formality and is harder to book than Pasjoli. For sheer theatrical dining without much flexibility, Vespertine is the most committed to its own world, but it offers no casual bar option and no early-bird entry point.

Camphor is the most direct alternative for diners who want French-leaning cooking with a slightly easier booking window. It lacks Pasjoli's tableside drama but delivers technically confident cooking with a more à la carte-friendly structure. If your group includes people resistant to prix fixe commitments, Camphor is the safer bet. Gwen competes at the same price tier but skews toward meat-focused New American rather than French bistro; it's the better option for a group where steak is the shared preference.

For a special occasion where the evening needs a clear centrepiece and a memorable visual moment, Pasjoli's duck service makes it the right pick over Camphor or Gwen. For the most ambitious tasting experience in LA with no concessions to casual, Kato or Hayato are ahead of it. Pasjoli's real advantage is the middle ground: a restaurant serious enough to rank in the OAD Top 100 three consecutive years, flexible enough to offer a $65 entry option and bar dining alongside the full prix fixe.