Seaside on the Pier — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Was having a very pleasant day at the beach when we came upon seaside. At first, my girlfriend and I thought we came upon a hidden gem, no line and seem pretty new. Once we had a seat at our table it was easy to notice the place itself was very small. There were about 12 tables all set to serve four guests per table in this small little room. a patio was outside that held another four tables that the doors that allowed you to the patio were closed since it was windy outside. Quickly the "restaurant" was filled with different conversation. It was impossible to hear the person sitting right in front of you. The set up reminded me of a high school cafeteria

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by our server and he took our drink orders. My girlfriend and I were seated the same time as the couple right next to us. Not only did we have to wait 10-15 min for our drinks (water), but we had to wait another hour just for the cheeseburger my girlfriend ordered. At first, we assumed it was a rush hour and it our food would be out shortly, our server checked on us three times. the second time he brought along my chicken pot pie, no burger. The couple that was sat next to us at this time already received both of their meals and were practically done. this made us annoyed but we decided to say nothing. while we waited we noticed members of the staff checking in on tables asking if everything was still okay... except our table. (My girlfriend and I are fairly young and we assumed they chose to check in on the family and group of adult that would tip better or leave reviews since the restaurant seemed new to the pier) it was as if they know something was wrong and chose to avoid us. a good 15 min after my pot pie was dropped off out server return very apologetic informing us that the slip was lost and they were working on it, he apologized and insisted he would keep the burger off the bill. My girlfriend is a very friendly person and forgave him and thanked him. He went to check other tables and we watch burger after burger walk out of the kitchen to other tables that were seated 20 min after us. When her burger finally arrived we were excited and grateful we finally could enjoy. The burger was not taken off our bill but at this point, we wanted nothing to do with Seaside. Hopefully, this review helps this place to become more considerate of ALL of their customers The food was a solid 8/10 in the end. Would not recommend compared to the other option on the pier unless made a reservation helped. Overall was not worth the wait could have easily gone down the pier and gotten a burger and not felt as if we wasted 2 hours...

First review here. Duplicating my review on Yelp so more ppl can see:

Food, service, and attitude - all terribly disappointing. I will never be back.

My rez was for 730pm. Confirmed on here and they called to confirm TWICE, once less than two hours before. The first one who called got my name wrong. It's not a hard one. Lame.

Arrived at 727pm. A man who appeared to be the manager stood at the bottom of the stairs, essentially blocking the way. I was directed to check in at the podium. When I did I was directed right back to the guy. Why add stupid barriers to the experience?

The man led us upstairs. He walked quickly, and disappeared up and around the corner, not bothering to notice my mom was slowly making her way. Not thoughtful nor friendly. When we caught up with him he just stood there. I asked where we should sit. He offered two tables, neither of which were ready. I pointed to another, which appeared to have the place settings for our party. He said that's okay too but 'we were expecting you to be here at 715'. Why would I arrive 15 min early for a rez (confirmed thrice)? Also, how is that a reason to not have a table ready 15 minutes later? They had four tables that could've accommodated us.

There were fried batter crumbs on the table, despite it being set. I asked for a wipe down. He told the busboy to reset the settings but it took him repeating twice and even then it was only partially done. The busboy also tried to wipe the crumbs off the table onto my lap... WTH?

Our server Ariel was chipper and responsive but as I will explain below she should have taken more care to check quality of the food she was bringing out from the kitchen.

Food tasted okay. My gripe is how the french fries had obviously been sitting under a heat lamp, and were from multiple batches of frying - they varied in temperature and stages of oil saturation (I've worked in fast food). The bulk was inedible but we asked our server to please bring us just a small portion of fresh fries as my mom was getting full. She did so moments later telling is they were freshly fried. I was skeptical, as it has taken only moments for it to appear. As suspected, these, too, were cold. I still left a 18% tip, it was Christmas, afterall, but was irritated throughout the meal and it put me in a foul mood for the rest of the night. Merry...

Best part of our breakfast? The cutlery was at least clean.

We had been once before, a year ago, and the food was decent. Not the best. A little overpriced for what it was and the serving size. But decent. Today? BLEGH.

To start with, we were seated immediately, the restaurant was nearly empty at 9:30AM, and yet we didn't eat until 50 minutes after we had been seated. We rarely saw our waiter and he took forever to do ANYTHING.

Our food was warm, yeah. Because it was kept under a heat lamp. How do I know it was kept under a heat lamp? Because either this restaurant uses microwaveable pancakes... Or they kept my thin pancakes under a heat lamp for SO LONG that they dried out. They were dry and chewy. The butter and maple syrup was nothing special. Though, I was a little peeved by the fact that they only give you ONE DIP CUP'S WORTH OF MAPLE SYRUP.

I also got the avocado and leek spread toast. Big mistake. Big waste of $8. The taste is... hard to describe. It's tangy and overly sweet. The spread taste like pureed RAW potatoes and had the consistency of horseradish. The tomato wasn't ripe yet. And it was chunky. The bread was too moist and lacked the satisfying CRUNCH that you expect with avocado toast. But, that's not too hard to believe GIVEN HOW LONG OUR FOOD TOOK TO COME OUT.

Oh, and my husband's omelet was overcooked. The eggs were rubbery and slightly burnt.

And let's not forget the nearly $5 cup of orange juice... That was 4 oz. I wish I was joking. It was bottled. Surely this wasn't fresh squeezed.

Oh! AND they ran out of bacon before 10AM! My husband got his omelet and they didn't even have the courtesy to discount it because they lacked one of the more pricier ingredients they added to the recipe. What kind of brunch cafe runs out of bacon before the first hour of being open!?

We spent $38.70 for all of that BTW. And only ONE dish was edible. We didn't bother asking to speak with the manager about the bad food. We just wanted to get out of there ASAP and find something EDIBLE I could eat elsewhere. Ended up getting a burrito from the Coffee Bean on Third Street that was a million times more palatable than the slop served to us at Seaside On the Pier.

Never. Returning. And I'm never recommending this place to...