Awesome seafood spot near the beach!…read more Fish and Chips again, who would have thought? Light and crispy, but this place uses the same batter on their fries, what a gamechanger! More surface area = more crunchy fish/fries! The line was super long, usually a good sign. Nice beach vibes, I'll definitely be back!

This place has great food but the service every time is basically non existent. We went for lunch…read moreand there was a large line that really didn't move quickly at all. The server/person at the register was in no rush to take an order. Someone sat at the bar area and she immediately went to take their order even though there was at least 20 people in line and we were at the register just waiting as she got these people their drinks. I think this place needs more staff at both of their locations. The attitude is lackadaisical and the person at the register at both locations often seems as though they are overwhelmed and upset that people are even there to order. Get more help!

M-F happy hour IS so bomb!…read more We got pretty much got everything on the happy hour menu. Edamame, fish tacos, burgers, poke nachos, ceviche, and wings. Reasonable price for all of this for just under $45 dollars. We sat outside, so inside we did not get to look all that well. But seemed cozy inside to eat too. The decor was pretty nice too. We had this spot saved on my list from 2 years ago and very happy we came when we did.

We've been fans of the Seasurf location in San Clemente for quite a while, so when we found…read moreourselves near the Laguna Niguel location during happy hour, we figured it'd be an easy choice. Unfortunately, this visit didn't quite live up to our previous Seasurf experiences. We ordered the shrimp ceviche mixto, calamari, and poke nachos from the happy hour menu. The poke nachos were the standout and tasted just as good as we remembered from other visits. Flavorful with a generous portion of poke, and easily the best thing we ordered. The other two dishes, however, missed the mark. The calamari seemed over-fried and the calamari itself was much chewier than it should have been. The shrimp in the ceviche mixto also tasted overcooked and chewy, which took away from the bright, refreshing qualities that make ceviche enjoyable in the first place. One thing I will say is that the happy hour still appears to offer some solid value. We noticed a lot of people ordering the fish tacos, and at around $3 each, they looked like one of the better deals on the menu. We didn't try them ourselves, but the portions looked generous and they were definitely catching our attention as they came out of the kitchen. Will try that next time! Given how consistently good our experiences have been at the San Clemente location, I'm willing to give this visit the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to an off day rather than a larger issue. The poke nachos were still excellent, and Seasurf has built up enough goodwill with us over the years that we'll likely be back to give this location another shot. Hopefully next time the execution is a little closer to what we've come to expect from the brand.

Sadly it's now permanently closed as of May 3, 2026, after over 46 years in business…read more Our family wanted to make sure that we went there today. To thank the very kind owner who loves the Dana point community for generations, and visitors, first time equally as much. We wanted to get their delicious clam chowder, and wonderful fried fish, on today, their final day. The service was always excellent. The chill Dana Point Harbor, was always relaxing, nurturing, all year. Thank you, once again, and blessings for all the decades of wonderful deliciously fresh seafood, an extremely affordable price as well. - That you provided all your customers. Hopefully that beautiful large realistic looking swordfish that's been hanging on the restaurant wall ever since I was 10 years old - Will find a wonderful new home! oh, and that huge shark! (this place has personality, and heart, and will be missed dearly)

Well, it's officially goodbye to this place. Ordered a four piece fish and chips to share and two…read morediet cokes. The bill was $37.07. The young man tending to us was hustling so he deserved his tip of $8.00 so I walked away with a bill of $45.07. You had the audacity of charging $11.00 for two little cups of Diet Coke??? Well, you made your choice and you lost a customer and your reputation. Good luck. DO NOT RECOMMEND EATING HERE!!!!!!

We've been to the other Hook & Anchor locations starting with Newport and then Costa Mesa, but this…read morewas our first time visiting the Dana Point location -- and it did not disappoint! Beautiful restaurant with great outdoor seating. My family and I sat outside and it was very peaceful and relaxing. The service was excellent, and Karina, our server, was awesome from start to finish. We ordered the Oysters Rockefeller, which were amazing, along with the Connecticut-style lobster roll and the lobster carbonara. Both were absolutely 5-star dishes. The lobster roll was cooked to perfection with the warm butter sauce, and the lobster carbonara had incredible flavor throughout. My kids got the cheeseburger and fries, and I have to say, for a kids meal the cheeseburger was surprisingly meaty and very tasty. The fries were perfectly crispy as well. Highly recommend stopping by if you're in the area!

I am posting this review a little late but I still wanted to post it. My husband and I had been…read morewanting to try Hook & Anchor for a while and we made it in 4 days before they celebrated their 1 year anniversary of opening. We knew they served lobster rolls and I had not eaten a lobster roll since I was in Maine several years ago. We were seated pretty quickly even though the place was busy. We went on a Friday night. The experience started off a little questionable. The host asked us if we wanted water when he sat us but then sort of disappeared. Our waiter was busy, and it took a while for him to get over to us. I actually had to call him over to get water. We waited a little longer for the water to come. It was just getting to the point of annoying, but then things changed. Once the waiter came with our water, we were able to put in our drink and appetizer order. We ordered the appetizer right away with the drinks because of how long the service was taking at that point. When the waiter came back with our drinks and then our appetizer, he was friendly and attentive. He apologized for the wait and made sure we had what we needed from that point on. The Food... I ordered the Tuna Poke stack and it was tasty; fresh and flavorful. My husband ordered the fresh oysters and he happily ate them all. This restaurant is known for its fresh oysters and lobster rolls. For the entrees: I ordered the lobster roll. NOT disappointed. Absolutely delicious. My husband ordered steak. I forgot to take pic before we started eating but you will see that we loved our meal. The ambiance is nice. There is outside and inside eating. Being only a few blocks from the beach, it is a great place to savor an awesome meal!

If you're looking for authentic, fantastic Mexican food in San Juan Capistrano, El Zabandeja is…read moreabsolutely worth your time. This is the kind of place where the food speaks for itself. As a local gringo, sure--I wouldn't mind a few pictures on the menu--but honestly, it doesn't matter. Just pick something and go for it. Everything I've tried has been excellent, and you really can't go wrong. What makes it even better is that it's truly family-owned and operated. And I mean that literally--you'll see them in the front, in the back, and serving tables. There's something special about that level of care and pride in what they're doing. It's incredibly important to support places like this, especially in South Orange County and particularly in San Juan Capistrano. Restaurants like this are what give the area its character. Take your time when you go--make it a date night or bring family when they're in town. If you want real, authentic, fantastic food, this is the spot.

The seafood was fresh and full of flavor, and everything tasted very well prepared. I highly…read morerecommend trying the agua chile con salsa negro -- it had great flavor and was one of my favorite dishes. The camarones a la diabla and camarones al ajillo were also both delicious, well seasoned, and cooked perfectly. If you enjoy seafood, this is definitely a place worth trying. I would gladly come back again.

Our server Lexi was amazing!! She was so sweet and gave great service! Food was great and loved the…read moreview. Vibe was very welcoming

Great food!!! Probably the best clam chowder I have tasted. The chowder was brought out to us from…read moreour server claiming "we like to have people try the clam chowder if they didn't order it". Something like that. It could've been an mis-plate and sitting there at the runner station, and she, the server just liked us. ??? Don't know. But maybe next time I will also order the 'chowda'. All items I tasted at our table were delicious. I had the daily special halibut and pasta. The pasta with white wine sauce was awesome but the halibut was overcooked to my desires. The bread bowl that arrived alongside the chowder worked well to soak up the pasta's sauce. They didn't offer a traditional calamari for appetizers but they offered a very tender steak of calamari into a sandwich that was great. The fish tacos were good, but just that. Service was good but, perhaps it's policy to not refill glasses of water, tea or soda. I was dry by the time we had finished. The deck outside was pleasant except I made a comment to our table that "this has to be the only patio that is louder than inside". The staff clanked and clunked every dish, table setting and chair. It was very loud and occasionally startling. The deck was made from wood planks and the sound of the chairs being adjusted brought back undesired military memories. And the birds (pigeons mostly) will take off and land without warning and scare just about everyone. Otherwise a great place to get your fish on. CritDicks

Stopped in for brunch this past weekend and had a wonderful meal. It's located in a large shopping…read morecenter with plenty of free parking attached right in front. Inside is very large with many different seating areas and a full bar. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner so this place can get quite popular. They specialize in seafood, but they also have some other non-seafood options as well. Our server was very polite and everything that we ordered came out very fast. The menu also has a lot of great options on it so it's the sort of place that you can visit many times and try something new each visit. For this meal, I chose the Cinnamon Roll to start and shared it with the entire table. Everyone loved it and I too was a big fan. For my breakfast I chose the Eggs Benedict and opted for lobster. It was honestly a great call and with avocado it was the perfect combination. Everything was cooked perfectly and I was just a huge fan. I will definitely be back soon and would recommend to anyone.

I was really looking forward to trying this restaurant, but it was kind of a miss. We went with a…read moreof the party of six to celebrate a birthday. My biggest problem was that the food was inconsistent. The grilled octopus and the Crudo were delicious. My husband said the pork chop was one of the best ones he's ever had. The rest of our entrées were severely underseasoned. Everything from the fish, the filet, the mashed potatoes, and the vegetables needed salt. This was especially disappointing since the place is a bit pricey. We had to ask for salt to properly season our meals. I would definitely try it again to see if it's better.

Had an amazing time with great service and food. Greg was so knowledgeable and patient in…read moreexplaining all our options. The food was fresh. It was super busy when we were here since there was a baseball tournament going on (and we weren't here for that) but they were able to accommodate and help us in a timely fashion. Will definitely come back.

We had checked into the hotel kinda late, so decided just to eat here instead of leaving to find…read moresomething else for dinner. We got seated immediately but it was right next to the hostess stand.. which felt like the lobby of the restaurant. Honestly felt like the reject zone. Especially when the pictures in Yelp of the interior looked so nice and had a great view. We had no view. The server asked if we wanted sparkling or still water, I got sparkling and he got still. Turns out they were $8 each.. had I known that, I prob would have gotten an actual drink. The bread was complimentary and that was great, especially since our toddler loved the sun dried tomato tapenade. He also got the kids Mac and cheese, I got lobster risotto, & husband got the seafood orecchiette. Mac and cheese was just average, risotto was a little salty and a bit undercooked. Seafood orecchiette was tasty but nothing I'd crave again. Overall just an okay experience. When we got the check, noticed a 20% service charge and wasn't that happy about it since we only had 3 people, the food was just alright, and we had to sit in the weird lobby-like area of the restaurant. Would only ever come back for convenience, nothing else.

Love coming here whenever I have a chance. Came with a group and we decided to split the small…read moreplate and three entrees. We came for a birthday and everyone was so kind and wished them a happy birthday. I've been here before and everything I've ever had was delicious. The artichoke and kale dip was perfect. The chips were light and crispy and was the perfect vessel for piling on loads of the dip. Out table inhaled the chips in under five minutes. Out of the baby back ribs, pork chop and rib eye I have to say that the rib eye was so tender, so moist and so flavorful. I might have to order it every time I come back. We were so full we didn't get any dessert but they still have the butter cake on their menu. So I'll definitely have to get it again next time

I've been here many times and I love everything on their menu. I would recommend making a…read morereservation especially on the busy weekends. Restaurant is nice with some booth seating in the back and even some outdoor seating. Parking itself-there's a small lot next to it but it's almost always full so you can do some street parking in the surrounding neighborhoods. When I last came here, we ordered the red pepper hummus to share and I ordered the French dip! It was excellent as per usual and the service was good. One critique I would have though is that one of the people in my party was a vegetarian and had ordered a veggie burger. The people bringing out the food accidentally swapped the plates of someone else in the party who had ordered a chicken blt when placing the dishes in front of each person. Unfortunately the vegetarian did take a bite of the chicken blt before realizing it was not the veggie burger and spit it out. It is what it is and was an honest mistake. But, maybe confirming the dishes before placing it in front of the person would be good. First time it's happened but we hope it doesn't happen again because we love this place!

Our first time trying lobster shack and we already can't wait to go back! The seafood is fresh, and…read morethe sides have unique twists. Highly recommend the slaw with blue cheese and the sweet beans. The lobster rolls are packed with meat and tons of flavor, on a perfect brioche bun. Dan is also a friendly owner who puts a lot of love into his business. Can't wait to try the deviled eggs next!

came here for a quick bite on valentines day. rating would've been ~3 stars, but the service really…read moremessed it up for me and my partner one of the owners (i'm assuming) took our order, but he repeated the same things many times, to the point where i asked for the receipt at the end to make sure everything was correct (and good thing i did, too). they then gave what i'm assuming was our order to another couple, and also served people who arrived after us. i had to get up and hang out by the cashier for them to notice me, and they didn't know whose order was tied to who since they almost gave away our order to someone else again. the cashier man even said "was i the one who took your order?" when he did literally 15 minutes ago. then, when they finally called our name, they gave us a packaged to-go order when we wanted to dine in, and the order was completely wrong. the other owner (i'm assuming his wife), went back and forth to the kitchen 3 more times to either correct our order or bring back things they forgot that we had to remind them to bring. even when we gave her the receipt i kept, the order would still come back wrong. the other parties served had finished eating and left by the time we finally got all of our food the staff was generally nice. they apologized a lot, thanked us for our patience, checked up on us, & offered 1 free coleslaw (~$3.50) and 2 little chocolates. but they didn't offer us any sort of real compensation and after messing up our order 3+ times, and being understanding about it, we were pretty surprised i am strict with lobster rolls since i'm always comparing it to what i've had during my time in boston (impossible to beat), and i thought the food was just alright. boyfriend thought it was pretty dry and not that tasty for $100+, i'd expect much better service and better food