Zurita in Nye Beach — Restaurant in Newport

I came around 2 pm on a Friday with my girlfriend, she ordered the burger, I ordered the green salad. We were told the burger would take 15 plus minutes because it's a half-pound, and took longer to cook. This was fine, we weren't rushing.

We seated ourselves outside, the atmosphere was beautiful, the weather was fine. The place looked ripe for a small band, to be a wedding venue, or for a social gathering. The menu was explained in detail, how service would run depending on what we ordered, and what was a good option for two people (2 or 3 tapas plates and a larger plate to share). There was vegetable options and meat options, and a variety of dishes were available. pries were between 6 and ~45 dollars, and there was a selection of cocktails and wine. This place is Bougie in all the right ways.

Then the food arrived. We sliced burger in half, as a half pound makes for a massive meatball almost 2 inches thick and 3 inches in diameter. it was beautifully seared on the outside and inconsistently cooked, with raw parts on the inside. The cheese on the burger was bitter, acrid, like it had gone off. My girlfriend tried to eat around the edges but decided it wasn't safe to eat, and sent it back, I wish we had gotten a picture of it. in the mid day sun the beautiful meat was a magnificent shade vibrant pink edged in brown. I suspect it was put in an extremely hot pan, flipped, and gently rolled across the edges to sear, and then served directly to the bun. Not TarTar, but if it had been served as such it would have been more accurate than what was served as "medium rare"

The green salad had classic clamshell style salad greens spring mix, chunks of apple, thin shavings of radish, raw white or yellow onion, a sprinkling of cotija cheese, and a dressing that while tasty-- oily and acidic and sweet-- had no flavor notes distinct enough to stand out. The onion was overpoweringly strong and dominated the salad, with the cheese struggling to add some sort of substance. For $14, it was little more than a side salad of greens that thought itself grown up. I ate most of the salad, and we left disappointed.

Of note, the basket of sliced baguette was $6, it was delicious and crispy, springy, with a magnificent crumb. Beautifully done without accompaniment, I wonder how it would be with a tapenade, some oil, or some of spicy Spanish cheese. ...

OK, so I really want to give this place a great review, but...it just wasn't a great experience. Let's start with the positives -- the food was fantastic. We had boquorones, squid, tortilla, duck pate, and several other tapas. The sangrias were excellent, as were the cava and wine that we had. Unfortunately, all of this amazing food was somewhat difficult to enjoy because the overall experience was decidedly suboptimal. As a former line cook and server, I understand the desire to get home after a long day, so I very much avoid showing up to a place just a few minutes before closing. To that end, we arrived at 7:10 on a holiday weekend when the posted closing time was 8:00. There were 6-8 tables still seated when we arrived, but plenty of open space. No one greeted us when we walked in the door, so we stood there for a few minutes until someone said they would be with us shortly. Eventually, someone came and said that a table in the corner was the only thing available, which was fine, but also seemed like an odd thing to say given the number of empty tables. We were seated and then waited for 10 minutes for a server to acknowledge us. when he did, we ordered drinks, but he seemed very irritated that we weren't also ready to order food. When he returned with drinks, we ordered a selection of tapas. Once they started to come, it was fast and furious. My wife asked the server if maybe we could move to the empty four top next to us so that there would be space for everything. The server was very opposed to that idea and assured us that the kitchen would stage things such that it wouldn't be a problem. Nonetheless, plates of food soon began piling up on the empty teble next to us because they wouldn't fit on our table. I could go on, but you get the point. At the end of the night, we spent close to $200 after a tip that was probably larger than it should have been. I am more than happy to pay for a good meal, but this was not an experience that was consistent with what we expected. We felt very much like an annoyance rather than...

We sat upstairs and were the only diners up there for awhile. We started out with the roasted carrots and the confit artichoke hearts. The confit artichoke heart was mind blowing, who knew you could confit an artichoke? The roasted carrots were delicious, sitting on top of whipped goat cheese and aleppo honey. Our next course was the crispy squid with two different aiolis, garlic and black garlic. The squid bodies were cut to resemble flowers or maybe Japanese lanterns but the tiny little squid with tentacles were my favorite. We finished with the jamon which I would not order again but that’s just my opinion. My husband had the chocolate hazelnut torte and I had the pistachio gelato. I knew right away that it was real pistachio because it was not bright green. We were both very pleased with the ambiance, the service and the quality of the food. By the time we left the upstairs was full but we did not...