Vito Restaurant

This long-running establishment has stuck around in Santa Monica for over 40 years, surviving the area’s occasionally volatile dining landscape and a pandemic. Westsiders in the know flock to this old-school Italian haven, owned and operated by a Naples-born family devoted to home-cooked Southern Italian cuisine and authentic, passed-down recipes. Attentive waiters suited up in tuxedos bring out fresh bread and totally classic, unpretentious Italian dishes, like the Caesar salad and fan-favorite Spaghetti Della Casa—a Cognac-torched marvel of chopped shrimp in a velvety tomato cream sauce. The Old World atmosphere—white tablecloths, cloth napkins, leather booths, and dark wood paneling—is polished but never stuffy, so you’ll feel right at home even if you stroll in wearing flip-flops after a day at the beach.