Beaches

05/20/09

Worst Food We've had in Years

by gerryjim

The service was very good, well, except the pushy hostess who would not let us sit where we wanted to. But let me get to the real problem: The Food. Worst food we've had in years. Really. The taco salad had old dry chicken with a greasy shell. It was awful. The other dish was a sausage pasta dish with marinara sauce which looked and tasted like someone opened a can of dog food and mixed it with pasta. The marinara sauce was dark and burnt looking.

STAY AWAY!

• Pros: View of Pier and Ocean
• Cons: Food

09/29/08

The Beach Bar is Chill, Great Happy Hour

by ahlemon

I've been to the 'beach bar' part of the restaurant a few times now. It has a great Happy Hour 5-9p.m. 7 days/week. There are food specials, and the nachos are really good. There aren't many beers on tap, and they don't make mojitos, but somehow this place makes up for it and I still like going here.

• Pros: Happy Hour, Relaxed Atmosphere
• Cons: No Mojitos, Limited Beers on Tap

06/27/08

awesome place to eat at

by beachgirl15

i really did like this place the service was awesome and the view was really teriffic. i like this place the service was also great to. overall i would highly recommend this place to other people .

12/10/07

Go for the view, then go somewhere else.

by mike3333

It's a shame that Beaches, which occupies a prime piece of real estate in happy Manhattan Beach, is such a disaster. PIty the poor tourists who've spent the day soaking up the sun in this cute little town, only to be left with a bad taste in their mouth--literally. I'll try to keep it short, but the list of complaints is long. To begin, the place has a strange, multilevel design--necessary because of the steep hill--but the result is a ton of wasted space in the cavernous reception area. You might not notice, though, since the smell of stale beer from the downstairs bar could grab your attention first. The upstairs dining room tries to take advantage of the view, but the room is tired, worn, and exceptionally dark at night (probably to keep your mind on the view and off the food). The whole place could use a good scrubbing, but this is the kind of establishment where the smell of ammonia would be left to linger despite complaints. And then there's the food. Ahhh, the food. I don't know what's going on in that kitchen, but the quality is downright embarrassing, and the recipes have bland, odd characteristics that one would only hope to find in the senior center where you've stashed your witch of a mother-in-law. Whatever you do, don't try the Seafood Caesar, I beg of you. It may sound like a good idea ("Hmm, I like seafood! I like Caesar!") but should be a lesson in making a simple dish unrecognizable--the taste, the presentation, the very idea of the thing would be laughable if you weren't expected to pay for it. While Manhattan Beach isn't known for its food, there are plenty of places along that hill that are at least true to themselves. Once you've eaten at Beaches you'll long for the simple pleasures of a decent burger, a visit to the Copper Kettle, or heck, a sandwich from Subway. They'll be worth the climb.

• Pros: The view.
• Cons: Everything but the view, and even that's better from outside.

09/16/07

Great View, Poor Food

by sunsetter

My wife and I went to Beaches for a Saturday lunch. Though we have eaten at many of the local restaurants, this was our first visit to Beaches. The view of the Pacific, the pier, and the beach activities is certainly outstanding. Unfortunately little else comes close to matching the quality of the view. We were taken to the second floor dining area and seated at a good window table. The interior is tired and somewhat worn. Perhaps at night you wouldn't notice but the daylight showed all. We decided on the New York Steak sandwich and an Omelet. The steak sandwich was ok but nothing to write home about. But the omelet and hash browns were the worst we have ever tried to eat. My wife who is a good cook still hasn't figured out how and with what they produced this "omelet." We figured they used the hash browns as a grease sponge. Added to this were the flies attacking the food including the one that floated to the top of my wife's ice tea after she stirred in some sugar. Diners near us were having the same problems with the flies and they had to cover the food with their napkins. Throughout the restaurant we saw few customers finishing their meals and we overheard several comments commenting on the poor quality of the food.

The service was fair and I must say that the downstairs bar looked like it might be a place to go for a drink and the view at night. But we will never return for the food. Their are too many places nearby that do it much better. It is our hope for the ownership of Beaches that their cook simply hadn't shown up that day and what we and others were served isn't their standard fare.

• Pros: The View
• Cons: The Food