There are so many great new restaurants in Newport Beach, and A Crystal Cove is another jewel in the crown of the Orange County dining scene. Not only does this spot have a prime location that is just a short drive from resorts like Pelican Bay and the Montage in Laguna Beach, but the food and the service are fantastic!

About A Crystal Cove Restaurant

The space that currently houses A Crystal Cove has a long, storied history that goes back nearly one hundred years. Originally called The Arches, the opening of this restaurant and service station coincided with the creation of the Pacific Coast Highway along this stretch, so the location could not have been better.

What started as a fairly simple concept grew into a destination restaurant for the cool crowd of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, with The Arches drawing celebrities from neighboring Hollywood as they made their dive up the coast.

Today, A Crystal Cove restaurant aims to recreate that Southern California magic along Highway 1. The River Jetty Restaurant Group is a hospitality company created by Joseph “McG” Nichol and Jordan Otterbein. What’s great about the River Jetty Group taking over the space is that the founders used to visit The Arches as kids, so the story comes full circle!

Atmosphere & Location in Newport Beach

A Crystal Cove restaurant is located in the Crystal Cove Shopping Center, just a stone’s throw from another popular Newport Beach restaurant, Javier’s.

At 5,400 square feet and with seating for 200 guests, A’s, as the restaurant is called among Newport Beach locals, is airy and spacious. The big, comfortable, half-moon-shaped red leather booths evoke old-school style and put you in the mood for a classic dry martini or a gin and tonic before you pop open your wine.

If you love an energetic bar scene, you will love the bar and the dining room, for that matter, at this restaurant. It’s very chic and trendy in Newport Beach; think cougars on the prowl!

The decor is all dark paneled walls lined with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and art, and the bar itself has an incredible golden pillar that streams from the center up to the ceiling.

The Food

Executive Chef Elvis Morales has designed a menu at A Crystal Cove restaurant that harkens back to classic California fine dining. You will find dishes like short rib ravioli, cacio e pepe, squash blossom, hamachi crudo, and, of course, a nice collection of hand-cut steaks. On that note, the lunch menu is more robust than the dinner menu and includes salads and sandwiches, in addition to entree-sized options like Scottish salmon, chicken piccata, and rack of lamb.

Vegans and vegetarians will be happy to see a good selection of plant-forward dishes like avocado hummus, BBQ heirloom carrots, and cauliflower tacos on the menu.

The restaurant is open for brunch, lunch, and dinner. Just a quick FYI on the brunch menu: it includes caviar service! So if you like a little luxury during your weekend brunch, it would be worth checking out brunch at A Crystal Cove. 

The Wine List & Corkage Policy at A Crystal Cove

The corkage policy at A Crystal Cove is $40 per bottle, with a two-bottle max per reservation. Corkage at this Newport Beach restaurant is on the pricier side, but it’s worth noting that their wine list is on the trimmer side. 

If you’re like us and you scope out the wine list prior to dining and you don’t see anything that suits your tastes that night, it’s definitely worth bringing a bottle from home. We brought a bottle of Trefethen’s 2016 Halo Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was terrific with the meal. 

Our Experience

A Crystal Cove was recommended to us by Al, a certified sommelier and a friend of Brett’s from the French Scholar Wine class. 

We really wanted to linger over this great Cab from Trefethen, so we decided to course out our meal. There are a lot of enticing starters at A Crystal Cove, so selecting a few from the ample list was a little difficult. In the end, we went with the Local Strawberry + Arugula Salad, which was made with mint and topped with crispy shallots, feta, slices of charred avocado, and drizzled with a pistachio dressing. The salad was light, refreshing, and a great interpretation of a summer salad.

For our second starter, it was hard to resist the Spicy Yellowfin Tuna. The presentation here was very inventive. How often do you see spicy yellowfin tuna served on slices of fried tempura eggplant? The tuna was dressed in a sriracha aioli and served with wasabi tobiko, sweet soy, and fragrant chives. It was almost like you were enjoying a grown-up version of chips and dip but with fancy yellowfin tuna and crunchy tempura. 

When it comes to food and wine pairings, there’s nothing like a good California Cabernet and a hand-cut, bone-in steak. The ribeye we had was cooked perfectly and had a gorgeous sear to it. The mushrooms and whipped potatoes were amazing.

Closing Thoughts

Everything we ordered at A Crystal Cove was excellent, and this Newport Beach hot spot easily makes our list of Orange County’s best restaurants. RJ, our server, was friendly, knowledgeable, and on-point the whole evening. We recommend you come in for a cocktail, a glass of wine, or a meal.