I would not suggest this place for diinner if you are a large dinner party or going when this place is busy as they just cannot handle it. On saturday night the service was absolutly horrible at Santa Monica , they were under staffed and slow. Our party of ten sat in the outisde down area and it Took about 45 minutes to get our first round of drinks and the waitress forgot a couple of them. Dinner was ordered about two hours into our visit only after asking the waitress to take our order. We recieved about half of our dinner entrees and the rest never came out. UNBELIEVABLE!!! Since service was so bad at our table I decided to take myself to the bar to see if I could get a cocktail faster......same story. Bar was filled with dirty glasses and empty plates....absolutly disgusting!!! I heard the bartender ask a customer to point to the bootle of booze because he did not know of it. I think what looked like the manager was behind the bar with only one other bartender. Bottle Line...this place will not survive in SM with this kind of service. How can management invest so much into a place and have service that is just a disgrace.

I love the food. It is not the typical Mexican food you find around Los Angeles. And, if you are looking for typical, this is not the place for you. As mentioned in the previous review, their drinks are wonderful. They make great mojitos and sangria.

This place is pretty average. I am not a huge fan of their food because it always seems a little different from what I would expect, but their drinks are great. They make a strong (and really big) margerita. I would recommend going there when you want a drink when on the promenade.

We used to eat there once a week, mostly becuase of our favorite waitress Coco and her great recomendations. The owners apparently let her go, and now we are gone with here. Our latest visit was not the same, and the service seems to be declining. BIG MISTAKE.

We dined here recently upon the recommendation of a friend, and were disappointed. For a Saturday night, it seemed quite slow, and the service moved at a fairly slow pace as well. The seafood focused menu had some tasty-sounding options, but some of the dishes we ordered were underseasoned. One high-point was the soup of the day--a carrot soup with wonderfully deep flavor, and the grilled scallop appetizer had a nice smoky flavor. I ordered fish tacos, and was underwhelmed by the blandness that even a good dose of salsa didn't remedy. The chile rellenos that my husband ordered were a bit more flavorful, if a little on the mushy side. We'll try La Serenata again sometime and give it a second chance, but if asked today, I probably would not recommend it to a friend.