Rockin’ Baja Lobster Coastal Cantina

Love the bar! Love getting to see the food being made first hand… and love the bartenders that help make the experience better!!! Xoxo donny!

Awesome place! Donny and Luis are great Behind the bar and the Management is AMAZING!

Food was pretty good, a little over priced. Service was horrible. Went in on a Tuesday this past week, they weren’t really busy. My waiter hardly came over to check on us, didn’t bring us plates to eat on (my friend and I had ordered a bucket to share), I literally was eating off a napkin. And to top it off didn’t wait to collect his tip, he came over and grabbed it off the table in front of us, and the day after, I was checking my bank acct, turns out the waiter decided to add a ten dollar tip onto what I had already given him, as well as over charging my friend. When I called today to ask the manager to refund me that unauthorized amount and I asked the manager what had happened all she could tell me was the waiter had pressed the wrong button… Safe to say I won’t be returning. If you do go just make sure you check your bank account after.

I love this place, get the mussels you will not be sorry, best things I’ve put in my mouth, so Yummy! Everything is delicious and the staff is excellent and the drinks are so good. I go back all the time. It’s a really fun place.

New in town and «looking for a place to call my own» when I stumbled upon this gem! Absolutely fantastic food, and the atmosphere takes you away to the nostalgic seaside days of yore. I thoroughly enjoy the camaraderie of the staff who truly make this place one of a kind, especially Tiffany, the «hostess with the mostest», and the bartender Donnie or «Shockley» as he is called by the regular patrons, of which I will become myself when I’m in the area. I highly recommend the Seafood Skillet which is the perfect mix of garlicky deliciousness and cheesy delight. I will be trying one of their seafood buckets the next time I’m in town with a friend to help me eat it all. If there was a TEN star rating available on Unilocal,this place would definitely get it from me!

This has got to be one of the best restaurants I’ve eaten in many years not only for their food but for their service the manager Tiffany made it a very pleasant. Thank you Tiffany for your amazing service I give this restaurant a five thumbs up,

Love this place! Yummy margaritas, great deals on beer, and delicious food! My most recent visit was the shrimp and bacon tacos which were super delicious! I would prefer a little less of the sauce, but it was still a good choice. Very filling too! Plus if you sit outside, you get a free show with the drunk people bar hopping lol. Aside from the wait, the service is great! Everyone is very friendly!

Best food ever the sea of cortez bucket is plenty off food and just an amazong bucker you will not regret eating at this place I wish I could eat at this place everyday

The service was really bad. The receptionists were not friendly at all and the waiter was rude when we told him our chips were stale. I will not be returning to this restaurant again! The food was ok, I got the bacon and shrimp tacos and they were a bit salty. I wasn’t impressed with the drinks either.

Tiffany is always pleasant every time we come in to the restaurant. My girlfriend & I have come here to celebrate Valentine’s Day every year. She was very informative about the specials. The food was outstanding, always satisfied every time we leave. Definitely a must try kind of place you won’t be disappointed.

Ordered a bucket and lobster bisque to go at the Dorymans Inn with a view of the ocean and beach nightlife. The lobster, crab and shrimp was perfect and delicious. I posted a pic of the spread. It’s worth the wait and you get so much food! Thank you to the bartender and to Rockin Baja lobster! We had an amazing Valentine’s Day! Will be back here again soon.

Walked into this restaurant because the smell of seafood attracted me. Went there with my girlfriend and sat on the patio and had a couple of spicy mango margaritas and it just hit the spot!
Our server Miguel was very informative he recommended and sold us on the valentines bucket, and it was honestly worth the price! Came with chicken carne asada and their lobster and shrimp was to die for! And to end it right it came with a free fried ice cream which was delicious!
I will Recommend this place to all my friends and family and will definitely be back!

Brought my family from out of town visiting. I think Rockin’ Baja is a good choice to dine if you have people from out of town and a group. I say this because Rockin’ Baja is right next to the pier, has big helpings of food — c’mon it’s a novelty to eat a lobster out of a bucket, and share a fishbowl with your friends! (Am I right?!), and there is pretty good service.
The only bad thing about Rockin’ Baja is the price. We were lucky enough to take advantage of Newport Restaurant Week, and each got a lunch time serving for a $ 20 3 course meal. Course 1 was a choice between lobster chowder, guac, and salad. Course 2 was a bucket of lobster, steak, chicken, shrimp, beans, rice, and corn! and Course 3 was fried ice cream. Needless to say that we were stuffed, and had so much fun. The fried ice cream surprisingly exceeded expectations, and it was the best money spent for what we got. If you go there for the regular menu, I would say ordering the bucket is still a must have but be prepared to pay $ 50 for a bucket for 2 people.

I simply love this place. I was a little surprised to find that the place was kind of empty on a Friday night. We made reservations and when we all got there late because of the traffic, they had no problems because no one was there.
My favorite location is the Old Town location where the salsa bar is close by. At this location, you have to ask the waiters for extra salsa and our guy was a little slow on the mango salsa. Although it may have had to do with the fact that my group had this guy running doubles on the drinks [we Lyfted to the place so we could, enjoy a drink or two].
We always get the bucket and its always too much but damn are the tortillas with the whipped butter. I have never had a bad experience at any of the Rockin Baja locations.

Food was okay. Service was decent. Don’t think I’d go back — mostly because the service wasn’t what I would have expected.
I was freezing so thought I’d order something to keep me warm, so I asked for coffee and the waitress said they didn’t serve any, which I found to be odd since it is a Restaurant! Then I asked for tea, and never got it.
Food was a tad better than the service, I ordered a lobster burger, sadly, it also didn’t exceed my expectations. I’d rate it a 5.5 — 6 out of 10 — definitely wasn’t worth the $ 16.00.
My boyfriend got the shrimp, bacon and jalapeño tacos & LOVED them!
Ambiance was nice, not too crowded and no drunkies around; which is nice being that there are a ton of bars surrounding the restaurant.

Hello again fellow Unilocalers! Okay this is getting a little crazy and I have never updated my reviews more than once because quite frankly, I’m not good about giving second chances. I made an exception in this case because we have been loyal customers of RBL for years.
I’m going to keep this final review short and to the point. If you haven’t read review #2 this may sound confusing.
After my last unhappy review, (review #2) I was contacted by the VP of operations and she was very disappointed to learn that our experience was not a pleasant one. She explained to me that there was a temporary change with the lobster due to product availability and assured me that things would be back to normal. She invited us back to the restaurant and encouraged us to give them another chance. WOW I’m so glad we did because everything was perfect! Although we have not been back to the Newport location yet, we did go to my favorite location which is located in Old Town San Diego. The lobster was perfectly prepared, perfect size and the service was impeccable! We have always loved this location and when we are in the area this is our spot for fun, fantastic food and tasty drinks.
On a final note, I must say that I have so much respect for RBL. I don’t know of many restaurants that will go out of their way to contact unhappy guests to rectify a situation. I was highly surprised by the VP of Ops reaching out to me with her genuine concern regarding our disappointing experience. She was very sincere and I could really feel that she really values RBL guests. Thanks so much RBL!!! You have won our hearts and patronage back!!!

You wanna have a rockin’ good time??? This just might be your bucket of food.
As usually my husband got one of his crazy cravings for lobster. After many years of marriage I learned that when his craving hits it must be appeased or there will be no peace at home, and well off to Newport we went.
We were lucky enough that make it right before the lunch crowd and with the exception of two other couples, we pretty much had the entire restaurant to ourselves. After perusing the menu my husband suggested we get the Golden Sombrero bucket for two which offers whole Atlantic lobster, Angus skirt steak, grilled chicken breast, Baja style shrimp, Alaskan snow crap legs and grilled corn on the cobb with a side of rice and beans for two, flour tortillas and the most delicious butter my taste buds had ever had the honor of meeting… their famous honey chili butter. I can eat spoonful’s that’s how good it is!
Before the bucket my husband decided he wanted ceviche, we’d never had their ceviche before and figured why not. Well, we should have stuck with the NOT. The plate was lacking in flavor and not matter how much lemon, chili and salt we sprinkled on it; it just was not doing anything for us, we just couldn’t elicit any flavor from the ceviche, this is a definite pass.
When the bucket came out we caught ourselves ooh-​ing and ah-​ing, the bucket was plain beautiful; almost to beautiful to eat… key word being ALMOST. Except that the aromas emanating from the bucket made my stomach come to life and the sucker was angrily yelling «feed me!» and well I had to oblige.
Much like the Donner party we ravenously dug in and enjoyed every morsel we could get our hands on. Quite possibly this might have been one of the very very very and I stress VERY few meals my husband and I have ever had in utter silence.
To elaborate, the shrimp OMG delicious the only thing we didn’t eat was the tail and we’re not much for eating the shell but it was crispy and oh so tasty.
Lobster just as tasty, I drench mine with butter and lemon…*drooling*, equally mouth watering were the crab legs which I also have with butter and lemon.
The skirt steak and chicken well they looked amazing and according to my husband they were… need I say more?
The corn on the cobb was sweet and the beans were surprisingly good too. I didn’t eat the rice so I can’t say much in that department.
In all this was a very successful daytime date night day… if that makes any sense.
However, consider the following tips:
Tip no. 1 be prepared to dig in with your hands and get scrumptiously dirty
Tip no. 2 if you can’t see yourself eating with your hands because it’s just too «uncivilized» for you this is not the meal for you!
Tip no. 3 do not come and order this meal if you have a fresh manicure… again this is a hands on meal and I certainly wouldn’t want to ruin a brand new manicure… though this bucket just might be worthy of it.
Tip no. 4 the bucket had a lot of food and really there is no need to order an appetizer unless you really want to but you may end up with some food to take home… I don’t know about you but some sea food just wasn’t meant to be eaten the same the next day.
Tip no. 5 order yourself a cold one, sit back, enjoy and dig in!

Wonderful staff, great service, great food even for a party of 11 ON Thanksgiving! Huge portions! Fish and chips were great! The nachos were enough for about 4 people and it was an appetizer! I would recommend this to everyone! Thank you Louis for the great service!

Wanted to check this place out for a while but I have been waiting for the off season. Finally did today. Sat myself easily at a table and immediately had a generous, complimentary basket of fresh and nicely seasoned chips with three kinds of yummy salsa, mango, red chili and green chili. Ordered a quesadilla with shredded pork. As that came out so did more chips and salsa. I filled my belly with good food and had a box to take home for later!
Luis was my waiter. Friendly and attentive.
My only complaint is that the prices on the menu posted on Unilocal do not match me menu in the store. Still very reasonable though for the portion size.

Randomly came here. This place is a must come if you love seafood.
Me and my friend shared a seafood bucket. It’s like $ 60 but has crab, lobster, and shrimp. Along with that they gave us tortillas, butter spread, beans, rice, and butter for the seafood. TON of food. But we finished most of it, and took it home.
It was fun to eat. Never had to crack crab legs to get to the meat before! So fun experience!
The seasoning on the seafood was spicy but not too spicy. It was perfect
I’m definitely coming back here one day, and recommend others to try it :)