Restaurant Review:

Many may think the Longboard Restaurant and Pub is more pub than restaurant. Libations are a focal point, and it takes its place among the many Main Street locations as a place to party.

But in the back, past the bustling bar scene inside, where there is usually more drinking than eating, is a far more relaxing area to dine, and it would be a shame not to take advantage of it.

The restaurant is marking its 19th year, but the building it occupies is much older. The oldest remaining building in Huntington Beach — it was constructed in 1904 — it began as a fuel and feed store and has been a Japanese grocery store, music company, Army/Navy store and Christian meeting room.

Since 1990, however, it has been a restaurant and bar and one of the more noteworthy places to eat downtown, especially on the heated patio out back.

The menu is a mixture of pub food steaks, and seafood. There are 20 appetizers, which satisfy the bar crowd, but if you are having dinner, there are a couple options worth considering.

The oysters on the half shell are a good choice, as are the jerk chicken wings, which are spiced with the famous sauce from Jamaica.

My guest and I had the sliders. The three Angus burgers come with a spicy roumalade sauce that really brought out the flavor in the burger. Not that they needed much. The quality of the beef was so good that the bun and sauce almost complicated it more than it needed to be. I was going to put cheese and grilled onions on the appetizer for an additional dollar, but decided against it and am glad that I did.

For the main meal, my guest was in the mood for a sandwich. There are both cold and hot sandwiches available.

The cold sandwiches did little to inspire me. There is a roast beef, ham, turkey and tuna, but all seemed pretty ordinary.

My guest got a vegetarian sandwich with lettuce, tomato, avocado, cucumbers, cheddar and Swiss cheese on wheat bread. I would rather see romaine or red leaf lettuce instead of iceberg, but otherwise it was a good sandwich.

The hot sandwiches would be a better choice. There is a Reuben that is solid, as is the teriyaki mahi-mahi. One I have had before that I really enjoyed was the Cordon chicken sandwich, which has a breast of chicken topped with cappicola ham.

The eight varieties of burgers are worth looking at; my choice was the Swiss, cheddar and Parmesan cheeseburger.

One of the items the restaurant is known for is the lobster. It offers a steak and lobster entrée and two whole Maine lobsters. The lobsters, which are seasonally priced, are pretty healthy looking and could definitely be split between two people.

The fish entrees seemed to be the most creative to me, and I was torn between the ginger teriyaki mahi-mahi and the Jamaican mahi-mahi. I chose the latter, and it was a decent piece of fish. The sauce is spicy, though not at first. It catches up with you as you eat the palm-sized piece of fish. The fish was a bit dry, but nothing terrible.

I would like to dabble in the non-seafood entrees next time I go there. I was attracted to the three-cheese tortellini and the jerk pork dinner, especially because I now know what the jerk sauce tastes like.

This is a place that definitely caters to the bar crowd. There are 17 beers on tap, 25 televisions inside and a host of specialty drinks.

But don’t let that deter you from eating here. The food is good, and the patio in back is a nice retreat from the crowds in the bar and out on Main Street.

The Longboard Restaurant and Pub

Address: 217 Main St., Huntington Beach

Phone: (714) 960-1896

Website: www.longboardpub.com

Cuisine: American

Specialty dish: Lobster

Alcohol served: Full bar

Entrée price range: $6.95 to $15.95

Family friendly: Yes, separate children’s menu

Credit cards accepted: American Express, MasterCard, Discover and Visa

Rating: ***

JOHN REGER reviews local restaurants and may be contacted at Nolimepublishing@aol.com or P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 90740.