Nick’s San Clemente

Our party of 4 was really looking forward to eating here and had made reservations in advance. When we called hours before to confirm and add an unexpected patron we got such an unprofessional and quite snotty response that we decided to cancel. We would have absolutely understood if we needed to wait a bit more or even if we were not going to be able to be accommodated but the attitude was exceptionally unprofessional and rude. We ended up canceling the reservation.

This is one of our favorite spots! The food is so delicious! We had the blackened fish sandwich and the ribeye melt for dinner. The shrimp taquito appetizer is a must! These sandwiches are not your ordinary sandwiches and are the best we have ever tasted. The fish sandwich arrives and is about 6 inches high and not only gets wow for the visual presentation but will get wows upon tasting! The ribeye is another decadent blend of amazing flavors. The staff is friendly and the food and drinks are amazing!

Great food, good service, but a 50 min wait to be seated make sure you make reservations

Nick, because of your super friendly hostesses, wait staff, and chefs, you just made Chel’s first visit to San Clemente one of the best times she’s had in a long, long time. So thank you!
Our server was such a sweetheart. He recommended the right eats and drinks. So that alone was an automatic 4 stars!
For dranks– Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon — not overly dry, just the way I like it. Spanish café carajillo-​spanish liquer with expresso and a huge cube. Perfect.
We ordered their pan seared Chilean Sea Bass– little crust on the outside and velvety soft inside served with lemon beurre, sautéed garlic spinach with slivered almonds and whipped yummy buttery mashed potatoes! I could’ve had two orders of this!
We also ordered prime top Sirloin — perfectly cooked medium well with lucious butter on top (yaaass!). Tender and pink just as we had hoped for! Steamed and seasoned asparagus cooked just right with still a little bite. And accompanied with that delicious whipped mashed potatoes. Can it get better? Yes!
On to dessert–
Warm butter cake– with Häagen-​Dazs vanilla ice cream on top. Gtfo! Theeee Best. Best. Best warm butter cake eVeR! Sugar crusted (which I absolutely loved and appreciated) outside and soft, moist, and buttery inside dressed with red, blueberries, and strawberries compote. Definitely one of The Best dessert I have ever devoured!!! Simply Orgasmic babeee!
Ambiance was a tad bit loud but as long as we were able to converse, it wasn’t a biggie. We had awesome seats facing the avenue. Service was awesome. Parking is on the street or there is also a public parking lot.
Nick, I ll will be back!
#love #the#first#time#always

Rae’s Chicken Pot Pie is the ultimate in comfort food! Don’t miss out on the warm butter cake! The crystallized sugar crust is AMAZING. Everything is delicious here!

Excellent service, atmosphere and food quality!
The tuna tar tar appetizer was fantastic. The Chliean sea bass was seared perfectly and tasted very fresh. A great experience and we will definitely be back!

Great place for local families with kids! We dine here often with friends and family. Very fast and attentive service to kids. They offer etch-​a-​sketch toys to young children and quickly refill drinks which is especially appreciated. Cocktails are excellent and the food is fantastic. Last night was no exception.
All around top notch. One of the best in SC.

Nick’s is delicious American food. I love their veggie burger. It is a homemade patty. Their fries are delicious as well. The butter cake is to die for. Service is always fantastic. A trip to Nick’s is always a treat. I can’t wait to go back.

Nicks was wonderful! I love the atmosphere and the seating. My husband and I made reservations around 4 through the Unilocal app. When we first got there we stood next to one other couple and were told they couldn’t find our reservation because they have a new system. (DO NOT USE THE APP!) This other couple obviously got seated before us and they made accommodations for 2 by the bar. Where we sat was awesome! It was like a booth without one side. I sat right next to my husband so it was easy to cuddle and have a full blown conversation without yelling across the table. We were instantly given menus and met our waitress. Our waitress was great! She was very informative. She let us try the wine we ordered before committing and even helped us save a buck. The wine we decided on was the Martin Ray, I usually love moscato wines, but this one is different. Can’t say that I would get it again. However, I did order a Black and Blue Mojito and it was amazing! My new favorite drink by far and I would definitely get it again. All of their cocktails sounded amazing, so we’ll definitely be back to try the rest. My husband got this tropical IPA. It smelt really good, and tasted good if you’re an IPA person, but we unfortunately are not so. Yeah back to cocktails! Lol. We also ordered asparagus fries, buttermilk fried chicken, and hot butter cake with ice cream. The asparagus fries were awesome! So much fun to eat and so tasty. It was my husbands highlight of the night. Just be sure to wait a minute to eat them, they’re a little hot when they first come out. Which should be expected. The buttermilk fried chicken was AMAZING! We’re actually from the south and grew up eating fried chicken atleast once a week. I’ve never had anything like it. This was the BOMB! Even the biscuits are amazing. They’re so soft and flavorful, and this is coming from someone who normally hates bread. Everything on that plate was devine. the hot buttered cake was had for desert was amazing! It reminds me of Gooey Butter Cake, another item from home, but 1000 times better! It’s so amazing and the ice cream that comes with it makes it perfect. I will definitely get that again, possibly everytime we come back. The cake I couldn’t find on the regular menu, so they might have a seperate desert menu. Ask for it or do what we did and just order.
Nick’s is amazing and we will be back! Such great food. Although Hapa J’s is a whole different ball park, I would prefer Nick’s over them any day. and we love Hapa’s! If you go, like I said don’t use the app, just call.
One more thing, the prices really aren’t bad. You get what you pay for. & If you’re honestly tight on money just order water. Like anywhere else, drinks are usually more money. :)

First time visit, read all the reviews and was very excited. Thankfully, the food was good.
However, I was thrown off by the service. About 7 different employees «touched» our table in one way or another. I honestly had no idea who our server was. We saw him at the initial order and then the check drop. I understand «teamwork» but some personal service would have been nice. Felt like staff going through the motions.

Hostess was friendly and nice when we walked in. Our server was ok. My water cup was dirty and fishy smell. I had seafood cioppino. It was good but way too many carrots.

Been here twice now… Family lives out in San Clemente and they always raved about this place finally came and I have to admit… They were right!!!
The service was on point… Very attentive and helpful when asked about specific menu items. I love the recommendations and suggestions they gave.
The food is delicious!!! Big portions and not a long wait, even on a crowded morning.

perfect service, perfect food. even better is the location. i love nick’s and make this my stop every time i drive down from LA. we just celebrated my son’s 7^th birthday here on new years eve, we arrived early and were seated at the kitchen table (!!!) so much fun to watch the prep work.
warm butter cake was incredible, as is my usual ahi tartare. martini’s were lovely.
further handwash & lotion in the restrooms are awesome.
cant say enough about this location! xo

My girlfriend took me there for my birthday and it was absolutely wonderful! We had the salmon plate for lunch — and for dessert, they served me the homemade butter cake that was to DIE FOR!
It came to the table warm out of the oven, and it had a beautiful raspberry glaze drizzled on the top of it. I think it had some whipped cream as well, but the cake… the CAKE was amazing! It reminded me of my mom’s home made butter cake.
I will be back sometime soon. X O LOVE NICKS!!! X O X O X O

A nice Sunday day trip to San Clemente — a lovely /​quaint & quintessential SoCal seaside village, with one of the nicest (and cleanest!) piers we’ve seen in these parts, not to mention the Med architectural theme, so very reminiscent of my hometown of Coral Gables in South Florida.
To Nick’s on Avenida Del Mar:
— nice crowd, men & women dressed casual smart
— good background music
— lovely restaurant and bar
— flavourful food, accompanied by pleasant & attentive service
— a wee bit pricey, but then this is OC and that’s ok by me
— like Nick’s outpost in Laguna Beach, similar menu with good choices /​/​she — the kale salad with chicken and me — the blackened fish sandwich /​/​all very fresh & good indeed
— the butter cake with berries and vanilla i/​cream was a perfect shared/​finish
— well worth the trip to experience variety in terms of the overall dining experience
I love San Clemente and Nick’s is a perfect & choice spot for a lovely Sunday lunch to then finish the day with a walk to the beach pier with fab views of faraway San Clemente & Santa Catalina Islands.

I really just don’t see what all the hype is about. Came here once a few years ago and remember thinking it was «kinda overpriced for nothing special.» Came back with high expectations and an open mind after a great experience at South of Nicks, but no such luck here.
We got the Asparagus Fries appetizer, which was tasty, but for $ 11 you should get more than 8 pinner asparagus sticks. For dinner I had the Rack of Ribs. The meat was soft and fell off the bone, but again it seemed like it came from one fit pig, because there was more bone than meat. The slaw salad it came with was tasty yet petite, and the skinny fries we’re just ok. You’ll see a pattern forming, but I had a bite of the Grilled Steakhouse Salad and it was just decent. My kids got a «Loaded Baked Potato,» but it was far from loaded. Once they got through the top layer of cheese, sour cream, and a few bacon bits, it was so plain that they slathered ketchup on the rest.
Maybe I’m missing something because the place was packed with a wait. I really don’t get it. Two tries now and nothing close to registering on the wow factor.

Food, service, atmosphere and wine list were all excellent. Nothing negative to say. I recommend Nicks to any foodie.
The Simidiner

I would give this place 10 stars if it were an option.
Me and my boyfriend went to dinner here on a Sunday night after making reservations using the app. We arrived a little early, but it’s ok because we were able to sit inside to wait and talk to the super sweet hostess. (Seriously, whoever is doing their hiring is doing it right because every single person we encountered was so friendly and sweet)
Got seated and wow! The atmosphere in this restaurant is unbelievable. Very romantic and gorgeous.
Our server Courtney, provided hands down the best service I have ever had. She was friendly, helpful, sincere, and efficient. Can not say enough good things about her. Can’t wait to go back and request to sit in her section.
Well time for the food. I started off with a glass of rose and my boyfriend a glass of Chardonnay. Both incredible. Large glasses in my opinion too. I got a the petite bistro salad to start. And without a doubt the best salad of my life. For my entrée I got the salmon and my boyfriend the filet. Safe to say we enjoyed it because we didn’t leave a scrap on the plate except for a small portion of potato skin because the potato was massive lol
Then of course can’t forget the dessert. Thanks to Courtney’s recommendation we got the peanut butter chocolate butter cake with vanilla ice cream. Coming from the girl with the biggest sweet tooth on this planet, the BEST dessert I have ever had. If it ever goes I don’t know how I will ever go on lol
All in all, I would NOT change a single thing about our experience. Great service, great atmosphere and great food. Already planning to go back in a few weeks.

Seriously, I just had the best salad of my life!
The kale and quinoa salad with seared salmon was outrageous.
My husband and our friend loved the deviled eggs with bacon so much we ordered seconds.
Artichoke dip and fried asparagus were nothing special, but the salad was crazy!

Getting right to the point: the butter cake: do not miss it, its really good. We came in with the family for a Thursday night end-​of-​vacation dinner, and it was a great finale to a week in San Clemente. We had some asparagus fries –tasty but kind of small for a party of 4, then all sorts of mains: fish & chips, fried chicken entrée, fried chicken sandwich, summer salad. We shared around the table, and everything was delicious (PS the leftover chicken, mashed potatoes and fries made a great breakfast hash the next morning). Then between the four of us we polished off TWO orders of the butter cake, which seemed like it was the star of every other Unilocal review, for good measure.
The atmosphere was lively, the staff was friendly, and there was a good mix of people on a Thursday night.