California’s top spots for farm-to-table dining

To talk about farm-to-table restaurants in California, which grows more produce than any other US state, is to talk about Californian dining as a whole. Here, a locavore ethos began to materialise in the 1960s in response to rapidly industrialising food systems and really took off a decade later when Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse. Across California, diners are spoiled for choice by chefs who are evangelical about sourcing hyperlocal produce from organic, sustainable suppliers, farms, markets and gardens – or quite possibly growing their own.

In Los Angeles, farmers like Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms and Peter Schaner of Schaner Farms, who sell to chefs at the Santa Monica Farmers market, have become celebrities in their own right – famous for their carrots, superior arugula, sweet winter citrus and friendly personalities. Elsewhere, award-winning chefs host ticketed dinner events with menus centred around their harvest, other restaurants boast urban rooftop gardens where chefs pluck micro herbs and harvest honey while others are perched amid the rolling hills and rural vineyards.

Though farm-to-table cooking is widely available across California, here we honour scenic destination dining, some of the pioneers that first put the concept on the map, as well as innovative restaurants whose food stands out for being deeply informed by first-class produce.

The best farm-to-table restaurants in California

Rustic Canyon

Best for: Date nights and casual midweek meals
Location: 1119 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica CA
Price: small plates from 6 USD, large plates from 35 USD

Founder Josh Loeb opened this intimate Santa Monica favourite in 2006 and it’s garnered critical acclaim for its hyper-seasonal food in the years since. Understated in style with exposed wood tables, Rustic Canyon is a low-key neighbourhood spot serving innovative California cuisine that draws upon a compelling Californian larder and impressive wine list. A nuanced rotation of vegetables sees dishes labelled using produce names – think Coleman’s lettuce, Rising C Ranch yuzu, Oregon chanterelles – as well as freshly landed seafood, homemade charcuterie and local meat and dairy. This ethos also extends to its cocktail menu, where seasonal cocktails include the “speak friend” – a potent yet balanced libation combining tequila, melon, aperol, pamplemousse, lime juice and sea salt.

Chez Panisse

Best for: Quintessential Californian dining, sustainability enthusiasts
Location: 1517 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA
Price: 175 USD per person for four-course tasting menu; small plates from 12 USD, large plates from 27 USD

It is impossible to talk about farm-to-table California restaurants without mentioning Chez Panisse. Alice Waters opened this Berkeley landmark in 1971 and, in doing so, pioneered a movement towards sourcing local, ethically grown, delicious heirloom vegetables. For 50 years, this rustic, elegant restaurant – comprising an upstairs cafe and downstairs tasting-menu dining room – has specialised in ingredient-driven, French-inspired cooking. The kitchen sources its ingredients from local producers who practise regenerative agriculture, which respects and cares for the land and oceans. Menus change daily but always include a range of seasonally inspired dishes from salads and hearty meat dishes to vegetable-topped handmade pizzas.

Melisse/Citrin

Best for: Fine dining and Francophiles
Location: 1104 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA
Price: Tasting menus 399 USD (Melisse), 175 USD (Citrin); small plates from 15 USD, large plates from 40 USD

In 2019, chef/owner Josiah Citrin transformed his 25-year-old restaurant Melisse into two separate spaces: Citrin, a larger casual restaurant, and Melisse, an exquisite fine dining space. Both show off the chef’s obsession with local produce through tasting menus of differing lengths (Citrin, four courses; Melisse, seven). The restaurant’s location, just minutes from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, allows him to search for produce at its peak, which is reflected in both the Citrin and Melisse menus. To supplement the farmer’s market haul, Citrin grows plentiful herbs and greens in the restaurant’s rooftop garden, where a beehive producing richly flavoured honey is also found.

AOC

Best for: Sharing plates and fireside dining
Location: 8700 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA
Price: Small plates from 12 USD, large plates from 24 USD

Chez Panisse alum Suzanne Goin has gone on to become a symbol of California’s farm-to-table movement in her own right, bringing the iconic restaurant’s ethos to LA by opening the now-closed Lucques in 1998 and winning a James Beard award in 2016. And though Goin’s cooking can be had in various forms around LA, including at Portuguese stunner Caldo Verde or at the Hollywood Bowl, her close relationship to farmers is highlighted at AOC, a restaurant she opened in 2002 with business partner Caroline Styne. Here, star iconic dishes include her famous Spanish fried chicken, served with romesco aïoli and chili-cumin butter, or a bagna cauda from seasonal vegetables sourced from farmers she has known for decades.

Providence

Best for: Sustainably sourced seafood and upmarket tasting menus
Location: 5955 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles
Price: Chef’s tasting menu 325 USD per person

Michael Cimarusti’s nearly 20-year-old restaurant is famous for the chef’s obsession with sustainably caught seafood, but the chef applies the same approach to sourcing all ingredients, which has contributed to Providence picking up a Green Michelin Star. The recently revamped restaurant features tidal blue-green walls, which act as a backdrop for his exquisite tasting menus that feature meticulously prepared wild-caught seafood sourced mainly from American waters to ensure sustainability. The restaurant also boasts a regenerative rooftop garden, designated as a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, where the team grow the likes of strawberry spinach, wasabi, arugula and mizuna, while its beehive is home to 160,000 bees and produces floral honey for the restaurant. What can’t be grown upstairs is sourced from the Santa Monica Farmer’s market.

Zuni

Best for: Leisurely lunches with friends
Location: 1658 Market St, San Francisco
Price: small plates starting at 14 USD large plates starting at 38 USD

Founded in the late 1970s, Zuni Café is a San Francisco institution. Set over two-storeys, its famous corner space offers a sun-drenched dining room by day, a copper bar and a warm-glowing space at night where regulars and tourists alike enjoy classic aperitifs followed by rustic, reliably comforting dishes including duck leg over Jerusalem artichokes or the famous Zuni wood-smoked roast chicken, cooked in its wood-fired brick oven. Everything served at this soulful 45-year-old spot is sourced and served with great attention to detail.

The Restaurant at Justin Winery

Best for: Destination dining in the middle of a vineyard
Location: 11680 Chimney Rock Rd., Paso Robles
Price: tasting menus starting at 225 USD

There’s nothing more quintessentially Californian than dining among the vines at a winery’s very own restaurant. The Restaurant at Justin Winery, which is known for its Bordeaux-style reds, recently received a Green Michelin star and is acclaimed for offering chef Rachel Haggstrom’s French-Californian tasting menu. Haggstrom’s style is deeply rooted in nature and here she sources directly from the property’s 26-acre estate farm, which includes orchards, edible flower fields, vegetables, herb gardens and an apiary. An airy, open dining room gives way to a spacious patio, and we recommend dining before sunset to witness the fading light over the property’s breathtaking scenery.

Quince

Best for: Vegetable-forward Italian cuisine
Location: 470 Pacific Ave, San Francisco
Price: Ten course tasting menu 390 USD per person

Thirty miles north of Michael and Lindsay Tusk’s San Francisco restaurant Quince, farmer Peter Martinelli of Fresh Run Farm grows more than 40 varieties of organic fruit, vegetables and flowers exclusively for Quince. Tusk’s collaboration with Martinelli allows both chef and farmer to experiment with growing and cooking in harmony, each season bringing new flavours and fresh ideas to Quince’s California-Italian cooking. Expect to find grilled meats and fresh pasta supplemented by seasonal produce, all served in a newly renovated, earthy-toned dining room.

The French Laundry

Best for: A once-in-a-lifetime experience
Location: 6640 Washington St, Yountville, CA
Price: 390 USD per person tasting menu

Another Californian institution with 1970s origins, this world-famous Napa restaurant, set in a two-storey stone cottage has been helmed by chef Thomas Keller since 1994. Three Michelin stars have since been supplemented with a Green Star for its enduring relationships with quality suppliers and a devotion to sustainability. The epic experience of eating at The French Laundry centres around a three-to-four hour, 13 or 15 course tasting menus in a classic white tablecloth dining room. Dishes, which might include poached Santa Barbara spiny lobster or charcoal grilled Japanese wagyu, are presented with precision and attention to detail from start to finish.

SingleThread

Best for: Overnight culinary getaway
Location: 131 North Street Healdsburg, CA
Price: 440-485 USD per person tasting menu

SingleThread Farm boasts 24 acres in the Dry Creek Valley, where flowers and nutrient-rich produce are grown and ferried to its intimate 55-seat namesake restaurant in downtown Healdsburg. Here, chef Kyle Connaughton shares his talent and respect for the farm’s harvest with a dazzling, ever changing ten-course tasting menu. The three menu options – pescatarian, omnivore or vegetarian – all show off Japanese ingredients and preparations like the Zakkokumai, a morel donabe rice pot with duck mousse, carrot, lotus root and genmaicha miso butter- though the menu at SingleThread is constantly evolving. For a fully immersive experience, book a room at one of SingleThread’s five luxurious suites, where dinner at the restaurant is guaranteed and in-room Japanese breakfast is a must.

For more West Coast inspiration, visit our comprehensive guide to Los Angeles’ best hotels, bars, restaurants, galleries and more