A&O Kitchen+Bar

Location and layout are great. It goes down hill from here. The food is, well, horrible. Limited menu choices is the start of bad. Then the service. Very, very slow and bad attitude when u point it out.
Don’t waste your time or money!!!
Sorry, but speaking the truth!

Arrived tonight with a large party of 25+
I ordered the pork belly buns and the Kobe burger.
Pork belly buns were good. They were. Only complaint is that there were way too many of these carrots or veggies or whatever it was on top of the bun. ⁶⁄₁₀ on this appetizer. The other buns I’ve had at diff places such as baos hog make the buns here look weak. Oh well good experience.
The Kobe burger: medium well on the patty. It was cooked very well. The burger was just way too big and fat. I couldn’t eat the thing by putting it in my mouth so I had to use a fork and a knife. The lame way of eating it. Oh well. ⁸⁄₁₀ on this. I liked the mushrooms in it. Not a big fan of the buns though. Ended up taking this home because the serving was huge!!!
Took awhile to get boxes to go and took even longer just to get refills of water. Fun anyway though! The décor and ambiance is really nice. Lots of rich loaded people eat here. Mostly beautiful white Caucasian women (totally not racist because I think they’re gorgeous)! They had music playing in the corner too which was super cool. Don’t think I’d come back but a great experience nonetheless.

Today we visited A & O kitchen and bar for the first time, it was nothing but a wonderful experience. Right when we walked in the atmosphere was perfect, upscale yet inviting, and the staff was immediately attentive and kind even though they were busy. We were seated within 5 minutes and had the pleasure of having one of the best servers we have ever come across Alex. I can’t remember even one time my drink was empty, and he could actually hold a conversation, amazing for a young man his age. Our food was out almost as soon as we ordered it and it was fresh and hot, and Alex gave the perfect recommendations for drinks to pair with the food. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ highly recommend ask for Alex if you want good service !

Very nice restaurant, right on the bay with a modern feel! A little pricey but all the food was so good!

ALYSSA is awesome! Ask for her. She took care all is us (table of 15 women) !!
Food was good– table on the patio overlooking the water– priceless ;-)

I absolutely love this place!
The service, location and food are great!
They have a really good deal for happy hour food and drinks, and best of all: Moscow Mules on tap!
Last time I stopped by, our server Alex was very genuine and attentive, as is everyone else who’s helped us in the past.
The live music and the luxurious mega yachts sitting on the bay made the ambiance even better than it already was.
Will definitely be back when in the area!

Elegant, spacious (inside and out), with a beautiful bay view, also a view of the large yachts docked alongside the patio area.
A real first class resort feel to this place.
Our service was stellar in every way. For instance, warm blankets were offered (and accepted) as we opted to sit outside under a heated area of the outdoor patio (we came after 10 PM). The pleasant staff were solicitous without being intrusive, and gave good advice regarding the menu.
MENU:
Heirloom Tomatoes: be sure to order these, they are wonderful!
California Farmer’s Market Salad (can order with or without halibut) was fresh, delicious.
The $ 23 Steamed Fish In A Bag — very fresh, big piece of halibut, also shellfish, potatoes, etc. A signature dish mostly likely since I’ve never had anything like it anywhere else (I ordered mine undercooked, it turned out perfectly that way).
Prices were reasonable, especially considering location and the quality of the food. CAVEAT: The Prime Rib (18 oz) is $ 52 (share it?)
Free valet parking made everything even better.
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Pros:
I loved the environment and views of the boats along the bay
Cons:
My girlfriends and I went for Easter in the afternoon when the place wasn’t busy. We were told the waitress would come serve us on the patio when we arrived. The whole 1.5hrs we were there not one waitress said how can I help you or I’ll be with you shortly. My girlfriend had to go to the bar to order our 3 drinks and 3 waters (Not a big deal until you get told you won’t be served because the waitress is to busy). She had to flag down a busser to help carry the 3 waters and she had to make multiple trips to get the drinks. Yet again, not a big deal, but when you’re at a high end restaurant and paying top dollar, you’d expect to have better service
The waitress told my girlfriend to order from the bar because she didn’t have time. Technically it’s not her fault she was to busy, but why weren’t there enough staff booked for a holiday?
We wanted to have one of the umbrellas put down and had to ask 3 different people to help. We were told a busser would be sent over, and not once was he sent over to help. After flagging down one cleaning another table, he was gladly able to assist.
Overall, we had a nice time chatting with the other guests, but the drinks were over priced in a small glass and not one person asked how we were doing during the whole time we were there. Had that happened, we would have gladly stayed to eat and drink.

5 stars for food and service! We ordered the «nice rack» and the Kobe burger. Both dishes came out fast and tasted great! The food was also topped off with excellent service from Charles and Amber. Charles gave us great recommendations on the food! You must come check out this place!

beautiful views &ambiance … but shoddy food.
My bf & I really wanted to love this restaurant too =/​and we did… until the food came out. First, it’s located inside the Balboa Bay Resort (pretty and nice entrance) and complimentary valet parking too.
We came at the perfect time! Right before sunset, and we asked to be seated at the patio. We got a table, but I would have loved sitting by the fire pits and couches (they are communal btw). Such a BEAUTIFUL view of the Newport bay, with the water glistening, and the sun setting (gorgeous). It wasn’t that busy on a Saturday but the patio was full.
okay the food… so what we ordered:
PORK BELLY BUNS ($ 12 for 3 buns)
— they were okay, not much flavor but I do like how it’s mirrored after the Chinese dish of ‘peking duck’; however biggest turnoff was biting into a big chunk of FAT from the pork belly, sooo gross at least cut this part off !!
BEER BATTERED FRIES
— probably the best dish we had, it’s quite big and definitely shareable
STEAMED FISH ($ 22)
— okay the worst part of the experience was that THEY SERVED US RAW FISH, totally unaccepted and when we told our server he was like «oh what, did you want it medium!?» um excuse me but this is not meat… however the mussels were quite fresh
KOBE BURGER (in exchange for the steamed fish)
— basically like any other burger I can buy, but instead not much flavor and we paid $ 20 for this !?! and this burger was praised & recommended on Unilocal =| but fries were good and perfect crunch!
All in all, the food was quite horrible especially for the price (the biggest turnoff being served raw fish and fatty pork belly). Service was okay though. The only highlight of this restaurant was the gorgeoussss views; if I were to ever come back I would probably just come for drinks and the views.

A&O is located inside the Balboa Bay Resort where I had my weeklong work event.
I’ve only experienced the lunch buffet they catered so I can’t rate based on one on one service experience.
Some lunch offerings were more memorable than others. I’d say the best offerings here by far are the French fries and the Brussels sprouts with bacon!!!
The Chinese pork bun sandwiches were a disappointment. The meat was so tough, dry, and flavorless. Leave the dish to the Asian chefs!
I’d say pay this place a visit if you’re looking for a relaxing atmosphere coupled with decent food. The restaurant is located right beside the water and multi million dollar yachts.

I really wanted to love this restaurant. If the service hadn’t been so shoddy maybe I would have given it a higher rating.
Let’s start with drinks. Half our party wanted beer but the drafts weren’t working at the moment. Only serving bottled beer, the choices are very limited. Not great but I can understand.
We waited around for our server to take our food order. And waited… And waited. We finally get our orders taken.
The food did come out promptly. A majority of our group ordered the Kobe burger. They all really enjoyed it. I had the baked lamb meatballs and the roasted Brussel sprouts. Both very good. Finished it all.
Then we are waiting for our plates to be cleared. We waited and waited. Our server never even came back to ask if we wanted more drinks. Come to see her hanging outside the restaurant socializing with what appeared to be a manager.
Just disappointing. If the management team doesn’t care why would the server?
The food was good but the service was not. Considering the resort, my expectations were higher.
For now is say skip this place.

This spot is great. Awesome location, right on the bay with outside seating. Free valet parking at the Balboa Bay Resort. Awesome vibe and cool décor.
The food: fantastic. Must haves: Brussles sprouts, fries (think all the fixings of a baked potato, but on top of french fries with cheese. yeah.), ribs, kobe burger. Everything was great, definitely can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. Service is usually pretty good, I think it might get crowded here at peak times, but I have never had an issue getting a table.
Definitely one of my favorite spots in Newport.

My husband and I have been into this beautiful location on two occasions. We truly love the resort layout, décor, and ever so California Newport Beach personality.
On our first visit to A+O, Sun, Oct 25 we were seated by the most pleasant hostess, however never had a server wait on us the entire time. We ordered drinks at the bar and our 3 appetizers from the hostess, then back to the hostess again for our second round of drinks. brussel sprouts and ribs were good, pretzel twists were not. Overall, a poor experience
Our second visit Sun, Nov 8^th is what prompted me share the experience. We sat at the bar, with the nicest bartender and had excellent service. The food however was NOT edible. We again ordered the brussel sprouts which were half the size order we had 2 weeks prior, char burnt to bitterness and drowning in vinegar. What happened? We also ordered the wings which were absolutely terrible, 4 scrawny pieces salted beyond consumption. Neither one of these plates should have ever been served.
Such a pleasant atmosphere deserves a chef in the kitchen and nothing less. On both visits there was no presence of management during the entire stay, no one ensuring everything is going well in the restaurant, extremely disappointing.

Love the wide open floor to ceiling windows that open up to a view of the bay and luxurious yachts. You really can’t beat this view and the restaurant service and food is fantastic. Beer battered fries! Need I say more? Also their burgers and soups are insane.
Their bloody mary’s are bomb dot com! Happy to see that they carry my all time favorite craft mix, Lava bloody mary mix — someone knows what they’re doing at the restaurant! Best bloody mary’s in town, hands down.
We’re putting this place on our must-​stops for brunch too!

First time at A & O Kitchen for dinner and drinks as I was there for work conference meeting and stay at the hotel too. What a great places to relax by the harbor and enjoy amazing food and drinks! The service was amazing and waitresses and bartender are awesome and funny! Thank you again for making the work trip more enjoyable and fun!

I hadn’t been to this location in years and I must say, they’ve done an excellent job!
However, I went for a social shindig and was expecting to eat since I was on the verge of death from starvation and would have withered away at any given moment.
Please take note on the emphasis of hunger.
I sat and informed the lovely and ever so genuine bartender of the urgency that I was in to get food. Browsed over the menu and I realized that I didn’t feel like experimenting with such delicious sounding things like bacon topped popcorn or other heart clogging glory. A simple burger it is!
Again, the bartender was so damn sweet and pleasant.
The food arrived in an impeccable display of thick cut fries, a wonderful knife that looked like the restaurant designer spent too much time on tumblr, but still, quite aesthetically pleasing.
The flavor, I don’t know where to go with this. All the ingredients were top notch quality; you could taste the pleasant and fresh ground beef cooked to a medium rare and it was even a lighter fat beef, not dripping all over the freaking place. But there was just something off about it.
So, I tried the French fries. The fries were quite scrumptious with a unique seasoning, with house ketchup. Then the bitterness set in.
«Is the ketchup bad? What the hell is this going on in my mouth?!» I started to panic with a hesitation to spit the mulched food out and wipe my mouth clean. Don’t worry, I didn’t.
After inspecting the ketchup dish, it looked as if they’d poured a small amount of vinegar in the ramekin then scooped the thick and chunky ketchup over it. I don’t know, if something isn’t broken, why change it? Fries were awesome, ketchup kept making me think that I was eating spoiled food.
As for the burger, I honestly think the chef just wanted to fill the menu with eye pleasing ingredients instead of having an amazing house burger with those stupendously savory ingredients, the chef just kind went overboard; I suppose they have to justify an $ 18 burger somehow.
If I ever end up at the A&O again, I’m more than likely not going to order any food, but rather get a cocktail or two and appreciate the magnificent view and wonderful staff.
Five stars for the view, design of the restaurant, the amazing staff, but an unfortunate one and a half for the food, rounding to a three total.

Thought this would be a nice place for a summer lunch as the view of the harbor is spectacular. After sitting 20 minutes waiting for a menu, I finally asked the hostess to find the waiter. Another 10 minutes went by before our waitress came over. I asked for a kids menu and she said they didn’t have a printed one and verbally told me three kids menu items. We chose a kids hotdog which sounded normal.
I ordered a «Cobb» salad and my girlfriend ordered a club wrap sandwich. A half hour later they started slowly trickling out our order. The kids order came first– a huge plate of fries (thankfully) and what looked like a half a trader Joe’s chicken sausage. Needless to say my kid was turned off by the bits of green and red pepper embedded in the sausage and anyways he wanted a hot dog not a sausage.
When my «Cobb» arrived I practically dropped my fork. It was basically an unchopped wilted lettuce wedge with a RAW egg laying on top — featuring four buffalo wings next to the lettuce wedge. I took it back to the waitress and told her it was nothing even close to a Cobb salad and she said «this is OUR Cobb salad». Excuse me – Mr Cobb was a real person who founded The Brown Derby and made an incredibly specific salad into an iconic California dish. Name your wilted lettuce wedge and raw egg supreme after someone else… why would you intentionally mismanage expectations like that? Especially for $ 18?
My girlfriends’ order came out next. She’d ordered a «club wrap». It was four small slices of chicken, half a slice of tomato and uncooked shashito peppers wrapped in a few handfuls of little strips of wilted Grocery store romaine. So when she picked it up, the whole thing fell apart and it became a small sad unchopped salad.
Fortunately, we’d ordered the Brussel Sprouts which were 4x bigger than we were told by the waitress… those were actually great but now we feel sick from eating so many Brussel sprouts because we were so hungry!
Throughout the meal we experienced a surprisingly significant amount of eye rolling from the wait staff and our waitress actually reassigned our table since she was obviously insulted we sent back the «not a Cobb» Cobb salad.
Finally, when the bill came we saw they charged $ 15 for the kids hotdog. We asked why it was soch and e waitress said it was Pheasant!!! Who in gods name calls Pheasant sausage a hot dog and thinks a child is going to enjoy that?! Fortunately they took it off the bill so I’d say that’s the one bright spot.

Came here after paddleboarding and man were we starving! I felt a little under dressed since I was in my bathing suit, cover up and flip flops so I would dress a little bit classier if I came back. Luckily, we came and it was happy hour! We decided to order a bunch of plates to share and ended up ordering a few more extras because the plates were pretty small.
Ribs: They really did just fall of the bone! It practically melts in your mouth, was juicy, tender and had the perfect bbq flavor with just a kick of spice.
Chicken Wings: These were really moist on in the inside and crunchy on the outside. They didn’t have much flavor to them, but the cucumber sauce it came with was really refreshing and merried really well together.
Pretzels: Really nothing special. Just tasted like well cooked bread, but the mustard was a great complement.
Brussel Sprouts: These were really good because they were deep fried… with bacon. Need I say more?
Fries: All overly salty and nothing special. We tried the pizza fries, regular, and the loaded fries.
Overall, I would come back, especially for the happy hour and the gorgeous view!

Love the atmosphere.
Service and Food great.
Try the Watermelon Salad and Antioxidant Cocktail.
Excellent!