A hungry baby sea lion picked the best seat in the house after wandering into a beachside restaurant in San Diego.

The cleaning crew of The Marine Room found the female pup Thursday morning snoozing in a booth with a view of the ocean.

"She said, 'Can I see the menu?' I asked if she had a reservation," chef Bernard Guillas joked.

Guillas' photos, which he posted on Facebook and were widely shared, showed the little sea lion perched in the plush booth. One photo showed her resting her head on the windowsill, as if gazing out at the view.

"She seemed to think: 'I must go back'," the chef told AFP.

Guillas, who is French and has overseen the restaurant for 21 years, said the sea lion entered through the restaurant's back door, after making her way up from the beach alongside the building.

The restaurant called SeaWorld, which sent a team to rescue the starving wayward pup.

She weighed only 20 pounds (nine kilograms), when she should be about 40 pounds, Guillas said.

Climate change has been blamed for raising the temperature of the oceans and disrupting marine food chains.