California Fish Grill — Restaurant in Redlands

Not Worth The Trouble!

This place has the potential to be very good, but it woefully misses the board with its shots. So much attention is often placed on details when the main factor, the meat and potatoes, is placed in the back seat. Just as the Star Wars films attempted to appeal to a non-existent audience of fans instead of its actual fans, this place takes care of every customer it has, except the ones who like fish.

Having had to adopt a pescatarian diet, and the only good place I know of serving fish being 80 miles away and only serving on Fridays, the hunt was on. Getting to this place was a bit troublesome, as it is in a massive shopping center that is hard to navigate, built that way on purpose. There was a Pho restaurant in sight, and when disappointed by the quality of the food here, I did think about going there, but that would have been falling for the trap of the engineers.

Mentioning the food, any fish place should be on top of their game when it comes to the most basic of American fares, fish and chips. A 3 piece order comes with fries and what they call kale slaw. For the record, the hipster population in the vicinity is high. For an extra four dollars, you can add some shrimp to the meal, so I did. The kale slaw, which I really do not like saying, was decent, as were the fries, and the shrimp skewer was covered in this cajun sauce stuff and was actually very good. The fish, and everything else about this dining experience left a lot to be desired.

I won't be back for the salmon, or anything else. I like fries with ketchup, but instead of ketchup bottles they only have packets. Not very eco, be it economical or ecological. No salt and pepper shakers, only packets. Is this a restaurant or a gas station? A big problem is the parking, ambience to be discussed later. This is a place that allows you to place your own order with a fancy touch screen as long as you are not bothering the store with your cash. That is correct! Pay the same amount of money and help us do our job! You get one of the buzzers like at Panera. For Panera, that works well. For here, it really bites. Why that is, I do not clearly know, but what is good at Panera feels a bit impersonal here.

The fish is the big problem. Like so many fried foods, this stuff is not fresh. I have worked at a place where they make fish sticks, salmon burgers, and breaded filets, and let me tell you, the process of this processing churns the stomach. The only place that seems to get fried meat that is breaded right is Chick Fil-A. A lot of meat, a little breading, and good flavor. Like chicken tenders that are all too stale from a place like Jack in the Box, not only are they not tender, there is very little meat, too much breading, and a woeful lack of flavor disguised by a thin veneer of crispiness. They don't even have lemon wedges here! The first piece of fried fish requires lemon to be spritzed on the filet for cooling and flavoring. After that, anything goes.

The potatoes are fine, but it is the meat a man hunts for. America needs to get a clue and get some food that is made out of food.

Last is the ambience. There is a lot of seating, especially outside where seating is shared with a noodle place, a burger place, and a hot dog place, but the same soulless, dry, hipster pop music plays for all four restaurants. I guess that is good for people who like Asian food without the Asian music, but there was something off-putting about the whole experience. I would go back to give them another shot at something other than the fish that comes with the fish and chips, but it is too much of a pain to get...

This was my first time coming here. Unfortunately, it was not how I expected my first time experiencing going.. I didn’t want to order using the kiosk they had so I ordered with a cashier named Bryan. I was with my husband while ordering as well, everything I had ordered seemed to be correct.. with a minor error. Not noticing all plates were incorrect, besides one while I was there.Once receiving our order it was not how we wanted it. I ordered 5 plates and 3 of those plates were incorrect.. when reading the receipt it seemed like Bryan actually heard everything we ordered but once we got our food it was a disaster. The first order(while still there) I seen the top box and wondered why it was so small? I opened it to see what it was, and noticed I was missing the French fries for that order. I asked “what about the fries?” To the girl up front that was handing out the food. She said “you didn’t ask for fries” my husband and I looked at each other and we said yes we did- I ordered with Bryan even pointed to him- how is that on me if had told him to add fries? She turned around ask for fries and they gave me such a SMALL AMOUNT of fries it was not even worth it. Once I got home I seen the rest of the food and it was completely wrong.. such a disaster, disappointment, a disgrace. I called them right away once I got home, we had to drive back down there to make sure our food situation got handled. I asked for French fries for 2 plates - 2 of them had asparagus which was NOT what I ordered and the one I spoke about earlier clearly had no fries, when I specifically asked for fries.1 was supposed to come with dynamite fries, 1 with roasted fire corn, and 1 with just regular fries. After I called them I went back to show them the order for the 3 plates that got messed up including the oil sauce that was requested to be on the side - that was not in my order when I asked for it to be on the side for the 2 other plates - again I had my receipt so I know what was placed. Instead of looking at the mistake they just had a bag ready for me to pick up and said it was right there. My husband and I were very thrown off by the situation. Both of us who work in a professional environment were very NOT pleased on how their customer service skills are. For a place that had a high volume of people inside- considering there are no extra chairs for those who had to stay standing- like myself 7 months pregnant.. I am very disappointed and will not be going back. I do hope this situation does not happen to anyone else and that their service...

UPDATE FOR CALIFORNIA FISH GRILL Valentine "movie and a dinner" date night for this couple was a hit! Stopped into California Fish Grill,located in the Mountain Grove Shopping Center in Redlands California, just after seeing the new movie"The Gentleman"with Matthew McConouhey,Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant at the Harkins Theatre just across the street and we weren't dissappointed! Always on point is California Fish Grill's fresh seafood,service,menu,servers,restaurant and drinks! At California Fish Grill you wait in a short line to order-which gives you time to look at their fresh fish ,huge,menu board. Tonite we had their new England clam chowder that was delicious,creamy and with a generous amount of fresh tasting clams. For our main course we had the salmon which was cooked medium per suggestion of the attentive server and was superb with sides of asparagus,kaleslaw brussels sprouts and rice-very tasty! My wife had the delicious crispy fresh shrimp plate with grains of quinoa,brown rice and corn mix really super tasty! The portions at California Fish Grill are very generous and needless to say we are always pleased! Oh,and btw, their fresh salsa and sauces bar has delicious sauces for your meal! As always the servers were very courteous, polite and helpful.The restaurant is always sparkling clean and fresh. It's one of this reviewer's favorite places to eat in California! . . . . #Californiafishgrill #salmon #asparagus #kaleslaw #mountaingroveshoppingcenter #ilovefish #cfgmountaingrove #foodporn #fishporn #clamchowder #datenite #valentine #couples #family #greatfish #greatfood #ilovefish #kraftdrinks #generousportions #friedshrimp #poke #garlicbutter #beer #wine #softdrinks #freerefills #familynite #californiadreamin #californiadreaming #ilovefood #freshfish #thegentleman #guyritchie #collinferral #matthewmcconoughey #hughgrant...