Best Restaurants With a View in California: Ocean, Harbor and Bay

There is a particular pleasure in eating well while looking at something beautiful — and California, with 840 miles of coastline, offers more versions of this combination than almost any other state. The restaurants below span the Pacific Highway in Huntington Beach, a harbor in Oceanside, and an Oakland waterfront biergarten. What connects them is the window, the water, and the conviction that food and a view are best experienced together.

LSXO

On Pacific Coast Highway, in Huntington Beach, California is where you will find this hidden speakeasy serving traditional, Southern Vietnamese favorites. Access to this clandestine gem is through its parent restaurant, Bluegold. Once inside, you'll find LSXO next to a wine cellar and behind an unmarked door.

With capacity for a mere 28, every seat has near perfect views of the sparkling, Pacific Ocean. The intimate setting, innovative cocktails, authentic food and the unobstructed ocean views, make this a restaurant worth a trip and the wait during peak times.

Thyme infused hand towels refresh you before you delve into your meal.

Grilled Bread with Pickled Vegetable, Pâtés and Honey Butter

Imperial Rolls with Shrimp, Crab, Pork, Taro Root, Glass Noodles, Roasted Peanuts and Chili-Lime Sauce.

The imperial rolls are the dish to start with — shrimp, crab, pork, taro root, and glass noodles wrapped in rice paper and fried to a crackling gold, served with chili-lime sauce that has enough acid to cut through the richness of the crab without overpowering the delicacy of the shrimp. The rolls arrive with grilled bread and house-made pâté alongside pickled vegetables, a combination that manages to feel simultaneously French-colonial and deeply Vietnamese. The ocean outside the window, filling every seat's sightline, is the context that makes the meal complete.

Harbor Fish and Chips

Nestled in the harbor in Oceanside, California, is Harbor Fish and Chips. This family owned and operated restaurant has been a staple of Oceanside Harbor Village for over 50 years.

Stroll through the village before or after your meal to browse the shops and visit the lighthouse.

Fish Taco with Cabbage, Pico de Gallo and White Sauce

The outside dining area sits along the water's edge with lovely views. The fish taco at Harbor Fish and Chips is the order: a properly fried fillet — fresh, local, flaking cleanly — topped with cabbage, pico de gallo, and white sauce in a corn tortilla that hasn't been sitting in a warmer. The fish and chips version is the same quality in a larger format with fries and whatever malt vinegar you can lay hands on. Harbor's strength is not complexity. It is the particular integrity of a restaurant that has been doing one thing for over fifty years and has long since worked out exactly how to do it.

Brotzeit Lokal

"Brotzeit," though literally translated "bread-time," is the German word for "snack," referring to a Bavarian tradition of taking a break midday and enjoying a beer. "Lokal," in German, translates to "pub." Interested in taking a midday break to have a beer, enjoy great German cuisine and a beautiful view? If so, this is your place.

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Brotzeit Lokal is located in Oakland, California's Brooklyn Basin, on the waterfront. While dining in the outdoor biergarten, you can take in views of the estuary, the island of Alameda, and boats bobbing in the dock. In fact, should you have a boat or kayak as your mode of transportation, feel free to park in the restaurant's guest dock and come in for a beer and a bite. This detail — that you can arrive by water — tells you everything about Brotzeit's relationship to its location. The biergarten faces the estuary with the confidence of a place that knows its best feature is outside.

House-made Bavarian Bretzel

This pretzel was a tiny bit crispy on the outside and then warm and chewy throughout. You can also order your pretzel with salt, brie, cream cheese, herb and pilsner spreads. Just ask for an order of the "Bretzel and Obadzta."

Calamari

Fresh squid, beer-battered, deep-fried and served with sriracha aioli and a lemon wedge.

Fish and Chips

Beer-battered fillets, French fries, and coleslaw. I know this is not necessarily of German origin. Some records show that this dish originated in England and others, Portugal. Either way, or neither way, Brotzeit knows how to do fish and chips.

California's view restaurants vary enormously in format and ambition. LSXO is a speakeasy that uses its ocean window as both backdrop and selling point for serious Vietnamese cooking. Harbor Fish and Chips is a fifty-year institution that has never needed to be more than what it is. Brotzeit Lokal is a biergarten that arrived by water and stayed for the estuary. What they share is the understanding that where you eat is part of what you taste. Bon appétit.