Fishing With Dynamite

The oyster bar is the point of gravity here: a lively counter inside a 32-seat Manhattan Beach dining room, just steps from the pier, with chef David LeFevre’s East Coast–meets–SoCal seafood at its centre.

Start cold. The raw-bar selection rotates through East- and West-coast oysters, with chilled shellfish platters for the table if you want to settle in properly. There is a clear New England thread running through the menu too: old-school chowdah' with house oyster crackers, and a classic Lobstah' Roll served warm or chilled rather than fussed about with.

Fishing with Dynamite opened in 2013 as LeFevre’s beachside nod to summers on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and Southern California beach communities, and that pairing still shapes the meal. Finish with the key lime pie: a single mini pie capped with torched meringue. It has picked up serious attention along the way, including a Michelin Guide Plate designation in 2019, OpenTable’s 100 Best Restaurants in America in 2019 and the Los Angeles Times 101 Best Restaurants list in 2022.