LB Restaurant Highlights
- Long Beach waterfront restaurants offer diverse dining experiences, from upscale venues to casual beach shacks.
- Key locations include Parkers’ Lighthouse for special occasions and Saltwater Deck for casual beachside eating.
- The Reef on the Water recently reopened, serving strong brunch options and being a nostalgic local venue.
- Many restaurants provide dog-friendly options, making them great for outings with pets.
- Parking can be challenging; plan for extra time to find spots near popular waterfront areas.
Here’s the thing about living in a city with six-plus miles of coastline: you stop noticing it. You drive down Ocean, you glance left, you think “yep, still there,” and then you go eat at the same place inland you always eat at.
Stop that.
We’ve got water on three sides of this town — the open ocean, Alamitos Bay, and a whole downtown harbor with a retired ocean liner parked in it. And we’ve got restaurants pressed right up against every bit of it. Some of them are white-tablecloth. Some of them are a walk-up window where you eat a breakfast burrito on a bench while sand gets in your shoes. Both are correct.
So here’s the actual local’s map — organized by where you are, because that’s how you’ll actually use it. And yes, I’m skipping the chains. I’ll nod at them where they exist, because sometimes you’ve got a picky cousin in town and a Yard House is a mercy. But the good stuff is independent, and that’s what this list is for.
Downtown, Rainbow Harbor & Shoreline Village
This is the postcard stretch — boardwalk, boats, the lighthouse, the Queen Mary across the water. It’s touristy and we as local s are a bit snobby about it, but the views are genuinely unbeatable and some of these places have been feeding Long Beach for decades.
Parkers’ Lighthouse — 435 Shoreline Village Dr. The round glass tower at the end of Shoreline Village that you’ve seen a thousand times and maybe never walked into. Mesquite-grilled seafood, an award-winning wine list, a clam chowder people get emotional about, and windows looking straight at the Queen Mary.
Full disclosure: this is where I went to dinner before Wilson prom. So I have exactly zero objectivity here and I’m not pretending otherwise. But that’s kind of the point — if you grew up in this city, Parkers’ is where the big nights happened. Prom, graduation dinner, the anniversary your parents actually dressed up for. It’s been the special-occasion room for generations of Long Beach kids, and it still holds up.
Ask for a table upstairs. It’s the move. And know they’ll do their best on window and patio requests but won’t guarantee specific seating, so don’t build the whole night around it.
Queensview Steakhouse — upstairs at Parkers’, same address. This one’s the sleeper. You walk in through Parkers’ and take the elevator or stairs up, and it opens into a proper steakhouse with live music and a 360-degree view over the harbor and the Queen Mary. Dinner only, closed Mondays. If you’re doing an anniversary and you want it to feel like an occasion without driving to LA, this is the reservation.
Gaucho Beach — 780 E Shoreline Dr. Argentine, open all day, big beach-facing patio, empanadas that don’t cost a fortune, and a bar that takes its margaritas seriously. Screens everywhere and 360-degree beach views, which makes it the rare spot where the people who came for the game and the people who came for the ocean are both happy. Casual enough for flip-flops.
Chain nod: Bubba Gump and Yard House are both right here at Rainbow Harbor / The Pike, and Gladstone’s holds down a big waterfront patio on Pine. Fine views, well-known menus, no surprises — which is occasionally exactly what you want.
The Queensway Bay & Queen Mary Side
Cross the bridge and you’re in a different world — the one where you look back at downtown instead of out at it. And this section just got a whole lot more interesting.
The Reef on the Water — 880 S Harbor Scenic Dr. Okay, this is the news. The Reef reopened in June 2026 after six years closed. It’s been a Long Beach institution since 1958 — the original Tallichet family tiki restaurant, the one that launched an entire empire of themed destination restaurants across the country. It shut down at the start of the pandemic and the dining room stayed dark until this summer, when the new waterfront amphitheater opened basically next door and the family decided it was finally time.
Three stories, enormous windows, downtown skyline across the water, waterfront patios and decks. And if you’ve lived here any length of time, you’ve already been — because The Reef is the Long Beach wedding venue. I’ve been to several. Multiple generations of the same families have gotten married in that building, which is exactly why the reopening mattered so much to people around here.
The good news is the food is not just riding on nostalgia now. The new menu is genuinely strong, weekend brunch comes with bottomless mimosas, and happy hour runs Thursday through Sunday from 3 to 6 on the waterfront patio. That happy hour is one of the better values on this entire list — you’re getting a landmark, a skyline, and a discounted drink at the same time.
Currently open Thursday through Sunday. If you’ve got a parent or grandparent who got married there, take them. Now.
Fuego at Hotel Maya — 700 Queensway Dr. The best skyline view in Long Beach and I will fight about it. You’re sitting on the Queensway peninsula looking straight across the water at the downtown towers, the harbor, and the whole thing lit up at night. Latin-inspired menu, a serious cocktail program, fire pits on the patio, and open from 7am to 10pm daily — which makes it one of the rare waterfront spots you can do for breakfast or a late drink.
Real talk: you’re paying view prices, and the food doesn’t always match the setting. Come for sunset cocktails and a few plates rather than a full production dinner and you’ll walk away thrilled.
Observation Bar — also on the Queen Mary. Not a restaurant exactly, but the Art Deco bar at the bow with live big-band music some nights and a view down the harbor is one of the most genuinely special drink experiences in this city. Bar bites, cocktails, 1930s everything.
Bluff Park, Junipero & Actually-On-The-Sand
Now we’re talking. This is the “I’m barefoot and I don’t want to change” tier.
SALTWATER DECK — 2630 E Ocean Blvd. Down at the bottom of the bluff by the playground, right on the sand. Order at the counter, eat at picnic tables with the ocean forty feet away. Breakfast burritos, garlic grilled cheese, a real vegan menu that isn’t an afterthought, water bowls out for dogs, ice cream for the kids after the jungle gym. Daytime hours only — they close at 6 and they’re dark Mondays.
Hartland’s — 1900 E Ocean Blvd. The quiet hidden gem. It’s tucked inside the 1900 Ocean building up on the bluff, so you’re indoors — but with elevated, sweeping views out over the beach and the harbor that most restaurants in this city would kill for and none of the tourists have found. It’s the opposite energy of everything else on this list: calm, unhurried, nobody’s taking photos.
The breakfast and the coffee are spectacular. Genuinely. The breakfast burritos are perfectly balanced — not all egg, not all tortilla — the biscuit is one of the best in the city, and the strawberry matcha has a small but committed following. Staff will know your order by the third visit. Cheap, too.
Open 8am to 3pm, closed Tuesdays. Street parking near the building is free by Bixby Park and usually available, which around here counts as a miracle.
Grill ‘Em All — 5411 E Ocean Blvd. Heavy metal burger shack sitting right at Horny Corner, and if you know, you know. Sand in your toes? Check. World-class people watching? Absolute check. Fabulous burgers? Check, check, check.
It started as a food truck, won The Great Food Truck Race, and the Long Beach outpost has sand-level seating downstairs and a second-floor patio looking over the water. The burgers are absurd in the best way — the Napalm Death if you want pain, the grilled-cheese-bun situation if you want to be horizontal afterward. Generous fries, a rotating burger of the month, veggie patty subs available on everything, and cold beer.
Giant burger, cold beer, metal playing, the whole Belmont Shore parade of beachgoers going by in front of you. Perfect afternoon. I don’t make the rules.
Monty’s Dog Beach & Bar — 5000 E Ocean Blvd. At Rosie’s Dog Beach, which means: yes, bring the dog. Burgers, salmon burgers, pizza, $5 happy hour beers, and a menu for the dog — puppy patties, homemade dog ice cream, pup cups, self-serve water bowls, a hose to rinse the sand off afterward. Beach seating, DJs, a genuinely great sunset. Long Beach is one of the only beach cities in SoCal with a legal off-leash dog beach and Monty’s is the reason it functions as a whole afternoon instead of a quick stop.
Belmont Pier & Belmont Shore
Belmont Brewing Company — 25 39th Pl. BBC. The original. Right next to the Belmont Pier, patio with a generous view, brewing beer in this town since before craft beer was a personality trait. Weekend brunch starts at 9. Fish and chips, mussels, a ribeye bowl, and a patio that catches the sunset over the water. It’s not trying to be trendy and that is exactly the appeal — this is where you take someone to explain what Long Beach actually feels like.
Naples, Marine Stadium & Alamitos Bay
The bay side is a completely different energy from the ocean side — calmer water, Duffy boats puttering past, gondoliers if you time it right. Some of the best water-adjacent eating in the city is over here and half of you never make it past Second Street.
Nigel’s Waterfront Restaurant — 6272 E Pacific Coast Hwy. Nigel’s is for when you care more about Instagram than anything else. Vintage South Beach glamour on the bay: art deco lines, pink and green everything, plush cabanas, a champagne wall, floating booths, fire pits, and a Duffy you can take out from the dock. Every single angle is a photo.
Come for the aesthetic and the view, order cocktails, manage your food expectations accordingly, and you will have a genuinely great time. Bachelorettes, birthdays, girls’ nights. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Tantalum — 6272 Pacific Coast Hwy (same complex). Asian fusion, koi ponds, a marina-view patio, and one of the more reliably good waterfront dinners in East Long Beach. Sit at the bar by the window and catch that sunset. Live entertainment most evenings, and they go late on weekends.
A PCH — 6460 E PCH, upstairs at 2nd & PCH. Second-floor patio looking over the marina, oysters, steak tartare, a genuinely strong happy hour from 3 to 6. This is the “I want to feel like a grown-up but I’m still wearing flip flops” pick.
Louisiana Charlie’s at Mother’s Beach — 5715 Appian Way. Tiny walk-up at Marine Park serving fried shrimp po’boys, chili dogs and breakfast sandwiches to people who’ve just come off a paddleboard. Wednesday through Sunday, daytime only. Not fancy. Not trying to be. Exactly what you want after two hours in the water.
Chain nod: 2nd & PCH has the polished versions — Urban Plates, Lazy Dog, Teleféric Barcelona — all with some degree of marina view and all perfectly pleasant.
Alamitos Bay Landing & Marina Drive
The far southeast corner, where the bay meets Seal Beach. Boaters tie up and walk in. You should too.
Boathouse on the Bay — 190 N Marina Dr. The upscale-but-relaxed one. Seafood, sushi, steaks, oysters, and a big waterfront patio with live music and a chill vibe. Go at sunset. Closed Mondays, and they don’t open until 4 most weekdays — plan accordingly.
The Crab Pot — 215 N Marina Dr. Seafood boils dumped on the table, peel-and-eat shrimp, bibs, mess, marina view, dog-friendly patio. It’s a commitment. Also a big patio with “I just docked my boat and need a cocktail” vibes.
Schooner or Later — 241 N Marina Dr. Breakfast and lunch only, since 1985, on the water, with a restored 1940s jukebox and a mural of the old Pike on the wall.
Also: this was my first job ever. I was fifteen, I was the cashier, and I can still tell you exactly how the line snakes around the building on a Sunday morning. So when I say get there early or accept your fate — that’s not a guess, that’s years of institutional knowledge from someone who used to be the one telling you it’d be twenty minutes.
Get “The Mess.” It got the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives treatment and it is exactly what it sounds like. And honestly, the line is part of it.
Chain nod: Ballast Point’s Long Beach brewpub is right here at 110 N Marina Dr with a two-level deck over the water, and the upstairs sunset seat is legitimately one of the best cheap views in the city.
Kari’s Cheat Sheet
- First date, want to impress: Queensview Steakhouse
- Toes literally in sand: Saltwater Deck
- With the dog: Monty’s Dog Beach & Bar
- Out-of-town parents: The Reef or Parkers’ Lighthouse
- Hungover Sunday: Schooner or Later or Hartland’s
- Sunset drink, minimal effort: Fuego’s patio, Ballast Point’s upper deck, or the BBC
- Burger on the beach: Grill ‘Em All
- Anniversary: Boathouse on the Bay
- Girls’ night that will be photographed: Nigel’s
- After paddleboarding: Louisiana Charlie’s
- Big group, big game: Gaucho Beach
A few things a local would tell you
Sunset is the whole game. Everything on this list is 40% better between 6pm and 8pm in the summer.
Parking is the real cost. Shoreline Village validates. Most of the marina lots meter. Belmont Shore is street parking and a prayer. Budget an extra fifteen minutes and stop being surprised.
Hours are weird down here. A lot of the waterfront spots are closed Mondays, and several of the casual ones close at 3, 5 or 6. Check before you drive.
June gloom is real and it’s coming for your sunset dinner. May and June mornings can be gray until noon. Book August–October if the view is the point.
FAQs
What is the best waterfront restaurant in Long Beach? It depends on what you’re after. For a special occasion with a harbor view, Queensview Steakhouse or Boathouse on the Bay. For a classic Long Beach institution, The Reef or Parkers’ Lighthouse. For casual eating literally on the sand, Saltwater Deck.
Are there restaurants on the sand in Long Beach? Yes — Saltwater Deck at Bluff Park, Grill ‘Em All on Ocean Blvd, and Monty’s Dog Beach & Bar at Rosie’s Dog Beach all have sand-level seating. Belmont Brewing Company’s patio sits right beside the Belmont Pier.
Is The Reef in Long Beach open again? Yes. The Reef on the Water reopened in June 2026 after being closed since the start of the pandemic. It’s currently open Thursday through Sunday, with bottomless mimosas at weekend brunch and happy hour Thursday through Sunday from 4 to 6pm.
Where can I eat with my dog on the Long Beach waterfront? Monty’s Dog Beach & Bar at Rosie’s Dog Beach is the most dog-focused, with a menu for dogs and a rinse-off hose. The Crab Pot and Saltwater Deck also welcome dogs on their patios.
Can you dock a boat at Long Beach restaurants? Yes — Alamitos Bay Landing (Boathouse on the Bay, The Crab Pot, Ballast Point) and Rainbow Harbor both have guest docks, making Long Beach one of the better dock-and-dine cities in Southern California.
What’s the best waterfront breakfast in Long Beach? Schooner or Later on Marina Drive for the full sit-down experience, Hartland’s on Ocean Blvd for a breakfast burrito with an ocean view, Saltwater Deck for eating on the sand, or Fuego at Hotel Maya if you want the downtown skyline with your coffee.
Are there waterfront restaurants near the Queen Mary? Yes. The Observation Bar is on board the ship itself, The Reef on the Water sits just across from it on Harbor Scenic Drive, and Fuego at Hotel Maya is a short drive around the Queensway peninsula with skyline views back toward downtown.
