Harbor Reef Restaurant

dce88

Jul 3

We spent three extraordinary nights recently in Two Harbors on Catalina Island. Not a darn thing to do here and that's how I like it! Such a charming little town. Only one restaurant though so it'd better be good! We ate at Harbor Reef each night and we enjoyed it. The only other meal alternative in Two Harbors is to microwave a frozen pizza or burrito at the neighboring market LOL. The menu right now at Harbor Reef is quite limited. Maybe it's the season, maybe it's the 'rona. Most likely both! Anyway, two soups, no salads, a few heavy sounding hot appetizers and around five main dishes. Over the three nights my wife and I had tried them all. The bar opens at 4:00 pm and dinner service begins at 5:00 pm. The bar area is really nice and fills up in the evenings. The restaurant side is nicely decorated and fits the feel of a place called "Harbor Reef". The banquettes leave something to be desired though. All of the staff we encountered here were so friendly and genuine.

On the first night I played it safe and ordered a burger. Comes with the standard burger set and fries. I recommend adding the bacon. It was a nice amount and was overall very tasty, even the fries. Second night I ordered the red wine boneless short ribs. Comes with broccolini and mashed taters. I was expecting a more traditional braised style short rib that was fork tender. The version here was grilled medium rare and sliced for presentation. It was decent, but kind of tough. Needed a steak knife. The taters were really good and hot with a rustic texture. Broccolini was perfectly cooked and seasoned. Although the dish was beautifully presented, I probably wouldn't order it again.

Night 3, I went for the interesting looking pasta dish! The menu calls it "Herb Cajun Chicken Pasta Linquine Pasta". Apparently they want you to really know that this is a pasta dish! There's a lot going on with this one, including artichoke hearts, broccolini, maters, chicken, etc. I'm pretty sure they put broccolini in everything here. Unfortunately the linguine was somewhat overcooked and all broken up. Despite the pasta dish being labeled as "Cajun", there was no discernible spiciness to it, although it was richly flavored. The menu desscription curiously noted "garlic croutons" as part of this dish. I wasn't sure if this was some sort of toast point thing or literaly croutons like you'd get in a salad. Regardless, it was not included in my dish so I'll never know.