21 Oceanfront — Restaurant in Newport Beach

I enjoy frequent fine dining and regularly eat at restaurants such as Mastro’s, Eddie V’s, Morton’s, and Dominick’s. The food here was good, but at the same time, mostly nothing to write home about. The one notable item was the lobster bisque. It was rich and very, very good. I also ordered the seasonal oysters, they were good but, disappointing that they only had one available selection. For the main course I ordered the filet, medium, and asked the server for recommendations on the side. I went with his recommendation of the Brussels sprouts. The steak was cooked more toward a medium well. It was heavily seasoned in pepper and very tender, but a bit dry in texture. I did like it, but at the same time, I have enjoyed others more. The Brussels sprouts were pretty ordinary, they were crispy on the outside but dry and firm, rather than tender, inside. The pancetta was sparse. As for dessert, we intended on ordering their signature soufflé, but disappointingly enough they were unable to make it because of some equipment issues. So, we ordered the espresso ganash, which we both enjoyed.

As far as overall experience and ambiance, there is a lovely view of the ocean if you look past the parking lot in the foreground. I didn’t mind, and enjoyed the sunset over the water. The restaurant is very formal with the guests (my fiancé got wrapped up in our conversation and forgot to take off his hat when we moved from the bar to our table, and was very quickly asked to remove it, which was fine, but should be noted for those unsuspecting travelers and such), however, there were a lot of clumsy moments with the staff dropping things, they do not crumb the table in between courses, they were slow at clearing dishes, and they did not serve up the side dish. Additionally, the bar is very adjacent to the dining area and unfortunately there was a pretty rowdy group during our dinner, so we did not have the quiet, romantic experience I was hoping for. It got rather annoying at several points with people shouting and being disruptive to the mood.

Overall, this restaurant had good food and a nice ambiance, but as far as a critical review against other fine dining establishments, it fares somewhere in the...

Great place. Atmosphere is very nice. Service is pretty good. Food is also pretty amazing. The night we went we ordered several different items beyond of what we could eat so that we can check this place out. Steak was cooked and seasoned to perfection. Risotto was absolutely amazing. There was a few items like the white truffle macaroni cheese that were not that great. Had to put a bit salt to it to make it tasty. Pretty decent wine selection. Overall this is an amazing place that deserves a few compliments. We were for the most part imprest.

Ok, since google won't let me leave a second review i just add it here. Second time I went withing 4 days. Here it is...i also had to upgrade them to a 5 star from a previous 4 star:

After a few days when i tried this restaurant the first time i had to go again and try it out once more.

And again, this place did not disappoint. Great food. Great service and all.

This time we ordered different items to check them out. Again, i had to out some salt on some o the food to being out the flavor. But that could just be because my taste butts are used to salty foods. So it may not be the cooks fault. Go check it out and you can be the judge.

The filet mignon we ordered rare this time and it was the best i ever had. I eat slot of filet mignon and know what i am talking about. Tender, seasoned to perfection and just heavenly. We ordered the FM with the lobester....and OMG that thing was really big, flavorfull and just amazing.

Besides that some customers would have to add salt to make it more tasty, which...once again may not be the cooks fault but rather messed up taste butts of customers....

Second time here, only 4 days apart and i have to say, that this amazing restaurant lacks nothing. Food is just off the hook. Menu is perfect. Service is the best around. Atmosphere is just unbeatable.

I love this place and will.come back many times.

Amazing staff, amazing food and all. Don't hesitate....just go....you...

Witnessed the bartender (said his name was Richard?) Attempt to rip off another customer by adding an additional $21 drink to tab. She caught him asked him to take it off the bill. She finished paying then he became so upset that he literally came from behind the bar and grabbed the drink right from her friends hand and said bar is closed now get out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Now this is a nice upscale place that my wife and I liked to come to as a treat. I wouldn't expect this anywhere but maybe at a dive bar. We will file a formal complaint to manager because I own a business and if I had an employee like that representing my business I would appreciate knowing what's going on. So even though it doesn't involve me it really does because he did this in front of the whole crowd and pretty much everybody around the area looked confused.

In closing I wonder because "Richard" ripped the glass out of this petite woman's hand if it's just his personality toward women, reason being I'm pretty certain he would not have ripped it out of the hand of a man. So I no longer can recommend this place to anybody. It's a shame.

Even just writing this review gets me so upset seeing what I saw that I just feel like I need to keep going on and on but that's all folks hope this helps. I will update the review once I've talked to management and find out what their thoughts are on this incident.

Update: just called and talked to them and found out his real name was Tony and that he's been there for 20 years so don't expect a lot of changes but I am supposed to talk to Pete the general manager / owner on Monday I will...