10 Restaurants Marilyn Monroe Dined At In Los Angeles

Marilyn Monroe was one of those actresses who was absolutely magnetic onscreen. From the lovable "Sugar Kane" Kowalczyk in "Some Like It Hot" to her more serious turn in the noirish "Niagara," her roles have become some of the best-known of the 20th century. Many of the films she was in are now considered to be some of the greatest made, and even the ones that aren't are still classics.

Monroe was open about what she liked to eat. In a 1952 essay for "Pageant" magazine, she detailed a protein-heavy diet that she said others thought was strange. Among her regular daily foods were things like raw eggs mixed into warm milk for breakfast and meat for dinner. She also admitted to loving carrots and the hot fudge sundaes from a particular ice cream shop. In fact, she frequented several restaurants in the Los Angeles area, particularly in what's now the city of West Hollywood. If you're a Monroe fan and have always wondered what it would be like to trace her steps through L.A.'s culinary world, here's a list of 10 restaurants that she loved to dine at.

While Marilyn Monroe seemed to favor fancier meals in many of her movies, one of her favorite off-screen foods was the chili at Barney's Beanery. The restaurant even framed one of her checks that she wrote to pay for a $2 bowl of the stuff, and she was known for heading over to Barney's to get some chili while "Some Like It Hot" was being filmed.

Barney's Beanery first opened in 1920, moved to West Hollywood in 1927, and expanded to five different locations around the Los Angeles metropolitan region over the years. Monroe frequented the West Hollywood location on Santa Monica Boulevard. The restaurant is known for its long history of serving celebrities, and the chain has become so popular that the company recommends making reservations instead of trying to get a table as a walk-in. It still serves that chili, so make your reservation, play a game of pool, or watch sports on one of the many TVs. Then, enjoy one of Monroe's favorite dishes in one of her favorite restaurants.

Canter's Deli is one of the oldest delis in L.A., and it became one of Marilyn Monroe's favorite places to eat after her third husband, playwright Arthur Miller, started taking her there. We don't know what she preferred to order, so if you were hoping to visit and re-create one of her favorite meals, you're going to have to guess (Given her love of protein, the pastrami or corned beef are probably good candidates). The food at the deli is tasty, the decor is gorgeous — especially the "autumn leaves" ceiling — and the mix of customers is amazing. If you can't stay for a full meal, pick up something at the bakery to nosh on later.

The Canter brothers came to L.A. from New Jersey during the Great Depression and opened a small deli in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, later moving to the Fairfax district. Over the next couple of decades, the restaurant expanded to two dining rooms plus an additional cocktail lounge. The deli is open 24 hours year-round except for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and it's one of those places where literally everyone goes to eat, from neighborhood regulars to celebrities to politicians. This is the type of restaurant where staff and regulars know each other on a first-name basis, and we can see how the combination of good food and friendly people might have attracted Monroe and Miller.

Unfortunately, some of Marilyn Monroe's favorite restaurants have closed. Chasen's is one of them; the L.A. stalwart closed in 1995, and the space was soon occupied by grocer Bristol Farms. Chasen's was known for being elegant but low-key, the type of place with secluded booths and privacy, and Monroe used to stop in for a meal after a day of filming. She'd sit off in a corner because she often showed up in slacks, something that was not considered very well-dressed back in the 1960s.

Chasen's offered privacy to diners, both celebrity and non-celebrity. However, it also gradually developed a reputation of being only for the older, more established crowd, even though the restaurant welcomed everyone. Newer restaurants in the area courted younger crowds and gradually took much of Chasen's business. The restaurant experienced a surge in customers after it announced it would shut down, but the owner didn't change his mind about closing. After Chasen's was gone, Bristol Farms moved in and preserved much of the building, even turning part of the original restaurant into a cafe. You might not be able to have the same dining experience that Monroe once did, but you can still visit the location and see some of the original architecture.

Another favorite L.A.-area restaurant of Marilyn Monroe's was Dominick's, an Italian-American joint in West Hollywood known for its excellent food and protective treatment of celebrities. This is another place where we don't know exactly what Monroe liked to order, but the restaurant closed at the end of 2015 anyway. The owners got an offer to sell and took it, deciding to focus on another restaurant they were running.

Dominick's opened in 1948 and had served celebrity guests from Frank Sinatra to Brad Pitt throughout its time on Beverly Boulevard — it was extremely exclusive. There was supposedly an unspoken rule about entering through the back door; a manager even claimed once that anyone entering through the front door of the restaurant was kicked out, though it's unclear if that really was the case. Dominick's was replaced by Verlaine, a Mexican restaurant that closed after only one year. The owners of Dominick's also ran Little Dom's, which is still open. If you want to see what Monroe experienced, you can either visit Little Dom's, or visit the restaurant currently at Dominick's old location. As of this writing, that would be French restaurant, Amour.

Some restaurants are forever linked with Hollywood, and Musso & Frank Grill is one of these places. This is where movie deals were made and contracts signed, and where you'd inevitably see celebrities dining on some very old-style dishes like Welsh rarebit. Monroe would often show up for dates with baseball great Joe DiMaggio and sit in Booth Three. In a 2025 interview with Discover Los Angeles, proprietor Mark Echeverria said that the place is so popular with people who live in L.A. that, apparently, there aren't a lot of tourists among the customers — they (the tourists) can't get a seat.

The restaurant opened in 1919 as Frank's cafe but was renamed Musso & Frank Grill after its founder, Frank Toulet, joined forces with Joseph Musso. The restaurant relocated in the 1930s after John Musso and Joseph Carissimi bought it, and its ownership has passed down to different generations of the Musso family. Musso & Frank Grill closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, but it reopened in 2021 and it's still going strong today. If you want to imagine a day in Monroe's life, you can visit and try to get that third booth.

Marilyn Monroe really liked the Original Pantry Cafe, and her visits there were immortalized by a picture of her on the wall, on which she wrote a whimsical compliment about the food. The downtown-L.A. diner was known for food that was so good that people lined up outside the door to wait for a table. It was also known for not closing — the diner opened in one location in 1924 and moved in 1950, and legend has it that the first location closed and the second location opened on the same day, so there was no break in service.

The Original Pantry Cafe unfortunately did suffer from some closures later in its life. It closed for one day in the 1990s after a bad health inspection, it closed for a while due to the pandemic, and then it closed in March 2025 due to legal and labor disputes. However, the union representing the diner's staff announced in September 2025 that the restaurant would reopen. Keep an eye out and try to visit once the diner once again opens its doors.

The Polo Lounge is the restaurant at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and it's long been a place where stars would meet and executives would make deals. It opened in 1941 and got its name from its founders, who were polo players looking for a place to relax. However, the Polo Lounge is open to everyone, so if you want to try to sit in Marilyn Monroe's favorite table (yes, she had one, and it was Table 6), you don't have to be involved in movies to do so. Among her favorite meals there were fish and pasta, along with either rum and Coke or Dom Perignon.

The Polo Lounge has paid tribute to Monroe through food, creating a sundae named after her in the late 2010s. This was a mound of ice cream with hot fudge, sour cherries, and pink cotton candy. One guest who ate there said it also came with an edible card featuring a picture of Monroe. As of this writing, the current menu for the Polo Lounge doesn't list the sundae, but the hotel's description of Monroe's old bungalow mentions that it's available. In 2020, the hotel even created a "Live Like Marilyn" package where you could rent one of her favorite bungalows and eat meals designed around her preferences and her life.

Marilyn Monroe's time at the Hotel Bel-Air is usually linked to the 12-hour photoshoot in 1962 that she did with photographer, Bert Stern. However, she also lived at the hotel in the late 1940s. She would regularly stay there in the years afterward, and she would eat at the restaurant there. Unfortunately, we don't know what Monroe herself preferred to order.

The restaurant has undergone changes in the decades since Monroe's death, of course. In 2011, celebrated chef Wolfgang Puck took over; during his time there, he offered a cocktail called Monroe's Passion, which was a mix of passion fruit vodka; rum; passion fruit, cranberry, orange, and ginger juices; and chili syrup. Puck left in 2023, and the restaurant is now run by Joe Garcia. The Bar & Lounge at the hotel still offers the Monroe's Passion cocktail. Be aware that you'll need to make a reservation if you want to try eating at the restaurant there.

Villa Nova was a small Italian restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood that was a favorite of the Hollywood crowd. This was the place where Marilyn Monroe met Joe DiMaggio for a blind date; the two would end up dating for two years and later marry. Another restaurant now resides in Villa Nova's old building, but people still request to sit in that booth because Marilyn Monroe once sat there.

Villa Nova was partially owned by Vincente Minnelli, who later changed the name to the Rainbow Bar & Grill. In the 1970s, the restaurant transformed from a hangout for Hollywood stars to a favorite of musicians, where you could find people and bands, such as Alice Cooper, Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead, and Motley Crue — there's even a statue of Lemmy there now. Customer behavior could get pretty wild; stories about certain rock stars getting thrown out multiple times abound. Comedians frequented the place, too, and it's also known as the last place John Belushi ate at the day he died.

Do you remember that ice cream place that Marilyn Monroe said she liked to go to? That was Wil Wright's Ice Cream Parlor. It's important to note that the parlors themselves are now closed because, if you look them up online, you'll find a company selling ice cream under the same name. However, this company sells the ice cream to stores and factories and doesn't have brick-and-mortar parlors that you can visit.

Monroe liked to get hot fudge sundaes at the Beverly Hills location after getting out of her drama classes in the early 1950s. This location first opened in 1949 and quickly became a favorite of just about everyone. Some actresses like Elizabeth Taylor reportedly had the ice cream flown to where they were filming. The appeal of the ice cream lay in its extremely rich texture and sweet flavor, and the chain eventually had a few locations around West L.A. and the San Fernando Valley. However, the chain closed in the 1970s due to competition from Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, which was known for its birthday parties and huge sundaes that could feed several kids. The Beverly Hills location is now home to Pascal Patisserie. You might not be able to have the same ice cream, but you can sit in the same location and look out at the same views that Monroe had when she went to Wil Wright's for her favorite sundae.