CALIFORNIA | THE WEST

These Are the Restaurants That Turned Huntington Beach Into a Dining Destination

By Mei Chen | Oct. 30, 2025

Watertable

AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.

Years ago, I used to haul contracts down PCH because my boss kept a beach house and a fondness for hand delivery. And if I was driving to Huntington Beach to play courier, I was going to make the trip count, so I’d drop off the envelope, maybe put my toes in the sand, and then go find whatever new restaurant had just opened.

The habit stuck: every errand became a meal, every meal a new adventure, and pretty soon I had a list that outlasted my gas receipts.

I still add to the list whenever I’m back near the pier or the mall, with a few minutes to spend on a new restaurant. The result is the list you’ll find here, the best Huntington Beach restaurants that have helped redefine the beach as a restaurant destination.

Bear Flag Fish Co.

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The HB outpost adds a full bar, sushi, and a market case—think ahi poke by the pound, Peruvian ceviche, and tacos griddled to order. Keep it simple with a custom seafood plate and two sides or post up for a roll and a beer. It’s the beach-town version of “what’s fresh today,” served on a plate.

Best for: Fresh catch without ceremony

Black Trumpet Bistro

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Black Trumpet is a sister restaurant to the ever-popular Capone’s Cucina, but here chef Dino Ferraro turns his skills to tapas. Think plates like charred octopus with lemon and herbs, lamb kefta with cooling yogurt, and seared market fish. The room is dark and tight, and dinner turns into passing plates and comparing favorites instead of everyone guarding an entrée.

Best for: A proper dinner built from small plates

The Brant Kitchen & Bar

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Brant sits upstairs at Pacific City with a view of the pier and a menu from chef Ariel Mungi-Ciarrocca that’s built to cover everyone at the table, from steamed clams in white wine and jalapeño to a pretzel bread board with honey butter and onion jam to a burger. The room reads relaxed coastal instead of hotel banquet, and the servers keep the pacing calm even when the place is full. This is where I go when somebody says “somewhere with a view,” and I want to be sure the food holds up.

Best for: A pier view where the menu still matters

Brightwaters Wine Bar Huntington Beach Best Restaurants

Brightwaters Wine Bar & Restaurant

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Brightwaters runs like a wine bar but cooks like a restaurant, with a deep bottle list and a scratch menu built to play nicely with what’s in your glass. You can make a meal from the warm mushroom toast with seared maitake and manchego, poke bowls, and a black pepper steak, or you can sit on the patio with a flatbread and let the bottle be the point. I come here when I want to slow down and actually taste what I’m drinking, not just hold a glass in my hand.

Best for: A long pour and food that keeps up

Broad Street Oyster Co.

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Broad Street’s new-ish location on the Huntington Beach Pier is the move when I want seafood and salt air at the same time, because you order downstairs, head up, and sit in the breeze over the pier. The lobster roll is the headline here — warm with butter on a toasted roll, with optional caviar if you’re feeling loud — and you can back it up with raw oysters and chowder. It is casual in the way people romanticize “beach food,” except here the seafood lives up to the view.

Best for: A lobster roll with actual ocean in front of you

Calico Fish House

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Calico is chef Andrew and Lauren Gruel’s seafood diner is where the menu runs from oysters Rockefeller and lobster deviled eggs to Baja fish tacos, scallops, and one of the best lobster rolls on the beach. The lobster dip with housemade chips shows up on a lot of tables for a reason, and the chowder comes properly smoky with bacon. I end up here when I want old-school seafood dishes made by someone who still believes in them.

Best for: Old-school seafood hits, done like they still count

Duke’s Huntington Beach

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Duke’s sits right on the water by the pier and leans into what it is: Hawaiian-style plates, fresh fish and steaks, upbeat service, and a bar built for tropical cocktails. Dinner can mean coconut shrimp, seafood hot pot in coconut-cilantro broth, or a grilled fish plate, and it should always end with Hula Pie, the macadamia nut ice-cream wedge with hot fudge and a cookie crust. If I have out-of-towners and I want Huntington Beach to feel like vacation in under two hours, I bring them here.

Best for: A beachy, celebratory dinner that finishes with Hula Pie

Huntington Beach House

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Huntington Beach House is literally on the sand, with Adirondack chairs, firepits, and a DJ, and it runs an all-day menu instead of pretending you’re just “snacking.” You can sit with bang bang shrimp tacos, an HB Burger with fries, or a burrito, and you can stretch that into sunset drinks without moving. I use this place when the plan is “beach day that accidentally becomes night.”

Best for: A toes-in-the-sand hang with food to match the vibe

Jolie Restaurant & Rooftop

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Jolie runs a two-level setup: downstairs is American comfort — pork and beef meatballs in marinara, roasted bone marrow with herb salad, black mussels in white wine and cream — and upstairs The Belle rooftop locks in the sunset view and keeps people around for a second round. The menu leans on seared ahi, spicy tuna crispy rice stacks, and snackable plates that work for groups. When I want Huntington Beach with a good cocktail and a view but I am not in the mood to shout over bottle service, I go here.

Best for: Golden-hour drinks that turn into dinner without effort

Lōrea

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Inside Paséa Hotel & Spa, dinner at Lōrea starts with Parker House rolls served next to an “edible candle,” which is a chili-lime butter that melts into a pool you drag the bread through. Continue on to a tangy-bright yellowtail crudo, then a chowder of local clams. I like it for nights when somebody wants an ocean-view dining room that feels polished but not stiff.

Best for: An ocean-view dinner with some theater on the plate

LSXO

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LSXO is a 28-seat Vietnamese dining room hidden inside Bluegold at Pacific City, and it books up because it’s quite simply the most interesting, risk-taking restaurant on the beach. Chef Tin Vuong’s kitchen sends out pork, shrimp, and crab dumplings with a peanut-and-black-vinegar sauce, and then a steaming bowl of crab cháo — rice porridge laced with salted cod, white fish, and whipped egg whites — that eats like comfort turned into a main course. When I want a small room, real flavor, and service that treats everyone like they’re important, I come here.

Best for: A low-lit Vietnamese meal that feels personal

Watertable

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Watertable is the signature restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach, and it’s where I book when I need dinner to go smoothly. Chef Manfred Lassahn runs a grill-focused, seasonal American menu all day — breakfast through late service — with steaks cooked the way you asked, hot sides, and a bar program that takes cocktails and wine seriously. This is the place I use when I am vouching for Huntington Beach to someone who thinks resort restaurants are mailing it in.

Best for: A reliable meal when you’re the one vouching for it