1212 Santa Monica: A Fancy Dinner Before the Pier
After leaving the Getty Villa and before fully exploring the Santa Monica Pier, we decided to park first and grab a bite to eat. We headed to a restaurant my friend and his wife had worked hard to find. I barely held back the urge to smack my friend in the back of the head as he kept nagging his wife while she was trying to navigate. Ugh, this jerk...
The walk to the restaurant was a feast for the eyes. Bright lights decorated the streets, and there was a fun fountain with water shooting out of a Triceratops' mouth. (I have no idea why a Triceratops was there, though.) Seeing things like this definitely made it clear we were in a famous tourist spot.
The whole street was bathed in a mysterious purple light, giving off a pretty unique vibe. There was also a giant chessboard installation right in the middle of the street, and people were busy taking pictures. The path is quite pretty, so I recommend walking slowly and taking in the sights on your way to the restaurant.
We finally arrived at 1212 Santa Monica, the restaurant my friends had put so much effort into finding. Right from the outside, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, massive sign, and flashy lights visible inside, it felt like no ordinary place.
I checked out the menu at the entrance. It's an Italian restaurant, so it mostly features pizzas and pastas, but the prices were quite high, which intimidated me a bit. As a broke traveler, seeing numbers like that makes me flinch, but since my friend was paying today, I quietly followed them inside.
We sat down and ordered a bunch of different dishes that the kids would enjoy too. After a short wait, the table was filled with food: salad, mushroom risotto, tomato sauce penne, and cream penne topped with chicken. I liked that they gave us plenty of warm complimentary bread. Of course, the thought that "at these prices, they better give us this much" lingered somewhere in the back of my mind.
Maybe because it was an expensive place, all the food tasted pretty good. Among them, the gnocchi-like pasta was the best. The sauce was thick and perfectly seasoned, so we cleared the plate in no time.
Inside the restaurant, round lights hanging from the ceiling created a dark, romantic atmosphere. There were a lot of people dressed sharply in suits, and quite a few couples on sweet dates. I was a little worried that our table's shabby, thrown-together outfits didn't fit this upscale vibe. Still, I was grateful for the good service, though it meant my friend's wife had to stress quite a bit over how much to tip.
We enjoyed the delicious food and the atmosphere, but the biggest issue was definitely the price. The base menu prices were already on the high side, and this is America, where tipping is expected. When we added the tip to the food bill, the total came out to a jaw-dropping amount.
Dining out costs in the US are so scary that they make Korea feel cheap. I feel this every time I look at a receipt, but tipping culture should absolutely never make its way to Korea.
I felt really sorry to my friend who so readily bought us such an expensive meal. But I'm a broke traveler with a thin wallet, so I don't have the money to treat them. That's why I'm shamelessly freeloading at their house for this trip. Cheap fast food like one of America's top 3 burgers that we had a few days ago seems to fit my level perfectly. (Honestly, even that is expensive.)
After finishing our meal, the walk to the Santa Monica Pier felt crowded and lively with quite a few people around. It has a different, bustling American night street charm compared to the quiet place we visited before, where the buildings and views were more beautiful than the statues. Anyway, since I was treated to a hearty, expensive meal, I'd better walk briskly to the pier to digest it all.