The 23 Best Places in Newport Beach

Fifteen acres of Newport Beach waterfront, a Forbes Four Star resort where the concierge can send you off in a vintage Mustang, color of your choosing, with maps and a packed picnic basket. Summer concerts, outdoor films, and Fourth of July barbecues keep the calendar full. Drive the coast toward Laguna Beach, and if the timing cooperates, blue whales and dolphins are out there doing their thing too.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Anchored in Fashion Island with floor-to-ceiling windows pulling California sunshine into every room, this hotel earns its Michelin Key for putting SoCal polish ahead of resort cliche. Art deco interiors run through 295 guest rooms, a sleek steakhouse, and a pool bar pouring Baja-flavored bites alongside cocktails. Ocean views are easy to come by here, which is either the point or the whole thing, depending how long you plan to stay.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

The dining room looks straight out over the water at Newport Beach, which would be enough for most restaurants to coast on. This modern New American spot holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and earns it by pairing that view with a menu that swings from inventive vegetable dishes to an ambitious slow-roasted porchetta. The crowd comes for the scenery and stays because the food keeps surprising them.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

Red booths, a Rat Pack haze, and martinis that mean business: A Restaurant is the kind of old-school American steakhouse that Newport Beach keeps expecting someone to replace and never does. Niman Ranch pork chops and Mary's organic chicken anchor the menu alongside the steaks, and the chicken pot pie appears only on Mondays and Fridays, which somehow makes regulars plan their week around it.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

An upstairs omakase spot above Pacific Coast Highway where the fish comes from Japan and the menu follows the seasons like it has somewhere to be. The kaiseki-style progression moves from delicate cold bites through sashimi and nigiri to dessert, each course composed with the kind of precision that makes you slow down mid-bite. Newport Beach casual this is not, but the room is chic without being stiff about it.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

Complimentary Stanley coolers and beach bags packed with towels greet you at check-in, which sets the tone for this 25-room boutique hotel one block from the Balboa Peninsula shore. The rooftop deck looks out over the harbor, and the whole place leans hard into the idea that you came here to do nothing useful. A low-key, sun-faded-in-a-good-way escape for anyone who doesn't need a sprawling resort to feel like they're on vacation.

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

A strip-mall butcher shop and deli in Newport Beach where the pastrami is cured in-house and the beef for the smash burger gets ground the same day. The Italian sub runs through Genoa, coppa, and soppressata, and the rotating specials board keeps things interesting. Regulars who already know their order fill the counter fast. Cheese, charcuterie, and house-made salads line the cases for the road.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants
2. Los Angeles Times #91 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. LAist Smashburger · Best Bites

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Low lighting and large paintings set a chic tone at this upscale Italian spot in Newport Beach, where the open kitchen pulls the room's attention without trying too hard. The chef comes from a lineage of cooks and farmers in southern Italy, and the menu moves between wood-fired pizzas and house-made pasta, with tiramisu to close things out. Fine dining prices, but the mood is more candlelit dinner than white-glove occasion.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants