1600 West Balboa Blvd.
Newport Beach, CA 92663
This is a review a few years in the making. For a while, it seemed like we were never going to get the chance to eat here. It felt like the odds were against us. We had come down to the beach three times to have brunch and were met with crazy long wait times of multiple hours. It seems that when the weather is beautiful, the ocean is like a magnet to people. They want to be near it when they eat. After multiple false starts, we finally made it to the Lighthouse Cafe.
What was the secret to our success? I finally got smart and added my name to the Yelp waitlist. Even if you are not signed into the Yelp app, you can still get your place in line at the Lighthouse, without even being there. Since we live about half an hour away, and Katie has an affinity for sleeping in on Sunday mornings, I selected a convenient time that we could arrive by. It worked like a charm. When we arrived at half-past ten, we were alerted that our table was ready. At that time they were quoting wait times at the hostess podium of nearly two hours.
Lighthouse Cafe is a two-story restaurant, which overlooks picturesque Newport Bay. The restaurant is located in Marina Park, which has plenty of pay parking available most of the time. We were seated inside the dining room, which I did not mind, as we were going to get to enjoy the outside environment on our planned walk after brunch. The dining space here has a very beachy, relaxed vibe that creates a vacation feeling that washes over you, even if you are only a half-hour from home.
The brunch menu at Lighthouse truly has something for everyone. There are a dozen starters to choose from, and the entrees number close to twenty, with plenty of breakfast and more of what I'd consider lunch options to choose from. All the starters and most of the entrees do not eclipse the $20 price point, which is pretty impressive, especially in this part of town. Most restaurants that have amazing views try to get by with mediocre food, so I was hoping that Lighthouse Cafe would buck that trend. Let's see if that is the case.
If you are eating here for brunch, you will be hard-pressed to find a table that does not have these Beignets ($7.99) placed prominently. These little puffs of pastry are probably the signature items at Lighthouse Cafe. These dozen or so beignets came to our table piping hot, dusted with a little cinnamon sugar, and drizzled with icing. These little pillows are hollow inside, which helps keep them light and airy as you find yourself on your sixth one in about two minutes. Definitely worth getting, especially if you like pairing sweet and savory for your first meal of the day like I do.
Katie is drawn to breakfast burritos almost every time we head out to breakfast. The Breakfast Burrito ($15.99) at Lighthouse Cafe comes with a whole cavalcade of items; both bacon and sausage, scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, potatoes, avocado, crema, and pico de gallo topping this good sized burrito. Katie loved the lightness of the burrito and the avocado crema the best, but she did wish this had more cheese included.
I really hesitated to order the Steak Chilaquiles ($18.99) here. I've been burned so many times getting chilaquiles at non-Mexican restaurants, but this actually turned out to be a pretty solid choice this morning. The housemade, red-hued tortilla chips were pretty crisp, the flank steak was not only plentiful, but tender, and the two sunny-side-up eggs tied everything together nicely. This dish had a gradual spiciness that intensified as I went along devouring the chilaquiles. Nicely done.
This visit to Lighthouse Cafe showed me that restaurants with a spectacular view can serve some pretty good food. It's really no surprise that they have such long waits on weekends for tables outside, but even if you have to sit indoors, you will be treated to a pretty solid brunch. I look forward to trying more off of their brunch menu, or maybe even venturing over this way for dinner in the very near future. Our server Haley was a delight from start to finish, and she helped add to the vacation feeling we had throughout our visit to Lighthouse Cafe. Glad we persevered to eat here, and very thankful that I finally used the Yelp waitlist to make it happen.
Out of five dragons, (because whenever I think about lighthouses it reminds me of Pete's Dragon, a 1977 Disney film, which featured not only a lighthouse but an animated dragon), five being best to zero being worst, Lighthouse Cafe gets 3.5 dragons.
For more information about Lighthouse Cafe, head to their website here: https://lighthousenb.com/
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