Malibu Seafood offers fresh fish with an ocean view

I suppose we should have read the reviews more closely. We knew that Malibu Seafood was a fish market that also sold meals. But we thought it was a sit down restaurant. So when we arrived for a late lunch and saw a line out the door, we wondered if we'd ever get seated. 

I dropped off my wife to get in line while I parked the car. When I got back to her, she had discovered that in fact, it is not a sit down restaurant. Rather, you place your order at a counter and receive a pager which notifies you when the food is ready. Then you pick up your tray, find a picnic table and eat. 

So, other than that unexpected discovery, we had a very enjoyable lunch. As I noted already, we were surprised by the long line when we arrived at about 1:30 for lunch. Turns out that a film crew was shooting a commercial nearby, and they had arrived just before us for their lunch break. Still, reading other online reviews, apparently it's fairly typical to wait in line at Malibu Seafood. But the line moves fast.

It was worth the wait. We both were tempted by the fried seafood. It looked inviting and smelled wonderful. But we ultimately opted for grilled squid steaks. That's something we seldom see on menus in Minnesota. Plenty of Minnesota restaurants serve fried calamari, but grilled squid - not so much. I had a sandwich with fries. My wife had a platter with fries and coleslaw. The squid was excellent. The fries were thick cut and kind of soggy. My wife's coleslaw was good but ordinary.

The weather was gorgeous. So we found a picnic table with a nice view of the beach and the ocean and enjoyed our lunches.

Overall, I have to admit, I don't think it was worth a special trip. After lunch, we went down to the beach and walked around a little bit. It was nice, but not really any different from the beaches at Santa Monica, or really anywhere along the coast. Still, our lunches were quite reasonably priced, and it would be a nice, casual place to stop if you were in Malibu anyway.

Just in case you were wondering, they're not open for breakfast. There's a sign on the wall that explains that they don't serve breakfast because that's when they're out catching lunch.