Press

"When chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger opened Border Grill more than three decades ago, they nudged forward the conversation about Mexican cooking in America by showcasing the cuisine’s sheer vastness and regionality. 

Socalo, their newest restaurant in Santa Monica, feels like an elegant and understated distillation of their culinary wanderings across Mexico. You can get chunky, beautifully charred carne asada tacos anointed with slow-burning salsa quemada; a very good and succulent shrimp and steak vampiro coated in griddled cheese; and crunchy chicken dorado tacos that shatter neatly between your teeth. 

I love the chicken poblano enchiladas awash in spicy crema, and the slow-braised lamb birria achieves depths that are only possible with immense skill and patience. For dessert, there’s an excellent tres leches cake with fresh strawberries. 

It should be noted that Socalo has one of the most comprehensive and thrilling collections of Mexican wines on the Westside, which is reason enough to stop in." - Los Angeles Times' 101 Restaurants and People That Define How L.A. Eats 2020

"Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken returned to Santa Monica after years away, and as it turned out, opening a colorful cantina around their old Border Grill stomping grounds meant an all new rainbow of citrusy, produce-forward, hyper-fresh and beachy Cal-Mexican dishes—the kind of cooking that put their lauded (and once-trailblazing) ode to regional Mexican food on the map. 

Socalo brings a revamped but similar approach to casual all-day tacos, burritos, ceviches, and salads tossed together with ingredients pulled from the nearby Santa Monica Farmers Market. There are vegetables and California influence tucked into every dish—sometimes sneakily so—in a way that makes Feniger and Milliken’s execution of Mexican cooking still feel like it's uniquely theirs." - TimeOut LA's Best Mexican Restaurants in LA