Ocean House Dining & Entertainment

Overall, I wouldn’t eat there again just because the food was not good. Thank goodness it was edible. But if I’m spending $ 17 a plate I’d rather get Cheesecake Factory. Coming here to eat was a mistake. Should have Unilocaled!
1) the food: appetizers were not fresh. Fried calamari was a little on the soggy side, spinach dip was good. Ordered coconut mahi mahi (good but not so good if you like your fish on the oily side), jambalaya wasnt bad but wasnt mouth watering either, steak was juicy but not very flavorful, burger was probably the best dish.
2) if the desserts were good, this review would have been a three… But I’ve never been to a restaurant with the fam and famished boys that half of cheesecake and chocolate cake was left uneaten. I also have never had awful tasting cheesecake either.
3) service– had a nice lady serving us, wasnt her fault the food wasnt great. Service for half our dishes was slow but she checked in frequently. Had one guy serving with a mean mug on his face but good thing the tip went to our lady
4) the atmosphere has an old feel to it, but I guess it goes well since the place looks haunted to begin with. Had live music we weren’t there for the bar scene but didnt look like it was poppin that sat night
If you’re looking for a restaurant and want quality food for your buck then just pass this up and find a different spot

–!!!SHAME ON YOU OCEAN HOUSE!!!
# 1-​Highlight-​They have food… although inedible.
# 2-​Worst staff, drunken manager (Josh)
–UNBELIEVABLE ignorant hosting staff, after standing in front of her for a solid 5 minutes while she was chatting on her phone— «Yes we want to eat, no we don’t want to sit with the drunks at the bar with my 9 year old…»
OHHHHH! You do have waitresses??? How delightful! Can someone take our order? We’ve sat here, (with water, thanks busboy) for 40 mins… Gee thanks! «You don’t know what’s on your menu? Sure, go ask the kitchen»
# 3-​band members smoking outside when trying to enter on the sidewalk into the restaurant, getting hollered at for blocking THEIR way into the restaurant… Zero apology for running my mom into the wall on the way into restaurant. (Mgr. Josh said they’re to use back door, he’d fix that… Still no apology! No comment on smoking while hitting customers into the wall with huge speakers, waitress did bring band-​aids when we were leaving as I was clearly upset at my mom limping out of restaurant in escape)
# 4– Worst food in Carlsbad! WHEN… Food finally came out of DEAD KITCHEN, it was just that, dead food plopped on plate, nasty looking & way too overworked…
((((RESTAURANT WAS EMPTY-​CLARIFY SARCASM))) «Chef’s» to put on a garnish… FOOD SO INEDIBLE, we gently asked to have our orders changed & NO ONE WANTS TO KNOW WHAT WE ENDED UP WITH! Even my 9 yr. old was soooo disgusted, she begged to leave! THAT, was prior to the above said band, started swearing during their 25 min speaker check! Ahhh delightful way to ring in my Mom’s Birthday!
# 5– Enjoy!!!– trying after 94 mins & if you enjoy being SWORN, YELLED & SCREAMED at by bands on your Mom’s BIRTHDAY & being forced into leaving (For the sake of my distraught 9 year old & my Mom’s absolute ruined birthday celebration, (she left with my daughter in tears to wait in the car) STARVING, FORCED INTO PAYING FULL BILL! (((((WE NEVER ATE ANYTHING!!!)))) However, the night’s MANAGER (a full blooded smelly drinker) JOSH never said sorry, took the undesirable, FULL PLATES of inedible food and walked away… (not the busboy) …bringing us a FULL bill of which he stated: Customer denied birthday dessert (I never ordered) and actually deducted this from my bill! Seriously?! Deducted an unordered dessert? EITHER I PAID & GOT THE HECK OUTTA THERE W/​O TROUBLE OR ARGUED MORE WITH A DRUNK MANAGER… HMMMM…,
(We had plans to eat a surprise birthday dessert across the street!!)
# 6 — Awesome if you want to break up with someone & the WORST PLACE IN CARLSBAD! A complete waste of a historical building, which they’ve trashed the floors, filthy bathrooms, the bar area with spilled drinks on what was gorgeous real hardwood floors & FILTHY EVERYTHING including the windows full of dead flies & filth! That’s that Ocean House’s Manager’s viewpoint. Thanks Manager Josh! Keep on drinking what you’re drinking because it certainly skews your work, responsibilities and certainly your management style! No wonder no locals can stand the place! (Unless they survive on the loyal drunks at the bar, they wanted us to be seated next to– until I insisted to the dingy hostess, we weren’t here for alcohol with a 9 year old who was clearly visible)
******Maybe the owners should look for responsible staff & management so your restaurant is actually open & busy during the 9month off-​summer season! What a shame to allow such a beautiful, historic Carlsbad icon to be ruined by staff members! If there was a ZERO for a rating, they’d get a negative –10 zeros! I hope the City of Carlsbad comes in and makes changes or closes you down, if that’s how you treat locals & tourists alike! Shame on you Ocean House!

What a worthless piece of crap place. Jerks who serve inedible food and serve up a side of attitude to go with. I’ll be shocked if u don’t end up with food poisoning. Doubt this place will be around for long.

I wanted this place to be good so bad! Location is perfect, Old Vintage Style Home turned Restaurant, Color of the house… you would think it would be good. Unfortunately this was not the case. I went for lunch with my son and husband and the Service was ridiculously slow, the food was so greasy and tasteless. I will not be returning.

Ocean House will be closed for repairs for 3 – 4 weeks — and so there will be no salsa dancing on Sundays for a while. A temporary new venue for people to go is awaiting approval.

The service is great but the food is terrible. Erin was my server and she was on top of things. We ordered mozzarella cheese sticks as an appetizer, which are hard to screw up. They were coated in panko breadcrumbs, which was good– but different. I got the crab salad sandwich– which was gross. The crab tasted old (it was REALLY REALLY «fishy»), it was mushy, WAY too much mayonnaise, and to top it off, I know this sandwich is a «melt», but it was COVERED in super greasy cheddar cheese. Served open faced. And the tomato was bitter/​not ripe. I think I could stomach maybe 4 bites of it.
My dining partners got the chicken club «special», and the fried fish. The fish was good, but cold. Probably cooked, and then sat and waited for the cheese on my sandwich to melt. The chicken club was likely a special, because the chicken was old– cold and dry.
To top it all off, it is WAY over priced. Worst $ 60 I have ever spent.

«A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts» — William Strunk.
OK then — on Mother’s Day, this place disallowed you to order anything but a buffet, which was roughly equivalent to ¼ of what Hometown buffet offers, and certainly not any better quality, but for $ 40 per person. The seating was cramped, service for anything non-​buffet took forever, and the mimosas were 95% orange juice & 5% andre champagne.
Can’t give you more than 1-​star based on the experience. Sorry.

Took my mom here for Christmas Brunch.
Not sure if the buffet is always $ 40.00 per person or if it was because it was a holiday. There were a ton of choices and if I liked seafood I guess the 40.00 would have been more worth it.
Some of the hot stuff had obviously been sitting out too long because you could through them at a window and it would break! The best thing I had was the omelet that was made while I waited. He put yummy stuff in there and let me know where to get the salsa by the taco bar instead of by his omelet bar.
Endless champagne– We sat in an enclosed patio and it was a gorgeous day out. Our server was super nice.
My rating is purely on the price and the quality of the food (there was definitely a huge quantity)
I’d rather go to El Torito or El Churro for a buffet.

We started coming back to Ocean House recently, since management has changed. It had been a few years since we tried them out.
The food has been delicious every time. The person cooking has some really good recipes!
The beer battered halibut chips, jambalaya, Parmesan chicken, and the pasta dishes are all winners. The only one– pasta primavera– I wouldn’t recommend. The sauce lacked chardonnay, capers, or lemon (as described by the menu).
Other pasta dishes there have been really good– big portions, lots of sauce, perfectly cooked pasta.
As an appetizer we always get the friend zucchini and it is a great splurge item. The zucchini is cut big and the batter is delicate and flavorful so its not too heavy on the breading and grease.
The local burger is big, juicy, and fantastic!
This is a great place to go for dinner when you want a filling ‘home-​cooked’ type of meal.

Business lunch with a large group.
We were the only diners in the place.
The 1 star for the waitress who was very nice.
The other 4 for the food. The Mahi Mahi was overcooked, dry and tasteless.
The veggies were sooooo overcooked you needed a spoon to eat them.
The coleslaw was not as good as Costco.
For $ 16??? Fire the chef!

I came here for brunch with a friend and I concur… the food is just ok. And WTF with the 2 mimosas? The brunch is $ 20-​something dollars… at Bellefleur you pay less and the mimosas flow like… mimosas! That means free-​flowing. As they always should be.

Fathers Day Brunch was Great, we had read a few negative reviews, and almost canceled our reservations. So Glad we didn’t. The Champagne was flowing, Kathy was our waitress, she was fabulous!
We really enjoyed the food. Also a great location in down town Carlsbad!
Cheers…

Cute little dance floor with music, separate bar playing rock.

Big place, not enough people. It was not poppin at all. A couple people dancing on the floor at times, but overall it was depressing. Drinks were also overpriced.
What I suggest is they should have drink deals from 9 to 10 or deals when you mention Unilocal.It’s a good business strategy.
I’m just sayin’!

I went here last night for the Salsa dancing!
1. It’s free! That in itself warrants a star!
I went with my friends. Some of us hadn’t gone to a place like this before so salsa-​ing was new to us. Everyone was really nice and taught us beginners how to move! It’s very spacious so you aren’t bumping elbows or booties with anyone else (or maybe there weren’t too many people because it was raining). This place definitely makes me want to move and dance!
Oh, and FREE WATER!

The best way for me to describe Ocean House, is a diner with a misleading exterior. Seeing the outside of the restaurant, one may be lured in to the Ocean House, thinking that it would be a romantic dining spot. Despite the appeal that this place has on the outside, the food and interior isn’t what you would expect.
Seeing the inside, you might think it’s a very old banquet hall or just a bar with lots of seating. It almost seems divey to me. There is nothing special about the menu, and the food looks like something you could definitely get at a diner. Maybe that is what they are going for, but I expected it to be a lot nicer and more delicious.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my dinner. I got the Paradise Burger Supreme, and chose to get bacon & avocado inside it. It came with fries and the portion was GINORMOUS. I don’t think our waitress expected a 95-​pound girl to house it all, but I did. It happened.
I think I would’ve given this restaurant 4 stars if I knew it would be diner-​ish. I don’t think I will be coming back here.

Review is for Sunday Night Salsa!
They book great salsa instructors here and the crowd is generally very lively. The lessons are great and aaaaalmost justify the cover. Lessons are at 8:30 but you only get a free cover if you show up by 8:00… Honestly, they are too strict on this… You would think they’d ease up on the regulars a little more.
Rumba Entertainment Manager (whose name I always forget) is a little too macho and aggressive with the girls that he gets on the floor, I think. However they usually seem to oblige, so whatever!
Regardless— probably the best salsa place in North County. Better than a ballroom dance class, hands down.
My favorite instructor is Alex!

Here We Go! Latin Dancing, maybe not at its finest but fun all the same. After paying our $ 10.00 cover, Hubby and I headed to the bar, prices were reasonable I had Stone and he had Hef, and some Fireball shots compliments of our party host.
The dance floor was packed, they played some great Latin music till about midnight — people danced but most held the walls so the ceiling wouldn’t fall in on us. But then it went on to old school, think Red Onion/​Baby Does type club music and the place went crazy-​wild NOW that’s what I am talking about!!! At this point I noticed the age group varied its wasn’t just a 20 something crowd and everyone was having fun.
If you want fresh air you cannot take your drinks onto the patio, which sucks, but I didn’t think much of the décor it was beachy, surf ocean — I think it fit perfectly. This place has HUGE potential, to dance under that huge dome was so much fun it was like –I don’t know, it reminded me of the old dance places at the turn of the century, nostalgic for sure. So if the décor is a turn off then just ignore it and dance.
Anyway– what I can say is that the crowd is very young, very, very military aka Marines, some were very polite and just there with their dates or friends having a great time and being cool… others not so much and as a lady I can only take so much shoving and elbowing for NO reason– before I am in your face and invading your space wanting to know why your being a jerk, I am tiny so when I have had my limit of rudeness, you know there is gonna be a problem, sigh. This is aimed at the jerk who hocked up the wad and spat it next to my foot and then told me since he is a MARINE!!! I should get over it! uh-​huh. Thank goodness his friends saw the look on my face and intervened.
Moving forward– All in all would I go back? sure, there is no reason not too. Every bar has its up and down crowd you kinda have to know your limits and handle it accordingly. I can’t let a few drunkards or drama induced couples on the dance floor ruin a very fun night of dancing and laughter with friends, now can I? NO WE CAN’T.