SoCal's Best Mother's Day Brunch Spots

LOS ANGELES, CA — California restaurants dominated the 100 best places for Mother’s Day brunch, according to a list released by the online reservation service OpenTable.

Mother’s Day 2023 was the busiest dining day of the year, and the Saturday before was the second
busiest. This year, Mother’s Day falls on May 12, and a similar two-day celebration of moms across the country is expected to take place again this year.

Thirteen California eateries made it on OpenTable’s inventory of the Top 100 Brunch Restaurants in America for 2024.

• AR Valentien at The Lodge at Torrey Pines – San Diego, CA
• Beachcomber Cafe – Crystal Cove – Newport Coast, CA
• Élephante – Santa Monica, CA
• FARM – Palm Springs, CA
• Farmhouse at Rogers Gardens – Corona Del Mar, CA
• Girl & the Goat L.A. – Los Angeles, CA
• insideOUT – San Diego, CA
• Mister A’s – San Diego, CA
• Spencer’s Restaurant – Palm Springs, CA
• The Pony Room – Rancho Santa Fe, CA
• Cote Ouest – San Francisco, CA
• Foreign Cinema – San Francisco, CA
• The Henry – Coronado, CA

OpenTable representatives said the company's research shows Mother’s Day celebrations are no longer one-off meals.

“People are increasingly choosing to celebrate the mothers and special women in their lives with a
meal out, bypassing breakfast in bed — and they’re going all out, too,” Steve Sintra, senior vice president of Americas Restaurant Sales & Services, said in a news release.

“Mother's Day festivities now include dining out multiple times all weekend long, and diners are
planning to spend more than last year, with Gen Z more likely to splurge than any generation,” he said.

In a recent survey, 31 percent were considering going out to dinner with friends, 21 percent are
looking forward to a date night and 10 percent said they might dine alone.

The survey also revealed some generational differences about how moms want to celebrate.

While the majority of Americans (54 percent) plan to go out to eat for Mother’s Day, Gen Zers and Millennials were all in at 65 percent and 64 percent, respectively. Only 49 percent of Gen Xers and 39 percent of Baby Boomers planned a meal out.

People who are planning to treat mom out to a meal aren’t planning to scrimp on costs. About 62 percent said they planned to spend more at a restaurant, bar or café on Mother’s Day than they did last year. Splurging is generational, too, with 71 percent of Gen Zers and 68 percent of Millennials saying they’ll spend more, compared to 58 percent of Gen Xers and 44 percent of Baby Boomers.

One area where all generations mostly agreed was that phones should not be brought to the table, with 26 percent of Gen Zers, 24 percent of Millennials, 27 percent of Gen Xers and 26 percent of Baby Boomers preferring a screen-free experience.

OpenTable’s list is based on more than 14 million diner reviews and other metrics, including diner
ratings and the percentage of restaurant reviews tagged as “brunch.”

The 100 restaurants on the 2024 list span 29 states and Washington, D.C., with California having the largest share of restaurants on the list for the fourth consecutive year.

Patch staff contributed.