Marmalade Café in Santa Monica

This little restaurant on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica is a small, non-descript place that you may miss entirely when walking by. Once you go inside it is charming café with a small eating area surrounded by counters of fresh food and baked goods. At the Marmalade Café, you order and pay at the counter and try to find a place to sit and wait for your order to be served. It can be quite crowded during lunch; however, the food is high quality, tasty and everything just gives the impression to be healthy. Marmalade Café is open for breakfast and lunch and closes early.

After you order your meal, you are given a number and you get your own coffee, utensils and napkins. The staff working at Marmalade are very nice and are happy to serve. Seating is a little tight and you may end up bumping elbows with the customer at the table next to you. I thought it felt cozy. There is also a large picnic style table that is a communal table if you like to socialize. It is nice to come here at odd hours when it is not so busy. If it is too crowded to get a table, you can always get the food to go and walk down to the Palisades Park to eat and enjoy a great view of the Pacific Ocean.

The prices may seem a bit high, but this is Montana Avenue, so this is not the place to go for a budget meal. Breakfast is their specialty. For something different, try the portabella eggs benedict. The French toast is good and they have breakfast items for kids on the menu. There's fresh orange juice as well as good coffee. For lunch there is a wide variety of sandwiches, salads and hot pasta dishes as well as daily soups. Some items you may want to try are the chicken pot pies, spring rolls with peanut sauce, and the chicken apple salad. The baked goods are really good. Try the scones and for desert they have tasty deserts pies, tarts and huge cookies.

The Marmalade Café is open seven days a week and there is parking behind the restaurant. The restaurant accepts credit cards and there is no alcohol served. Plus they deliver and there is catering services. There are other Marmalades Café restaurants in Sherman Oaks, Malibu, Westlake village, Calabasas, Rolling Hills and El Segundo.