Coastal Kitchen — Restaurant in Monterey

My wife and I were unable to get a reservation at Chez Noir so audibled to Coastal Kitchen based on the reviews we read. We left highly disappointed - details of our experience below:

Service: We arrived to the restaurant being about half full and ordered the tasting menu, Wagyu add-on, and wine pairing as soon as the waiter arrived to mitigate some of the "timing" issues a tasting menu can go through. The first course arrived about 5-10 minutes after we ordered which was perfectly acceptable, but from there, every following course took upwards of 20 minutes to arrive. We were consistently poured the wine to be paired with the course 15-20 minutes before the course arrived. The staff refilled two of our wines as they were close to empty by the time the food arrived. We were also brought bread and butter sometime in between the 3rd and 4th course which seemed very strange. I can only attribute this to the lack of food we had received at that point.

Course 1: Oyster / Grilled Calamari / Tempura Squash (4/5)- this first course was actually quite good. All three were bite size and left us thinking we were in for a great meal. The only negative was the description of the oyster was not clear which led my wife to put too much of the salt on the oyster which made that a salt bomb.

Course 2: Miso Soup (2/5) - this was very underwhelming. The vegetables in the soup were crunchy which I have never experienced in a soup. It made it clear that the soup was rushed and the ingredients did not have time to properly mesh together. This flowed into the broth itself which lacked flavor and was very average.

Course 3: Pacific Bass (4/5) - if I had to pick our favorite of the main dishes this would probably be it. The fish was flavorful and when dipped in the sauces was tasty. What prevented me from giving this a 5 out of 5 was the difficult I had cutting the fish with my fork. The skin on the fish was tough in places and prevented the fish from being "flaky" where a fork could easily cut into it.

Course 4: Duck (1/5) - this course was unfortunately not good. The duck tasted very gamey which overshadowed any of the flavors the chef may have been going for. Both the skin and the meat itself was very tough and took a "sawing" approach with the provided knife to cut into it at all. My wife took one bite and was out. I tried to get through mine and hers but couldn't. I am a big fan of wild game (venison, elk. duck, etc.) but this was not prepared well.

Course 5: Wagyu Steak (1/5) - if I could give this 0 stars I would. The idea of Wagyu steak is that it should be an unbelievable experience being served completely on its own. After all, we paid $90 for this addition. The meat should also be prepared rare to medium rare AT MOST. What we received was honestly a disgrace to wagyu beef. The meat was way overcooked to start. Probably was medium well throughout most of the cut. Worse than this (if possible), the beef simply replaced the short rib in the rest of the dish. The wagyu beef was covered in a slaw of some sort on top of corn and resting in a sauce. This led to the beef taking on the flavor of the sauce and not that of a $45 slice of meat.

Dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake / Cheesecake (1/5) - I would again give a 0 if I could. This was what left us very dissatisfied and honestly a bit angry. Going from a terrible experience with the wagyu to an even worse experience with the dessert was painful. The cheesecake concoction was chewy on the edges and lacked much flavor. The chocolate cake was even worse. Every attempted cut of the cake resulted in the entire thing crumbling. The cake tasted more like something you would get at your local supermarket that had been in a plastic container for several weeks than something a Michelin-recognized restaurant would produce.

Summing things up, we expected significantly better across the board for a meal that ran us more than $700. It was the worst of the 6 restaurants we dined at...

We took our granddaughter (who is a golfer) on a trip for her 16th birthday to Pebble Beach. As a foodie and caterer, I did my research well in advance on where to eat. Coastal Kitchen looked like a winner, but it was totally booked each of the four nights we were in town. I put us on the “Notify me” list for Saturday night and booked a dinner reservation elsewhere. Lo and behold, I received a call the night before saying we could be seated so I enthusiastically grabbed it and cancelled our alternate reservation. Getting there and parking was easy. It’s quite the trek through the hotel to get there, but once we arrived the cutest hostess seated us. That, was the only positive experience we had all night. Our service did not meet the standard you should expect. There were plenty of empty tables and plenty of servers so we should have been well taken care of. We ordered cocktails first, which seemed to annoy our server. Too bad. Since it was a prix fix menu there wasn’t a lot to decipher. I chose to do the wine pairings, another disappointment. The food was not outstanding and after the third or fourth course, I told our server not to bring another one unless it was hot. I had read about the acclaimed chef and was excited to see him there. He wasn’t cheffing though and I felt he should have been working the room instead of just standing in the same place all night reviewing the orders. I almost felt sorry for him though because he looked sad. The two servers that were bringing the courses spoke too quietly, and even after asking them to speak up so we could hear their descriptions, they didn’t. I had read that in two of the reviews I read so maybe that’s intentional. It was obnoxious. I cannot recommend Coastal Kitchen. It’s ridiculously expensive for THAT type of...

How this is not a Michelin 2 star restaurant is beyond me...

From the moment you walk into the coastal kitchen you get a sense of ease with the ocean the real ocean as your background you know you're in for something very special. Complimented with some of the most fresh seafood I've ever had in my life while looking at the ocean is a very surreal experience and to make it better when the host comes and brings you a pair of binoculars so you really feel incapulated in the whole experience of the ocean in Monterey.

Starting off with 4 small bites some of the most memorable bites I'll ever eat in my life and never forget.

Then begins the actual dinner 5 courses Some of the most creative and delicious food I've ever had definitely not stuffy just well done and perfectly cooked.

I also added the fresh pasta course because it sounded so great and they did not skim at all on the Truffles. The dessert was a play on toast and jam and a deconstructed version of it that was so well executed truly a remarkable experience celebrating my 15 year anniversary with my Beautiful wife something we will never forget.

We have eaten at some of the best Restaurants in the Country including Atelier Crenn, Manresa, Providence, Mèlisse, Saison, Californios, Canlis Bouchon, Localis, Miller & Lux, Protégé. & I am more than convinced that Coastal Kitchen is Among The Best. As a Chef I can respect what this Chef and his team are doing and fully understand the complexity in working with very Fresh Seafood and keeping the flavors pure & beautiful... (Thank you for accommodating my wife's Gluten-Free alergy.)

Thanks again Coastal Kitchen for making our Anniversary very Special.

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