Christmas Present

[tofuburrito]

I'd like to give a gift card for dinner as a Christmas present to a young couple in the Santa Monica area.
Can anyone recommend a nice place in the area that offers gift cards and would be cozy for twentysomethings? It should be a nice night out but not over the top expensive; $100-ish.
Any type of food is o.k. but not seafood only.
Thanks!

[Emme]

as others have suggested, Wilshire, jiraffe, melisse, anisette, josie, are all nice but not gonna be fully covered under 100 dollars.

for a young couple, Musha might be fun.
there's also Chaya in Venice.
Nook Bistro in West LA
you could also do someting interesting like Warszawa
on Abbot Kinney, there's also the fairly new Gjelina and newer AKA (hard for 100 bucks here tho)

[tofuburrito]

Great ideas, thanks everyone!

[schrutefarms]

For 20 somethings in LA how about a gift certificate at House Of Blues? They also sell that at Costco. They could buy tickets to a concert, and still have enough for a (small) dinner at the Porch restaurant.

[Nicole]

You would have to call and ask about gift cards, but Jiraffe is a good fit in Santa Monica.

[goodhealthgourmet]

the atmosphere & menu at Jiraffe would definitely work, but there's no way $100 will cover dinner for two people. i think with restaurant gift certificates/cards it's nice to do it in a way that allows the recipient to enjoy the experience while shelling out as little $$ out of his or her own pocket as possible.

[westsidegal]

you're absolutely correct about this:
appetizers at jiraffe run about $15
entrees run about $30
that gets you up to about $45 before any beverage, dessert, tax, tip, etc.

[Caroline1]

I think most credit card companies offer gift certificates. I know for sure that American Express does. The great advantage is that they choose the restaurant. The disadvantage is that they could also use it for fertilizer for their lawn...

[Deidre7]

A basket from Harry & David is always a great one! I'm 24 and loveeee fruit, cheese. baked goods, and sausage baskets for the holidays hehe

[goodhealthgourmet]

i think pretty much any restaurant will do a gift certificate. i'd suggest Josie, but $100 would never cover an entire meal there.

how about Chez Mimi?

[westsidegal]

i would immediately go to costco.
at costco you can buy 2 $50 gift cards that will work at either spago or chinois on main for $80 (that is a savings of $20 off of face amount).

the drill for buying these cards once at costco, is that they have a plastic package that you pay for at checkout which you then exchange for the actual gift cards at merchandise pick-up after you've paid.

[nosh]

That is a great deal -- I'd never heard or read about it until now. Any rules or restrictions? Only problem is you probably have to be a Costco member to buy it, correct? $100 wouldn't buy two people dinner at Spago, but it would be a nice start; at Chinois, it might just cover a dinner if the couple stuck with the smaller plates and only ordered one entree, which is how I like to dine there anyway.

For an excellent dinner splurge with great food and generous portions, $100 would cover a dinner at Nook. Just over the border in W.L.A. on Santa Monica Blvd., in the back corner of the minimall on the S/E corner of Barry. www.nookbistro.com

[westsidegal]

yes, you do need to have a costco membership to buy the gift certificates, other than that, as far as i know, there are no restrictions.

[casualcat]

oh thats a great idea! thank you for that one!