Finn McCool's
2700 Main St.
Santa Monica, CA
Ocean Park Boulevard
310-452-1734

The crowd's boisterous and loud around 11 p.m. on the weekends, and on Sunday afternoon it's loaded with tourists, but at other times this handsome pub from L.A.'s best-known Irish chef, Gerri Gilliland, is a surprisingly sweet spot. Nice, even for a quiet date. Stick with appetizers, drinks and desserts, though the extensive menu is tempting. Dinner entrees are oversized and poorly presented on plates too big to manage in the intimate nooks and at the bar. The mini-Yorkshire puddings are fun — cold slices of roast beef on tiny popovers with a dollop of horseradish crème fraîche. The horseshoe bar is the centerpiece of a high-ceilinged room with tall windows that at night let in a sense of the city street just outside. They move a lot of Guinness here, and the deft bartenders are fun to watch.

Hours: Open for brunch, lunch and dinner.