I’ve blogged about Oceanaire many times on this blog. And while we no longer visit as much as we used to, we still like to check in every once in a while, especially during Restaurant Week. I think Oceanaire offers one of the best deals for Restaurant Week (which they will be extending an extra week for those interested in checking it out).
Not only are their famous crab cakes (normally $17.95 an order) on the Restaurant Week menu, but they also include a lot of their expensive entrees, whereas many other restaurants will offer cheaper entree choices. The selection is also more than the standard 3 choices. For those unfamiliar, basically everything in bold is part of the RW menu.
While they offer some steaks, simple broiled or grilled fish and some classics, I would definitely recommend getting something off of their Fresh Fish Specialties menu. The offerings here are very fresh fish, which can be barely cooked a medium rare, and they offer some tasty preparations too.
Vegetable plate and Sourdough bread
The complimentary starter is always crisp vegetables and a chunk of warm sourdough bread. It makes me feel so healthy munching on celery, carrots, and radishes before my meal. The sourdough bread here is pretty good as well .
Jumbo Lump Crab Cake
They have quite a few selections of appetizers, including fresh oysters, but we can never give up the crab cake. Imagine the best pieces of sweet crab meat held together by the barest amount of bread crumbs. It’s the best way to enjoy crab without all the work. The buttermilk sauce is a perfect accompaniment. I’ve had many good crab cake renditions over the years, but Oceanaire still remains my all-time favorite for the best crab cakes.
If you’ve never dined at Oceanaire before, some of their best and most popular fish preparations are the “drunken” and the “kid dynamite.” We love both preparations but since we’ve had them multiple times as well as some of the other preparations, we wanted to try something new.
Horseradish Crusted Steelhead with saffron and baby summer vegetables
This was DH”s choice and it was perfect for him. He loves horseradish and there was a generous portion of horseradish sitting on top of the fish. The outside of the fish was nice and crispy, the inside very moist and tender. I don’t like horseradish so I only had a small taste.
Grilled Opah with brown figs, mascarpone cheese, and lobster risotto
I chose this one because of the figs and risotto. The brown figs were reduced to a sauce that sat on the top of the fish. Our waiter advised me to move it off to the side because it’s a very sweet. I’m glad I listened. It was intensely sweet, almost like a fig jam or compote. The fish was grilled to a medium rare.
I found the sauce too sweet, so I didn’t really use it. I also wasn’t much of a fan of the risotto. There was only two tiny chunks of lobster, taken from the tip of the claw meat. The risotto overall was too sweet and the texture was off. This wasn’t one of my favorite dishes, though the fish was prepared well.
Mango Pineapple Crisp with Passionfruit Ice Cream
I really loved this dessert. The warm mango pineapple crisp tasted amazing with the cool ice cream. The tropical flavors reminded me of summer.
Key Lime Pie
I don’t particularly like key lime pie so I can’t really comment on this one. DH seemed to enjoy it though.
Even though there were some misses, we still had a good time. And I would still recommend this place for restaurant week. The entrees we had were almost $40, so we basically got the $17.95 crab cake and dessert for free, saving close to $30 on our meal. Previous Oceanaire posts can be found here, here, here, here, here and here. Here’s the restaurant week menu:
Oceanaire Seafood Room
400 J St
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 858-2277
I was planning to go there for RW but decided on Cucina Urbana instead! It was so delicious ^^ Maybe I will try Oceanaire for the Jan RW
I like Cucina Urbana too. Yeah you can try Oceanaire in January, or this week since they are extending RW until next Friday.
My favorite place to go to for Restaurant Week is Market in Del Mar. I think you definitely get the best bang for your buck there. Everything I’ve had there is delicious and I’ve gotten great service.
I haven’t yet been to Market in Del Mar. Thanks for the rec!
I’m so glad that they are extending RW to another week – I definitely want to check it out. The crab cake looks so amazing! Now I am secretly glad that S doesn’t eat crab, so I get it all to myself mwahaha.
Oh, wow more for you! And S can check out another app. Usually if we go and it’s not restaurant week, we only get one crab cake to share and I hate sharing. Haha. So during RW we each get our own which is nice. And yeah, I love that they extend it so if I have a bunch of places I want to check out, I can always wait until the second week to go to Oceanaire. They are extending it one week to the following Friday I believe (Sept 28)
I went there on Sunday. I also had the Fijian Opah. I had the same opinion towards the dish. Fish was good, fig sauce was too sweet, and I didn’t think risotto was that special. But my girlfriend enjoyed it and said it was cooked just right, and smells good……
we had the creme brulee and cheesecake for dessert. creme brulee was really good IMO. My GF said it was the best creme brulee she had, ever.
Oh I’ve had the creme brulee before! It is pretty good. Yeah i think the fish prep for the Opah is really a personal preference. I’m not really a fan of sweet main courses.
That’s interesting that the waiter told you about the sweet fig – they should tell the chefs so it’s off to the side to begin with, haha.
Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’m glad the waiter warned me though. But it would be nice if it was served on the side to begin with.
I wish WE went to Oceanaire last night! We tried Top of the Market (upstairs at The Fish Market) for the first time and were pretty disappointed. Everything was very mediocre, including the service. Oh well!
Oh no! =( I’m sorry to hear you had a disappointing experience. I’ve eaten there once and wasn’t very impressed either.