Water Grill

Came here on a double date with my boyfriend's childhood friend and their baby on Sunday night. I believe their parking lot only allows valet parking but it's not as expensive as LA costing more than $8 after 4pm. Beautiful restaurant with indoor and covered outdoor seating. Open window concept which gave us the view of Bristol St and Costa Mesa mall. LOVED the open kitchen where you are able to see the chefs and waiter(ess) deliver meals to their respective tables. Indoor seating seems a little cramped but there are tables and booths.We shared the deluxe iced shellfish platter and wild spanish octopus. The octopus was BEAUTIFULLY cooked. Only 1 tentacles but was not chewy as you expected grilled octopus would taste. The iced shellfish tower was as you expect. Just cold shellfish. I had the lobster roll entree and my boyfriend got the wild columbia river king salmon. For the lobster roll, theyll ask whether you want it hot (connecticut) or cold (traditional) style. Hot is just buttered lobster roll vs cold traditional is with the mayo. My boyfriend's salmon was cooked medium rare with skin on. He was not a fan of the grained rice since it was a little too healthy for him but i thought it had a lot of flavor and complemented the salmon well. The salmon was juicy and skin had a nice crisp.Service was great. I missed our servers name since it was so loud in the dining area. Constantly checked in on our table and they kept coming by with water. Our server heard it was my boyfriend's birthday so he gave us a caramel ice cream with bread pudding complimentary on the house which was nice. Great touch of saltiness and it was a hit for our friend's baby. Would LOVE to come here again on special occasions and try their other menu items.

Service: Mikayla at the bar was friendly, highlight of my experience. Food: fish nachos were served on some kind of dehydrated root vegetable. The "chips" were either thin or thick that felt like chewing on rocks. The fish though was tasty. Octopus was delicious.

We were served by Alejandro. At first he was okay. He took our orders and described the dishes to us. After a while, a large table came in and was sat next to us. I could see he was getting busy since he was attending a bunch of tables. We were still eating our dishes and all of a sudden he came to our table and asked us if we wanted desserts while picking up a dish we were still working on. Than, we had to tell him "we are still working on it" !!!He was stressed while attending to many tables, but at least ask the patrons before picking up the dishes. After we finished our dinner, as we were walking to the front of the restaurant, Alejandro passed by and saw us. Not even a "Thank you" or "have a good night" If this was just a diner then I wouldn't expect any salutations. However this is a place where I spent $200 for dinner. Show some attentiveness and care.

Food: 4* (small portions for the price)Service: 5*Ambiance: 5*Value: 3*Location: 4*I attended a small event for dinner. We had shrimp cocktail and poke for appetizers (not pictured). I actually forgot to take a picture as it was so good. The shrimp was plump and sweet, and the poke was excellent. I had the filet mignon which came with a half a tomato and watercress dressed with a light dressing. The tomato was already salted and actually nice and ripe (in February) and the water cress 'salad' was really good. The filet was small but very well cooked and the perfect temperature.The Mac and cheese was delicious, cheesy and creamy made with Cavatapi. The dessert was an expresso chocolate ganache cake and house made vanilla ice cream. The cake was decadent, dense, rich, and chocolate-y. Ice cream was very good. I will return.

This Water Grill is a massive fine dining seafood restaurant experience with warm spaces, comfortable areas and a welcoming ambiance. The covered bar patio is up front and can accommodate many groups of all sizes. The service was very friendly, incredibly helpful and very attentive. Caleb, our waiter, was exceptionally magnificent and took care of our every request and need. He made some outstanding suggestions we followed and absolutely loved! The variety of oysters here are some of the best in Orange County. The shrimp scampi with hand crafted flat noodles were superb. It was very flavorful and buttery. The crustaceans offered here are some of the freshest and best you can find in southern CA. We have been to other Water Grills in southern CA but this BY FAR was the best. It's now one of our most favorite restaurants in the country. Well done Caleb and the Water Grill team.

Water Grill helped bring a smile to my Dad's face that day. We had a late lunch here after having some Escape Room fun. Dad was extremely upset because he lost his favorite cap there, and none of us including the staff could find it.We brought Dad to Water Grill because he loves eating seafood. Water Grill had plenty of seafood to make him happy!! He ate to his heart's delight!! Actually, all 7 of us enjoyed all the yummy seafood we ate at Water Grill in Costa Mesa.Yummy food plus great service plus a cool sophisticated ambiance made for a fine time! The best part, though, was that my Dad's day was so much better after eating at the Water Grill.

This is probably one of my favorite place for fresh upscale seafood. Service is nothing but exceptional-given this type of restaurant. Make sure you have a reserve for weekends and during prime hours. Bar seating is based on first-come-first-serve but it can be challenging finding a seat.I usually get their lobster roll, king crab legs and whatever is fresh that's not on the menu. Portion is decent. Most are here for celebration or some type of business meeting.

Came to celebrate an anniversary- Was welcomed so kindly and each worker that interacted with us wished us a happy anniversary :')This place combined ambience, food & service greatly. Personable waiter and answered all of our questions. Was seated in a corner facing the inside of the beautiful restaurant! The complimentary bread was to die for! The moscato was a delicious choice. The Mac & Cheese was amazing, so cheesy and flavorful. I love baked mac. We got the broccolini without sausage and it was very good- my boyfriend loved it. Strong grilled/smokier flavor. Next were two of the Bay Scallops- personally the tangerine add-on overpowered it for me, I wasn't a huge fan of the combination with pistachio- still fresh though.The Pink Bream Whole Fish Ceviche was interesting! Visually silly. The bream was not too flavorful but I enjoyed the flavors of the onion, salt, and peppers a lot.Portions are pretty big for the most part.Spicy Lobster roll was incredible, I am not sure when I have reacted to food in such a way before. Wow!Finished off with a celebratory dessert: cookie skillet with ice cream yum! Can't complain about a free dessertAnd we got the Banana Chocolate Sundae which was definitely a comfort dessert- I love that they have gourmet ice cream flavors.Overall, great time! Good place to go out if you are looking for a nice upscale seafood place $$ I just wish there was a view that wasn't the parking lot or the mall

I loved the Water Grill!I had been wanting to come here for a number of years and finally made it over with a couple of friends. It was a first for all of us.We were welcomed upon arrival and were told to sit in the lounge area. It was a nice area to wait and the hostess comes to you when they are ready. We were seated at a nice booth. The business was at full capacity. Our server Emily was amazing throughout our whole visit. She answered any questions we had and checked on us frequently. Two of us decided not to drink this time and one of our friends asked if they could make a strawberry version of a mojito. They did make one, although it looked like a regular mojito with some strawberries.We did not order any appetizers. They brought us sourdough bread. One gentleman brought some over before our server appeared with some, so we immediately had double. That was good because it was tasty.One of our friends ordered a few a la carte scallops/oysters and really enjoyed them. Despite only getting three, it came on a large plate of ice and various cups of sauces.I was going to go with the swordfish since I like it and hadn't had it in a while, but due to some various recent frustrating moments, I decided to treat myself and I ordered the Chilean sea bass with butternut squash gnocchi. It was delicious. My friends each ordered a different type of lobster, one being the spiney kind. They were both around a pound and a half each (those guys are pricey!)It took quite some time to get our food but it could have been the live (eep) lobster and the fact that my friends asked for them to be deshelled. I didn't realize any place would do that but there were no issues here. One of my friends let me taste the lobster and it was delicious.We ordered a few desserts. I was excited to try the banana sundae with homemade banana ice cream. I liked the ice cream a lot but it had too much cake in it. Between that, and being full, I didn't finish it. One of my friends ordered the maple cheesecake and was not the most impressed and my other friend had a birthday dessert which was very cute, but I don't remember what it was. Our server Emily had recommended the bread pudding but none of us ordered that.We all decided that we absolutely loved the food but were not too "wow'd" with the desserts so we may skip that if we come back.The manager Alejandro stopped by as we were getting ready to leave and asked about our visit.I really loved the Water Grill. I loved the food and service and I hope to return soon.

I went last night with my husband for date night. We had a reservation and showed up early, they accommodated us and sat us early. We got a table with the kitchen view and it was fun to watch the kitchen! We ordered several cocktails and loved them all! We also ordered the appetizer clams and the sauce was so good! We ordered from the Lunar New Year menu both the spiny lobster and the crab garlic noodles. Yum, yum, yum, yuuuuuuuuuuuum!!!Service was great and every staff member who interacted with us was very pleasant. We will be back, thanks for a lovely date night!