California Fish Grill — Restaurant in Long Beach

We had the fish and chips, seared scallops and clam chowder.

The clam chowder was a New England (white, not red) style and it was pretty good. Not spectacular, for it didn't really have very many clam bits in it, but the broth was very good, much lighter than the more common thick-and-pasty broth that seems so common these days. It was s 3 out of 5.

The scallops were just ok, not bad but not great. We chose the garlic butter sauce which turned out to be not as great a match for the scallops as we had hoped. They were a 2 out of 5.

The battered fish and chips were very good. There were three very big pieces of fish, resting on a thick bed of french fries and kale slaw. The fish was hot and excellent, and the fries were ok - they were the newly-popular "seasoned" style, not the plain style french fries that I prefer.

The kale slaw was supposed to be cole slaw, but I'm calling it kale slaw because it was mostly kale. If you don't like kale (I don't) or if you really, really like authentic cole slaw, it will be a huge disappointment to you. It certainly was for me.

I will actually say a little more about the slaw: just avoid it. Even if you like kale (and who really does, right?) then it is an odd pairing with the other slaw ingredients.

So, all in all, three stars out of five is pretty generous for an overall rating, and that's what we decided to give.

This was the second California Fish Grill that we have tried. The previous one was in Huntington Beach and it was equally disappointing.

I think we're done with California Fish Grill. Very done.

Your mileage may vary. Probably...

I hadn't come to this location since August. It appears that management has changed for the worse. It used to be fantastic I've been coming here since 2014. I ordered the new Mediterranean plate with sea bass and brown rice. They put everything together on top of the rice but instead of giving me brown rice it was white rice. so I told them and instead of them redoing the order they handed me a container brown rice. I mean really? 🤯uh no thank you. I had to explain to them how obnoxious it was to ask me to pick the white rice from the kale salad and other items. Then and only then did they re make my order. Second thing was my daughters order. Grilled Cajun Salmon plate with a side of asparagus and a side of sweet potato fries. They put the regular fries and sweet potato fries together, then placed the salmon on top then poured sauce on top of Salmon. Sweet potato fries were soggy with sauce and should have been seperate. They did not include the side of asparagus at all. It was a hot mess. I informed them the sweet potato fries were a side order, and where is the asparagus? They said they forgot. I asked them to please redo the order correctly. It took them 23 minutes to redo the order. It was awful! What happened to this fish grill location? So many errors and a LACK OF CARE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY. After 11 years of wonderful service this location has fallen extremely low! I will have to drive all the was to Gardena from now on. Get it together...

Edit: I was craving some ahi tuna, so I decided to give this location a second try. It's apparent that they've hired up and learned the systems, because they not only managed to stay ahead of the meantime rush but they also did so while making orders correctly! I know, that's a low bar, but as the original review below highlights, the bar was set on the floor lol.

My only complaints this time around are quite minor: they only have a single diet / sugar free option at the drink fountain (Diet Pepsi) and the sweet potato fries were served unsalted.

All in, I'm bumping everything up a star and will probably try this location again in the future to see if today was a fluke or not.

Original Review: This location isn't equipped to handle the dinner rush it sees, making simple order mistakes and long wait times.

Ordered Seared Ahi Tuna (Rare) with Garlic Butter and somehow got it both overcooked (medium) and Cajun style.

The premium sides are not worth their upcharge - the sweet potato fries came out soggy (and not in the occasionally delicious way where it's from the fish's juices/sauce) and the brussel sprouts inexplicably came with more tomatoes and feta cheese than they did actual brussel sprouts.

There are better counter service seafood restaurants in the area, some even from...