Manhattan Beach, CA

Sloopy’s Beach Café 3416 Highland Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, 310.545.1373

Some places you visit for the food, some for the atmosphere, and some for the unique décor. Sloopy’s definitely falls into the décor category! It looks pretty unassuming from the outside, just a clean, somewhat organic looking little place on café row along Highland Ave in Manhattan Beach.

Inside however, it’s like you walked into an elf’s kitchen. Orchids are mixed into every surface, the walls are covered with greenery, moss, and hanging plants, there’s a water feature tucked away in the corner, and even the tables look like they’ve been scavenged from an abandoned old barn and re-purposed by some crafty woodland creature. In fact, their big bowls of salad  (that looked delicious as I food gazed other people’s tables) fit right into the décor!  

In alignment with it’s setting, Sloopy’s menu features farm-fresh ingredients, natural meats, sustainable fisheries and organic coffees.  You seat yourself and order from a window where they call your name when your food is ready, as well as bus your own table before you leave. I can’t say the staff was overly impressive with their customer service, but the draw is the kooky atmosphere. This isn’t the kind of place you become a regular at and they remember your name and food order. However, it could become that if you threw in a super friendly, kinda hippie-ish waitress.

I ordered the chicken club, a grilled chicken breast on a honey wheat bun with cracked pepper mayo, cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, and cucumber ($9). It came out much differently than I was expecting from the typical club sandwich I’ve been used to: the ratio of greenery to meat and cheese felt a bit unbalanced and there was barely any of the pepper mayo, making the whole thing a bit bland. My friends however, ordered burgers and the Manhattan sandwich and were very happy with the flavor profile of the food, so I think I just ordered the wrong thing on the wrong day.  Next time I’m back in Manhattan Beach, I do plan to come back again and have a picnic in the garden, but I’m thinking some ice tea and a salad might be the next thing I try!