The Bluewater Grill is located In downtown Carlsbad across from the train station. The restaurant is in the former Fish House Vera Cruz Restaurant.
It is set up with a bar and tables to the right as you walk in and also the outside dining is to the right also. In the center is a small counter where you can get fresh fish for home cooking. To the left is the main dining room.
The ringing room is situated as a U shape and gets very loud as there are no sound barriers or dampeners. The floor is wood and
Appetizers
Grilled Spanish Octopus :
Fingerling potatoes, smoked paprika aioli and pickled onion
I started with the Octopus appetizer.
It’s three legs fire-grilled with a nice char on them. It is accompanied by fingerling potatoes, pickled onions, and smoked paprika aioli.
The Octopus had a nice char with it not being overpowering or burnt. It is not heavy on spice but you can tell it has some like of the smoked paprika and salt.
The aioli is very garlicky with nice citrus back like lemon.
The fingerling potatoes did nothing to add to the flavor of this and could be left off with no flavor difference.
The added parsley does add a much-needed fresh and herbaceous note to this.
This is a great appetizer and wishes it was a mane with more as it is very reminiscent of fresh octopus in Portugal or Korfu
Main Dishes
San Francisco Cioppino :
A zesty marinara sauce, clams, mussels, crabmeat, shrimp, scallops and fish
This Cioppino is more on the sweet side with the marinara sauce needing more spice and a herbaceous note.
The seafood is of clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, calamari, and fish (salmon and another firm white fish). It is lacking in scallops as I had only one, and the shrimp were two head-on prawns. There was no crab meat in this as they claim. The fish was cooked well for the salmon but the white fish was still firm and maybe overcooked just slightly.
This is a good Cioppino but does need some spice and heat to cut the sweetness
