The Big Wave Café looked promising -- it was raining on a weekday, and they had a significant wait for tables -- we figured that was a good sign. We got pan fried oysters, house salads, and bowls of clam chowder. The oysters were pretty good. But the clam chowder was disappointing (too thick, not enough clams, little flavor) and the salad -- well, not a high light. I'm sure they do some things well, but our experience was decidedly poor. We didn't finish the salads or the chowder. The oysters were good, but not good enough that we'd risk trying other things on the menu. We won't be going back. read more

I've been a part time resident of the Oregon coast for years and it's been a while since I've eaten here. First off, my server was fabulous and so sweet! I had the Razor Clams, a cup of clam chowder and fries with broccolini. It was all very delicious and the razor clams were cooked nice and tender with well seasoned panko breading. The fries were crunchy and hot. I'm not a broccoli fan unless it's roasted and crispy, but that's just me. I highly recommend this place. Prices are reasonable and the food and service, well, they crushed it! read more

Big Wave Cafe - My server was awesome! - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

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Service is amazing, Food is great. FRESH seafood. The restaurant is comfortable. Just a nice casual vibe. Love this place! We go to Big Wave every time we're in town. If we're here for several days we are there more than once. read more

Wow! It's been a long time since I've had such a great meal out. First, the staff was so welcoming and friendly. They do not take reservations, and I was a little nervous, as it was a Saturday during the holidays, but they got us right in. Then, a group of 16 came in, and we wondered if that was going to impact the service. Nope-they were on it! Our drinks were kept full, our orders taken promptly and our food delivered quickly and hot. I got the seafood salad-everything was delicious! 2 of our party got the fish & chips, one the Captain's Platter, and one the halibut sandwich. Everything was fresh & tasty! The restaurant was also comfortable. Often times we find restaurants to be chilly, but the temperature was perfect. The booth was comfy, and the atmosphere was nice but not stuffy. Mostly, though, what won us over so handily was the staff. Attentive and warm all around. We'd go back the next time we are in Manzanita. read more

Absolutely the worst meal I've ever had! My husband and I went there to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary and ordered the prime rib. The quality of meat was not good. It was long and less than 1\2 inch thick! I ordered mine medium and it was beyond well done. It was it so tough and flavorless, it was inedible. Unfortunately I had to bring it home for the dog. My husband ordered medium rare and it was well done. Such a disappointment to celebrate a special occasion!! I will never be back and have warned my Rock away neighbors. I would give it a 0 review if available. read more

Stopped here after an afternoon on the coast and, wow, what a great meal! My hub ordered the Captain's platter and I had crab cakes and a nice big house salad. They were super busy (Fri night) and loved how they hussled to get our meal out quickly, and servers helped each other. Appreciate the great experience! read more

Had a fantastic crab Louis salad here with the sweetest crab and best homemade thousand island dressing. It was so good! My husband had hot seafood salad with yummy bacon in the dressing. They have a sign when you walk in that lists where all their seafood is coming from. Local, seafood expertly prepared. Service was very nice too. Highly recommend! read more

The Quintessential Place to be in Manzanita, Oregon! A fantastic experience from start to finish. Upon entering you are immediately welcomed and seated. Our waiter was more than happy to answer any questions or provide a tasting of wine before ordering a whole glass. He was always attentive but never felt intrusive and I hope he is able to visit Scotland soon! The food was incredible. I ordered the halibut sandwich which came out steaming and was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. I tried one of the fried prawns another member of our group had and it was immaculate. Perfectly crispy but still nice and fresh on the inside. The overall vibe of the place felt like fine dining food and service, with casual comfort of your local favorite restaurant. I would highly recommend coming here if you find yourself passing through. read more

Amazing food. Perfectly cooked scallops, crab cakes and more! A little gem on the coast. Good selection of wine by the glass or bottle. It's a 10 min walk or 1 min drive from the heart of Manzanita and totally worth it. read more

Great pizza and salads. Ordered to-go and it was ready on time. Was perfect after a busy day and long drive.

This place has one of the best fish sandwiches I've ever had! The service is fast & fantastic, the cafe gives "we have bomb food vibes" and it looks like those who live here come here ALL the time. Clam chowder was fire too! What a great experience my girlfriend and I will definitely be back! read more

Visiting Manzanita with the family for a few days. Tuesday night in July around 7pm, 15 minute wait. Restaurant was warm & stuffy when we walked in but turned out to be a great stop (& I very quickly forgot about the warm/stuffy). Wait staff were super friendly, service was great- ordered 4 burgers & a garden burger & all were happy with their meal. Topped it off with the chocolate eclair pie & peanut butter pie with ice cream and all were happy. There are not many choices of places to eat in Manzanita, especially early in the week and this was a winner. read more

Big wave never disappoints. The food is consistently good and the desserts are always delicious. Their fast service is always nice too!

Another great and delicious dining experience. Our only new advice is eat the wonderful seaweed salad served as a colorful garnish on the plates. It is nutritious, gorgeous green, and accents seafood in the best way. read more

Big Wave Cafe - Great decor - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

Amazing burger and fries. My go to spot for burgers on the beach. Service is good, nice place to chill, easy. Favorite spot around.

We went there for lunch in Memorial Day weekend. Most restaurants in Manzanita has a long line to get lunch except Big Wave. We went in there and got seated promptly. We ordered a scalloped dish, razor clams, Wagyu sirloin steak and burger. The fries are very good. The scallops are jumbo size. Wagyu was so so. Razor clams were tasteless. The broccoli that came with dishes were very salty. read more

Big Wave Cafe - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

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Service was quick and excellent. Everyone was very nice. Our food (seared scallops and grilled halibut) was excellent. Seaweed salad as a side was unexpected and delicious. I always love a good baked potato. We will return. read more

I was craving crab on our road trip to the coast and big wave cafe brought it in a big way!!! Our server was a young guy (I can't remember his name!!). Longer strawberry blonde hair, thin build...he was a exceptional server. I had the crab cocktail (which I could have had 3, it was delicious!) followed by the crabs cake. The cocktail was a generous portion of shredded crab with some micro greens and seaweed salad. The crab cakes had meaty chunks of Dungeness crab and the brocolini was cooked perfectly!! My mother had a garden burger and the shrimp cocktail. We also took a piece of key lime pie and chocolate eclair pie to go. They were also amazing. My only regret was not grabbing a few extra slices. We literally were trying to make the drive back that same night for more, but they were closed...awwww man!!! There is always next time!! read more

Big Wave Cafe - The cocktails - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

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I have to downgrade our review to 3 stars. We came back to this cute restaurant during our summer family trip and were so disappointed with our meal. I'm so sad, because our experience in December was so great. First off, we were seated immediately and our waitress was there immediately to get our drink order. The ices tea is still extremely good, but we went without a refilled water glass for the rest of the meal. My husband ordered the special prime rib, which, granted isnt seafood on a coastal town, but still. At $32.00 when he ordered it rare, it should not be delivered medium well. There was no horseradish offered, but the homemade bread side was, in fact, delicious. My mother in law ordered the halibut with lemon. Cilantro butter. The halibut filet was a good size, but the green beans served with it were severely undercooked and unedible. Not only did our waitress deliver my starting salad with the wrong dressing, my captain's platter was served with a baked potato instead of fries. The halibut portion of the platter was really good, and the oysters were fresh and tasty. But the scallops were overbreaded and so overcooked. My brother in law was shortefd a scallop on the 2 scallop captain platter, and was delivered a baked potato instead of rice pilaf. The restaurant was so noisy, the waitress couldnt hear us trying to get her attention while she socialized at the bar. Overall, like I said, we are so disappointed that our service during the high season was so sub par. I guess we're still looking for our favorite go to restaurant for our mid coast dinners. EDITED: The manager responded to my review. Thank you for correcting me on the price spent on my husband's prime. My mistake for not clarifying the issue with our captains platters. I got 3 scallops. My brother in law got 1. Guess it was just a plating issue and apparently wouldnt have been an problem if only there had been one order. We really had a good time and for what we ordered, it was mostly really good. read more

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Great service and food! The portion sizes were also great for the price. Very fast as well.

We really enjoyed it. It was almost perfect, with only minor exceptions. I had the American wagyu steak. Maybe not up to Japanese standards, but it was great. Party members had crab cakes, which were also really good, but kind of high on the celery content. Sides were also good, and complemented the mains well. Fries were especially nice, for those who had them. My only complaints were that the cost was a bit high (but it's a tourist area, so I guess that's what you get), and the rice that came with my steak had a few grains that were hard. bill was about $120 for 4 people, tip included. Was a little annoyed that the credit card reader gave tip options starting at 18% and moving up... that seems a little presumptuous of them. read more

Big Wave Cafe - Wagyu steak, medium rare. Was delicious. - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

Wow, the food and service were awesome. We ordered the crab cake appetizer and shared an order of halibut fish and chips. Tasty and a decent portion of 3 good sized pieces of fish. Panko breaded so not at all greasy. Highly recommend this restaurant. read more

Stopped here for lunch on our way back from the coast. Halibut Fish and chips was excellent, light and crispy batter, tender very fresh fish. Nice fresh salad and cup of clam chowder. I wasn't that crazy about the chowder but that's just my taste. Overall the restaurant is clean, the service is friendly and attentive, and the food is well worth the modest prices. read more

This food was good, service was great. A bit pricey but most things are. I would return here if I was in the area and had money to spend but due to the cost it won't be something we do often. That being said, my husband loved the steak. read more

Delicious, fresh fish and amazing crab cakes. Service was on point and the restaurant was clean. It seemed a little bit expensive, but isn't that just how it goes these days? But at least it was good! read more

Ordered three grilled halibut entrees for takeout. Entrees came with string beans and an option of baked potato, rice or fries. Very friendly service over the phone while placing our order. Our food was ready within 15 minutes from ordering. The entrees were prepared perfectly...great flavor and generous portions. There is a parking lot available with plenty of spots. Overall, very happy with our experience. Would like to dine in on our next visit to Manzanita :-) read more

Big Wave Cafe - Grilled halibut entree with baked potato option - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

Wonderful service. Very friendly and welcoming. Clam chowder was great and craft beer was cold. My son's only complaint was that there wasn't enough chowder because he loved it so much! read more

Well, we wanted to like it. Service was good. But it was pretty cold inside, food was mostly meh, and it was pretty pricey for what you got. Oysters on the half shell were A+, and if that's all we had, we would have been pretty happy. Caesar salad was a giant bowl of romaine, some grated cheese (not parm, as far as I could tell) and a very unzesty caesar dressing drizzled on the top. The wedge of lemon helped it a little, but still it was very disappointing. Burger was decent. Not great. Just a basic burger. All in all, for a $100 meal for 2 people (including a beer and glass of house wine) we expected better. read more

Bread pudding with Marionberry Sauce was our dessert, but we also enjoyed our meal. Salads were fresh, chowder was good, and halibut delicious. Our server was so friendly and attentive. read more

Big Wave Cafe - Bread pudding with Marionberry Sauce - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

We had an awesome dinner at the Cafe. The salads and entrees were huge and so good! The server was a sweetheart. So happy we chose to eat here! read more

Unfortunately, this did not live up to the glowing reviews. Perhaps the change in ownership? Who knows. Food was acceptable, but not great by any stretch. Salad was good, steak was quite low-quality and overcooked (yes, yes, I had already set me expectations low for a steak at the coast, but it really was not good), everything else was just unexceptional and definitely not worth the price. Dessert was phenomenal. Service was hit-or-miss; I believe our sweet server was either quite new, or filling in for someone else. Sadly, we'll be trying other options on the coast on our next trip. read more

Just kind of regular burgers and fries, but there's some tables outside to wait at or fine at and smell the sea air. Service was friendly and quick considering how busy they were. We'd definitely go back. read more

The food has continued to go downhill, but the service used to be pretty good. Today we waited for over an hour and a half for our order. At one point we asked if we could get our fries earlier than the burgers as our kids were losing it. They said no. Our order then came out wrong, we were charged for it, burgers we're half the size of the buns, service continued to be poor, then two hours later got attitude from the manager for asking them to correct the bill to remove the dish we didn't order. Such a disappointing experience. read more

We will not be back to this restaurant. Started off with a flat soda pop for $4. Then asked for pfriem beer and was served a can vs the draft. Find out a 12oz can was $6.50. Lol then a friends burger came out with a shell on the fried egg. Like a huge chunk of shell. How do you miss that? Then certain fish from the captains platter was not cooked all the way. The chef needs to work on his skills. read more

lovely service but oh my!!! used to go on Fridays with our elderly uncle. this time on Friday night the prime rib was really really bad!! it tasted and chewed like a dried out rump roast! we didn't say anything -the waitress was so sweet! the pie was wonderful!! sorry to feel so disappointed!!! read more

We've eaten here several times and it's always been a must dine destination when in Manzanita, which we visit every year. This last trip was the first time we've been disappointed. My husband who is celiac ordered the grilled halibut with rice and broccolini. I ordered the clam appetizer with a side salad and a side of rice and we ordered the kid's chicken strip meal for my son. The side salads were both beautiful with cut up tomatoes, carrots, fresh greens and a delicious and bright Marion berry vinaigrette. For $30 the grilled Halibut and rice was an ok portion but the broccolini was bizarrely measly. The clams were well cooked and the portion size was ok. The rice however was inedible due to being completely overwhelmed with black pepper. I took one bite and my taste buds were burned out from the bite of the pepper. I've never experienced anything like that with rice which should accentuate a main dish and not overwhelm the entire plate. The french fries in the kid's chicken strip meal were quickly devoured by the kiddo and they looked crispy and perfectly cooked. I attempted to cut up the chicken strips for him but the chicken was so incredibly dry that it was very difficult to do so. He was able to eat some of the chicken after it was dipped in copious amounts of ranch. When our server returned to check on us, I let her know the rice was inedible and she was able to replace it with a baked potato quickly, so I did appreciate that. Overall, service was attentive and our server did an excellent job. I don't know if we will come back as there are so many excellent options in the area. read more

Big Wave Cafe - Grilled halibut with rice and broccolini - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

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While driving the down the Oregon Coast, we wanted something to eat since it was already 2:00 pm. During our stop at Manzanita, I quickly checked my Yelp app and found this place. The name is a little misleading because it's more than a café. I was expecting to just get a small bite like a fish taco, but they specialize in full seafood dishes. With the exception of a few sandwiches, the average entrée was about $20. With locally sourced crab and a Monterey Bay Seafood Watch sticker on the window, I knew the quality would be good. I ordered the Crab Cakes (3.5 stars), which came with delicious roasted brussels sprouts (5 stars) and fries (4 stars). My husband ordered the Dungness Crab (5 stars), which was very fresh paired a spritz of lemon and clarified butter. With our entrees, it came with a house salad with a delicious homemade marionberry dressing (4 stars). We didn't have a room for dessert, but I ordered a slice of Marionberry Pie (4 stars) to go since they make their pies in house. The thin pie crust was filled sweet and slightly tart marionberry filling, which we enjoyed. Although I ended up spending and eating more than expected, it was a nice surprise to get local and delicious food with friendly service (4 stars). read more

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So many restaurants on the Oregon coast that offer food and drink that don't ever measure up to the expectations. The Big Wave delivers their food in Tsunami style! Right on the curve of Highway 101 in Manzanita, with plenty of private parking, Stepping inside, we appreciated the spacious spotless dining and bar areas that offers a large selection of local beers and Oregon wines, being only lunch time and hungry with an ambition to drive an uncertain distance down Highway 101, passed on the wine this time. The menu contained fresh local fried or grilled seafood, steaks and burgers, upon learning crab was in season, we both ordered the fresh crab Louis salad. This plate contained a large mound of fresh and tasty locally caught Dungeness greatness! (Tillamook Bay in Garibaldi) Without all of the work involved of shelling it! Tasty toasted garlic bread, sliced, hard boiled eggs, lemon wedges, lettuce and a generous portion of delicious thousand Island dressing. Though tempted, I didn't lick my plate and enjoyed a fantastic lunch. Service was friendly and attentive, iced tea was bottomless and we look forward to return here soon as this place is a winner! read more

Big Wave Cafe - Seafood Near Me - Manzanita, Oregon

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New owners. The service was very good and done with a smile. The halibut fish and chips (with baked potato instead of fries) were very good. The salad was just wilted wild greens with no flavor and oddly cut chunks of mushy tomato and something shredded on top. Not sure what. Also, I think there was some seaweed salad on the fish and chips plate. Odd. Husband's clam chowder was thick and full of potatoes and clams. His chicken Caesar was just ok looking. Way too big, therefore not very appetizing looking. The salt and pepper shakers that were brought upon request were old worn out dirty store bought grinders. I will say there was nothing special about the meal and the music didn't fit. Nice it was busy. Sorry for the "help wanted" sign. Hope more attention to detail is in the future. read more

We really liked this place. Joshua and Jordan were great with their service and conversation. We got the French dip and Reuben sandwiches and they were the best we've had. Clam chowder also didn't disappoint. Enjoyed the atmosphere there. read more