My wife and I were on a scenic drive down the Oregon coast not too long back. We were staying overnight at the Hallmark Resort Hotel in Newport. By the time we booked in at reception and headed to our room it was after 7pm. We were really hungry after our long drive and decided to take a chance on Georgie’s the hotel restaurant. We rolled up about 7.30pm and the place was packed to the max. The hostess said that it would be a 20 – 30 minute wait to get a table inside the restaurant.
I
headed to the bar and grabbed an ice cold IPA. My wife was excited taking photos with her huge Nikon DSLR because the sun was setting over the ocean and it looked beautiful. We scored a booth table beside a window with a panoramic ocean view. A lovely server named Tami came by to take our dinner order. We relied on Tami’s opinion quite a bit because this restaurant was a complete unknown to us.
I kicked things off with some FRIED CALAMARI ( spicy breading and presented with spicy aioli ) for our appetizer. In the meantime a complimentary serve of the most beautiful fresh SOURDOUGH ARTISAN BREAD arrived at our table. Man was that bread fabulous ! My wife ordered the DIABLO SEAFOOD PASTA ( Shrimp, crabmeat, wild salmon, and scallops tossed in a sweet and slightly spicy three-cheese cream sauce with fettuccine ).
I chose the FISHERMAN’S STEW ( Clams, Northwest cod, shrimp, wild salmon, calamari, fresh Dungeness crab, Newport bay shrimp, fresh herbs and wine wine simmered in a zesty tomato broth..served with Parmesan garlic bread ). I was chomping away at the fresh Sourdough Bread and my sensational Fried Calamari with Spicy Aioli Sauce while taking in the incredible sunset going on before our eyes. Our meals arrived quickly and oh my God did they taste great.
I was starting to realize that this hotel restaurant is not your everyday hotel restaurant. There was some serious pride going on that kitchen…a supreme culinary artist was at work ! My Fisherman’s Stew was so full of seafood that I didn’t even have to pick it out. I tried my wife’s Diablo Seafood Pasta and I think the sauce was the best I have ever tasted. We had finished most of our meals when Tami came by and asked if we wanted dessert.
Well what Tami described we wanted so we ordered the CREAMY TILLAMOOK ICE CREAM WITH CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE. The dessert was totally decadent ! It was getting on to almost 9.30pm when we handed our credit card with the bill to Tami. We had a hell of a time and thanked the stars we had dinner at this extraordinary restaurant ! Oh I need to add we found out later that Georgie’s Beachside Grill was voted BEST RESTAURANT IN NEWPORT !
