Jimmy's Famous American Tavern

Great happy hour!

Went here with my two sisters and best friend for their happy hour and it exceeded our expectations. Drinks were well made and strong. Appetizers were tasty and perfect for sharing. Service was top-notch, we never once had to think about tracking down a server because he was on top of it! Cool atmosphere and vibe too .

Would highly recommend if you're in the Santa Monica / Venice Beach area.

Arrived in Santa Monica hungry for lunch and hotel room not quite ready yet so popped across the street to have lunch at Jimmy'a.

Began with a couple of IPAs and decided on a few appetizers. Tried the Deviled Eggs. These were just okay for me - eggs were a tad strong tasting. The poke that was surprisingly good if a little soupy with delicious won-ton chips and the dueling dips which was my favorite of the three with a delicious pimento cheese dip !

Service was fast and friendly and prices were exceptional for the area !

Kudos to Manager Alejandro for such a warm welcome to this joint! It was an honor to shake your hand. My husband and I participated in the Santa Monica Amazing Race this past Saturday and the scavenger hunt ended here. We were all treated to some beer and / or soft drinks and were given the chance to order brunch items off the menu.

This is such a cool spot off of Ocean Avenue close to the Santa Monica Pier. It's quite spacious inside and their menu is really extensive. Service was great for us despite being such a large group and my husband and I tried the loaded tater tots and the honey biscuit. We asked for all the toppings for the tots on the side (which I definitely regret) but the tots themselves were the perfect degree of crisp. That honey biscuit though... wow! If I didn't live so far away, I'd eat these for breakfast every single day.

I was also that creepy person that was watching what everyone else at our table was getting and everything looked so delicious.

We will definitely return the next time we are in town for a full meal. This spot has great food, good drinks, and a warm aura.

YUM!!!!! We were being tourists in LA and found this place on yelp. The reviews looked promising so we stopped by and were definitely not disappointed!!

We were quickly seated and served by Melvin - he was so kind and helpful! We also found out there DineLA was taking place here so I ordered from that menu! I got the ahi poke to start, followed by the 12oz NY Strip, and ended with the berry crumble. My cousin got the grilled salad, tavern bowl with seared ahi, and my brother got the Cowboy Burger.

The ahi poke came with fried wontons and it was so good! I really enjoyed it! Also, the grilled salad was new to us and so surprisingly delicious!!

The food took some time to come out, but once it hit the table, it was piping hot!!! I got the peppercorn steak sauce on the side which was the best choice because it allowed me to really enjoy the flavor of the steak. The steak seriously was so perfectly done - it was well seasoned and cut like butter! I'm not even joking - I loved it so much. I wish there was one around my hometown. This was seriously the standout from this entire dinner.

The ahi from the tavern bowl was great and the burger was so juicy!! They use Wagyu beef! The desserts were pretty good.

I will definitely be back here again and I highly recommend it!! Thank you to Melvin for providing us amazing service!!

For an American Chain restaurant, Jimmy's Santa Monica is top-notch in terms of service and food quality. This restaurant is HUGE and can easily accommodate large groups. They have a huge outdoor patio with heatlamps in addition to tons of indoor seating and a bar. The menu is enormous and there is truly something for everyone.

The menu consists of mostly elevated America pub food. I love that they offer dinner specials that consist of a entrée ad a craft beer or wine. They offer salads with grilled lettuce which was life changing for me! I thought grilled lettuce would be soggy but Jimmy's proved me wrong. It's smokey with char marks but still crisp and crunchy. The ribs and burgers are great too. I also love their Chipotle ketchup and buy it by the bottle!

Service has always been very good. The servers are attentive and knowledgeable.
While I am not usually the biggest fan of chain restaurants I must admit Jimmy's is in a tier of its own and this is probably one of the best places in Santa Monica for large parties.

4.5 stars. First time visit and we were impressed. We were seated in their cheery patio where they allowed our golden retriever to enjoy lunch with us. Our attentive waitress was delightful and the service staff brought everything from the kitchen hot and quickly. A condensed but wide ranging beer on draft selection. We were introduced to a new one to us called Bootleggers. Excellent.
Our appetizers and California burger were satisfying. The calamari was tender and the onion rings crisp and great with home-made Chipotle ketchup. Time to revisit

Came here for a work event and got to sample their appetizers and great drinks. If you are planning a large group get together, the management can arrange to section off the front patio area of the restaurant. The patio is covered and the food and service was fantastic during our event. We had the perfect amount of privacy while still enjoying the Restaurants ambience. I got to sample some delicious pinot noir as well as their very juicy and succulent meatballs. The wine selection, drinks and meatballs were standouts.

I can't wait to come try it here again for a whole meal.

Bottomline: For a work event, I give Jimmy's Famous American Tavern two thumbs up, strong and delicious drinks as well as very tasty appetizers!

The food was very good. Definitely a "4" rating. It was fresh and hot and flavorful. We had the Calamari to start. It was served with chipotle a Aioli that probably could've used a little bit more chipotle flavor but still hot and crispy and good. The house salad with good and had a creamy dressing that was very very flavorful. I had the chili with a side of cornbread and my friends had the Bubba and the fried chicken and waffles. The chili was very flavorful without being overly spicy which I loved. The cornbread had a good texture and had corn chiles and cheese but not a lot of flavor. It was better if you dunked it into the chili. We were so full that we didn't even look at the dessert menu. The only reason that Jimmy's did not get a full rating for me is because of the inattentive service. Our server was very friendly and nice but that was about it we had to remind her several times to bring things that we asked for like straws to refill our water more salad dressing things like that. She would rush by our table throughout the meal smiling but never stopped to ask if we needed anything. Twice we had to flag down other servers to ask for things that she forgot to bring. The restaurant was not busy and maybe 1/4 occupied so she wasn't busy so I don't know what the issue was. The food was good and it's in a great location but I'm not so sure I go back because of the poor service.

UPDATE:

I was invited back for another try by the GM. She said she made a reservation for me and a guest. When I showed up, the hostesses said they had no reservation for me. Worse still, I told them their GM made the reservation for me and nothing. I was frustrated and embarrassed and should've left right then.

I was shocked and beyond disappointed about this second poor experience.

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes but if you expect repeat business and happy guests to promote your business you really have to change the way you manage tour business. Best of luck to you. I won't be back nor would I ever recommend your establishment to anyone, despite how good your food is.

We ended up here for brunch because they had reservations on short notice, and the menu looks great with a variety of items. We found parking around the corner on the street at a meter; I did see a sign for JFAT parking but didn't check it out since other reviews mention that it's valet. The restaurant wasn't too busy at 11:30am on a Saturday, so it turns out we didn't need reservations after all.

Our server let us choose our table -- there's ample indoor seating, a bar, and a large patio. Very nice open space. He was very friendly and helpful, although at one point he seemed to misunderstand something about the menu; he did say that he'd been working there for just a week. No biggie.

Fortunately, we made it in time for the early bird happy hour, which meant that mimosas were just $7. We tried one of each (regular OJ, blood orange, and pomegranate). They were all pretty good and above average in champagne content (yay), and I think blood orange was the best. I had The Bubba, a deliciously rich conglomeration of biscuit (great texture), fried chicken (nice and crisp), bacon, fried egg, and gravy (creamy and a great complement to everything else). My husband had the pulled BBQ pork benedict and thought it was very good as well.

We are looking forward to coming back!

So.. this place has redeemed itself in my eyes. I came A few weeks ago and it wasn't so great. This time around, our waiter bless his soul had such great manners, our drinks were always filled and our to go boxes right on time. Not to mention ever single server inside the restaurant who passed by our table made sure to ask about our meals or if we needed anything.

On to the food, we kept it simple! I opted for the cowboy burger and my husband had the herb chicken.

Cowboy burger-5 stars! I have mine well done because I DONT PLAY WITH PINK MEAT! Unless it's a steak. It was the juiciest burger I've had in a while. And my golly it's the size of a babies head! I ate half and was stuffed! It came with regular fries and those were so yummy!

Herb roasted chicken dinner- chicken breast, wing and thigh with green beans and French fries! He wanted the sauce on the side that goes over the chicken but still managed to dip pieces of chicken in the sauce?? ( shrugs shoulders) :) I tasted the chicken, very tender and juicy for sure. He enjoyed his meal.

All in all, great staff and great food right by the Santa Monica pier! Can't go wrong



P.S....super cute place to meet singles! We observed a cute first meeting of random strangers at the bar who ended up sitting together as the place started to get packed with people!! Just saying