Santa Monica, California

My time at the golden coast includes a couple of firsts. Standing on a surfboard and hitting a golf ball at the sweet spot were some of my firsts but more importantly was my first time eating a lobster and with that I discovered my passion for sea food. I would have given lobsters a try ages ago had I known that they are this delicious. And don't get me started on crab sandwiches - all this time I've really been missing out. 

When my mum and I stopped in Santa Monica on our road trip up to the north, we made ourselves comfortable at the restaurant The Lobster. I made a reservations for two people, a Californian Spiny Lobster for each one of us and a window table. Unfortunately the Californian Lobster sold out before we even arrived so we agreed for a regular lobster. It's a seasonal lobster (Oct-March) that is fished in the area around Monterey. I'm not even sure if we'd be able to tell any difference considering it was the first time for both of us, but they made us want it much more with their talk about its season and nature to sell out quickly. We became victims of marketing and were left wanting more. Once again. Surrounded by couples sharing oysters, families eating fish and chips and businessmen showing off with lobster meals we enjoyed this night a lot.

Our host was rather humble and questioned our abilities to eat a whole lobster, being a first timer and all. So we stuck to his suggestion and shared a grilled lobster with side dishes such as Truffle Parmesan fries and beans with onions. I'm sure it also had to do with the fact that we were enjoying a beautiful sun set on Santa Barbara pier (best restaurant view so far) and taking in the energy around us because everything tasted just great. My fearful respect for the thing that moments ago was still a living sea creature decreased with every new meat discovery (it can be tricky!) and lime and butter combination.

I'm still questioning the need for an apron as it takes away a lot of its esteem, but in this case I just rolled with it. Our restaurant visit was a great ending to a day in Beverly Hills where we hoped to see some celebrities (didn't happen). The lobster has over 1000 reviews on yelp and is located on ocean avenue, across the aquarium.

Go, eat and feel good about it. It's worth it!