Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach, CA

FINALLY right? First off, my apologies to the lack of updates. No my computer is still not running, so I’m doing this all off my laptop, AND the re-editing and uploading continues. Now let’s get back in the groove of things…..I checked out a few places for Orange County’s Restaurant Week last month and well, here is the review finally. Well start with the first place I checked out, The Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach. So onto my little adventure that evening.

The Royal Hawaiian is located on Pacific Coast Highway in the heart of Laguna Beach. Actually, its like 3 buildings down from Las Brisas. I have to admit, it’s fairly easy to spot. They have the whole tropical modern look on the outside. Parking is readily available out front or on the side. I actually liked the look of the restaurant. Inside, it was fairly contemporary with hints of a Hawaiian getaway. The bar seemed fully stocked, and the restaurant feeling was warm and cozy. That is however the image it projects, the food and service however……

It was pretty easy to choose the menu since I was joined by a couple friends for dinner. After checking out the site, their menu seemed like a great assortment for the night for $30.  The menu consisted of 3 starters, a main dish, dessert, AND an “adult” beverage. Great idea right? Eh maybe. Well, I guess we can start off on how terrible the starters were….YES TERRIBLE.

First starter to come out was the Tossed Green Salad with their Ono Ono Dressing…..as far as tossed goes, more like shredded lettuce and cabbage drenched in so much dressing you can’t even taste the salad. Way too watery, way too sweet, it just didn’t cut it for my taste buds. Honestly, a Southwest Chick Salad at Jack in the Crack taste better….What a way to start right? Well lets move on…

Next item on the starter menu was the French Onion Soup. First let me ask you this, how in the world do you mess this soup up. One of the easiest soups to make. Normally in French onion soup, the main ingredients are onions….All my soup had were a bunch of chopped up green onions that floated on the surface…..and bread? Two or three pieces that just floated around? Not only that, the broth that the soup was made of, might as well have been salted water. There was no flavor to the soup. The broth was so bland that I added salt and pepper which STILL came out the same. As I read the menu, they claim it is their own variation of the French onion soup. How about you guys just stick to the basics and make it actually taste good? Of course I’m still yapping about the soup, there still one more starter.

Last starter item on the menu. Coconut Shrimp. I have to admit, this was probably one of the only descent things I had that evening other than the wine. The sauce that the shrimp was served with was the typical sweet and sour stuff you can get anywhere. The shrimp was covered in coconut while the meat had a little bit of flavor. Only complaint there, was the shrimp was a little over cooked. But hey, I did expect a lot worse.

Now on to our main dishes for the night. Before I get into that though, we did order a bottle of wine to start our evening. Figured a Bianchi Chardonnay should fit right in the middle of our meal. It just so happened to be the best part of our meal. Now back on track. There were 3 different meal options, we only chose 2 of the 3 and glad we did. Well start off with the girl’s meals…

They chose the Filet Mignon main course. Of course I had to try a little bit. For the most part, if you ever order a steak when you go out, try to order a level lower than you usually get because, most places tend to over cook just a bit. Knowing that, the filets were ordered to be cooked at a medium. When they came out though…. talk about over cooked. As most people know, filet mignon is one of the most tender of the steaks you can order. Not only is it tender, even overcooked at well done, the meat still is tender. This was by far, the first time I’ve had a filet that was not only chewy, but also dry. Yes it boggles my mind. It was so bad, that the meal wasn’t even finished. Now all our meals came with a bake potato. I’ll describe that later because I had the same side with my meal.

I ordered the Rib and Shrimp dish. I’ll start off with the shrimp. It is cooked on a grill or so it taste like. Also over cooked like the coconut shrimp, but it did not retain any juicyness of the shrimp. They served it with cocktail sauce. So I just want to add, REALLY NOW? Grilled shrimp with cocktail sauce…I wish you could see me right now, i’m literally shaking my head as I think back to this meal. Now on to the ribs, mind you i’m already disappointed to the point that McDonald’s actually sounded good. These ribs were by far the driest ribs I have had to date. I understand that not all places will cook it to the point that the meat falls off the bones but, really?? These ribs tasted like they were some tv dinner special covered in bar b que sauce. Actually now that I think about it, the McRib Sandwich tasted much better than these ribs. Now lets finish off with our bake potato. Lets just say it didn’t taste very good. The potato was cold, tasted like it was nuked in the microwave, and well yeh…. that was the same conclusion we came to all 3 of our meals.

Now I guess we can head off and finish with dessert right? There were only 2 choices, the Cream Cheese Brownie and the Coconut Pie. I’m just going to condense both desserts into one review. Why? because I could probably go on for days on why this place not only doesn’t know how to cook food, but also don’t know a thing about dessert.  Both desserts were not very good, my brownie tasted like it just came from the freezer, the coconut pie? EH is all I’ll say.

To close off with this review, I’ll just go over the extra little details I haven’t really mentioned yet. The service SUCKED. You figure a nice like shindig like this would have a little better service. Not that the girl who served us wasn’t nice, it’s just that we had to wait forever for everything. Our drinks, our food, our bill, it all took what seemed like an eternity. Next thing; the owner came over to chat with us. I figured since I was taking so many pictures, he must have thought I was from a magazine or something. Well he walked over and had 4 shots for the 3 of us and himself. I thought to myself, ok that is kinda cool. He talked about the place a little and eventually left. So I figured I’d make a pit stop before the drive home, I come back and here he is, sitting in my seat. As I came back, he continued to not pay attention to me, a little rude I might add. Anyways long story short, as an owner of a restaurant/bar whatever, there is no time or place to be making inappropriate gestures or comments towards the guest, especially perverse ones toward female patrons. Maybe I came on a bad night? Maybe the owner should learn not to drink so much or even better, not show up there. Seriously though, I figured since you’re going to offer your establishment in the restaurant week, you might actually want something that shows the guest what this place is all about. Guess that didn’t really click for The Royal Hawaiian. Will I go back? Probably not; Do I recommend this place at all? DEFINITELY NOT. That is unless you like architectural design because that is about all this place has going for it. Well, for now, and always “Bon Appetit” and stay tuned for a review on a place actually worth going to.