The Beachcomber

The breakfast crab cakes are very bad. The beachcomber’s favorite coconut macadamia pancakes seem like a joke. The service is fine. You can get much better food with the same price and a beautiful beach view at many other places. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

This is such a cute little beach place. We came on a Thursday around 10:30 for breakfast and had to wait a half hour. It was worth the wait. Plus, you can spend your time exploring the historical district of the state park. Tons of photo ops. But I do recommend calling in for a reservation on busy days. We were told that reservations had to be made at least a day in advance.
Service was good, especially given the crowd. Our waiter, Max, was so friendly and helpful. He made it seem like we were his only concern even though that clearly wasn’t the case.
My cousin and I had the Crystal Cove Omelet. Best omelet either of us has ever had. We couldn’t stop talking about them. The eggs were super fluffy, and the white cheddar cheese was a delicious change from the usual fare. I usually heavily season eggs, but I didn’t need to at all.
My cousin’s daughter had lemon blueberry pancakes, which she said were delicious. The size of the blueberries in those pancakes almost made me wish I had ordered them! My daughter had the French toast off the child’s menu. They use challah for their French toast, though, and she didn’t like them. She did love her smoothie, though.
I highly recommend this place. It’s so charming. Definitely worth at least one visit, if not many more!

Love this restaurant! This restaurant is located right on the beach! My boyfriend and I came here on a Wednesday and the wait was not bad at all… we we’re told our wait time would be 40 min so my boyfriend and I went to the bar to have some drinks until our name was called. Wait actually ended up being 20 min. Drinks are nice and strong! The calamari was cooked to perfection yum! It comes with some spicy sauce so we asked for tarter and it was perfect. I ordered the ahi salad and my boyfriend ordered the tacos and everything was delicious! Would definitely recommend coming here on a weekday. During the weekend it’s about a 2 hour wait and getting reservations on opentable is pretty difficult because they can only reserve a few spots for the day the rest have to be walk ins. Great food on a beautiful beach!

We stopped in for a late lunch with my niece who was visiting from Encinitas and us from Texas. We bragged about the monstrous Bloody Marys with enough garnish for a meal and the fresh Ahi Taco appetizer. We snagged a table next to the railing in the sun. We picked up a flyer for the beach bonfire s’more set up for next visit.

A beautiful little beach spot with good food and great beignets!
Parking: There’s a parking lot on the PCH; Beachcomber validates for parking so we didn’t pay anything. We walked 7 minutes to the restaurant (there’s a path with beach access that goes underneath the highway). They have a shuttle to the restaurant for $ 1.50, but if you do not need to take the shuttle, you can save that money or put it toward an order of beignets. It’s a nice walk to the beach anyway.
Wait time: About 30 minutes at around 12 pm on a Thursday (early summer — I can’t speak for wait times during peak summer). They give you a buzzer so you can walk around the tidepools and the beach until they call you!
Food: I ordered the cioppino. The portion was perfect for me and the seafood (especially the scallop!) was fresh. The bread was soft and went incredibly well with the tomato-​based broth. My boyfriend ordered the kobe burger, which also looked delicious. The fries were pretty good too. And of course, we got beignets. There are 12 in an order, but they’re pretty light. Even though we were both pretty full already, the two of us managed to finish 11 of them haha. They are soft and come with powdered sugar, ice cream, and chocolate syrup. It was delicious.
Service: The service was great. The food came out quickly and they provide blankets for those seated outside on the patio (it can get chilly even at noon!). They don’t have a bathroom, but there are public bathrooms available very close to the restaurant. As far as public bathrooms go, they’re pretty clean!

Braised short rib: the rib was super tender and just pulled apart beautifully. Combined with the ravioli and the wild mushrooms, the flavor was rich and full.
Frutti de mare: so much seafood and flavor and perfect textures. The pasta was a good al dente consistency and the sauce just soaked up all the best flavors from the calamari, clams, mussels, shrimp, and scallops (which were all generous in this dish) while adding flavor to the pasta and the meat from the sea. Not too salty, not too ocean-​y like some seafood dishes can be. The garlic bread crostini that came with it was also so good. The olive oil was a significant note and then when you dip it in the sauce, you can practically hear angels.
Beignets: amazing. The perfect combination of textures and temperatures. The pastry itself was light and soft but also crispy and doughy. The chocolate that comes with it drizzled on thick and it was the perfect balance of semisweet and dark. The ice cream was creamy and sealed the deal. The contrast between the warm delicious pastry and the cool rich cream of the vanilla ice cream made it impossible to get sick of. We cleaned that plate up so fast.
Service was nice and friendly. Thought it was weird that they didn’t serve bread after we ordered, but there was enough food in the end. The wait can be long, but with the beach right outside and the beautiful view, you really can’t pass it up.

Crystal Cove Beach is one of my favorite beaches down in here in SoCal. I’ve always been eyeing this place and finally got to try for dinner on Friday night. First of all, this place is PACKED. Our estimated wait was 40 min, but it ended up being about 2 hours. But it was fine because my boyfriend and I just sat at the beach while waiting. The view on the patio was totally worth the wait though. We watched the sunset as we enjoyed our drinks and food.
I got Pimm’s Cup for cocktail. At first, I thought it was pricey ($ 15). But it is HUGE. I think this cocktail counts as two or even three. For entrée, we got Diver Scallops and Lobster Linguine Pasta. Both of them were to die for. The scallops went so well with bacon. They were soft and chewy. The coconut black rice was so good. It was light and went well with the heavy scallops. The lobster linguine was creamy and so good too! These two entrees alone made us so full but we decided to try The Beignets because he waiter told us they were good. Oh my, I was so glad we ordered them. They were fresh, crunchy and soft. They were even better with creamy ice cream.
Definitely will come back here again. A little pricey but worth it for the view and the food!

Indeed, this is a popular little beach spot with indoor and patio seating. We got lucky and were seated within 40 minutes as we chose first available and were seated inside.
Our waitress was very friendly and listened carefully to our requests. It took a while for our breakfasts to arrive, as the Beachcomber was full with a line out front. The beignets were delicious, although a tad greasy for my liking. Asked for ½ the order to arrive without powder sugar. Interesting touch to also served them with maple syrup.
I ordered the grilled veggie omelet with egg whites and Swiss cheese, rather than Gouda, personal preference. My choices of sides of their rosemary potatoes and 9 grain bread. The presentation and taste of this omelet was delish. Just a little less salt on the potatoes would have been terrific, again, personal preference. My hubby enjoyed the a Greek omelet, with feta, spinach, onions, tomatoes and peppers, which he said was excellent.
Since parking was limited, we parked in the state beach parking lot. The parking ticket was validated in the restaurant. From the lot we initially took the shuttle for 1.50 each then walked back thru the tunnel.
I’d go again in a heartbeat!

~~Update: –1 star. Family member ordered a steak medium and it came out really rare. Even beyond what I’d want if I said «rare». I ended up eating it for them, and they had some of someone else’s, so not a big deal, but just something worth noting~~

Great location right on Crystal Cove Beach, great ambiance and service.
Our food was delish, we ordered the Tiny Ahi Tacos, Lemon Grass Chicken Skewers and Roasted French Feta. So good! My fave was def the Tiny Ahi Tacos. We also ordered a couple of cocktails, the Bloody Mary was amazing, spiced to perfection! I’m definitely coming back here! Also, make sure you give yourself and your guests enough time, the wait during the weekend can take up to 1.5 hours, but there is also a bar area that is first come first serve; the downfall, you can only order Apps and drinks at the bar.

Love traveling around the world and LA is not exception to that. Santa Ana is beautiful and this beach restaurant is what makes California so special. Its located right on the beach with a million dollar view just that makes it special and worth going to.
We parked the car across the road from the ocean hwy and walked 6 – 7 mins thru a very cool tunnel that you can see pictures of — another option is just take a shuttle bus that cost 1.50 $ a person or something.
You walk into a beach full of lil shops and there is also the beachcomber restaurant. We spent hrs on the beach and then after 430 when we really got hungry we had dinner and drinks.
The food and drinks were great, the service around us was very detailed with the menu and special, we got stuck with a lady that was simple and took orders and didn’t seem to mind that we were enjoying the view and didn’t care so much about anything else. My lady order lobster pasta which was great and I had the ribs awesome. *** usually fin LA bread is not complimentary ** no exception here!
The food location and service come with a price tag this is the only draw back but it’s worth the experience, my opinion should be marked $$$$ on Unilocal to help customers understand prices better!
Will be back

I’ve been to the Beachcomber for Lunch and Dinner before, but this review is for breakfast. We knew that we would have to wait for a table so we headed out bright and early for breakfast. Once parked, we had the option for the shuttle or to walk. Not having cash and that it was a beautiful day, we chose to do the 5 minute walk.
We traded in a drivers license for a pager and were told the wait was 20 mins or so. That was a very nice surprise as I’ve heard wait times can be much much longer.
We got outside seating so that was cool! Once seated, we started with sparkling wine drinks: I chose elderflower, my fiancé chose a mimosa. The table next to us ordered the huge bloody marys but we were celebrating so it was champagne-​style drinks for us! We also started with the famous beignets. The drinks were delicious and the beignets lived up to their reputation. Light airy pillows dusted in confectioner’s sugar. With a nice maple syrup but it wasn’t needed.
For our meals, I had the crystal cove omelette and he had the huevos rancheros. There were other egg dishes as well as the sweet goodies like french toast. The omelette had avocado, bacon and cheddar cheese, with fresh fruit and side of toast. My omelette was really delicious and even better after adding tabaso/​cholula. My fiancé enjoyed his eggs too and he wiped that plate clean. We finished off our meals with a cucumber strawberry vodka cooler that was really refreshing.
Service was really good and our parking was validated. We enjoyed the beach afterwards. It was a very relaxing spot!

The location can’t be beat. I just love going here, to eat or not. I’ve eaten here a few times, and have been pretty happy, but not blown away by any means. This last time I had breakfast, and was very happy with my food, the service, and oh the view. If you go on a weekend, be sure to get there early, or the wait can be pretty brutal. Ours was 40 minutes, and we got there at around 9:30 with no reservation. It was very much worth it.
Veggie omelet– This was just huge by any standards. Big omelet with lots of fillings. I didn’t get a chance to try it, but its owner put down half, and said it was good.
Bacon, cheddar, and avocado omelet– Also a very big omelet, with lots of bacon. This stood out in a good way due to the quantity of very high quality bacon. My daughter had this, ate a little less than half, and was stuffed. She loved it. I had a couple of bites and it is something I would order.
Corned beef hash and eggs– I considered getting this, but am glad I didn’t. My wife ordered it, stated that it was okay, but the issue is that it wasn’t a traditional hash. It had a larger dice of corned beef, and the portion was good, but it lacked that crispy salty thing I look forward to in a hash. Give me the can!
Chilaquiles– Wow! These were really, really good. I wasn’t expecting much, but they really surprised me with this dish. Beef braised to tender in guajillo sauce, soaked chips, crema, cotija, scallions, diced tomato, avocado cream, over easy egg. I think there was more braised beef in this dish than there were tortilla chips. The flavors were explosive and well married. The textures of über tender moist beef, and a little give on the chips, just worked so well. I couldn’t finish it all, and gave my wife some. She loved it too. The guajillo sauce is earthy and wonderful. If you enjoy red chilaquiles, you have to try this.
Service was quick and attentive. View was perfect. Love this place.

Other than the location that beach comber has, I do not see great things about this place. They finally take online reservations and I was able to snag one for breakfast. Parking is at Los Trancos and shuttle service is available to and from parking spot for $ 1/​person. You can also walk through the tunnel to get to beach comber and rest of the historic place. Restaurant was packed and tables were tucked too close to next tables. Ordered their chilaquiles and chille relleno. Food was so-​so. Service was very slow. Public restrooms are the only available options dining here. It is quite a walk from the restaurant. Good for one time though.

The café is located right on the beach and the location just can’t get any better than that! I made a reservation because I heard that this is a place you have to be ready to wait to get seated but it appeared that there was no seating issues on early Sunday morning (7:30am).
Overall experience was great. Great location, good customer service! I was a little disappointment with the food because there really wasn’t anything special about it. I ordered Crystal Cove Omelet, which basically is an omelet with white cheddar cheese and bacon with an avocado on top. Maybe I should have ordered something else but this particular menu was not impressive at all. Egg was a bit on overdone, bacon and cheese combo was just too plain of an omelet for me. I thought that presentation of the omelet was quite unattractive, too. I should note though, they were pretty generous about the amount of bacon bits inside the omelet. The omelet came with a side of country-​style potatoes with fresh rosemary. I could really taste the freshness of potatoes and rosemary, which was really nice. My husband had corned beef hash and eggs. It was very fresh. Definitely made from scratch.
Anyways, just as everyone says, beignets are to die for! Made fresh, very light, goes perfectly well with your morning cup of joe.

I’ve been to the bar here for food and drinks a couple times. I came on a Tuesday for lunch at the restaurant and it was busy but only a 30 minute wait.
The location is great and prices are reasonable for the area.
Unfortunately, the service is poor. I’m not sure if they are understaffed or what it is, but the service is slow at best. Last time I came here, I had to serve myself entirely by placing my order at the bar, picking up my drinks, picking up my food and utensils etc…
I had a turkey panini and it was good. The food is good but not amazing. 4 stars based on food alone.
The Bloody Mary is horrible! It tastes like watered down tomatoes, which is unfortunate because they used to be so good.
Be prepared to spend half your day here with the wait time and slow service. Luckily, it’s right on the beach so it’s not a bad way to spend the day.

Good food, great view and yummy drinks.
I went here with my friends for brunch and had a great time. I wanted to order everything on the menu but three people can only eat so much.
I got the coconut macadamia pancakes. They were fluffy and coconut-​y and macadamia-​y (that’s a word, right?). The syrup was coconut! It was delicious!
My friends got the corn beef hash and the huevos rancheros. Both good dishes, but I think the huevos rancheros takes the cake. It had so much flavor!
We also shared a plate of beignets! Very light and fluffy.
I got the big bad Bloody Mary! It’s a must!
The only reason I knocked a star off is 1. No dogs allowed and 2. The wait was so ridiculously long. Both are things that can’t be controlled but I am that picky when I make reviews.
Happy brunching!

The Beachcomber is one of my favorite restaurants! I’ve spent many birthdays here and it never fails to disappoint. You can’t beat the amazing location of being on the beach! Most recently (last week), I ordered the short ribs with the raviolis and I cleaned my plate. No shame. Their margaritas are great too. For dessert, you have to go with the beignets. They are light, fluffy, and they give you warm chocolate to drizzle on top. We didn’t have any of those left either…
Enjoy and go hungry!

We are lucky enough to stay in the cottages often. And when we do breakfast is like church for us. The kids and sometimes other family members come by and we dine and we are thankful for our blessings, as we watch the dolphins swim by, the flocks of Pelicans glide by doing low fly overs, and the waves serenading us.
The wait staff is very friendly and the food is really really good. The BEACHCOMBER BEIGNETS, are the best beignets I’ve tasted. I order them every time.
Dinner is great too. A very romantic setting with a very good wine list. I also love inviting friends out to dinner at the beachcomber, when we are staying at the cottages.
And they also carry some good stouts and porters at the beachside bar. Fun people are always hanging out the. It might get loud, but I’ve never seen it anything but fun.

I spent the morning just catching some great scenery at the beach with my friend. To be honest I actually dont like the beach too much but I do like the area here a lot. Ive seen beachcomber for a while everytime I would hike here with my cousin. So finally my friend and I came through for a little brunch.
Service here is so nice quick and friendly. I love the décor. Its quite lovely. I ordered the beignets after reading a review about how delicious they were. Well, they definitely were delicious. Im not a big fan of sweets for breakfast or brunch but damn these beignets are the business. The texture was perfect. It was the right amount and tasted extremely zesty. My friend had the same thing. I was saddened by this as I wanted her to try a different dish so I could review but fine I guess these beignets were too good to pass up.
Overall this place is solid. The décor is lovely and the view just adda to the awesomeness of the beachcomber café. I definitely will be return very soon.

A beautiful restaurant on the beach that’s perfect for your days off or for taking out of town guests to. It’s literally on the beach and as we waited for our table, we sat on benches and buried our feet in the sand. You park on the other side of pch, and take the shuttle down for a $ 1 or just walk across and down the trail.
We sat outside on the patio because it was a beautiful California day. I had the lemon blueberry ricotta pancakes with a mixed berry compote. They were fluffy and the compote replaced syrup, making it slightly healthier and not too sweet. We also tried the grilled vegetable omelet. It had lots of vegetables and the presentation was beautiful. The huevos rancheros was also really good with turkey chorizo.
After breakfast, we walked along the sand and enjoyed the view. Definitely very relaxing and the perfect definition of California.

This place is a great spot to have oceanfront brunch or dining in Crystal Cove. Be advised, the wait on weekends for brunch or lunch can be very long. We parked across the street and took the shuttle bus for $ 1 each way to the café. Upon arrival the hostess quoted us 1 hr 30 min-​1 hr 50 minute wait at about 2:30pm. It actually did take almost 1 hr 30 minutes to get seated. The nice thing though is that they have a bar in the back that serves up appetizers that will hold you over. I had the coastal cooler which was a refreshing drink and the lavash chips with feta as a snack. I had the Kobe burger for my lunch and it was pretty good. My friends had the Mahi Mahi fish tacos which they liked. Service was good and it was definitely crowded. They take reservations in advance-​I think I will try this next time.

I took my wife here for her bday breakfast and she loved it! Fellas if you want to get some brownie points this is the spot. The Beignets BOMB! Nothing ever like Louisiana’s French Quarter but hey great substitution. Food was awesome and so was the service.
Great location, Great food, Great service and definitely a fan!

This is the dream beach restaurant. Right on the sand, amazing food and drinks, romantic, and fun. Me and my husband love to come here, have a very leisure dinner. I highly recommend taking your time, ordering slowly and enjoying yourself. Do not come here if you plan to rush through your meal. You will miss out!
Some of my favorite things on the menu are the Ahi Tacos, Chicken Skewers, Short Rib Spring Rolls, and the calamari. I honestly have only gotten appetizers and drinks here. But it can be that kind of place or a formal dinner. That’s the beauty of the Beachcomber, it can be anything you want.
Service is great. You can tell the employees want to be there as much as you do. Who can blame them? They are working in a beautiful place.
Every time I’m in Orange County, I make sure to stop by The Beachcomber. Some things to note. ALWAYS make a reservation ahead of time. The are booked weeks in advance. If you don’t mind waiting an hour to an hour and a half for a table, (which to be honest, you’ll be waiting on the beach, so who cares?) then go for it without reservation. Also, you have to park up the hill a ways and either walk down, or take the shuttle, which is $ 1 a person. But don’t worry, it’s all totally worth it!

This is going to be a short and sweet review.
This place is hard to get to, but when you get there, you realize that it was all worth it. For starters, they validate your parking stub, so have it with you.
Food: I got the kobe burger and I thought it was delicious. It came with the side of fries. I liked the flavor of the patty in particular.
The food is good here, but the highlight of my dining experience was not the burger. It was the Delicious Beignets… I am not a sweet lover, but these are to die for… Seriously, if you don’t want to have food here, that is your choice. But you have to have the beignets…
One thing that I did not like about here though was the fact that there was no restroom in the restaurant… I don’t want to use the public restroom when I dine at a restaurant… Besides this, everything else was good and I will go back in near future.:-)

Music from the twenties playing the the background. A beautiful summer sunset where three recent weddings were celebrated. We’re here tonight for a friends birthday and the wait is over two hours. That’s okay though, we sat ourselves in their cool outdoor bar. The décor is super cute; tiki glasses line the shelves and dimly lit. The appetizers were wonderful. Crab stacked tasty and abundant with flavors. The wait for a table was a couple of hours; however, the evening awaiting our table was enjoyable.
Dinner was delicious! Our steaks were cooked perfectly to order, the side dishes were awesome, and the wine paired well with everything. I look forward to another visit and meal at The Beachcomber.

Still a solid 4. This was my first sunset and first dinner here, so worth an update. I made reservations weeks ago, so I needed to Google what time sunset would be to be sure we were comfortably seated at the righ time. Opentable was easy to navigate and we were seated promptly at 4:30. Sunsets here are super crowded usually but it was not bad on this cloudy and cool day. Parking was easy across PCH. We have a beach pass so we did not have to worry about validation. We opted for the small walk on the trail instead of the shuttle. It’s actually a pretty walk that takes you through a cool tunnel under PCH. We were able to walk around the tide pools for a few minutes while waiting for our reservation.
We grabbed a drink at the bar before getting seated. Their bar is very cool no was loaded with folks having beers, cocktails and appetizers. No sunset views from the bar area however. I saw this killer Bloody Mary on one diner’s table overflowing with veggies, a crab leg and giant shrimp so i ordered one while my wife ordered some muddled mint concoction. I received just a a plain old Bloody Mary and was really kind of bummed. Since our reservation buzzer was going off in my hand, I just blew it off.
We were seated on a two person bench both facing the sunset. On a cool evening, they had the clear plastic curtain up but it did not harm the sunset view. They had the ceremonial song play at 5pm and raised the martini flag to joyous applause.
Service was decent, but not great. Our empty glasses sat on the table all night and we needed to prompt them for refills of our waters and tea. This week is Restaurant Week in Newport so they offered a prix fix menu, 3 courses for $ 40. We started with an appetizer off the regular menu, a baked Feta with fried pita chips. It was superb, very flavorful, without being overly heavy. For the 3-​course meal, my wife had a salad topped with a type of mole dressing and pears. It was terrible. Picture a bitter green leaf with a chocolate sauce. We were not fans at all. I had a fairly decent pea soup. Not bad but unremarkable. The main courses were excellent, however. We shared a lamb ragu dish and a seafood pot pie. The ragu was made with shredded lamb in a tangy sauce mixed with a hearty noodle. Very tasty. The seafood pot pie was basically a stew with shellfish and salmon served with a freshly baked bread cap. Really good as well.
Desert was a rich and decadent chocolate cake topped with berries and a light red wine sauce.
We could have opted for the lunch menu at 4pm and eaten through the sunset but were quite happy celebrating my wife’s birthday with the dinner menu. This is a very special and unique place in Orange County. The tide pools, beach, eating in an old restaurant on the sand, good food, etc. we even enjoyed the $ 1 shuttle back up to the parking lot with the driver in his Hawaiian shirt jamming out to hits from the 40’s jamming on the speakers. A very cool evening.

The food and service were great! We did a four and a half hour hike, so we were hungry!!! We had appetizer, main dishes, side dish, and even a dessert!
We couldn’t find the tunnel to the restaurant though, not sure what happened to it?!
Since we got done hiking later than we planned, we missed the beautiful sunset at the beach. This had defeated the purpose of us having dinner here, but we still had a lot of fun. The server was great with a great sense of humor. We couldn’t turn down a dessert from the way he described it! Great job! Haha.

Everything we had for brunch was amazing, along with the beautiful beach view and breeze!
We waited about 30 min for 5 people to be seated around 11 AM on a Monday, and were seated on the patio.
+ STEAK CHILAQUILES: This is listed as a Beachcomber favorite, and with good reason! The flank steak is not chewy and has the texture of pulled pork. All of the ingredients were savory, moist, and perfectly harmonized with the sunny-​side egg on top! I have had chilaquiles before that haven’t had as much flavor and were very dry in comparison.
+ RANCH SCRAMBLE: I usually don’t like scrambles or omelettes because they are basic brunch dishes, but this scramble delivered! The Portuguese sausage, bell peppers, salsa, and cheese made this a very juicy egg dish that was not dry at all (like other scrambles I have had before).
+ COCONUT MACADAMIA PANCAKES: Very coco-​nutty with light coconut flavor pancake batter and warm coconut syrup. The macadamias added a crunchy texture that made the pancakes more interesting! This is definitely an island-​inspired pancake, and it was a refreshing twist on classic pancakes.
Our waters were always full, my mom’s coffee got refilled at least twice, and we were very satisfied and happy with our meal at the Beachcomber!
tips
*Park in the parking structure atop the hill of the beach into Crystal Cove beach. When you eat here, you can get your parking validated for free up to 3 hours.
*The shuttle that goes from the bottom of the hill to the top costs $ 1 per person!

Really like this restaurant. Made a reservation for 3:30pm on Saturday. Wanted a late lunch and was able to see the sunset before it got too cold.
They were right on time for reservation. Seated on the patio deck. Service was excellent. Ordered a few drinks, shrimp salad, and bf had fish and chips. All food was great. We love this beach area and how it looks straight out of the 1920’s with beach cottages surrounding it.
Will be back again asap

Service: Great. Very attentive. They give great recommendations
Food: Decent. I got the fish and chips and although it’s so simple, you’d be surprised with how bleh the fish is at other places. They gave us four big pieces of fish and fries. The fish was nicely battered and flaked perfectly.
Wine: For some reason they were more lukewarm than I normally like it. I’m not saying I want cold wine but it was just warm.
View: Nice view of the beach and ocean.
Parking: You gotta park offsite and either take the shuttle or walk over. Taking a walk to and from was actually quite nice and a perfect way to build up our appetite and walk off the food, accordingly.

We had heard so much about this restaurant and since we were staying at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas, a few minutes away, we decided to try it out. It was a favorite of a good friend.
Parking for this restaurant is a little weird. There is NONE! You must park in the Crystal Cove State Park parking lot across the freeway and either walk or take the $ 1 shuttle to the restaurant. There is no parking next to the restaurant because it is located right on the beach.
We booked our reservation through
so the only time available was at 4:30pm a little early for us. We ate a late breakfast so figured on being quite famished by that time. When we got there, we decided to try their Clam Chowder soup, split a Garden Salad, and order one entrée to share, the Chilean Sea Bass. The soup and the salad were both plentiful and very good. The sea bass was also very tasty but was accompanied with «mashed edamame stuffed dumplings» which were very bland. I left 3 of the 6 dumplings untouched.
Overall, we both agreed that we would not return because it was not worth it considering the trouble getting there and the pricey menu. Since being situated on the beach with a wonderful view, I gave it 3 stars… Oh, not to forget, they also served us a «free» Chocolate Cake dessert because we were celebrating our anniversary.
With all of the wonderful restaurants in the area, we scratched this one off our «bucket list»!

Amazing lil hidden gem.
Killer views, excellent service, reasonable price
Food was ok but everthing else being above par, definitely deserves solid 4.
If you are gyest at the nearby Marriott, shuttle takes u there every hour on the hour. We walked down from the property and strolled along the beach. About 30 min walk.
*if you are not driving, don’t forget to try their bloody marys. So good and so spicy.