King's Fish House — Restaurant in Carlsbad

We went Saturday night for dinner with a reservation for ten people. It was my daughter's birthday dinner. My daughter and her guests arrived early and we arrived twenty minutes late due to traffic from Murrieta. We told them to go ahead and order drinks and appetizers. After arriving, we waited a significant amount of time for our server to arrive. So long, that I was confused as to whether or not they even knew who our server was. I ordered two bowls, not cups, of soup and $40 Chilean seabass. The seabass was cooked perfectly, but extremely salty. Clam chowder was delicious, the seafood soup, not so much. My brussel sprouts cost extra, but were unrecognizable and burnt. One of my sons ordered linguini with clams and the sauce was soooo sweet, it was inedible. My husband ordered a sirloin and beer. The beer took thirty minutes to be dropped off. We forgot about it. His steak was blackened on the outside, but way undercooked. A huge puddle of melted butter sat on top of it. Same with my son's steak, and daughter's filet. We ordered medium/med well and received med rare/rare centers. Waters were refilled once, but left empty the rest of the meal. So, I had to get up and grab the water pitcher myself. Dirty dishes sat for awhile. We kept being asked if we were finished even as we were eating. We had to repeatedly say no, we weren't done yet. On a positive note, it was neat to be able to see the chefs at work. The bathrooms were clean and stocked. My daughter's group ordered, and enjoyed, the oyster sampler, whole lobster, and shrimp pasta. They were not thrilled with their macadamia halibut, undercooked filets, and edamame. Dessert menu never offered. Overall, a very unremarkable dinner, except how much we overpayed. The tip was already included, due to our party size, so the effort was not there to provide excellent service. Very disappointed and would never go...

The ambiance is as if you were on a ship - wooden interiors, dull lighting, fish murals and models around you...this meal could be anything that you want it to be - an intimate date night, a casual dinner with friends, a work dinner or hangout...the ambiance works for everything. We got a reservation and I don't know if you need one or not, but it worked. We got seated right away. The server was nice enough and didn't bother us too much.

The food was so so. We ordered the King's Spicy Seafood Chowder, the grilled Rainbow Trout with sides of mashed potatoes and carrots, and the Lemon Nut Crusted Wild Mexican White sea bass with sides of grilled zucchini and flash fried cauliflower.

The seafood chowder was very watery and not spicy, so I'd rather have had the clam chowder instead. I think I expected this to be a spicier version of the clam chowder, so it was disappointing to taste watery soup with some seafood and veggies.

The trout was decent but needed some of the lemon sauce from the sea bass and way more butter to make it flavorful. The mashed potatoes needed more seasoning. The carrots were great!

The sea bass was the better dish except that the crust was so thick that it felt like it had been breaded and fried twice over. The consistency tasted more like chicken than fish. The zucchini was interesting and we enjoyed it for sure. The cauliflower was also pretty good.

Both fish were quite heavy and it took a lot for us to finish them. We ended up taking quite a bit home.

Pricing wise, this is expensive for the quality of food. Based on the reviews, I expected more from the food and it did not deliver. We might be back...

Love coming to a restaurant an hour 1/2 before close. Don’t get greeted, for 3-4 mins, then get told you can only sit out side. What ever the quality of the rest of this meal could be. The manager has already ruined the experience. Just because you want your dining room clean 90 mins before close isn’t a good reason to make your customers sit out side. Especially if they didn’t want that in the first place. What a joke. Only notable thing was the New England clam chowder it was great, but directly after that got a piece of undercooked sea bass. This place may be great during normal hours of service but I don’t think coming here the last two hours of service is a good idea. These guys want to go home especially the manager. Not worth the money. As I told the manager I would have rather gotten fast food than have an experience that bad. Also Garrett “ manager” took the sea bass off the check but deflected and took no accountability when I spoke to him about the “dinner”. I say dinner because I had six or so clams which was also bland and under-seasoned with my chowder I mentioned. Didn’t eat the Brussel sprouts because they were the side to the undercooked sea bass. The manager left those on the check though. We we’re out of the restaurant at 9:30pm so it took about an hour to disrespect a customer and botch there dinner. At least we didn’t hold them up going home tonight…like I said before what a joke. That whole meal should have been comped but again the manager knew that he was right. If I had the ability to go back in time I would have...