"Gulfstream is essentially Houston’s with a lighter and breezier aesthetic and a menu that mixes in Gulf Coast seafood with the usual lineup of cheeseburgers, kale salads, and ribeyes. The Newport Beach location sits near Fashion Island, the luxury shopping center that probably supplied most of the designer handbags and boat shoes you’ll spy in the dining room. We appreciate that there’s a small raw bar where you can slurp fat Pacific oysters, but the unique dishes you’d come here for—clam chowder, barbecued shrimp in creole cream, a seared ahi salad straight out of the ‘90s—are mostly just fine. Where Gulfstream has clear superiority is its patio, a shady, string-lit backyard with fire pits that overlooks PCH." - brant cox, sylvio martins, garrett snyder