Tidal Raves Seafood Grill

9 Reviews on “Tidal Raves Seafood Grill”

• EricV

  Great food, great view, friendly service! Call ahead to ask for a window table. Key part of a beautiful day on the Oregon coast. Crab cakes and fish and chips and good local craft beers.

  December 9, 2016, 2:23 am

  Log in to Reply
• Hungry Ninja

  Tidal Raves has spectacular views from its clifftop perch if you can snag a window table, and their menu has a great selection of seafood dishes. Although I was very tempted to try their vegetarian Grilled Polenta and Fire Roasted Sweet Pepper Florentine based on the menu description, but decided to stick to seafood since that was the goal of our family dinner tonight. I had high expectations based on the slick website and the menu descriptions which became even higher when I called to make reservations and was told they weren’t accepting any more for the evening but we could still drop-in and see what the wait times were at the time. So we did that. We had to wait an hour for our table (initially told 30-40 min) and were relieved to be seated after hearing other drop-ins leaving after they were told it’d be 1-1.5 hrs for a table. Once seated, we waited another 15 minutes before a server came by to take our orders and gave us water (without ice as their ice maker was broken so someone went to town to bring some back). We already had an hour to look over the menu so looking around wondering who our server was for another 15 minutes was torture as we were all starving.So first impressions were not good, especially since we sent back two water glasses as they weren’t clean – one had some dried food stuck to the rim and the other had a hair on the rim! While I have occasionally experienced this eating in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, I do not expect it to happen (to two glasses!) at a nice seafood restaurant in the USA.Ever the optimist, I hoped the food would be tastier than that other scenic view restaurant in Newport in which we all found the food blas. And the appetizers delivered! The crab cakes were very tasty and good-sized portions. They were delicately tender and soft around the edges, indicating home made and not factory-formed or cookie-cutter, which requires skill on part of the chef to check them to ensure even cooking without the cake coming apart at the edges. The salmon chowder was one of the best tasting I’ve ever eaten on the west coast, and that’s saying a lot coming from a chowder snob that has sampled them up & down the coast from California to Alaska. This one ranks with some of the best I’ve eaten in Vancouver, BC (Water Street Cafe), Prince Rupert (Dolly’s, The Crest) and several places throughout Alaska in Anchorage, Homer & Seward. However, their clam chowder has bacon, so I didn’t touch it since I don’t eat pork, and could never understand the justification for putting pig in a seafood dish. It’s akin to putting salmon lox on a hamburger. A good clam chowder doesn’t need to be tainted by bacon flavor unless you’re trying to hide something.For my entree I ordered the mixed seafood platter with wild shrimp, mahi mahi and panko-breaded oysters served garlic sauted with pilaf. Quite tasty although I found an empty shrimp tail in there that left me to wondering if someone sampled my dish before it got to me. My mom had the grilled salmon which was also very tasty with garlic mashed potatoes that balanced flavor with texture; dad had the Dungeness Crab and Shrimp Mac and Cheese which was very simple yet flavorful. My wife chose the Pasta Rave linguine tossed with clams, crab, shrimp and fin fish in an Alfredo sauce. Although a bit heavy on the cream, the dish was both tasty and filling. As the family foodie, I managed to sample everyone’s dish and would recommend all.Overall, for the food and the views, I’d recommend this place. Other aspects such as service and clean dishes could use some improvement. And check those dishes for empty shrimp tail shells before sending them to the tables. Would I go back? Yes. But I wouldn’t wait 30 minutes for it.

  October 4, 2016, 12:59 pm

  Log in to Reply