Lure Fish House in Westlake, CA

We had a very lovely 25th Anniversary vacation over the July 4th holiday. One of the restaurants we went to deserves a review.

Lure Fish House was a pleasant surprise. Being from Boston always keeps me on the look out for good, fresh seafood. In 20 years the only good seafood that comes close to Boston seafood is in San Fransisco. Unfortunately we don’t get that far up north very often, so to find good seafood in the Los Angeles area was exciting.

Owner David Cortina has more than 20 years experience in the restaurant business, and spent months bringing the Old California Mining Co. to its vision and how the food is presented. He now has 3 Lure Fish houses just a few miles from each other in Ventura county.

We visited the Westlake restaurant. We had a 30 minute wait at around 6:30pm. The restaurant is located near several large hotels, and was quite busy. The noise level was moderate considering there were many large parties. The lighting was dim, but we enjoyed the roomie, large booths. Service was great!

Lure Fish House offers between 6 and 8 fresh fish per night. This is one of the things I thought particularly unique about Lures. Most restaurants offer no more than 3 fresh fish if you’re lucky. Lure offers several appetizers, and quite a few salads. They also specialize in fresh oysters, and offer several varieties of fresh oysters at a very large oyster bar.

The menu offers fried and charbroiled seafood as well as fresh Maine lobster in several weights. I ordered the 1.5 lb. lobster that came prepared with the tail grilled, and the claws shelled, but slightly cracked for easy de-shelling. The lobster head was included for presentation, and the price was right, only $32. It was cooked and prepared just right. It was delicious!

During our trip we had bowls of chowder at several different restaurants. Everyone thinks they are the chowder “king”. In my opinion chowder should be made with a bit of sautéed onion and celery, clam juice, tender clams, cream and very little flour. Thick chowder with potatoes is not appetizing to me. It’s called clam chowder for a reason. Lure clam chowder, was clam chowda!! It was prepared with very little flour and no potatoes. It even had a slight “kick” to it from just the right amount of pepper seasoning.

You must visit Lure Fish House next time you’re in Ventura county! All I can say is “move over Legal Seafood!”

 

Lure Fish House in Westlake, CA

Very nice booths

Real “Clam Chowda”

1 1/2 lb lobster

 

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San Francisco vacation

The winding city of cool bay breezes

For me, travel is about soaking in the sights and sounds, relaxing, and exploring a new environment. It’s about snapping that perfect picture or capturing that moment. I made sure to snap photos of the things I ate so that I could share my food experiences in addition to the beautiful places we encountered.

Officially this is the last family vacation with our daughter in the home. It’s also a great opportunity for her to take photos of Northern California. She heads off to college this weekend, so this was a kind of send off vacation. It was also an opportunity to visit Northern California in preparation for my “Life without kids bucket list”

We began our summer vacation on a beautiful sunny day in the beginning of August. Cruising the 101 up through LA and Ventura county was amazing. It’s still so surreal to me to be living in California. I know it’s been over 20 years that this Boston, seafood lovin’ girl came out here, but I am blessed to be able to live in such a beautiful state. I don’t take living 7 miles from the beach for granted.