Big Wave Cafe

Fresh & Delicious! For those saying the prices are high: cheap fish ain’t good and good fish ain’t cheap. The prices are average for the product: fresh fish, not frozen nuggets with steak fries. Speaking of fries, Big Wave serves beer battered style fries! Delicious! Instead of running the mill coleslaw, a side of seaweed salad! Perfect touch. Tatar sauce was upscale too. Grilled halibut was perfect and tender as was the Wild-caught Salmon. Clam chowder was thick and average tasting. Salad was greens, not romaine or iceberg. Excellent quality for an average of $30/person with plenty of food. Definitely worth the stop.

Absolutely the most delicious homemade "Today's Special" Salmon Fish & Chips with a bowl of Clam Chowder!

The staff is friendy, attentive, and providing warm, welcoming customer service.

Thank you.

Big Wave is certainly among Manzanita's best restaurants. They provide arguably the nicest dining room in town and fry their seafood flawlessly. Perhaps a tad expensive, but I think they make the case that they're worth it. Their Captains Platter was generous enough to serve two at lunch. They make a fine salad and their desserts are worth considering. Service was most attentive, too. There's nothing special about their view of US 101, but the natural light from their large windows is a plus on a cloudy day.

Great little place with some delicious seafood. Everyone loved the food they ordered, it took a while to get there but that's OK. A great place to take your family when at the coast.

I would certainly recommend this place if you're in the area. Great food at a great price.

Excellent fish and chips with halibut!!! Really fresh steam clams too. Awesome service from Jordan. Definitely worth it to stop by for some delicious seafood.

We dined here on Christmas Eve Eve and had a fantastic experience! Definitely recommend! We enjoyed the crab cakes as an appetizer, a side salad and cup of clam chowder, and our entrees were the sea scallops and the captain's platter. We finished with a slice of peanut butter pie and marrionberry pie. All was so tasty!!

When you walk in there are boards that tell you where the seafood is from and we felt the prices were reasonable for what we got. There were plenty of other menu options if you aren't looking for seafood and we will stop in again to try something new!

Our service was kind, attentive, and made great recommendations. The restaurant was pretty quiet, maybe a little too quiet, so that is the reason behind 4 stars on atmosphere. Small comment, we still enjoyed our meal and time!

Very enjoyable experience. Great server, delicious dinner and a fun stout beer. Rare Prime Rib was perfect, excellent clam chowder, a great burger and tasty fries. These folks do a great job from start to finish. We look forward to a future visit !!

My husband and I ate here on a Monday night so it was quiet.
Everything was super fresh. We had a small steak and it might be the best I've ever had. Perfectly cooked and I rarely eat steak. The seafood was very fresh. We had the crab starter and added shrimp to our salad. Also had halibut.

Had a wonderful dinner. Nice selection of seafood, steak and Prime Rib (Saturday). Service was very good, pleasant. Overall a great place to eat on the coast.

This place has quickly become one of our favorite Oregon Coast restaurants. We’ve eaten here a few times, and we’ve always had great amicable service, and great food quality. Fresh ingredients, dishes are professionally and tastefully prepared and arranged. Excellent oysters and halibut, loved the fillet mignon, enjoyed the breaded oysters and the calamari!

Good food and nice atmosphere! The ciders they have were very tasty as well! And you can't go wrong with a slice of the marionberry pie

Absolutely loved it. The key lime pie 🥧 was authentic. Most try... the amazing employees were great and smooth. Food was very good. The halibut was just right . The halibut sandwich was just as good .

We ate here twice during our one week stay, it was so good my daughter was upset it was closed wed & thurs. Tonight we had clam chowder, crab salad, crab cakes, key lime pie. Everything was great start to finish. David our server was great too!

Had a fantastic meal as always!! I have never been disappointed any time I have come to visit here!! Food is always fantastic, and service is always fast and friendly!!

We stopped here for a family dinner after Thanksgiving and it was really good. I had the fish and chips and it was well cooked and not too greasy. We also tried the grilled halibut which was very good. The French Dip sandwich was very tasty and tender. We had a great server that gave excellent service. All in all it was a very good experience.

One word... YUMM!! This place is great. Took a trip out to the coast yesterday and this place had amazing reviews so we figured we'd give it a shot. Let's just say... it lived up to the hype. Food was delicious. Some of the freshest seafood I've had in a long time. We had calamari with amazing chipotle aioli, the special oyster BLT and the halibut fish and chips. All so very good. Definitely recommend checking it out if you are in Manzanita!!

ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!!
So many delicious choices, and all of them are amazing.
Great service. The owner blends in with the waitresses.
The best seafood I've had anywhere.

If you live anywhere within a 200 mile radius, definitely worth the drive.
Plus, the road to get here, 101, is one of the most scenic drives in the country.

Wow! This place really impresses.

Food: 5/5
Had the special, sesame crusted seared ahi tuna (pictured). Was perfectly cooked and a wonderful presentation. Split that and the standard burger with my wife. The burger was one of the best I’ve had in a long time, and I get a lot of gourmet burgers.

Service: 5/5
The most surprising thing was the great service. They were very attentive. The exec chef Brian came around to ask how meals were and even topped off a few draft beers for a very hospitable touch.

Atmosphere: 5/5
The outside is very unassuming, but the inside shows a close attention to detail. Beautiful woodwork and very clean. It gets a little loud when crowded, but nothing that distracted from the experience.

Overall: 5/5

This place has never failed. Staff is friendly and it's nice and cozy. Food is always fresh and delicious. They have a good thing going 😁

I have driven by this place many times and also seem to remember it being listed in an Oregon guide as the place to go for the latest gossip in Manzanita, but only stopped by now. Not sure about gossip, but we enjoyed having lunch after a visit to Nehalem Bay. Lots of seafood, steaks, sandwiches, and burgers are on the menu. Service was very fast and friendly, clam chowder, calamari, fish and chips, were all very fresh, and excellent. Calamari were delicately breaded with Panko, and served piping hot, along with fish and chips. Would definitely recommend.