608 Dahlia — Restaurant in Newport Beach

I wish I could give a 4.75 stars to 608 Dhalia experience!

We made reservation (highly recommended) for brunch at 1:00 pm on a Sunday. My husband and I decided to arrive 1 hour early to enjoy the gardens. Parking was easy. The entrance fee to the gardens was $5 per person. A bit before 1:00, we checked in with the hostess at the restaurant. It took about 10 minutes to get our table ready - which was not at all a problem for us. The only unexpected and somewhat negative experience we had was that, once we sat, it took more than 20 minutes for our server to come say hi to us! And this is why I would subtract 1/4 stars! The place was clearly busy - there were 2 large celebrations going on at the same time (one outside looked like a baby shower and inside looked like a birthday party), and we watched the servers were running back and forth. To us, it felt like the restaurant was understaffed; this could have been just an occasional situation rather than something that occurs consistently.

Once the service finally stated, it was outstanding. Our waitress right away asked how long we were sitting and apologized for the wait. The drinks got to us shortly after we ordered and our appetizers came very fast too. The food was AMAZING! A-MA-ZING!!!! Delicious and tastefully and beautifully presented!

I recommend 608 Dhalia Restaurant and look forward to returning for another brunch! Perhaps I'll get to share this special place one day with...

I’m a big garden fan, and I made the reservation for a casual Sunday brunch because of the location and atmosphere, little did I know the food totally outshine the beautiful setting. We were a bit late to our reservation and ended up waiting for quite some time to get our table, but the hostess gave us the best table (in my opinion) in the restaurant, definitely loved where we seat to begin with. The drinks are all very unique and full of garden characters. I wish I could’ve tried them all. Since I’m a bit of a lightweight, we stuck with the Birds of Paradise and the Pomegranate Mimosa—both were absolutely delicious. Then everything just continues to impress us course after course. BF after trying the long waited fresh baked biscuit says - and I quote - “ I’ve never had biscuit before”. The beautiful garden salad, honestly looks prettier and tastes better than one I had in a Michelin-starred restaurant. The salmon and flat iron, they are totally out of control good, great presentation and perfectly cooked - there is not a single bite that I didn’t love from start to finish. We totally over indulged ourselves at this point but still ordered a cream brûlée just because we didn’t want to miss out on anything, end up couldn’t quite finish. The restaurant was swamped that day but our server was warm, friendly, who clearly takes great pride in and has a genuine love for this place. I will definitely come back soon with...

We went for lunch today with family. They had a paella special which I intended to order. I was told that they ran out of the special only two minutes earlier. So, i decided to have the steak. I asked if they could leave the bleu cheese sauce off the plate. I was told that they could do it, but there would be a $3.00 charge for a menu modification. Another person wanted to have the salad dressing on the side instead of tossed in the salad. Again, a $3.00 charge for a menu modification. I have never run a cross a charge for not having something on a dish. The response from the manager was that they are a small restaurant and were unable to deal with all of the requested modifications to the menu. Even places such as fast food hamburger restaurants will be happy to customize orders for no charge, within reason. I decided to forego having a meal here. When the bill was delivered by the server, the manager came by with the order that I had intended to have, but since everyone else at our table had completed their meals, I told her I was no longer interested. She was very annoyed that I turned down the meal 15-20 minutes after everyone else was served. She did not care at all when I said we would not be back. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be an enjoyable family meal turned out to...