Where to Eat in Ojai: A Driver's Dining Guide to the Valley

You come down off Highway 33 — or in from Santa Paula on the 150 — and the valley opens up around you. Orange groves, eucalyptus, the Topatopa Mountains turning pink in the late afternoon. Ojai has always been the kind of place people come to slow down. In the last few years, it has also become the kind of place people come specifically to eat. Vogue called it "America's New Culinary Hotspot" in 2025, and for once the hype is accurate.

Whether you're arriving on the Central Coast Crossing after a morning on Highway 33 or coming in from the coast for a long afternoon in the valley, the question of where to eat is no longer a simple one. Ojai Avenue has quietly accumulated some of the most interesting restaurants in Southern California, and the surrounding streets have filled in around them. Here is where to eat — from a pre-drive breakfast to a long dinner after the road.

Rory's Place

Rory's Place is the current anchor of the Ojai dining scene, and it earns that position without trying too hard. The room is long and buzzing, the back patio is equally good, and the menu — small plates, a raw bar, roasted chicken, smartly curated wines — is the kind of thing that makes it genuinely difficult to decide what to order. That is, as any serious restaurant person will tell you, a very good sign.

Start with the broiled oysters in fermented chili butter, then the beet and avocado salad with winter citrus — a riot of colour on a wide oval plate that tastes as good as it looks. The roasted chicken is the anchor main: simple, perfectly executed, the kind of dish that makes you wonder why more restaurants don't just do this. Order the salt-and-pepper martini. Reservations are essential and fill up fast on weekends; book ahead.

Next door, Rory's Other Place handles the daytime. It opens at 7:30am and runs until 3:30pm — espresso drinks, breakfast pastries, and lunch sandwiches that are worth planning your arrival around. The tuna conserva on a slim baguette is the move for a pre-drive lunch. The soft serve has developed something of a cult following in town.

Rory's Place: 122 East Ojai Avenue. Dinner only; reservations recommended. $$$
Rory's Other Place: 133 East Ojai Avenue. Daily 7:30am–3:30pm. $$

Ojai Rotie

There is no better patio to eat lunch on in Ojai than the expansive one that foregrounds Ojai Rotie, a richly realised rotisserie chicken restaurant with Lebanese and French influences running through everything. The whole operation is built around one thing done exceptionally well, and the confidence of that focus shows in every plate.

Order a half chicken ($25) to share — it arrives with purslane tabouli, caramelised cauliflower, pommes rotisserie, and a cloud of toum that is reason enough to come on its own. The za'atar-rubbed manouche flatbread is the right thing to order while you wait. The wine list leans local and is stronger than you'd expect for a lunch spot. If the group is large, go for a whole bird ($35) and make an afternoon of it.

One important note for drivers planning a mid-week trip: Ojai Rotie is closed Monday and Tuesday. It operates Wednesday through Sunday for lunch (noon–3pm) and dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday (4–7pm). Plan accordingly.

Ojai Rotie: 469 East Ojai Avenue. Wed–Sun, lunch noon–3pm; dinner Wed/Thu/Sun 4–7pm. $$

The Dutchess

The Dutchess is the most versatile restaurant in Ojai — it operates as a coffee shop and bakery by day and flips into one of the most interesting dinner rooms in Ventura County by night. Chef Saw Naing's Burmese-Californian cooking is unlike anything else in the valley, and the all-day format means it fits into almost any itinerary regardless of when you arrive.

In the morning, the gluten-free sticky rice doughnuts are the thing to know about — they stay on the menu year-round while everything else rotates with the seasons. At lunch, the Duke Sando is the move: Burmese fried chicken, house-smoked pastrami, Niman Ranch bacon, herb aioli, all stacked into something that requires both hands. At dinner, the tea-leaf salad is non-negotiable — served with all the traditional trimmings, it is the dish that defines the restaurant. Follow it with the goat masala curry and freshly baked naan, and finish with whatever seasonal dessert Pastry Chef Kelsey Brito has on that week.

The Dutchess opened in 2022 and was immediately embraced by the town. It has a walk-in bar for dinner if you can't get a reservation, which is worth knowing on a busy weekend.

The Dutchess: 457 East Ojai Avenue. Open daily; daytime from early morning, dinner from 5pm. $$–$$$

The Farmer and the Cook

The Farmer and the Cook has been feeding Ojai since the 1990s, and it shows — not in the sense of being tired, but in the sense of being completely settled into what it is. It is a vegetarian market and café that sources from its own farm, runs a CSA programme, and has no interest whatsoever in being fashionable. It is better for all of that.

It sits in Meiners Oaks, a five-minute drive west of downtown Ojai on the 33 — which means it is the natural first stop if you're coming in on Highway 33 from the north, or the last stop before you head back out the same way. The Swiss chard enchiladas are the signature dish: deeply flavoured, genuinely satisfying, the kind of vegetarian cooking that doesn't feel like a compromise. The acai bowl and avocado toast are the breakfast standards. The salad bar is worth building a meal around if you're eating light before a long drive.

It is casual, cash-friendly, and does not take reservations. Come as you are.

The Farmer and the Cook: 339 West El Roblar Drive, Meiners Oaks. Open daily for breakfast and lunch. $

Highly Likely

Highly Likely is the newest addition to the Ojai dining scene, having opened in May 2025 in a beautifully converted mid-century space on Ojai Avenue. Chef Kat Turner brought the restaurant from Los Angeles — there is an original Highly Likely in LA — and the Ojai outpost has the same all-day format: breakfast and lunch from 7am until 3pm, then dinner and cocktails from 5pm until 10pm.

The food draws on Midwestern comfort cooking — Turner's childhood — executed with serious technique. The fried artichoke and the chicken liver mousse with date jam are the starters to order. The fried chicken schnitzel is the dish people keep coming back for. The steak au poivre is the move for a proper dinner. The cocktail programme is strong, and the wine list is curated with the same care as the food menu. Closed Tuesdays.

It is the right place to end a day in Ojai — low-lit, unhurried, the kind of room where you order another drink and stay longer than you planned.

Highly Likely: 211 West Ojai Avenue. Daily 7am–3pm and 5pm–10pm (closed Tuesdays). $$–$$$

Plan the Drive

Ojai is not a destination you stumble into — it sits at the end of a deliberate drive, and the food is part of what makes that drive worth doing. The Central Coast Crossing brings you in from the mountains on Highway 33, one of the most celebrated driving roads in Southern California, before dropping you into the valley for a long lunch. The LA Canyons & Coast pack makes Ojai the natural end point of a morning out of Los Angeles — arrive in time for lunch at Ojai Rotie, spend the afternoon in town, and stay for dinner at Rory's Place. Or extend the trip north toward Santa Barbara and combine it with the Santa Barbara Coast drive for a full weekend on the road.

If you are continuing north after Ojai, Los Alamos is 45 minutes up the 101 — home to Bell's, one of the best restaurants in California and a five-consecutive-year Michelin star holder. Drive the Central Coast Crossing in the morning, lunch at Ojai Rotie, then make the run north for dinner at Bell's. It is a long day, and the right kind.

Whichever way you come in, leave time for the valley. The pink moment — when the Topatopa Mountains turn rose-coloured just before sunset — is worth sitting still for. There are worse places to wait it out than a patio in Ojai with a glass of local wine.

Getting There

Ojai is 90 minutes from Los Angeles via the 101 to Highway 33 (the scenic route through the mountains) or the 101 to Highway 150 from Santa Paula. Free street parking is available throughout downtown. Thursday through Sunday offers the widest choice of restaurants; mid-week closures are common, particularly at Ojai Rotie and Highly Likely. For an overnight, the Ojai Valley Inn is the classic choice; Hotel El Roblar has a more boutique feel and houses the Condor Bar, worth a drink on its own terms.

Ready to drive it? The Central Coast Crossing drive pack has everything you need — the route, the playlist, the packing list, and the Google Maps link — to make the most of the valley.