Summer House — Restaurant in Newport Beach

I hadn’t been to Summer House since 2021 and was looking forward to meet with family for lunch on a Saturday and boy was I disappointed! I had called on Wednesday and made a reservation given we were a large group and when we showed up, they didn’t have our reservation down but regardless we were sat fairly quickly. Service was super slow as they seem to have 3 front personnel to take care of the whole restaurant and the bar which is understandable but if the place is semi full, be prepared to wait. Given it was Saturday brunch time, they should have another server. We ordered our food and unfortunately it didn’t seem that our server was having a good day as she was restless and not very friendly. We the had to wait a good 40 minutes for our food to arrive and during that time neither our water was refilled nor our coffee. I ordered the carnitas burrito which was very bland and didn’t have any salt and the little salsa that came with it was not spice at all. I had to wait another few minutes to flag another server to get be some hot sauce. My wife ordered the veggie omelette and it was so tiny and the potatoes very so little and bland. The prices are very reasonable and for the location, they can easily add a couple of bucks to the dishes and make the food a bit more plentiful. Not sure of if I come back again which is a pitty as we have been at summer time multiple times in the last 15 years...

Service was very slow even though we were seated right as we walked in! Took a while to get drinks, I thought my food would get to me before my drink. Meal came, seared ahi mixed green salad & wife had fish tacos. We mentioned to the waiter at the time of ordering, that my wife had a gluten allergy and if he could let the cooks know so they could change their gloves before handling her food as well as cleaning or using the designated side of the grill for non allergens. My wife had 1 of 3 tacos and immediately started feeling ill. My ahi salad was ok, nothing great. Ahi it's self had too much black pepper and no other spice. I quickly ate so we could quickly leave since my wife was feeling the effects of having gluten. I drove home, so my wife could lay back and hopefully make it home before getting really sick. So, my meal, ahh..... Wife's, dude seriously, did you not read up above... Any place that makes you sick for any reason should be given no stars! But, I am forced to give it 1.

On review of Covid-19 protocols, this place had none. None of the workers had mask on. No signs about mask nothing. So, if that's an issue for...

This place used to be one of our favorite places to go but over the last couple years it has gone completely downhill. The food got more expensive with portions so slight it’s shocking. I always get the ahi salad - these days they put a few pieces of the most thinly sliced ahi I have ever seen on greens and charge you $23.

To make it worse, we were there for over 2 hours and our server came to our table 4 times. The time in between each visit lasting over 20 minutes, I kid you not. In fact, the only time she came back to the table in a reasonable amount of time was to collect our signed check, one of the biggest no-nos of waitressing! The restaurant wasn’t even busy - at its peak it was at about 15% capacity (or about 5 tables). She would also go to the back and eat food off of trays that the cooks were making, laughing and talking to the staff instead of caring to her tables. One of the worst servers and service I have ever experienced.

It’s so unfortunate because we have been coming here for many years but it just is...