Restaurants in Malibu

Sweeping views of the ocean fill peripheral visions while a menu of upscale American fare fills bellies in The Sunset Restaurant's elegant dining room. Crisp wild mushroom flatbreads ($12) heat up beneath an edible blanket of goat cheese, mozzarella, and shallots, and swordfish carpaccio ($12) starters avoid ovens all together to preserve the fresh flavors of red bell peppers and cerignola olives. Plates of pan-seared scallops from Maine ($26) rest jet-lagged bivalves atop a creamy bed of porcini mushroom risotto, and barricades of wild mushrooms and fingerling potatoes protect the grilled filet mignon ($32) from unwanted advances from stray knives and forks. Chefs bake the scottish salmon ($24) inside an envelope of parchment paper with a medley of fall vegetables, eschewing the traditional Gaelic preparation of tying ingredients up inside a burning kilt.

The Santa Monica mountains rise from the undulating greens of the Malibu Golf Club, clinking glasses punctuating the silence as wine lovers sample local vintages at Malibu & Vine Outdoor Wine Bar. Tables dot the grassy expanse, allowing guests to bask in the sunlight as the bar’s wine stewards pour out samples or full glasses of locally grown vintages from Saddlerock and Semler. On the weekends, the bar invites in musical artists to strum throughout the afternoon hours, making the late lunches more relaxing than watching a complicated computer sink into a swamp.

Using predominantly organic and local ingredients, Coogie's Beach Cafe puts a distinctly Californian spin on traditional American comfort food—a natural combination to fill its traveler-friendly oceanside perch just off the Pacific Coast Highway. Chefs fete early birds with breakfast treats such as blueberry pancakes topped with maple-glazed granola and serve a spicy bayou scramble alongside zucchini muffins. Lunch and dinner find organic greens and wild arugula admiring the brawn of Angus beef, filet mignon, and herb-roasted free-range chicken. The menu is broad enough to harbor options for vegetarians (garden veggie tacos), the gluten-averse (quinoa pasta), and kids (sesame-crusted chicken fingers). House-made desserts include Granny Smith apple pie.

The bar sends forth a fountain of fruit smoothies, fresh-squeeze juices, homemade lemonade, and organic hot teas, depending on the season. When sea breezes are favorable, diners relax on a palm-shaded patio; otherwise, they munch beneath a big central skylight and weathered wooden surfboards, safely hiding out from vengeful waves.

Featured on Good Day LA and ABC, as well as the occasional celebrity snapshot in Star, chocolatiers at ChocolateBox Cafe cloak tongues with artisan chocolates, gelato, and hot cocoa crafted with Belgian expertise. Visitors can also fuel up with a savory mélange of crepes and wraps stuffed with French words. Whether nabbing a gift box of pralines, sniffing out a truffle as an afternoon snack, or arranging a catered wedding or event, chocolate fiends can get their fix in the form of finely, ornately decorated candies and gourmet hot chocolate.

American Luxury Limousine's large fleet has been transporting people to special and everyday occasions—be it a college shindig or a business meeting—for more than 27 years. Professional drivers chauffeur bridal parties in style, pulling up to weddings in shiny stretch Hummers, party buses, and Lincoln Town Cars. They also offer leisurely wine tours of the Santa Monica Mountains to acquaint oenophiles with local varietals, and they host bachelorette parties to put an appropriately epic period on the end of a bride’s single life.

Borne from founder Aharon Klein's love of grilling and seasoning ocean-fresh seafood, Fish Grill sizzles a menu of wraps, pastas, and sandwiches starring juicy fillets of fish amid old-fashioned nautical décor. Chefs seal in succulent flavors by searing every fillet over smoky mesquite at a clean 1,000 degrees⎯roughly the temperature at which oceans melt. Each tasty dish of trout, tuna, salmon or ahi arrives tailored to the diner's tastes and prepared under the 3,300-year-old guidelines of kosher dietary law.