Restaurant: Savida

Location: 1303 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403. (310) 310-3772

Date: October 8 and 15, 2022

Cuisine: Crudo

Rating: Hit and Miss

This brand new place is close to our house and so we went two weeks in a row (and haven’t been back since actually). It was fast and fairly tasty, with a good selection of low carb options, but a tiny menu that changes constantly. This “crudo” concept is kinda in, perhaps because it works in a small place without a proper hood. I think you could run it out of a “food retail” space.

Inside was tiny and unappealing, but the patio was nice.

The menu.

SUMMER GAZPACHO. Seasonal fruits & vegetables, balsamic whipped cream. Weirdly thin. Tasted good, but the almost water-like texture with the glops of cream bothered me on some visceral level. And besides, they brought this with desert due to staff “confusion” (they were very confused).

CEVICHE. flounder, aji Amarillo, red onion and cilantro. Very bright flavors which I enjoyed. Almost yuzu-like marinated. Even the onions were good soaked in the marinate.

Uni sashimi. This was actually inedible. There was no flesh in there and it tasted off — I wasn’t going to eat off uni.

TOMATO & NECTARINE. burrata, arugula, marcona almonds, balsamic vinaigrette. A nice little salad. Cheese made it but the rest was good too.

Crab Salad. Not so great.

Arugula, pistachio, pomegranate, cheese salad. This salad “replaced” the peach salad on our second visit.

Truffle Burrata. The cheese was good but it was that canned truffle — not a fan.

SALMON. avocado, cucumber aguachille, sesame. This could have used a little more acidity but was plesant. The “sauce” underneath tasted a bit like tomato water.

Salmon toast. This replaced the better salmon from our first visit.

Hamachi. Tomato soy yuzu koshu dressing, cilantro, mint, dill, crispy shallot.

LOBSTER ROLL SLIDER. crème fraiche, coconut cream, lemongrass, celery, crispy shallots. Surpirsingly nice. The bread was really savory (and slightly greasy in a good way). Some big hunks of lobster claw.

SPECIAL OF TUNA SCHWARMA. Seared tuna with pinenuts, onion, and tahini on a warm pita. Actually kind of delicious. There was some acidity to offset the heaviness of the sesame.

Dessert Menu.

A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION. figs, mascarpone, candied walnut, honey, fresh oregano. This dish lived in an odd intersection between the savory and the sweet. However, it was tasty, particularly the cheese with the nuts and honey, which at times seemed almost savory. Really nice, but wasn’t there the second time we went.

Service was extremely confused in these early days at Savida — don’t know if it has improved. I do need to go back and try it out again. It seems like it’s aping Crudo y Nudo a bit to the south on Main Street. That place is better. But still I like the concept and Savida is very close to our house. Their execution, however, is very hit or miss.

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