Circa

Circa is a dimly lit and dark atmosphere....a great environment to chill with friends.

But nothing irritates me more when you can't read the menu. The small candles are obviously there for decoration and not for practical reasons. The typeface on the menu is so small and extensive description of all these yummy sounding dishes. But WTH....why do they make their customers work for their food?!

My friends were pretty happy with their cocktails....Moscow Mule, Bourbon and Violet Hour. But I hated mine "Beach Don't Kill My Vibe." Couldn't drink it at all. I was taking tiny sips for about an hour. My friends said if I didn't like it that I could return it. But I was too lazy.

The dishes are small. We definitely ordered a few orders of the same dishes to be shared among 6 people. I love everything that we ordered but a few of them were our favorites:
-Crispy Chicken Eggrolls
-Crab Roll
-Grilled Prawns
-Grilled Octopus

I don't eat beef but my friends loved the Wagyu Steak.

We were there for a long time. My friend made reservations and we sat at a prime spot with really comfy couches. The place turned "clubby" after hours. Overall this place was fun and I did have a good time.

Yay for @dineLA @CircaMB

I'm one happy girl when dineLA comes around because it gives me a chance to try out a lot of restaurants I've had bookmarked for awhile. Circa has been on my list of must try South Bay places and thanks to dineLA (and my yelp sis Jamie A), I got to finally go check this place out.

Walking in, Circa is small restaurant that looks to seat about a little over a 100 people. To one side is the bar area, which happened to be very busy and crowded for a Friday night ($5 drink specials and 3 for $12 appetizers would make many including me happy too). The rest of the restaurant is dark tables with lighted candles for dinner time. It's a very cozy, classy restaurant.

Happy hour looked great but I really was here for dineLA and decided to save the happy hour treats for a future trip. For tonight, I went with the three course dineLA dinner. I got to try the Thai Kale Salad, the Butternut Squash Gnocchi and the Warm Churros.

The Thai Kale Salad was a great first starter. It was my first time having Kale with a Asian twist and most notable to me was it's slightly spicy kick at first bite.

The Butternut Squash is a crowd favorite here and I can definitely see why. It's flavorful, a little sweet and very soft. It's one of the best gnocchi dishes I've ever tried.

The Warm Churros did not disappoint either. Thick and long with plenty of sugar sprinkled on top, it was the perfect ending to this three course dinner! I loved the dipping sauces. There was vanilla caramel and chocolate ganache!

All three courses at Circa definitely define what dineLA is about....getting a taste of the best cuisine in Los Angeles!

I've been crossing off all the places I have to try in Manhattan Beach! Jenn G and I stumbled across Circa due to DineLA and I am glad we went. I liked the 1920's vibe and Prohibition inspired cocktails. There appeared to be a mixer going on at the bar and it was packed when we got there. Luckily, in addition to DineLA, Happy Hour was also in full swing!

Yay for a $5 Choose and Booze special as well as the $3 for $12 tapas specials which my husband saw and had to try since he wanted to try a few things. It was really quite a deal. We were able to order HH at our tables; we didn't have to sit at the bar which is always nice. I hate it when specials are only restricted to the cramped bar area.

From our server, I learned that Circa makes their own tonic and it is red because apparently tonic is naturally reddish. Danngg, I like that I got a little drink education too, lol. Their cocktails also have a narrow block of ice in it - the chunk of ice is flavored with lemon. Just warning you in case you're like, 'Where's my drink?' or ' I want booze not ice'. LOL. For $5 I am not complaining about the ice! And wow, I do recommend their gin & tonic. That is no Happy Hour gin &tonic at from that bar around the corner. Their Phil Collins is also a fav. with your alcohol, grapefruit and lemon + seltzer.

Although this is a tapas bar and their dishes are small, share-able sizes, the kale salad was a larger portion (it seems like every place is on this kale kick). I enjoyed the seabass a little horseradish to spice it up. Our dessert came out early, but that was remedied easily enough, lol. I do love a good churro and the highlight of these were the two sauces it came with: chocolate ganache and vanilla caramel. The ganache was dark and bitter and was a good balance to the sweetness of the other sauce. WINNING. I realized we were here for almost 2.5 hours and the time went by fast! And no one threw the bill at us to hurry us up which was the best. Esp, in Manhattan Beach, people are always trying to turn tables over quickly.

Everyone in here was really nice and friendly from the hostess, our server and the food runners and bussers. Circa is one of my new favorite places in the area!

Circa is a relaxed/Chic and innovative little restaurant in Manhattan Beach. It has a good layout with a mix of bar area, casual couches and coffee tables, and dining tables.

The menu has both small portion items similar to tapas which they call morsels and full entree items. The food was both tasty and fun although we found the number of entree items to be limited.

We got there around 9 pm on Saturday without any reservation and we were able to be seated right away. We started off with ordering the cheese & meat board, it was delicious but the portion of the cheese was extremely small.
We also ordered the Brussels sprouts and Kale salad both were very delicious and portions were good.

It was very loud and packed inside and by 10 pm DJ was playing music and lounge area was full. If you are looking for a quiet dinning experience maybe you should skip late dining.

The servers, bar staff, host were all welcoming and friendly.
Over all we had a good experience, I would like to come back and try their happy hour.

This doesn't happen very often. I wrote a less than glowing review of Circa after my last visit (my 2nd time there) and the manager Luis wrote me back and asked me to give them another try. Circa is a "walk to" for us and we wanted to try and make it work. So last night we did.

I'm so glad we took up his offer, the food was just as good as it was the first visit and the service was spot on. We had tried the crostini before and last night it was heavenly again. The burrata salad was perfect and the cheeseboard was inventive and well thought out.

But, the whole point of this is...that a restaurant and it's staff cared about what a customer thought and went beyond to make sure we had a god experience.

That is rare. I'm a fan.

Really nice job on the revised interior. As much as liked the old restaurant (Mucho), I think the space and the menu have a much better and broader appeal.

The food and the bar menus have been dialed up a notch or two. The appetizers/small plates being served around me looked good. I had the prawns and the bao (buns) with pork belly, and both were good.

The customers at the bar (and the bartenders) were really getting into the craft cocktails. Lots of creativity going on, and they happy to make you something custom. I had a house margarita, and it was very good. Better still, they use oversized ice cubes so your cocktail doesn't get diluted as quickly. A great thing, especially for straight vodka, gin and whiskey drinkers.

Not sure if they'll still retain the old nightclub/lounge vibe they had used to have on the weekend evenings. Might be your (loud and crowded) cup of tea, but it was a bit more of a scene than I needed by the beach.

I had the privilege of dining here last Saturday night, and am so happy to say that the drive from "the OC" was well worth it. I actually do leave my bubble once in a blue moon, believe it or not. The vibe was great as we showed up at 7:30 for our reservation and were promptly seated, in my opinion at one of the best tables in the house along the back wall. The restaurant was slightly buzzing with people, and the mood was set with the low lighting, and brick walls. The front of the restaurant is lined with large windows which are open to let the fresh beach air in.

Our server was friendly and extremely informative and after hearing about the hand-crafted cocktail menu and the "drinks on draft", I ordered the "Perfect Lady" to start. It was a blend of gin, lemon and peach, with some whipped egg white which added a nice frothiness. I mean we're all perfect ladies on the first drink right? There should be a sequel to this drink like "The Blushing Gusher" but, I digress...

The menu is broken down by categories of Garden, Sea and Land and is geared towards sharing plates however there are entrees on the menu. When I hear the phrase sharing plates, I get so excited because I know there's going to be a party in my mouth. Being that we were a party of four there was plenty of sharing to be had.

Here is what we shared:

Squash blossom fritters- all I have to say is FLOWER POWER

Lemon Gnocchi-Light and bright flavored with great sauce

Steamed Buns-AMAZING, with the dream pairing of crispy pork belly and fried quail egg, and the softest buns

Wood Grilled Fanny Bay Oysters- Grilled in their shells and mouth watering

Chicken and Shrimp Wontons-Dipping sauce was divine

Whole Crispy Baja Sea Bass-Whole Fish fried to perfection topped with Sichuan sauce and peanuts.

Jidori Chicken Breast - was tender but seemed it was missing some flavor, however the rest of the table enjoyed it.

It's safe to say we were stuffed, however we couldn't keep from looking at all the other options on the menu.

We settled on the chocolate pudding for dessert which was rich and decadent. I'd like to see more dessert options available in the future.

Overall the experience was golden and we even had a visit to the table from Executive Chef Freeze. I'm already craving the Steamed buns, and oysters plus have a running list of other menu items to try, so we will be re-visiting Circa MB in the near future.

All you need to know is that the drinks here are the bomb! Their craft cocktail is pretty impressive and my favorite drink -- Pharmacia -- is one of the best around! It's not on the menu but just ask for it. It is a tequila/mezcal based drink with lemon and honey.

We had dinner here once but it was just okay. If you want a couple of nibbles to go with your drinks, by all means order some, but if you're looking for a place to just have dinner, it's not all that impressive.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE:
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# CIRCA IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED. They posted a farewell letter and temporary permit notice on their doors. I was bummed that I couldn't squeeze another drink out of this place. You can view the same farewell letter on their website. http://www.circamb.com/

# I heard that Circa was bought out by 2 brothers that are planning to convert it into a steakhouse. I heard this multiple times. Once from a bartender friend and twice when I was drinking at the bar area in Houston's Manhattan Beach oddly enough. At Houston's, I eavesdropped on this couple talk about how their friends know these brothers that were looking to convert Circa into a finer-dining establishment.

I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but once I heard Circa, my eyes lit up despite the fact my manhattan drink was seducing me to sleep. You tried, manhattan, you tried. I had a manhattan in the Manhattan Beach branch of Houston's Manhattan Beach. She sells sea shells at the seashore. MY TONGUE! IT'S TWISTED. ARGHHHH!!

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
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# I never had a chance to eat their food here. However, I will say that they had a great atmosphere conducive to drinking and chatting. Moscow mules had an overpowering ginger taste, but still refreshing. Other drinks were fine too. Again, it was all about the atmosphere since 20-somethings went here for outings.

# Drinks hovered around 3 and 3.5 and food? IONO because I have never had the food. Still, out of old times sake and the ambience Circa provided, I will push it to a 4. Rest in peace, Circa.

# Honestly, the only two nightlife places in Manhattan Beach are Circa and the Strand House. And now, it will only be the Strand House. Damn you evil twin brothers (probably not twins, but still)! Damn you!

# Manhattan Beach needs more places like this to cater to the 20-something crowd. Don't get me wrong. The restaurants are great and the dive bars are just fine, but it's nice to have a classy drinking spot around. On a tangent, I personally dislike dive bars unless they have great craft beers on tap and good food.

Beach don't kill my vibe...

Heh, I've been saying this alot ever since I found this on their drink menu. I'll give Circa props on their drink names. The atmosphere is nice but casual, with a couple of big comfy couches you'd expect to find in someone's living room. We lucked out with one of these couches, which had a view of all the TVs...perfect for football fans, not so great for non-football fans. Anyway, the food was delicious. I didn't really know anything about this place and we only came here because our first choice had a long wait. The veggie side of the table ordered the crispy brussel sprouts, butternut squash gnocchi and beet salad with persimmons (YUM!). The meat side table also added on grilled prawns, crab cakes and fried chicken lettuce wraps - which they were very happy with.

The restaurant started getting packed in the bar as we were leaving. I wouldn't really come here for a night out since the bar is kind of small but for a dinner, it's a great space.