Ritter’s Steam Kettle Cooking

Do NOT order beer here. For $ 12, you get a small goblet of beer. Totally overpriced and disappointed! The service was sooo slow! There were diners who came 10 minutes after us and got their food before us. We were hungry and pissed. The pan roast was good but it wasn’t hot. When we were finally ready to pay, we had to flag down a server to bring our check and waited another 10 minutes before he came back to process our credit card. The restaurant was not packed and the poor service was totally unacceptable. For the price, I can get better food and service elsewhere.

Thought we’d try somewhere new this e evening, so I took my two favorite men, hubby and son Ritter’s food was great and our waitress was wonderful!!! Good was off the chain good

I was hanging at the beach, got hungry and busted out my Unilocal app and found this place… It sold me at the House Special Pan Roast. You see, one of my favorite restaurants everrrr (Oyster Bar in Vegas) has AMAZING, SPECTACULAR pan roast, and there is no place like it, so I wanted to atleast see if this place could hold a torch to that dish… Well, URGH it didn’t. Not the same at all — It was OK but I found my stomach really hurting after I ate here. The PLUS is that there is no long wait. I’d come here again but it’s just such a tease to the Oyster bar in Vegas.
I got the house special pan roast and subbed my clams for okra. They didn’t want to sub for sausage even though sausage is cheaper than clams. And for a place with little customers, service a tad subpar. The plate in front of me had a stain on it and I had to grab another from the empty chair next to my friend at the bar.

I stopped by Ritter’s on my way back from Newport Beach to LA. I had this spot bookmarked for a long time and heard of the ridiculous wait time but was pleasantly surprised. We got there around 6:30pm on a weekday and the place was mostly empty.
The service was okay. We ended up sitting at the bar so we could watch the action live with the steam kettle cooking.
I wasn’t that impressed with the food. The pan roast at the Boiler in Chino Hills actually had a much better flavor than here although the pan roast here isn’t bad. We also got the jambalaya. That was extremely disappointing. The spice was way too overwhelming for me even though I can usually handle a lot of spices. I definitely would not order it again.
Overall, the prices are also quite steep for their dishes but the seafood was quality. The flavors are a little off for me so I probably won’t be coming back.

Amazing! Cilantro chicken, fried okra, and bacon wrapped shrimp are Delicious! I ordered a 5 on the heat scale and it was pretty spicy for me, I suggest a 3 or 4. Make sure to order beer, it goes well with the spicy food.

Amazing!!!
We had a great experience! Service was great, food was delicious, drinks were perfect!
We all really enjoyed ourselves.
We will definitely be back!!!

atmosphere was pretty basic. A standard open kitchen. Chef should really be keeping their stations clean. Food was good nothing special

Terrible food and service!!!
Wonder if they changed owner or chef?! I was here 4 months ago and both good and service was very decent so we decided to return for dinner.
Ordered lobster pan roast, oysters on a half shell, Cajun calamari, but it was very disappointed. Lobsters are not fresh and the rice are too hard. Calamari are over cooked.
Service are not as great. Those waitress are rushing you to leave.
Overall, awful food and needed improvement of services!

Food is amazing! Service could use some work though. Arrived around dinner time and was seated right away. Things started to pick up and seemed like only one gal was taking orders. There was another young man who greeted us, sat us and ran food. Our waitress wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great. I had leftover and she offered to pack it. I had 3 shrimp left and when I got home, only 2 shrimp were packed? Kinda weird.
Ordered:
House pan roast, shrimp pan roast, cajun calamari and ½ dozen oysters. Included is free bread and butter though, disappointing when you have a rock hard chunk of butter to try and coax on a slice.
Everything we ordered was delectable! After a nice breezy ride down PCH, nothing better than a pan roast to warm your bones.

Subjective: Randomly decided to check out this place after Corgi Beach day. Cozy and casual atmosphere, and wasn’t busy at all on a Saturday afternoon, though service was a little slow given that. Unimpressed with the mussels appetizer, and the pan roast was good, but not the best I’ve had.
Objective:
Date of visit: 4÷9÷2016
Previous visits: none
Takes reservations/​call aheads? not sure
Parking: street parking
Perceived capacity: medium
Perceived atmosphere: casual
Wait time to seating: less than 5 min
What I/​we got: muscle steamers appetizer and house pan roast
cost: $ 41.04
Assessment: 3 stars! Overall, satisfying comfort food for a dreary, rainy beach day. Nothing big to complain about, but neither of our orders stood out in terms of taste, so wouldn’t go out of my way to come back.
Plan: Would return if circumstances led to it

We went here on a rainy Friday afternoon to take a break from studying for finals! :) Overall, it was a great experience. There was a high-​speed car chase going on and we watched it on T.V. with the fellow patrons. Haha! It was a fun time. :)
One of the dishes we ordered was their House Pan Roast. This this was delicious. It was a warm, thick tomato broth sent an amazing tingly feeling down my throat every time it made it’s way to my belly! So rich, so amazing. We also tried their cajun calamari and fries. Each of these were HUGE so we were no where near finishing them but they were equally delicious. We went during happy hour and had to try some of their oysters. The house oysters were I think 3 for $ 5 or something along those lines– not as cheap as the bay area $ 1 oysters for happy hour but Souther California seems to be lagging behind on the Oyster game anyway and I was not surprised that it was a little more expensive here. We also ordered the ones with bacon and cheese on them. If you’re looking for a delicious way to have a heart attack, this is the perfect meal!
Great experience. We went before the place got filled up with the Friday crowd so no issues sitting at the bar or table. They seem to have ample seating anyway. Street parking can be tough in this area. Food service was pretty quick. Our waitress did a good job making recommendations.

Chicken and sausage pan roast… YUMMMM!
Creamy tomatoey goodness! Went level 7 spicy, just perfect. It was a bit heavy for lunch but that’s my fault lol I downed it either way :)

My final update for this place… cliff notes, not local-​friendly. Perfect for tourists.
So after my last review went up, I got a call from the manager of this place… right away. I mean, within 24 hours, if not the same day. They had my # because I had placed a to-​go order. I ignored it as I always do strange phone numbers but damn was she persistent! She called and texted many times! I had stalker ex’s who weren’t that persistent after getting a piece of my mind! So many voice mails and text messages. She wasn’t rude or creepy but wow, all of that for a negative Unilocal review that was nothing more than facts and very little opinion.
So I had to call her to get her to get her to stop. She was apologetic and seemed sincere but the fact remains that their service for to-​go orders are horrible. If I’m working and coming here to get something ‘to-​go’ during a midweek lunch, it means keep your time tables. THis is common sense in any food service business during lunch! And to have a pattern shows a lack of professionalism I can’t tolerate.
She offered me a gift card of $ 25 to make it right. I accepted hoping I could use it in their other location, which isn’t as bad. So the first time I tried to use it, they couldn’t– I don’t remember what was wrong. The second time, they told me their steam lines were down. If you’ve never been here before, that means they can’t cook ANYTHING. I think they just saw my phone number and played with me but who knows. Today I was able to place an order and get my food (months later).
1. Damn, accept a mistake and don’t call so damn many times and send so many texts if you screw up. Minus one star for that. Lady, you’re nice and all that on the phone but that’s just– if you were a dude and I were a girl, that would be called «creepy» and I’ve been to the South several times so my bar for «creepy» has been raised. Lets just say that’s annoying as hell.
2. Even today, as I came to pick up my food, I have to wait a few minutes to get my food as everyone is in the back folding napkins even though there was only one sit-​in family at one table. I didn’t wait long but that was a part of my original complaint (including the one update I deleted but she read).
3. Food is good but the whole bad service kills it for me. If you’re all goo-​goo about the beach and pier and being in HB, you can eat here for some food and enjoy. Even Bruxies next door is a good choice actually. But damn it takes a lot for me to give a locally owned non-​franchise business a negative review but this place has earned it. It’s a solid ²⁄₅ for me but I’ll give it an extra star for not having the intent to be failing. Merry Christmas–

Mmmmmmmm… pan roast! If you’re going to indulge, you might as well do it right. This Ritter’s location (not to be confused with the Santa Ana location… right guys??) is right near the Huntington Beach pier area. Its on a side street, and if you are lucky you can find some cherry street parking. If not, there are paid lots nearby. This is a popular area for bars, restaurants and shops, so expect for there to be a great deal of street traffic.
I was fortunate enough to try this out on a GLOY and a boy outing (except the one who was actually at the right place at the right time). C and I split the pan roast while the boy indulged in his favorite bouillabaisse. While B likes it HOT, we compromised on a ⁵⁄₁₀ spicy rating. The bowl of the house pan roast was large enough for two. Yummy! We sat at a table so we didn’t get to watch the whole prep show, but we had amazing company so we didn’t have time for that anyway. The pan roast had great depth of flavors. The soup was filled with shrimp, crab, clams and lobster which you could really taste. The tomato cream soup served as a nice catalyst for dipping the fresh bread.
Definitely a winning choice. Maybe next time we will actually make it to the Santa Ana location…

Came in for the Lunch Special. $ 12 gumbo & salad to go. It doesn’t include a drink!
I asked the host, is there cutlery in the bag? She said, yes. There wasn’t. Pretty disappointed! That’s a given to pack it with a to go order. The gumbo was just ok. Lots of spice and very skimpy with the meat. I payed $ 12 for broth. It comes with a miniature size cup of white rice. The salad looked good but the dressing which came on the side smelled horrendous, so I didn’t even eat the salad. Over all not impressed as the other reviewers are. They have a nice location but that’s about it for me. I won’t be back.

My friends rave about Oyster Bar in Las Vegas. I’ve never actually had the chance to try it because the wait is always too long. But people say that Ritter’s pan roast is just as good/​similar to Oyster Bar’s pan roast.
Huntington Beach is super far from where I live, so it was hard to make the drive to try Ritter’s. However, my boyfriend and I finally got the chance to one day because we were heading down to the Segerstrom Center of the Arts and we thought that we could make a quick detour to Ritter’s right before our show that night.
We arrived around 5pm and parked on the street right in front. There was no wait, probably only 4 parties sitting inside.
We ordered the house pan roast (zero spicy because I can’t handle spicy) and a bowl of clam chowder to share. We also put in 3 orders to-​go to bring for our friends back in LA.
The clam chowder was good, but it wasn’t the best clam chowder that I’ve had.
I personally liked the pan roast. It tasted kind of like a tomato bisque with seafood inside. My boyfriend, however, didn’t like it at all. He said that it was no way comparable to the pan roast that Oyster Bar serves in Vegas.
My boyfriend was so disappointed with the pan roast that he tried to cancel our to-​go orders, but it was too late.
Food was pretty good, but it wasn’t amazing and it didn’t blow me away. Would I drive an hour from LA to eat it? Probably not.

I heard about this place through a friend and they said the soft shell crab was really good, so i decided to give it a try. This was my 2^nd dinner so i didn’t order a lot. I had the soft shell crab for $ 11, very cheap in my opinion, it came with 2 crabs, was juicy and fried perfectly, not too much batter and the right amount of crispiness and flavors.
I also had the house salad, which contained chickpeas. They originally gave me the wrong salad but was very nice to change it for me and didn’t give me a hard time, so that’s a plus.
If you check in, you get a free beignet. You can taste the freshness of this item, just like a freshly made donut.
The service needs some work as i had to ask them for several items. They didn’t really check up on me much considering it was pretty empty when i was there.
Overall a good food experience. Prices are reasonable.

I am a huge gumbo and jambalaya fan so when I saw this place, I had to try it. The décor is very modern and clean. I liked it. We went for a bit early dinner time, so there were not busy. The «pots» that they make their foods in looked very interesting.
We ordered a gumbo and jambalaya. The portions were pretty big. We loved gumbo but I wasn’t a fan of jambalaya. Jambalaya tasted a bit blend and I am not sure what it is but something tasted different. We couldn’t finish them all, so we ended up bringing them back home for the next day lunch. Beignets were good also. It was little doughy for my taste, but my husband enjoyed it.
I wasn’t too clear if they would validate parking for the structure or not, but we were able to find a street parking nearby. This place got pretty busy by the time we left. I would come back for more gumbo and try their other items on the menu.
Foods: 3.5 stars
Service: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3.5 stars
Overall Experience: 3.5 stars

I remember Aaron E. writing a review about this place and mentioning they didn’t have their beer and wine license. Fortunately, by the time I made my first visit, they had it just in time to welcome me.
So when someone suggests a place to grub Cajun cooking… and they have seafood… they have Cabernet Sauvignon… its nearby the beach… and they have cute waiters who asks for my ID after ordering my cab… well Hello! I am sooooo there!
We both had a glass of their house Cabernet Sauvignon tonight just because it’s a Tuesday night. And from our adorable server, Daniel, he recommended we order the bacon wrapped shrimp. And wow. It was quite a treat with the right balance of sweet and sour from the molasses and mustard. Winner!
My first visit here was last month on GLOY night-​out plus a boy. Yup. We got a plus one. He knows who he is. We enjoyed our dining experience that night so without a doubt, I still went with what I ordered last time, the house pan roast. Yup. I did. It’s tomato cream base soup with clams, shrimp, crab, and lobster with a scoop of white rice right smack in the middle of the bowl. I got a ⁵⁄₁₀ spicy level tonight which was perfect. This cajun soup cooked in a steam kettle is friggin amazing packed with yummy honest to goodness flava I can’t get enough of. It’s creamy texture yet so subtle and smooth and buttery makes it impossible to stop scooping the soup one spoonful after another!
I am a force of habit at times. I will keep on ordering the same thing over and over again until I get sick of it. Oh well. That’s Chel.
Unfortunately, they do not take reservations. And fortunately, the two times I have visited, we were seated right away. I guess it’s best you don’t come during their rush hour. Thanks!
It is definitely a cozy place but they do have extra seats available at the counter. But definitely worth giving them a try. I promise you, you will love it as much as I do!
#love #food#company#dranks#we#miss#gigi

So, I’ve been to the Ritters in Costa Mesa & hubby & I recently dined at the HB location. The restaurant is small but is modern & quaint. Hubby & I ordered the following for lunch:
(1) Oyster Po Boy Sandwich
My oyster po boy sandwich was a HUGE disappointment! The deep fried oysters were & tasted like they were previously frozen … They were flat as a pancake … Totally awful! Do not order this!
(2) Bouillabaisse
Shrimp, crab, lobster, white fish, mussels and clams cooked in a tomato leek based soup with saffron. This dish was underwhelming … A light taste of crab, 2 tiny shrimps, a couple of mussels & clams. Nothing extraordinary!
My experience at this Huntington Beach location was a 2 Star experience!