I came here for my sisters birthday a few months back. We haven't been here since they remodeled and we were SO impressed. The view is amazing, the service was great and we overall had a nice time. We came back a few weeks ago for my birthday (that's how much we enjoyed it) and it was just as lovely as an experience. The only part that could have been better was my steak, it wasn't as great as the time before, however, my lobster tail was WOW! Next time I come I'm going to stick to the seafood. I still had a great time and will be back! read more

Great stop on our way to San Diego. The location is perfect for watching the sunset. The restaurant and lounge area was buzzing with happy people enjoying life :) The staff was super friendly and attentive to our every need. Definitely coming back again. read more

We came to Jakes today for lunch. This is not our first time here. I like that they have valet parking as this is a vey popular place to eat. They have a wonderful outdoor seating area and a great view of the Del Mar Beach if you get close to the window. The food and service are always great here. We ordered the Brussels Sprouts and Calamari to start and they were great as usual. I never like Brussels Sprouts till I had them at Jakes. Try the Apple and Candied Walnut salad when you go. I go for the Halibut. The Halibut is so moist and just so good. The presentation and the service are wonderful. If you want to be really bad have some Hula pie or Strawberry Shortcake. I took off a star for not having artificial sweeteners for iced tea. My husband is a diabetic and cannot use sugar. Remember everyone is not alike. Some people either use artificial sweeteners because they want to or need to. read more

Mediocre food but great view and nice vibes. The food was over priced but considering you can see the beach while you eat you can understand why then real reason people eat here. read more

we went there for my husband's birthday! i had a very high expectation as i have heard a lot of good things about the restaurant. the food was over priced and not great, way under seasoned! i had to ask for hot sauce to add some seasoning for my omelet! the fresh fruit that came with it was only cantaloupe. my daughter had an order of pancake with fruit which was the same only cantaloupe! we live in california, for fruit you only serve cantaloupe!! come on! i had better food and fruit in a way cheaper restaurant. the only good thing was their view. read more

Jake's - New American Near Me - Del Mar, California

Had a really delicious dinner here with an unbeatable view. I had a seared scallop dish with peas and artichokes that was just perfectly cooked and my husband had the short rib. Both were outstanding. We arrived at sunset and watched the sun go down over the ocean. Magical. I think all the tables have a view but arrive early to get a table right by the windows. Service is fast and they are busy, so it's not a place where you can linger for hours since they obviously turn tables over. But we didn't feel rushed and our server was friendly and professional. As for parking I do suggest the Valet- the parking lot across the street is actually more expensive. All in all a lovely dinner read more

Beautiful view of the beach and the ocean. Service was very good. We ordered shared appetizers that included the ceviche and the calamari. Neither was very good. Just generic and not much flavor. Had the salmon with extra scallops on the side. Was asked by the server if I was ok with it being served medium rare, which is how I prefer it, but it was dry and overcooked. If you really want a nice view it's a good place. If you're interested in great tasting food, I wouldn't bother. read more

We live in Del Mar and this is a MUST for SoCal coastal dinner or lunch destination location. Awesome food and drinks and you all be hard pressed to find a better, true, California experience! read more

Came in here for dinner last night. We had made reservations for a specific time to be seated right by the windows they then showed us a couple of seats that weren't by the window and told us the one that was by the window was reserved (even tho we had reserved one by the window too) but we ended up getting it. The views amazing. Our waitress was great! The food was also good , the bread and butter they start off with is really good and soft. We order the calamari (my favorite) especially with the zesty sauce that sits under it. We also got the chefs burger with fries really good and filling and the surfing steak. We asked for our steaks to be medium-well but they brought them medium rare, the waitress noticed and asked if we wanted to redo them she waS really sweet about that. I told my friend (her first time visiting) that the mixed seafood pot was amazing, when we came to order it they said they had ran out so she never got to try it. We also got the hula pie which is good as always. Definitely recommend this place, especially for a sunset dinner read more

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This is an amazing place to watch the sunset on a clear (i.e. no chemtrails) evening. The excellence of the view however is not matched by the food or service which is less than impressive considering the crazy high prices. Personally I expect restaurants that charge this much to offer a menu that includes local/organic, grass fed, wild caught and free range food options - none of those options are available on the Jake's menu. Whether you are a visitor or you live here, my suggestion is definitely go to Jake's for a drink, enjoy the sunset then plan to go to another restaurant in the area to eat. read more

This place will exceed your expectations! We had a beautiful window table and view of the ocean. Our cocktails and food were delicious. We had excellent service from Kawika. Cant wait to return to Jake's! read more

The last couple of years the service and food at this place have really tanked. Which sucks cause it's such an amazing location. The veggie eggs benedict I had this morning was just so blah. And my friend who ordered the regular benedict said his was blah. Got the veggie one and it was supposed to have roasted tomatoes and a pistachio pesto hollandaise - the very tiny bit of hollandaise that was in it was just standard. Not pistachio pesto. And there were zero tomatoes. Not cool but our waitress was no where in sight for so long, and she was also not approachable, and I didn't wanna ruin the vibe with our friends from outta town so I decided not to say anything. Other little things: Our friends from out of town asked for no green onions in their braised beef hash and she said it's premixed. Eek. Really? And then I asked if they could still make the lemon ricotta pancakes they used to have and she, in a non-friendly way at all said "No. We don't have the stuff prepped." Not with a smile. Not with an apology. Just a stern no. Just super mediocre food from this place. The owners should be depressed at where this place is headed read more

I wish I could give it 10 stars! Jake's was recommended as a great restaurant with an ocean view. View was amazing but doesn't even begin to compare to the food. My husband had the prime steak and shrimp with garlic mashed potatoes. His only complaint was that he wanted more potatoes. According to him they were the best potatoes he has ever had. I had the shrimp ravioli. I am pretty sure that I will dream about that dish tonight. Dessert? My husband had the hula pie. No idea how he ate that whole piece; it was HUGE! I had the chocolate ganache cake. OMG! Many people ordered the calamari. Little sad that we didn't try it, but I think it means we need to return to rectify that mistake. Their menu isn't large, but that just means they can focus on fewer items and do it really well. Don't walk. RUN! read more

Food: 3 stars; Service: 1 star; Had a reservation for 12:30, got seated at 1:30. The servers are friendly, but they are definitely not trained well. Food was okay, a little overcooked and presented poorly, but it tasted fine. There are plenty of places to eat in the area, I'd recommend trying someplace else. Best part about Jake's is the view. read more

Had a wonderful Anniversary lunch. Food was excellent as usual. Had the Steak Wedge, seafood soup and Fish Caesar Salad, and, of course, the Mai Tais. Better yet, we had a wonderful server, Heather, who was sincerely nice and excellent. Thank you for making it a special day. read more

Hands down best food in Del Mar. Excellent preparation and presentation and always the freshest ingredients. Complete wine list and full bar. Island style interior right on the beach in Del Mar. You won't be disappointed! read more

Great food and service by Michael. Loved the ceviche, my husband loved the fish special.

The view here is fantastic especially during sunset! We usually will meet friends her when they came to visit us. The mixed seafood pot is my favorite! We also like the BBQ rib very much! Nice place to have a date! read more

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We were here on vacation and it was so cool to see such a hard working family have such a successful, long standing business. (A family member who was only like 10-12 was shadowing) We went on a "May Gray" evening so the windows were closed but still such a spectacular view. We had our ten month old son with us and the staff was very helpful with any of our needs. We ordered the calamari, meatball, tuna, seafood pot, and the hula pie. My only watch out is that the meatball will come out looking pink(we thought it was way under cooked and sent it back) but then we were informed it is because of the bacon. Also, we are not huge fans of calamari because it all tastes the same, but we decided to try it. We were so happy we did because it was spectacular. The sauce made it a little less traditional. I had the tuna which was cooked to perfection and my husbands seafood pot had a very generous amount of seafood in it and he was not disappointed. The pot does have a strong curry flavor if you don't like curry do stay clear. Finally, if you don't have the hula pie it doesn't even count that you have been to Jake's. It is all you want in a dessert, a little over the top, beautiful with chocolate and ice cream! read more

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Great place to eat! Love the atmosphere inside. The staff were very friendly and the food was good! I had the truffle potato crusted fish. It had plenty of flavor and the sauce that came with it was delicious. I also had the seared albacore which was very tasty. Overall a pleasant lunch experience. I would return here! read more

Jake's - Truffle Potato Crusted Fish - New American Near Me - Del Mar, California

Wonderful atmosphere and the food is outstanding! Had a lovely dinner and went back the next night for a drink and CEVICHE at the bar. Delicious! read more

Went there for a work happy hour and had a great time. Perfect location, good appetizers/shared plates, and JR's Double Yellows really hit the spot. Cudos to him on the drink recommendation and then delivering on an excellent mezcal drink. read more

Cool place to hang out, and to Dine In but you might need to wear a mask when you enter . I recommend for you to try out their burgers and fries. read more

Pains me to write this after 25+ years going to Jake's and even getting to know the Saxten's through school... Just had my birthday dinner at Jake's and it was so bad that we will never go back. The service was arrogant at best, Alex showed little interest in our table and took 25 minutes to bring the hula pie that we ordered. Said they are so short staffed that nobody can do apps or desserts. I get it! A lot of restaurants are dealing with similar. But tell that when you take reservations. They are representing old Jake's with the prices and volume of reservations they are taking but hardly prepared for 25% of their capacity. read more

What a find!! Good food and the sunsets. The seafood pot, to die for. Hubby had halibut and company the shrimp ravioli. All finished happy. Definitely a comeback place. read more

I've lived in Southern California the majority of my life and never have been until yesterday! It was a decent first experience :) To start off with the good parts, the location is obviously the best part of this restaurant because it is literally right on the beach. Which meant awesome views. It was very well put together and had a beautiful layout. 90% of the food was awesome, and came out in a timely fashion despite being very busy. Our server, did awesome. I always try to remember their names so they get praise for any good review they had a part in. And I feel bad I didn't catch her name, but nonetheless she was attentive and everything came out the way we asked for it. The only parts that made it so I didn't give more stars, are for a couple reasons. First, Our brussel sprouts appetizer came out undercooked which wasn't the end of the world but regardless our server happily returned it, brought us a fresh one, and took it off our bill. Second, I got one of their sandwiches and in the description it said it was made with an apricot chutney which sounded great seeing as how I don't normally like condiments. So I was really bummed out when my entree came to me with mayo on it. This is no hit to the server or even the kitchen because that's just obviously how they are asked to make it. But, a word to the higher ups in charge of designing the menus, it would of been nice to see that on a menu or make it known somehow. I had to get rid of half the bread and rearrange the whole thing so it didn't go to waste but it sucks i couldn't really enjoy it the way I wanted to. At the end of the day, it was a decent first visit and I'm happy to give it another try in the future. Just a tip to anyone who hates Mayo, they put it on all sandwiches and burgers so learn from my experience to request it without! read more

Jake's - New American Near Me - Del Mar, California

We went for an early dinner, before the dinner crowd.The view is apparently what everyone comes to Jake's for, as every seat has an amazing view of the ocean. Staff does not sit you, its awkward standing next to someone's table waiting for them to get up so you can get their table. Ordered the Duke's Mai Tai, and it was just like being back in Hawaii-really good! We tried the strawberry seasonal salad and the fish tacos. Both were fantastic, and reasonably priced. The dinner menu is very pricey, and it was very crowded when we left. read more

Food was awesome. Received great service from Kaitlyn ! Very attentive and shared her recommendations and was spot on.

The view is unarguably beautiful here at Jake's. The food I got a few things to try and it was mostly good (all are decent but was not impressed by all) hence the four stars I was expecting to be impressed by everything. I personally like the watermelon salad (the sauce is a little different so you might want to ask for the sauce/dressing on the side). The crab cakes were good but a little too salty for my taste. The Mac and cheese meatballs was mediocre once again too salty The frilled prawns (bacon wrapped!) was the most delicious item I tried strongly recommend that. The ahi bowl was good as well. I got a strawberry lemonade as well-i dont recommend because 1) no refills 2) the strawberry taste is barely there so it's like a regular lemonade with a splash of strawberry and they won't refill that... The creme brulé was to die for though! I had to get it to go even though it did not hold up well in shape but the flavor and texture was still in tact after traveling. read more

Giving it a blended 4 stars for the lunch I had there.... The mac and chz stuffed meatball was very good, get the bread on the side, nice starter. Pork Tacos were ok, lots of cumin and kind of dry but the side salsa for the chips was very good. Truffle Potato Crusted Fish was pretty good, small portion, good cheese sauce for the potato and good sauce on the fish The hula pie was excellent and even better than I've had in HI. The spicy cucumber margarita was excellent, one of the best. The view is 5 stars of course. Our waiter Henry was excellent. read more

Great location with decent food and service. Beach view is amazing. A little on yhe pricey side and generally pretty busy. Not a bad place to take visitors and customers though . read more

Loved it. We had fish tacos, fried calamari. Beers were great. Right on the beach. Highly recommt

Today was just MEHHH... I prefer brunch over dinner at Jake's but the sunset/view was pretty nice... The bread was almost the best part. We got our bread almost 30 minutes later as we got seated. Our appetizer came out first which was weird. Everyone else got their bread as their drinks came out while we actually had to ask 4 times to get our bread. View is 4/5 Entrees/Appetizer would be a 3/5 Bread 4/5 read more

We eat at Jake's a few times a year and always enjoy it. The other day it was especially enjoyable. We all felt the need to comment amongst ourselves about our server Taylor. Engaging, knowledgeable, professional, polite... It was a wonderful experience. I give Jake's a five star overall anyway because I am never disappointed with the food or the service, but I just wanted to give a shout out because we had such exceptional service (and food) recently. read more

Service, food, ambience... all were great but the view... The view is spectacular! You cannot go wrong with this place. Do make reservations since it is pretty busy even during the week. Would love to try Jake's for a happy hour! read more

We came here on our anniversary for lunch and had the best experience. We were greeted warmly, given an anniversary card and seashell and taken to a table with a gorgeous view of the ocean. The views and ambiance can't be beat. Our waiter Cameron was friendly, attentive, accommodating and engaging. We started with the Ahi sashimi and it was incredibly fresh. Best we've had. My husband got the fish tacos and ate them insanely fast because they were so good. I got the seafood pot and it was perfect- shrimp, scallops, mussels and white fish in a delicious broth with a risotto cake. Cameron asked us if we saved room for dessert and we politely declined. However, he said it was complimentary because of our anniversary so we said yes, please! He then came out with the most enormous and delicious dessert I've ever seen (we NEVER eat dessert but this one was one for the books!). Thank you so very much to the crew at Jakes for making our anniversary meal so special. We will be back, no doubt! read more

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First, I'd like to say that I am new to the area, and I was really really hoping to like this place as much as everyone else that I know privately, and everything that I read about it. Unfortunately, that was not the case. My boyfriend and I had been meaning to check Jake's out several times, but for one reason or another, we opted to push it. My boyfriend is a Veteran Marine, and I thought for Memorial Day I'd treat him to a nice lunch - at Jake's. I made a reservation only about 30 minutes before we got there - reservation time was 2:15pm - (I was surprised I was able to do so with such short notice). We had to wait a few minutes while they cleared our table - no big deal. Once we were sate the hostess informed us that our waitress would be coming by shortly - 15 minutes later, our waitress showed up. At that point we had decided on our drinks, and appetizers - which we ordered right then and there. Our appetizers (which were both raw seafood) took a very long time to get to our table. The Ceviche and the Tostadas arrived before our alcoholic drinks arrived - which I thought was weird as well. When our appetizers arrived, our waitress asked if we knew what entree's we'd like to order, or if we still needed/wanted more time. We informed her that we still needed just a little more time to decide on our entree of choice. The ceviche was overly limey, and at best mediocre. The tostadas were decent. Our beverages were finally delivered to our table - from a runner, I assume, as it wasn't our waitress. The drinks also left something to be desired. I ordered the Mai Thai, and my boyfriend ordered the spicy cucumber margarita. My drink was nothing to write home about, I would not recommend it. My boyfriend's drink was (in both our opinions) extremely sour, and made my stomach hurt from just one sip. Again, what seemed like forever (I was almost done with my drink, and our apps were completely finished), we waited patiently for our waitress to return to give her our entree order. I assume we waited around 20 minutes, and when she arrived I told her I wanted to order the seafood Cesar salad, and my boyfriend (who takes forever when ordering in general) still was deciding. It wasn't until this very point that we were informed that the kitchen actually closes at 2:30pm. By this point it was pushing 3pm, and so therefore I was lucky all I wanted was a salad. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem that the kitchen needs to close between lunch and dinner, my biggest issue (at this point) was that no one cared to inform us that 15 minutes after our reservation, the kitchen would be closed, and the only thing we could order were appetizers. My salad arrived, and it was not what I was expecting - at all. The tuna which looked to be breaded, and shoddily pan fried, initially looked like raw chicken atop my salad (as you can imagine, the sight of that is jarring, concerning, and unappetizing). I had to look back at the menu several times to make sure that what I ordered was actually the seafood salad, and not anything else. However, the description of the "seafood" salad was zilch - simply that, "seafood". After I decided (and my boyfriend confirmed) that what was atop my wilting, soaked in dressing, lettuce was in fact tuna, and not raw chicken, I started digging in. I could barely taste the anchovies which were described to be in the salad dressing, the fried manchego cheese was probably the best thing about the entire dish. All in all, I felt like the service was lacking, communication was lacking, and the overall quality of the dishes (including drinks) were subpar for how expensive the restaurant is. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone I know, or anyone I don't know. Although the view and location are great, the food, service, and overall experience of Jake's is not worth your time or money. read more

If it allowed 1/2 stars it would get 2 & 1/2 stars.... that being said, I'll start with the good: Location and view are excellent, right on the beach! I had a mai tai and it was good with wonderful presentation, tiki glass, fresh pineapple and decorative umbrella straw. Those are the reason I gave it 3 stars rather than 2. Very small menu wich seemed to sound good but didn't have much flavor... fish tacos are decent but shrimp appetizer was awful, should have sent it back, it wasn't cooked. Meatball stuffed with mac and cheese had no flavor and calamari was flavorless also... won't be back, too many other places to try and it's unfortunate because the location was perfect.... maybe they don't try as hard since they know they will get business anyhow? read more

Jake's was the first place I ever ate in sd 30 years ago they are very special.to me I met my husband there on our first date they still.have the best fish and the best view read more

Made a reservation for 6:15 pm tonight for my birthday and we showed up and they didn't have our reservation in their system. Then they searched our phone number and had our reservation for 6:15 tmrw not tonight. We specifically asked for a table by the ocean so we could view sunset. We waited until 6:40pm and still no table was ready and we completely missed sunset so we left. Horrible service. read more