California Fish Grill — Restaurant in Culver City

I’m only giving one star for our unfortunate visit last night. My daughter purchased a fish meal for dinner. We live five minutes away and by the time we got home and she opened her food it was not to her satisfaction. The fish seemed slimy inside and lots of water (maybe oil running out). She is a frequent customer to this location and said her food has never been like that before. We did preorder but the food was very hot once we picked it up so I don’t think it was sitting. It was minutes before closing time but again it appeared ok.

She’s 17 and I let her handle these real life situations on her own for the most part. She called and complained about her meal last night. Macklin (?), answered the phone. He was very pleasant to her and told her to just bring it back in and they will make it right.

Well she brought it back in and dealt with a manager, Aleen (sp) who was very rude and disrespectful to her. He made no apologies but instead took her bag and threw it in the garbage in a very rude way.

I was actually at the Trader Joe’s next door picking up some things. My daughter was uncomfortable as Aleen and 2 other coworkers seemed to be sitting there at a table, eating and talking about her. She said they kept looking over to her and she heard them mention Macklin’s name several times.

After checking out at Trader Joe’s I met her back at Fish Grill as she was still waiting for her food to be prepared. The same three were still sitting there and even as I approached and sat with her, I noticed stares.

When I saw Aleen get up to bag up food, (he never washed his hands or anything after sitting there for what had to be 10 minutes with the other employees at a table) I approached him. I asked him if there was a problem with my daughter returning her food. He said, “not necessarily.” I was confused by that and asked him exactly what part of it was a problem since not necessarily. He said she didn’t talk to a manager. I responded that she as a customer wouldn’t know that she needed a manager approval as she CALLED and his employee told her to come in and return the food. He agreed and said , “well the employee can get in a lot of trouble for that.” I said, well that sounds like a lack of training on you all behalf but don’t ever make my daughter feel uncomfortable and unvalued as a customer. He couldn’t even look me in the eyes and felt quite uncomfortable but was ok disrespecting my daughter. I teach her to respect adults and these adults have to be held accountable to do the same!

My daughter did mention to him that she felt uncomfortable because they kept looking at her and talking as if they were talking about her. He explained that they were talking about the employee, not her. As a manager, you should know that any of those discussions should not ever be held with customers around smh.

We have NEVER had a problem at this location. I don’t eat here because I don’t eat fish, but my daughter loves it. Sadly, this poor example of a manager has made her question coming back to one of her...

California Fish Grill is quite tasty. It is not the best in the world, but it is priced very fairly and it is good.

Located in Culver City (it is a small chain) this one is very pretty on the outside and inside. You can eat inside or on their lovely patio. You can also get take away and delivery.

They keep the place pretty clean, inside and out. I was not pleased to have to wipe my own table when workers, in uniform, were sitting in one of the booths, one doing paper work and the others doing nothing but sitting there. I think paperwork and breaks need to be away from customers. Also, if you are sitting in the main dinning area all the tables should be clean, I don't care if that is your job or not. The outside was spotless except for one table not yet cleaned.

It is very cute inside. There is a huge menu on the wall and one near the door. You order at the counter and they like you to use these computer screens which I can't stand. The staff I dealt with was having a very hard time helping me with the screen and they should know it well. I should also have the option of ordering from a real human being, there were enough of them there. The screen was confusing especially with the large menu.

Once you have ordered, you get a number and they call you to pick up your food. I would rather they bring it to the table. No one came by to check on us and I was not about to deal with the screen again to order desert, we just went elsewhere for that.

The food itself is good. We had a lovely fish with a sauce on it and asparagus and fish and chips. We had side orders of beans and I had rice with my fish and chips and fried shrimp as well as the chips (French fries.).

The food did not wow us at all. But it was good and everyone looked happy. The batter for the fish and chips tasted just like the batter for the fried shrimp. The fried shrimp had way too much thick batter, but the shrimp was good. I really liked the deep fried fish. The rice was also very good. The beans were very watery and not very good. The fries were soggy and bland. I did not eat them. The fish plate with the asparagus was excellent. It had a great flavor and was cooked perfectly. The asparagus was also cooked to perfection and the sauce on top was excellent.

We may try it again, but I am not sure. We did love the fish plate, and my deep fried fish was very good. But the rest was not great, but it was fine.

My 4 stars is a gift because of the wonderful fish plate. Without that, it would be a 3. Also, I really thought the prices were super fair. So maybe, who knows, but I think it is just a thing with me that when I have to clean my own table while employees are sitting at a booth that makes me wonder if they care.

But try it, you might like it and there is a lot to...

3 Year's later and this location still can't seem to get it right.(11/2022) They refuse to take phone orders, they won't start your online order early. The Manager is in desperate need of Customer Service training. You are forced to visit this location due to nothing else being closer, I literally feel like I'm being held hostage to however they want to treat me when ordering and picking up my food. This review is not based on the food, but on the Customer Service that I received. I have visited this location several times and the food is always good. There is one so-called manager that has made me not want to return to this location solely based on his horrible lack of customer service. He was not wearing his name badge otherwise I would state his name but he wears glasses, has his black curly hair in a ponytail. When placing my order he kept cutting me off mid sentence, when asked was that it my friend steps in and says "I'll have the same thing she is having". Now once I was paying, I was running my mouth speaking with my friend and did not notice the total amount. After sitting down, I glanced at the receipt and saw 1 order. I proceeded to the counter and asked for the manager, the gentleman indicated that he was the manager a put out his hand to shake. I explained the situation, we walk over to the pay counter, he tells the "ponytail guy" what to do, the manager apologies, tells me he will take care of it, but for some odd reason "ponytail guy" with an attitude yells out, "why do I have to give her a discount?". I quickly get the manager again and I inform him that "ponytail guy" is rude and inappropriate and I refuse to deal with his unnecessary attitude. The first manager had to once again speak with "ponytail guy" and during their interaction he was still giving attitude and push back to the point where the first manager just had to ring up my transaction and "ponytail guy" walked away into the back. Bottom line, I will not be spending my money at this...