Nick's Laguna Beach

440 S Coast Hwy
Laguna Beach, CA 92651

Stephen: Today, Ashley and I stopped by Nick’s Laguna Beach for lunch after spending our morning at the Thousand Steps Beach. It was pretty funny because we had originally intended to go to ReMark’s for lunch after Ashley had planned our entire Sunday together while being bored at work. She was so proud about having planned our Sunday perfectly from morning until 2pm, but she forgot that ReMark’s is closed on Sundays. So while at the beach, we did what any normal college student would do when hungry and consulted the grand dictionary of restaurants, Yelp. We found Nick’s and decided to go there instead.

Nick’s is mainly known to be an American breakfast and brunch restaurant, but they were serving lunch when we arrived at about 11am. The place has porch seating, bar seating, and tables arranged against the wall all around the establishment. Personally, I was looking to sit on the porch on this nice sunny day but the entire place was full and we had to wait about 25 min in order to be seated. Once we were seated, the service staff was very nice and friendly and quick to take our orders. I had ordered the braised short ribs ($19) and Ashley ordered the buttermilk fried chicken ($15). The food came out quickly (~15min), despite the restaurant being as crowded as it was.

Our dishes did not disappoint; both looked and tasted amazing. The braised short ribs were layered on top of a bed of buttered mashed potatoes and sautéed vegetables (string beans and carrots), surrounded by baby onions, and topped with fried onion rings. The meat was tender and juicy while all the vegetables and especially the baby onions tasted fresh and sweet. The fried onion rings were very tasty while the mashed potatoes were creamy but not too buttery.  The portion sizes are decent, not too big and will easily feed the average appetite. I definitely would love to go back in the future and try some of their other dishes.

Ashley: The buttermilk fried chicken was also delicious. The fried layer was nice and crispy—not too thick, and the chicken itself was tender and juicy. The mashed potatoes went extremely well with the gravy that they had poured over the whole dish, and the biscuit was rich but not overly buttery. Overall, I thought it was a very well balanced dish, and excellently presented. I wish they would have given more chicken than mashed potatoes, though…it was quite an overwhelming serving of mashed potatoes. The corn was alright, nothing special. But I think everything else about this dish makes it worth the $15! If any of you decide to give this restaurant a try, we’d love to hear about what you ordered! :)

Happy eating!

-STASH