Sand Dollar Restaurant — Restaurant in California

Such a shame to give this favorite restaurant for our family such a low rating but, since their remodel and, apparently, new chef... we're underwhelmed.

We have been coming here for several years at the end of a day at the beach and have always found the food to be good, even though the service was sometimes spotty and sullen. This was our first time back in a year due to other travel plans.

The menu has changed. Not bad in itself but there was only one fresh fish on offer - the Mahi at $27 on the specials menu - and the small plates and salads seemed lacking in protein options. Not much to sink your teeth into except fish and chips and a burger really, unless you like oysters.

The Mahi was ok but not great. For $27 I would have expected some kind of substantial side but there was nothing except for a tomato based sauce. The fish kind of sat on the edge of the plate with the sauce, occupying only 50% of the space and looking quite lonely.

We got a small plate of the Moroccan Carrots which sounded delicious. The first bite was indeed yummy but once you got past the top layer, they were over seasoned to the extent that you could taste the overwhelming bitterness of the spices used and became inedible.

My daughter, age 10, only had 3 unexciting choices on the kids menu: corn dogs, chicken strips, or mac and cheese. It continues to be an insult that, just because kids can't eat a full meal, they have to eat junk.

Only one kind of Chardonnay to choose from on the wine list (which, for the area, is disappointing) and the pour from the bar tender was miserly (along with her expression, despite my attempts to smile and engage in conversation.)

We ended our meal with The Otter, a brownie and ice cream type deal that would have been delicious if it wasn't frozen solid, clearly a problem they're aware of because it comes with a steak knife (!) and is even then almost impossible to cut into without sending the whole thing scuttling across the table.

2 stars are for location, general ambience, and our waitress who was clearly dealing with a number of complaints from diners around her with grace, and a testy kitchen who wouldn't so much as even chop a salad for the people sitting next to us.

Such a shame that this great little gem has turned sour. We will be considering other options next time we are in...

My wife and I have gone to the Sand Dollar two or three times a year for quite a few years and we always enjoy the ambience, friendly service, the bar and the nightly jazz duo after a day on the beach. We used to enjoy and look forward to the food too. However after a change in chef and menu last year we have been there three times and were very disappointed in the food all three times. The first time was last summer - had a burger that was under cooked and served with some kind of onion paste that was very fancy but just didn't taste good. About a month ago we were there for dinner and I had the cioppino. Way too spicy hot. The cioppino or fish stew before was one of my favorites but this one was just too spicy to really enjoy the seafood. Also, it had scallops to which I am allergic even though before I ordered it I asked the server if it had scallops I was told it did not. Today we tried one more time. The salad my wife had was good, but the calimari I ordered was way undercooked (virtually raw inside the thin batter coating, not crispy and kind of mushy wet), the calm chowder was gluey with some kind of thickening instead of a real potato chowder feel, and was overpowered with a smokey bacon flavor. It just didn't feel or taste like calm chowder and was $12 for essentially a large cup, not even a soup bowl. My wife also had the beef ragu with pasta - we both agreed it was way too salty tasting. The little chunks of beef were very tender, but the saltiness made us leave some behind. (Likewise I did not finish either the calimari plate or the clam chowder). Lastly, they used to serve a very nice hot crusty french bread roll with butter along with dinner. Now they charge for bread and it is not as good a bread and comes with plain oil with a shot of balsamic in it. The prices are up quite a bit from before and after three tries under the new menu and chef we've agreed we will only visit the bar from now on unless some changes are made. The attempt to "upgrade" the menu has failed and it isn't worth it...

The one star is only for the food. The restaurant remodel was very nice and the staff super attentive. So my only question is what happened to the food?We ordered our typical calamari, fish and chips and clam chowder.All of it was horrible. We have been coming to this place for 40+ years.This is heartbreaking for at least 3 generations of my family who have been loyal customers over the years! I understand changing the menu but, why would you change food like fish and chips and clam chowder that didn't need to be changed? These are the kind of staple foods every restaurant has, as a go to. The fish and chips were heavily heavily heavily breaded, see my pictures. Additionally the fish and chips were tasteless. The clam chowder was basically a liquid vegetable soup(not a chowder) that the waiter took back and refund it for us. It was very nice of him. The calamari didn't even look like calamari it was breaded so much, and it had a different taste, not fishy or anything just not a very good taste. There were five of us that had the fish and chips and not one of us was happy with the meal.Additionally The fish and chips price was about $22 a plate, of mostly bread, it...