We will be in Santa Monica for one day/night a week on Friday. Please can anyone suggest a restaurant anywhere in the Third street Promenade area which is pleasant and good value for money, mid price, we are not looking for special occasion dining as we are on a three week holiday that requires sensible budgeting. Not somewhere that is mainly fish or Mexican dishes! Otherwise somewhere along the front would be okay. What would parking be like on a Friday night in Third Street Promenade area- we are staying at Ambrose so could get a bus if necessary.

You can park in the covered multi-tier parking for the indoor shopping Mall, called Santa Monica Place, that lies at one end of the Promenade and walk through the mall to get to the Promenade. I have always parked there free, although now the website says that after 5 pm on Thurs-Sun there is a $3 fee.
http://www.santamonicaplace.com/about_us/directions

The real restaurants right on the Promenade are generally a bit pricey. Bravo Cucina is a smaller Italian restaurant with some seating outside on the Promenade (w/propane heaters when it is chilly) and reasonable prices. I've been there 3 times for dinner this year and enjoyed it each time. Reviews on the web are equivocal, and some have complained of bad service, but I have had good service at dinner the 3 times I have been there.

There are some less expensive burger place type options (and one classic diner), and even a kaiten (conveyer belt) sushi place on the Promenade. You will have lots of choices. Get to the Promenade early on Friday evening and scope out the restaurants and choose a place. As long as you are not going to an upscale place and get there early (by 6-6:30 pm), you can get to the smaller less expensive places without reservations. If you want to dine later, maybe make a reservation somewhere similar to Bravo Cucina (I'm not even sure they take reservations, I have just walked in each time) and check out other options when you get there.

We enjoyed eating at Barney's Beanery in the Promenade. It was very funky, good drinks, and decent food. A very "fun" place to eat

http://www.icugini.com/

This may not be perfect fit for you but I'll through it out there because it is a nice atmosphere just a bit out of the hustle and bustle of the promenade.

I Cugini is on Ocean Blvd. and serves Italian with an emphasis on seafood (plenty of pasta dishes if you want to avoid seafood). Pasta dishes run $12-17 or so with some entrees up to about $25.

I have had good service there and I like the atmoshpere both inside and outside.

Good suggestions so far. Don't forget that the Ambrose runs a London Cab to the Promenade area of downtown Santa Monica (call the hotel for details).

Broadway Deli serves dinner-- not just deli stuff-- and it's perfectly adequate, although a bit pricey here and there. Corner of Broadway and Third.

Gaucho Grill (just north of the corner of Third and Arizona) is one of a small chain of Argentinian specialists (grilled meats). The food is tasty, it's not expensive and they have a full bar.

Brittania Pub and Ye Olde King's Head are within two blocks of each other on Santa Monica Blvd. The food is English and it's not at all expensive, although the question of whether English food can be good is one for the ages.

Don't flame me-- I'm just sayin'....

Yangtze is an Asian specialist just north of Santa Monica Blvd on Third. The food goes all over the map-- literally; each item is characterized by its region of origin. Pretty tasty, and usually busy.

The kaiten-style sushi bar is sensibly named Kaiten Sushi. I have eaten there recently. I just do not "get" sushi-- pretty, skillfully-made and presented, but (except for ahi) it's still fishmonger floor sweepings collected up and plonked on rice. Still, I decided to give it another try, and went to Kaiten. Don't waste your money. By the time the items get to you on the conveyor belt, they have lost the key freshness that makes good sushi edible.

On Wilshire, just west of the Promenade, there is an outpost of California Pizza Kitchen. They made the free-association pizza topping popular, even before Wolfgang Puck slapped smoked salmon on a pizza at Spago in the 80s. The national chain PF Chang has a store at Wilshire and Fourth. Inauthentic and usually a bit salty cuisine, but the room is nice and they have a full bar. Houston's, at the corner of Wilshire and Second, is another national chain, but the food is actually quite good.

Thai Dishes, on Santa Monica between Ocean and Second, is cheap Thai. That sounds like damning-with-faint-praise, but it's really not; even the less-wonderful Thai places in California are better than Thai anywhere else in the US.

At the high and Special Occasion end, Jiraffe is awesome (Santa Monica Blvd and Fifth). Border Grill, if you can get past the boiler-factory noise level, offers Latina Nueva-style Mexican-- whoops, Mexican is off your list (and what's wrong with Mexican cuisine?!?. I. Cugini is great northern Italian (they're part of the King Seafood family of southern California restaurants-- almost all of which are superior high-end eateries).