Ports O'Call Restaurant, San Pedro, CA

Ports O'Call Restaurant
Ports O'Call, Berth 76, San Pedro, CA 90731
http://www.portsocalldining.com/
Located near the southern end of the Ports O'Call. Plenty of free parking.
Higher end. Reservations recommended for holidays, brunch and weekend evenings.

Visited: December 2009, Lunch, Dine-in


The Ports O'Call Restaurant is located on the water with a lovely view of the boats, tugs, cruise ships, and freighters that enter and exit the Los Angeles Port. It's a great special occasion restaurant, and also has a lovely Sunday Brunch.

We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch - it was a beautiful day to watch the waterway and its various birds, and the food was great as well. The menu is pretty stable, but may change around the holidays for special treats.

To start, the restaurant serves warm crispy baguettes with butter and a pesto parmesan dip. I'm such a sucker for warm bread, and the pesto was a nice touch.

I started with the special Lobster Bisque that came with two shrimp. Because the broth was based on cioppino, it had much more depth than your usual bisque. Rich and amazing. Great with the baguettes.

The Stacked 10 oz Prime Rib Sandwich ($12.00) served au jus was amazing. It comes on a lovely toasted baguette and topped with crispy onion rings and a garlic-cream cheese spread. Served with a choice of side French Fried Potatoes, Creole Cole Slaw or Mashed Potatoes, and we chose the Fries, a generous serving. The meat was super tender, and it was a very satisfying and filling sandwich.

Another very satisying entree is the Seafood Combo Tempura ($11.00), a lovely lightly battered combination of 2 shrimp, 2 scallops, fish, and a mountain of fries. The combo is served with the House Tartar Sauce and ketchup.

A holiday seasonal special was the Grilled Halibut served with shrimp with a light beurre blanc, roasted corn mashed potatoes (little bits of roasted corn kernals mixed with the potatoes) and asparagus. This really was a heavenly mixture.

We also ordered a couple sides to share (not that we needed them; the entree portions were plenty): the special Macaroni and Cheese and the Spinach with Bacon. Both were very tasty, and we would definitely order them again if offered.

It's been a long time since we attended the brunch, and that will be on our agenda soon.