Evangeline Cuisine — Restaurant in Half Moon Bay

It hurts my heart to write a less than five star review for this family run restaurant. However, I was misguided by previous posts that were being generous but doing no actual favours to the owners or fellow diners. You walk into this strip mall restaurant and are welcomed into a fuchsia fever dream, there is some sparse, high gloss art hung on the walls and a baby grand piano in the corner. You need a key to use the restroom, outside and down a promenade. The space is jarring to sit inside, soft cover music plays. I’m having memories of my best elementary-school friend’s living room and of her kind, industrious, immigrant parents. I open the hefty red vinyl bound menu and look inside; there is a confusing list of options all very, very expensive but nothing about the space is inspiring me to spend $85 on a steak. I fixate upon a lovely story on the leftmost page about the restaurant founders and their goal of getting a Michelin star, I die a little on the inside. An extremely courteous man gives diligent service and I want to order the $85 ribeye because I feel like it would make his day. Common sense prevails and I settle on the most affordable item on the menu, a $22 fish & chips, as does my father. My husband decides on the $25 scallops. When the food arrives it is exactly as I expected yet I am still disappointed. My $22 fish & chips comes with two plastic containers of sauce, one for ketchup and one with a dollop of chipotle mayo that I am unable to wish into tartar sauce. I glance at the baby grand piano and take a bite of my patchily battered fish and it is cod, a $22 poorly battered dry cod. I am holding hope as I ask for a bite of one of my husband’s $6.25 a piece micro-scallops. I am again disappointed, they are rubbery, overdone and under seasoned. There is one comically large salt mill that we must share with the only other patrons in the space. I’m sure this hurts to hear but they need to sell the piano and re-work the whole concept. Instead of aiming for a Michelin star maybe aim for a bib gourmand or to be a place that Guy Fieri would make a stop for. Otherwise, someone needs to stagiaire at The French Laundry and get a serious...

It was empty when we got in there, our server and cook (the owner?) was very cordial so that was nice. The atmosphere is mediocre but the 2 stars are knocked off because of the selection: unless you were willing to wait 35-50min for paella, you had very few options. There were no salads, standard appetizers, nor were there standard soft drinks that you can get literally anywhere, just coke. That's fine with me but the huge lack of simple menu items is annoying. We got a shrimp appetizer which was 6 shrimp for $15 (wayyy to much, especially being by the sea) and some fish and chips. The chips were excellent though nothing fancy, the fish and especially the breading was kind of strange but not bad. It's just overpriced for what you get overall and I don't think the owner has a real sense of what direction the restaurant is going since he doesn't have tons of business (at least for lunch that day, 0 people but us), the restaurant doesn't have a solid theme at all from my perspective. I cant understand how this is 4.9 stars unless he's asked a bunch of people (or some bots) to leave good reviews because even some 4.6 star places I've been to recently blow this place outta the water.

Edit: I updated the stars on my review because the guy was very nice and doesn't deserve 2 stars to tarnish the overall review, but in my opinion, some changes...

My spouse and I were so glad we took a chance to stop and eat here when visiting Half Moon Bay today. We wanted to try something different besides our regular stops and ending up finding this gem of a restaurant. We ordered the fish and chips and were immediately impressed with the batter and taste of the fish. It was not your typical heavy and greasy batter. Even the chips were delicious! We also ordered the seafood paella. Neither of us had ever had paella and this dish did not disappoint. The paella has a wonderful rice base that's well spiced along with a creaminess to it, while being cooked to perfection and topped with a variety of delicious fresh seafood. We tried the paella with and without the aioli sauce and found we enjoyed it without the aioli as the aioli did diminish the spices a hair. The service was prompt and amazing. Our food came in a timely manner and while the paella does take some time to make, it's well worth the wait! We will definitely be visiting again...