Venice Beach is known for street performers, muscle beach, and their famous Venice Canals. But take a walk around the neighborhood and you’ll start to notice the laid back energy and how cool it really is! And while the world famous Venice Beach Boardwalk brings in tourists from all around, some of it’s best spots are located a few blocks away. So during our visit to Venice we decided to try a local spot, a small neighborhood restaurant in Venice
“Where Friends Become Family.”
Neighbor
📍1031 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
📞 (310) 314-3625
🖥https://neighborla.com
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-12am, Sat & Sun 10am-12am
Just about a 10-minute walk from the beach, Neighbor is an easy restaurant to spot thanks to its vibrant seashore green building. Before stepping inside, you’ll notice how chic and charming it is with all the beautiful plants greeting you at the entrance. When you first walk in there are two seating areas with comfy sofas, and up the stairs you’ll find the marble cocktail bar and more table seating against a pastel pink wall. Because the restaurant is smaller, it truly feels like you’re hanging out at a friend’s house! Neighbor does the cozy-chic vibe perfectly! 🙌🏼
Outside on their patio is absolutely gorgeous! It’s like a secret garden with the natural sunlight beaming through, beautiful greenery everywhere, and vines hanging from the ceiling.😍 Add this with their eclectic plush furniture pieces and it becomes a cozy backyard bistro.
If you ask us every great dining experience starts off with a few specialty crafted cocktails, and what better time to try them than Happy Hour!🍹(Daily 4pm-6pm)
For our first round we started off with:
Oaxacan Spritz
Made with mezcal, aperol, lime, grapefruit, salt, & soda
Very fresh and smokey at the same time.
Berries & Herb
Made with tequila, homemade strawberry puree, rosemary, lime, & agave
A light and refreshing earthy taste with a twist of fresh berries to sweeten things up!
The Girl Next Door
Made with gin, lemon, honey, blackberries, & basil
Tastes like summertime in a glass!
The cocktails we ordered were incredibly fresh tasting with the perfect amount of sweetness from their fruit essence. We love how the menu has unique and creative cocktail options, it’s like every single one has a different personality. The cocktails we chose may have been more on the safe side but they have some interesting options if you’re feeling adventurous! Try the Tokyo Summer, which main ingredients are Japanese Whisky and egg whites, or the Moonlight Stroll. Which is a shaken mix of whiskey, pomegranate, rye, lemon, agave, bitters, and aquafaba which is basically vegan egg white substitute that’s made of water from chickpeas! We can’t say we’ve seen that anywhere else! And of course, they have a nice craft beer list and wine selections.
Berries & Herb (left) The Girl Next Door (right)
Their menu is compact with seasonal fares. And the best way to try everything is to share with your friends
For appetizers we started with the Cauliflower, Black Kale, Hamachi Sashimi and Brussel Sprouts. Each dish was beautifully presented, and the best part is that everything was super fresh and seemed to be pretty healthy! Even though we got a lot to share between 4 people, nothing was overly heavy, just super fresh and delicious.
Like we said, Neighbor is all about sharing so we even shared our entrees! Since we ordered plenty of appetizers to get us going, we went with two entrees. We ordered the Buckwheat Noodles which are tossed in a tomato based sauce and served with tofu, topped with a poached egg. The second entree was the Prime Strip Steak paired with fingerling potatoes. We all loved both dishes, we’re pretty sure there was nothing left on the plates.😋
If you’re looking for a new hangout spot in Venice Beach, check out Neighbor for sure! We had such a great time getting cozy and enjoying a delicious meal with our favorite people. And since the restaurant is intimate and small we were able to strike up a conversation with a table nearby, which is always fun for us to get to know some locals while we’re traveling! Neighbor has such a chill, cozy vibe it would definitely be a spot we would become regulars at if we lived in Los Angeles! We should also mention that Neighbor does brunch on the weekends! Saturdays & Sundays 10am-3pm. Something we’re really looking forward to next time we make a visit to Los Angeles!
So if you’re a traveler that likes to get outside of the tourist areas, Neighbor should be top on your list of places to check out
**Thank you Neighbor for hosting us and sponsoring this blog post!
