Food / Malibu Best Of Updated September 22, 2026

THE BESTPLACES TOEAT INMALIBU

The sunset table, the one up the canyon, and where to go when you do not want a scene.

Two people walking a wide empty beach at sunset — Book the sunset, not the restaurant

Candlelight on the dining table at night

Two desserts on dark plates, a crème brûlée and a tart

go up the canyon →

Lauren tested

Words & testing · Lauren Fowler Open story ↓ Photograph · Lauren

Filed under
Food / Malibu / Best Of

Published
September 21, 2026

Best by Lauren may earn a commission when you shop through certain links. Every product here was bought with my own money or tested for at least six weeks. No brand has paid to be included, and nothing is ranked higher because it pays more.

Malibu eating splits cleanly in two: the places on the highway with the view and the price, and the places up the canyons that locals actually use.

Both are worth it for different evenings. What follows is which is which, and how to get the table that makes the expensive one worth it.

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The sunset table on the water

You are paying for the light. Book so you are seated before it starts.

The food at the ocean-side restaurants is good and the view is the actual product. Book 45 minutes ahead of sunset so you are settled when it happens rather than being walked to your table through it.

Best for: Visitors, birthdays, anything that needs to impress
When to go: Book two weeks out in summer

The sign at the entrance to a fig ranch — Malibu

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The one up the canyon

Fifteen minutes off the highway and a completely different evening.

No view, no scene, and the room is full of people who live here. This is where I go when I want dinner rather than an occasion.

Best for: A normal Tuesday
When to go: Walk in, most nights

A vase of pink roses on a table looking over the hills — Malibu

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The farm stand lunch

The best cheap meal in Malibu, eaten standing up.

Farm stands up the canyon roads do sandwiches, fruit and flowers, and it is the lunch I have most often. Bring cash and go before two.

Best for: Lunch, under fifteen dollars
When to go: Before two, while the good stuff is left

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Dessert, further inland

Drive twenty minutes inland and dessert costs half as much.

The stretch inland is where the good bakeries and dessert places are. It is a genuinely better end to an evening than a fifth course on the water.

Best for: After dinner, or instead of it
When to go: Late

Booking, and where to sit

For the ocean-side restaurants, book two weeks out in summer and ask for an outside table explicitly — an inside table at the same restaurant is a different and much worse experience for the same money.

For the canyon places, walk in. Booking makes them feel like an occasion, which defeats the purpose.