Catch

So not impressed with this place. Had to go check it out since it was recently renovated and a great location right on the beach. If you can catch a sunset here, it is pretty magical. We tried the oysters, lobster mac, calamari and cheese, steak, cod, tuna were just ok. The best part was dessert with the chocolate cake and caramel ice cream. I have had way better food for half the price. This place was very expensive. Not worth it.

One of the restaurants in Casa Del Mar where we are staying. Great food, great service, and what could be better than looking at the Pacific while you dine. My only comment would be we feel the room was not as pretty as or matched the rest of the hotel lobby décor which is beautiful.

I went to Catch with my wife and daughter for Thanksgiving for the price fixed meal.
I hate to say that any one thing can ruin a holiday, but this meal certainly did its best to ruin our Thanksgiving. The price point of $ 90 per head was a total rip-​off given the quality of the food.
We could have had better quality food at Sizzler.
Actually some of the area Del Tacos would have had better quality food.
So $ 90 a head — we could have gotten over that if we’d not had the worst service
I’ve ever experienced in my life. I couldn’t get water. Tap water. I had to ask a half dozen
times.
They were clearly overwhelmed despite the fact that the restaurant wasn’t that full.
Yet no one bothered to apologize for the lack of service.
The dessert tasted like a Sarah Lee cake.
The management and chef of this dump should truly feel ashamed of what they offer,
especially when its families just wanting to have a nice meal for the holidays.
Lastly, I put in three calls to restaurant management, simply to express my concern and all of my calls went unreturned. Classy move on their part.

Not too thrilled about the service or food here. Slow service and average food. The sea bass was blah. The scallops were okay. The risotto was really delicious though. Other than that, for the price, i don’t think it’s worth it.

Was not expecting much, as I’d dined here before and was unimpressed but must give kudos to a superb Thanksgiving menu/​meal/​service today.
Lobster cake, butternut squash soup, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry, wild bass and carrots… apple caramel cheesecake.
Perfection.

Spent the day in LA with friends and this was the final stop before I caught my flight back to Vancouver. We almost ate at the jerk chicken place up the street, but I’m glad we ended up at Catch instead. Here’s why: super friendly service, and sure the waiters recommended all the most expensive menu items, but we didn’t mind as the food was all great! Also, it was «Treat Yo’self Weekend» meaning anything goes! :-)
I ordered fish — tasty but nothing to write home about. But two others in our party ordered lobster which was HUMONGOUS (as it should be at $ 80/​plate) and so delicious. I’m not a big lobster fan or seafood fan in general, but really enjoyed everything that I got to try. In general, the food was good but the great ambience — live music, lots of greenery, comfy chairs and chill lounge area (we weren’t sitting there but I enjoyed looking at the lounge nonetheless), and obviously the view of the beach and pier — made the experience special. Perfect place for a relaxed early dinner. And yes, we got to see the sunset from a table by the window. Pretty much all you could ask for and then some.
I didn’t pay but I think it was $ 400+ for 6 of us (only one person ordered a cocktail I think, and we didn’t have time for dessert). Would definitely return if in the area again.
Valet parking for $ 7. The hotel looks upscale, and yes there are plenty of people in suits and dresses, and likely some in tuxedos and gowns, since this seems to be a popular wedding spot, but our party went casual with no problems at all. I believe I was wearing a sweatshirt with a prominent logo. Yay for casual/​upmarket dining!

I came here for my birthday and the food was delicious, the service was very prompt, and the views are spectacular.
I really enjoyed my birthday evening at catch even though it was on a Monday night. However, during the weekends they have live bands and it gets pretty happening. I will definitely be going back.

There should be a zero star option to select for this establishment. Do not go here if you are contemplating making a reservation to celebrate anything of importance like an anniversary or a birthday. They do not care and they will do everything they can to make you feel like your occasion is meaningless. Food is mediocre at best.
We came here to celebrate our first anniversary. The manager knew this & it was detailed in our reservation that we were celebrating a special occasion. We arrived about 40 minutes early because we came from LA & were unsure how traffic would be. We decided to let the manager Stephan, know that we arrived but would like to get a drink at the bar before sitting down. We reminded him that we requested a window table & he told us that those tables are «first come/​first serve & reservations don’t matter.» He insisted that we sit down right away even though we were planning to have the dinner during the sunset (2 hours later). The waiter was pleasant but was very rushed to get us food as quickly as possible despite the restaurant having 3 tables at the time.
Within 10 minutes of us sitting down, the manager sat a family with two toddlers & an infant next to us. The kids were screaming & obviously hungry after a long beach day. We chose to wait it out thinking that they would order, eat, & be on their way. The family instead stayed the full 2 hours we were there and allowed their kids to come up to our table, hit the windows that our table faced, stand on the chairs, scream at the top of their lungs, grab my chair, and run into our bottle of champagne & nearly knock it over on to me several times.
While I fully expect the management to seat this family, I would equally expect the manager to have some consideration about us enjoying our celebration since we arrived early & were forced to take the table immediately despite the fact that no one was in the restaurant. The manager chose to ignore the chaos next to us & showed absolutely no concern for the many disruptions. Upon telling the manager this he looked at us like we were crazy & said «What am I supposed to do about it?» He could care less that we had an awful experience & sarcastically offered us a free dessert.
Our biggest regret was choosing this supposedly «elegant» restaurant to spend our first anniversary.

I’ve only been here once but omg was the food good! It seems like the negative reviews come from dine LA guests which is not when I visited and my experience was amazing. My experience with dine la has been that restaurants in general seem to be busier, service not as great, food not what it is otherwise. Just something to keep in mind. When I went with my grandmother, husband, and brother we were all super impressed with the food, the views, and the service. I mean this place could really get by on the location and views alone but the quality of the food and drinks we had was beyond amazing. We did go mid week (not during dine la) and I can not wait to go back.
The Bronzino is a must! But honestly everything we ate was incredible!
The most impressive part was that the hotel manager Greg babarovic even stopped by to check on us and make sure everything was to our liking.
I look forward to coming back here anytime I want to impress someone with food, views, service, and overall atmosphere!

I really wanted to love this place. And i sorta do, but only sometimes.
I’ve been here twice. The first time was lovely, it was a Tuesday night. We had a nice view of the beach. The service was great.
I had the carpaccio, which I do not recommend at all! And a spicy tuna roll, which was delicious.
So then we came here a second time with a larger party of 7, but had originally booked for 9. Be mindful when you want to book this place, it is tiny and in a hotel lobby. So they have to ask the manager to approve any larger groups. This was my graduation dinner so we were all excited.
We got there and had a nice table again, all of the tables have some sort of a beach view. The service this time wasn’t so great. Our server messed up our orders twice and the sushi chef wasn’t there due to some emergency. I get it, it happens. But the reason I picked this place was because I wanted to eat sushi while everyone could eat something else. So I was obviously pretty bummed out. (They couldn’t find a replacement? :()
The food was alright. I didn’t particularly liked my grilled octopus, it was just bland tasting but the crab toast was great.
They brought me a free dessert with cute Happy Graduation writing on it. Which I thought was a very nice touch because I had told them upon reserving the table that it was a graduation dinner.
Overall, I can recommend this place. The dishes are a hit or miss, and so is the service. I also find it too pricey for the quality of food they serve. (Sorry!) They make great cocktails though and you can’t beat the view with the sunset over the water.

The braised short ribs and the real crab salad are incredible. So is the view!

We hit up Catch as part of Dine LA. While the menu was what drew us initially, we were not super impressed. The location/​view is amazing, but the lackluster food and service were enough to have us agreeing we won’t be back.
By far the standout items from our dining experience were the seafood starter and the roasted beet salad. I had the bucatini which appeared to be a Dine LA week special, and my husband had the fish of the day (which was the winner of this round). Where we were utterly disappointed was dessert — if you are going to bill something as «freshly baked cookies» I expect warm/​fresh cookies, not a plate of stale dry lumps. Seriously, if they can bake cookies to order on an airplane, there is no excuse for what we got.
The service was also lacking. Our waiter was nice, but seemed to have to cover at least 10+ tables on his own. We only saw him twice — once to take our order and once with the check (and even then we felt like we had to flag him down).
Overall, can’t speak to the ROI on eating here when not restaurant week, but as I said — not huge fans, especially for the cost (even though we were there for the prix-​fixe, we did add on cocktails/​and some other menu items that had supplemental costs).

We came on Valentine’s Day and they had a prix fixe menu, $ 90 per person for a 3 course meal.
Loved our appetizers!(potato leek soup with Dungeness crab and Maine lobster salad with mango, papaya, and mint) As for our entrees, it might be bland and simple to some, but still relatively good. They’re not heavy on seasoning, felt healthier than most restaurants, nothing greasy! So I guess thumbs up for that! Dessert was good and honestly the best part for me, I absolutely loved the raspberry chiffon cake. Restaurant ambiance was quite nice and service was good.
With that being said, was is worth $ 90 per person? Absolutely not. The portions are incredibly small. And it’s only a 3 course meal… the entrees were not mesmerizing either. But hey it was a special occasion! But we probably won’t be coming back.
And one last comment, we didn’t have any sushi at Catch, but we watched a worker behind the sushi bar squeezing excess juice out of the pickled ginger without gloves. He picked some to eat… and continued squeezing with the same hand. Not too pleased about that.

IN SHORT: Nestled inside Hotel Casa Del Mar with stunning, uninterrupted ocean views is Catch, whose kitchen is consistently cooking up superb seafood, not just for hotel guests.
THE STORY: While brunch along this sunny stretch of Santa Monica has been left to Shutters next door, Catch can win over the sunset dinner crowd with its elevated clean-​lined dining room overlooking the beach and Ocean Front Walk below.
The menu, fittingly, emphasizes fresh, local seafood, and although execution sometimes falters, a very good depth of flavor is consistently achieved. The Big Eye Tuna with shaved fennel, toasted pine nuts, and crispy polenta spears is a favorite, with the salty freshness of the rare fish balanced by the nuttiness of the toasted pine nuts. While the polenta seems a bit arbitrary, it’s impossible to not finish the light and airy fried bits. The Mustard Marinated California Black Cod with green and yellow pole beans and fingerling potatoes is another fresh and comfortable option, even if it doesn’t quite push any boundaries.
The small and sharing plates make an excellent one or two appetizers, particularly the Grilled Octopus with potatoes, spanish paprika, and smoked olive oil, perfectly cooked and tender. The Crispy Artichokes edge on subtle innovation from a classic, with black olive dust, lemon, and mint adding a little edge to the creamy, mild green flavor.
Service is experienced and knowledgeable about the menu, always willing to offer a friendy comment, but the setting inside an opulent beachfront hotel is the ultimate reason to visit. With a romantic, lounge-​like atmosphere perfect for couples or small groups that want to appreciate a spectacular Santa Monica sunset, Catch will not disappoint.

I’ve been to Catch several times before, but never for breakfast… until today! It was a beautiful sunny day, and the hostess sat us at a table with a great view of the beach and the ocean. To start, I had the orange juice and my colleagues had grapefruit juices and a smoothie. The juices were super fresh tasty! For the meal, I had the egg white omelette with a side of chicken apple sausage. Everything was delicious and perfectly cooked — the ideal hearty and healthy breakfast! My colleagues also had egg white omelettes as well as the pastrami hash. Everyone ate every last bit of their dishes. Though the restaurant menu is a little pricey, the food, the view and the experience you get are all well worth it!
The service was really great today! Our waiter was very nice, attentive, and quick with the meal service.
Overall, I’m really glad I came here for breakfast. I’ve always had a pleasant experience whenever I’ve come to Catch, and I hope to come back again soon!

I give it a solid 3.5 to 4 stars. Food was good, we especially enjoyed the truffle macaroni which wasn’t too truffely for my taste and the vinegar fries which were not at all overly vinegary like I assumed they would be. The chicken was meh, okay but not great, the 10oz steak was good but not amazing, the eel/​avocado rolls were good too. The bread and olive dipping sauce was good too and the brut rose I ordered was amazing, Schamsberg 2010 Brut Rose. We shared everything mentioned, plus 2 perriers, no room for desert.
The atmosphere was good, romantic enough for a date but probably more suitable for a business meeting or girls night out. Was confused about where to park, ended up getting valet.
The way the servers were dressed was a little confusing, not sure if it was just that night or what but the employees kind of blended in with everyone else, no real uniform?
After lounges seemed cool, maybe should have stayed there instead of going to the douchebaggery Santa Monica bars we went to… The only think i noticed were a couple snobby girls staring at me taking notes on how to be a bad betch I presume… and the people not wanting to move at all for people that were trying to walk through to get to the bathroom… weird, everyone just kind of bumps into you and doesn’t budge when your trying to get through, even in the bars we went to…

Get a table near the window. For the price, cap it off with the view.

If you love your seafood and the raw bar, this was hands down the best and highest valued DineLA dinner.
For appetizer, there was an option to upgrade to a raw bar platter for $ 15 supplement. Maybe you think it would come with just a couple oysters, a couple shrimp. Oh no sir, this was a real platter — oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, even LOBSTER! The serving was big enough to share for 2 diners. I think our table looked like we dropped a bomb in the ocean after we were done, shells everywhere…
I ate the shellfish platter off of the hubbie’s dineLA dinner and ordered my entrée off the menu. The black cod itself was amazingly tender, loved it! Wasn’t feeling the bean filled rest of the dish very much, but who cares when the centerpiece was that good.
I didn’t get to the try the rest of the dineLA entrees but looks like everyone else enjoyed their meals very much.
Oh and they serve their moscow mules in real copper cups, always a plus in my books!

Wow. I had such a fantastic meal from just a limited number of dishes.
I came with a group and had a set menu. First of all, the space is beautiful and there is free parking all around Casa del Mar after 6pm. So no valet if that’s not your thing.
For the appetizers, I loved the crispy artichokes and the carpaccio, which had a delicious texture. A must try.
For entrees, the filet mignon was good, as was the pasta, but the cod was truly exceptional. It melts in your mouth.
For desserts, I loved the cobbler. Rhubarb tart was good. The chocolate cake was also fantastic.

Dining at this restaurant for the first time~ Thanks to dineLA Restaurant Week!
Having a wonderful dinner with ocean view. Priceless~
The Service: Jeremy is our server. He is GREAT! Very friendly~ Other staffs are also very attentive. Always pay attention on our table, make sure dirty plates are taken away right away. Refill our water. EXCELLENT service!
The Food: Here are my choices for today’s dinner.
Marinated Beef Carpaccio — Pine Nuts, Arugula, Garlic Chips. Love the texture, the beef is so tender and the garlic chips are crispy. This dish is so much fun to eat.
Mustard Marinated Black Cod– Roasted Shiitake, Sunchokes, Green Asparagus. The black cod… OMG! Super Super Super fresh, the fish just melts in my mouth. The asparagus is cooked to perfection, still very crisp.
Market Strawberry — Short Cake, Pistachio Streusel, Crème Fraiche Ice-​cream. A little bit disappointed… wish the short cake is a little bit BIGGER or more ice-​cream!
The Parking: Valet Parking ($ 7 after validation) or Street Metered Parking. It could be very challenging find a spot since the restaurant is at the Casa Del Mar Hotel and right next to the beach. Lots of people.
Overall, really really enjoy this dineLA menu. Most important, I am sharing this amazing experience with another Elite member!