Dining in Redondo Beach Part of a Redondo Beach Getaway by Deborah Shadovitz & Lisa Landis Redondo Beach offers a good variety of dining experiences and cuisines. Here are our recommendations for some great food while you’re visiting Redondo Beach. [column-group][column]
Delzano’s by the Sea — an excellent dinner spot
For dinner one night we simply hopped off the Voyager and headed into Delzano’s by the Sea, which was highly recommended to us by a few people including Voyager’s Captian, who happens to be a former fisherman. We walked into Delzano’s from the pier, walking directly into the bar area on the ground (pier) level and immediately felt comfortable there. We liked the pier view, so we selected a bar-stool height table downstairs in the front. As we ate we enjoyed both the view of the pier and the friendly quiet banter of good friends at the bar behind us. [caption id="attachment_875" align="aligncenter" width="339"]
Delzano’s by the Sea in Redondo Beach[/caption]
Thrilled to be at a place I knew could prepare and cook seafood very well, I ordered the Fruitti Di Mare — Lobster, shrimp, scallops, clams, and fresh fish with garlic cream sauce. Alternately, I had a choice of marinara sauce. At $14.95, I thought this a very reasonable price. This was an excellent choice — but I got the feeling that I’d be saying that about anything I’d ordered there. I know Lisa said the same thing about her dinner.
Lisa was in the mood for spicy so she selected By the Sea Cioppino — Fresh fish, clams, shrimp, scallops and crab in their own spicy tomato broth. ($20.95)
We’re sorry we didn’t take photos of these dishes. It looked so great that we just dug in.
Delzano’s by the Sea
Delzanos.com
179 North Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach
Entrances are on the west side and the Boardwalk.
(Boardwalk entrance, the front, shown here.)
Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday 4 p.m – 10 p.m.
Friday – Sunday Noon to 11 p.m.
Closed Mondays
Lunch at Ruby’s Diner
Ruby’s is a small Southern California chain with a few other locations as well. They are styled as 1940’s Diners and known for its burgers, not for satisfying seafood cravings, so we weren’t planning on eating there on this vacation — until we saw it. (The photo below was taken from our Crowne Plaza hotel room.) Ruby’s Diner in Redondo Beach sits next to Seaside Lagoon, providing a unique, beautiful view.
Through glass walls, both indoors and outside, you get to watch the children playing and you get to enjoy the tall fountain that sprays water into the pool as well. Beyond the lagoon, you see the Pacific Ocean, and either the fishing pier or King Harbor.
Lisa and I sat outdoors. The glass wall that separated us from the sand of the Seaside Lagoon also muted the noise so we were able to converse well, but enabled us a full view of the lagoon and beyond. It’s a perfect setting, different from any land-locked sidewalk cafe.
Ruby’s serves a variety of foods, but it does burgers and shakes best — and that’s what we recommend.
We both selected the Portobello-Provolone Kobe Burger, one of the options on the Kobe Burger menu. That’s to say we had fresh grilled Portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, melted Provolone cheese and garlic mayo — and fries. A good meal for $9.99.
I’m afraid, because we forgot about taking a photo until our plates looked like this. [clearboth]
Of course, we also each had one of their perfect shakes — Double Dark Chocolate Chip Shakes to be precise. (And came back the next day for another shake.)
Ruby’s Diner
Rubys.com
245 N. Harbor Drive
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-376-7829
Hours:
Sunday – Thursday 7 a.m.- 9 p.m.
Friday – Saturday 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Polly’s On The Pier
When we asked about breakfast, a frequent answer was “ Polly’s” — a very casual home-cooking type of place located on the Sport Fishing Pier. That white sign in this photo is the Polly’s on the Pier sign and those are Polly’s umbrellas. Polly’s is only open for breakfast and lunch so we’d arrived too late to try it our first day. We made sure we got there the next.
You can sit indoors but we, like many others, opted to sit outside and enjoy the experience of the wooden pier and the views of the fishermen.
The food at Polly’s is good, generouly portioned fresh home cooking. It’s good food to start you on a day of activity. I ordered the 3 egg omlette. It came with hash browns and biscuits and gravy (the bowl contains salsa, not soup) — too much food for me to finish.
Polly’s on the Pier
RBmarina.com/pollys.html
310-318-3736
Hours:
5 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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Fine dining at Splash Mediterranean Bistro
Splash, the restaurant off the Crowne Plaza’s lobby, looked so great, and was so full of happy, smiling diners, that for our second evening, we opted to have dinner there. It’s not on the water or on a pier, but it is such a nice environment and the food was so good that we were very happy with this choice and highly recommend it. In fact, we also had brunch there on our last morning.Dinner at Splash Bistro at the Crowne Plaza
The enticing dinner menu made it difficult to choose just one entree. Splash offers a full assortment of options: Pastas, Pork Chops, Chicken Breast, Shrimp, Salads, as well. And for the person who prefers a burger, there is the Splash Angus Burger — lean ground sirloin, or a Turkey Burger. Being at the ocean, we started with the Crispy Deep Fried Calamari — fried calamari served with spicy tomato sauce and garnished with lemon wedges. This was cooked absolutely perfectly — oh, so tender…. It nearly melted in our mouths.
Then Lisa opted for the Wild Salmon — Wild caught salmon fillet grilled, served with brown rice, fresh seasonal organic vegetable and light lemon butter sauce.
It looked enticing.
It was perfect cooked.
Lisa loved it. [clearboth]
Set on having seafood, I was so taken by the Herb Crusted Lamb Chops that I actually changed my mind and selected these grilled lamb chops marinated, with a Merlot mint sauce served with garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables. Each bit was so delectable that I didn’t miss having seafood. That says a lot for these Lamb Chops and the chef.
Brunch at Splash Bistro at the Crowne Plaza
There was no question that we’d have the breakfast buffet once we walked into Splash Bistro on our last morning and noticed that you actually get to walk into the kitchen and speak with the chefs to order, then watch as they prepare it.
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Splash’s Zack started me off with a customized omelet and some perfect bacon.[clearboth]
Later…
after we sat for a while, I couldn’t resist having a fresh, hot belgium waffle with fresh strawberries and even fresher whipped cream.
Splash’s Miguel was happy to accommodate [clearboth]
Lisa leaned toward the fresh fruits and cereals and yogurt. There were so many great options and we both had a bit of each. We both left knowing we wouldn’t want to eat until dinner, and we were right.
Hours:
For hours please see CPSplash.com/dining/splash.html
Parking:
Splash offers complimentary 3 hour self parking in the Crowne Plaza garage.
Valet Parking at the door is $4.00 for the first 3 hours with validation.
Other Eateries by the Redondo Beach Pier
There are several other places to eat, right in the area. We’re sure we chose well and had some of the best. We were told the burgers at On The Rocks are terrific, but weren’t there long enough to try one. On The Rocks is a sports bar. The bar was packed with jovial men, all eating burgers as they watched whatever game was on the TV screens and kidded with one another. Indeed, the burgers looked inviting. For those who seek a fully casual seafood expeience, there are many seafood counters where you can view the seafood and order it to be cooked for you, then find yourselves a table. Most of these places are on the wharf; you can walk around and find one that feels right to you. If you’re seeking a snack, a sampling of seafood, or a small meal, and want to sit out on the pier, these might be a good option for you. Another one, Captain Kidd’s Fish Market, is a large one that’s not on the wharf but in the parking lot. It was full of large families seated by the fish counters at large wooden tables. If you feel safer with chains, you may like knowning we saw a Cheesecake Factory from our Crowne Plaza balcony and it’s as easy a walk as these other places. There are also restaurants on the Municipal Pier and there are some in the Riviera Village.Parking Info
Off of North Harbor Drive, across from the Crowne Plaza, you’ll notice a huge uncovered parking lot where from north to south you’ll first see the Sport Fishing Pier (home to Polly’s), then Ruby’s Diner, a free-standing restaurant called Samba, one called On The Rocks, then Captain Kidds Fish Market and Delzano’s. This parking lot is the correct one for each of these restaurants — and for the water activities we visited on our Redondo Beach getaway. The restaurants in this parking lot area validate your parking for 2 hours so, it should cost you $2 for those 2 hours. (They can’t validate if you park in the Municipal structure.) If you’re going to the Municipal Pier for meal, use that covered parking structure. Most of the restaurants validate your parking for a couple of hours. The price of parking is about the same for this parking structure. This parking pricing info is accurate for 2011. These are year-round rates. Splash Bistro, as we mentioned, has its own parking with the Crowne Plaza hotel.Learn about some of the Redondo Beach activities turn to this page.
Learn about staying at the Redondo Beach Crowne Plaza hotel.
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