The Fish Market - Solana Beach — Restaurant in Solana Beach

UPDATE! Two weeks after sending the owner, Kirk B. my cell phone number I have yet to hear from the manager... Quote from the owner: "The general manager of the Del Mar Restaurant, Erin, would appreciate the opportunity to discuss it with you." HAHAHA, guess Erin would NOT appreciate this opportunity! Maybe she should have another martini!

Bob Evans of the Sea! BYOS - Bring your own seasoning!!! Do you like bland/over-cooked AND very expensive food? Then The Fish Market at Solana Beach is for you!

I'm not even really sure where to begin, slow service? Food before receiving drinks? Bland? (copious amounts - like surface tension held up my wife's tuna filet - of unsalted butter is NOT seasoning.)The view of an alley and the local Speedway along with the company we kept with the ants crawling on the windowsill?

The one wonderful part of our experience was the hostess. She was friendly, answered questions for us upon arrival, complimented our daughter on her mask, and even came back to check on what her pronouns were because she was talking to a co-worker and wanted to make sure she had her pronouns correct. So cool.

The appetizers were on our table before our drinks were... We had the smoked fish sampler, the salmon was excellent, the rest was fine. We had the cheese/crab bread, the bread itself was very good, the crab was dry and bland. Did I mention my drinks didn't show up until after the appetizers arrived? I had three Hendricks martinis, normally I have two, but they were so watered down I struggled with if they were vodka or gin. Very disapproving considering they were $12.95 a piece. In order to get my next martini on time I ordered my next one when my first showed up at the table.

My son had the teriyaki chicken off of the children's menu, he asked for the salt, there was no salt on the table and our server didn't seem interested in checking on us... My son sat and stared at his over-cooked dry/tasteless chicken just wanting salt... I tried waving to the manager who was just standing by the door looking confused, but she was too busy watching dust settle on the floor.

My daughter had the dumpster fire pasta, apparently all the extra rubbery fish chucks that the kitchen can't serve go into this concoction wearing a marinara disguise. Again, salt would have been helpful...

My wife had the fresh tuna, as mentioned above, held on plate by a pool of unsalted butter and no seasoning. Extra effort taken to remove salt from the actual homewaters of the sea!

Finally my dinner, I prefer a good fish and chips! I went with the Atlantic Cod fish and chips, you can't screw that up! Over-cooked. It was dry and tasteless. I choked down one piece of fish, which took up all of the ketchup that I was served as condiment to fish and fries.

Finally our server arrived to see if we were ready for our check AND check in on the food ??? I did try to explain to our server that the food wasn't good, she turned to walk away and said "another martini will make it all better."

We thought about dessert as we didn't eat most of our food, but we were already up to $230, didn't want to throw any more money away. As for a tip, I can't remember the last year I gave a server less than 20% and we eat out quite often. Kathie, IMO did really well receiving15%. I probably should have spoken to the manager but I would feel bad by waking her up while she was pretending to do her job. The best case scenario would be money off our tab, the worst case scenario would be a gift certificate to return for...

I’ve been in San Diego since 2005. Anytime I have company I take them to The Fish Market downtown and have always had a very pleasant time. On the evening of Saturday, August 18th, 2018 I had company in town and we were going to a show in Solana Beach so I recommend we go to The Fish Market in Del Mar. The experience was appalling and I am still in awe about how terrible the food and service was. I am extremely embarrassed from the night since I recommended the restaurant to my out of town guests. The night started out well. They took a last minute reservation for 10 and gave us a very nice private room; however the night deteriorated quickly after they took our first order for drinks and appetizers. First our waiter came back and had no idea who ordered what drink and was placing drinks in front of the wrong people without asking and did not see us moving them around to their rightful owner; which is more difficult along a 10 person table. This alone is not enough for a bad review but the gaffs continued throughout the evening. The waiter asked if we wanted ice for our white wine. We said yes but we had to remind him later about the bucket and the two people sharing the wine finished the bottle before he brought the bucket. Then the waitress brought oysters and spilled oyster “juice” on my legs and shorts while placing the plate on the table. She apologized and later brought me a towel but did not seem overly concerned about the incident. We later ordered more apps along with the entrees. I cannot specify the amount of time it took for our entrees to come out but it was excessive; especially for a restaurant at their price point. Also the second round of appetizers could have filled the awkward lull but they came out with the entrees. Three guys ordered blackened sword fish. One came out blackened and two did not. We were pressed for time because of the show but the waiter assured us that he would bring out two more fish in 5 minutes. In the meantime one person still did not have his food. The rest of the table finished their dinner while two people still waited for their blackened fish and the third waited for his original order. Neither came out near the five minutes promised. At the end of the dinner we were given a half hearted apology about the wait and were charged full price for everything. The icing on the cake was that I was hungry later in the evening and realized that I was never given the bowl of clam chowder I ordered at the very beginning of the evening. I was too distracted about the ineptitude that I forgot until later. Lastly, we arrived an hour late to the show because of the whole ordeal. In summary I am still livid about this experience and will no longer go to any Fish...

Date of visit: 4/14/2017

We came here for a late lunch before going to run some errands. Since it was Good Friday, my mom wanted fish for lunch, so we opted to go to The Fish Market since it is also close to the shops we had to go to. The parking lot here is pretty small, but there is a line of parking behind the wall, on the hotel side. The spaces are clearly marked on where you can and cannot park - luckily we found an easy spot and walked in.

Since we were having a late lunch, there was no wait to be seated. The hostess lead us to one of the booths and our waitress came by to take our drink orders. After she came back with our drinks and some bread, we needed a couple more minutes to look at the menu, but I think it got really busy because she didn't come back for a long time. When we finally placed our orders, she sped off to go help other tables and ignored us. I wanted a refill on my lemonade and a bit more bread, but we didn't get that until one of the managers brought over our food. The manager actually asked if we wanted more bread and refills on our drinks. I saw that our waitress was helping other tables in our area, but didn't respond when we tried waving her down. I'm not too happy about the service here, but I really enjoyed the food, so I only knocked it down by 1 star. Plus, the manager was nice, so I'm assuming our waitress was just having a bad day.

Crab Cakes. The crab cakes here were delicious. I loved the salad that was served with them as it helped balance out the heaviness of the fried crab cakes. My mom, who typically doesn't eat salad, actually liked the salad too. This was a great appetizer for us to split.

Clam Chowder. Cam got a bowl of the clam chowder, which he enjoyed as a lunch by itself. I don't like clam chowder on its own, but with the sourdough bread, it was actually really good. I'd probably only get a cup if I were to order it since I didn't really like it as much when it started cooling down.

Alaskan Halibut. I opted to get one of the fresh catches of the day grilled, which was Alaskan Halibut. It was perfectly cooked and definitely fresh (it didn't smell fishy at all). We got it with the au gratin potatoes and roasted vegetables. The sides were mediocre, but the fish was perfect. If I ever come here again, I might try different sides. The vegetables seemed more steamed than roasted and the potatoes just weren't a great fit with the fish.

Overall, The Fish Market was a great lunch. I am definitely a fan of the food that we ate and would come back to try other dishes if in...