Red Marlin

Most Mission Beach dining either chases slider efficiency (Rosemarie's) or rooftop-deck proximity (Cannonball), and even when it aims upmarket (Moe's steakhouse darkness), it doesn't typically ask you to pay a reservation premium for specific tables. Red Marlin does. Twenty dollars buys you a window seat, fifty gets you a fire pit spot. The Hyatt location means the view delivers — Pacific swells, unobstructed horizon lines — but the operational model feels imported from convention-hotel playbooks rather than grown from the neighborhood's boardwalk-adjacent reality.

The ribeye gets consistent praise in a way that suggests kitchen competence: medium-rare arrives medium-rare, they'll split plates tableside without attitude, sides get properly portioned when you're sharing. The clam chowder runs rich enough to anchor repeat business, and the calamari holds texture better than most hotel kitchens manage when they're juggling breakfast buffets and room service simultaneously. Brussels sprouts and asparagus show up as functional vegetable options — cooked through, seasoned adequately, nothing that rewrites expectations but nothing that tanks the bill either.

The breakfast buffet trajectory tells a different story. Multiple visits reveal shrinking selections, the kind of cost-cutting that drops a Hyatt Regency experience closer to Hyatt Place territory. It's the operational compromise that happens when a restaurant serves three audiences: hotel guests who want convenient breakfast, locals celebrating birthdays (free dessert gestures still happen), and date-night couples willing to pay the window-seat tax.

Monday nights run quiet enough that walk-ins land premium tables, which suggests the weekend/weeknight gap runs wide. Service quality swings between attentive (Frank gets named specifically) and slow enough that free desserts get deployed as apology gestures. Expect business-lunch efficiency more than beachfront casual — it's a spot that works when you need white tablecloths within walking distance of the Hyatt, less so when you're hoping Mission Beach's proximity to the water translates into looser operational formality.