I’d like to start by saying how mad I am that I only recently discovered Dive Coastal. I was invited to attend the 5 year anniversary party, but couldn’t make it. Come to find out, it’s right by SMU, my alma mater. Um what?!?! I have no excuse. I had to come in sooner or later.
For a casual Friday date night, I brought the boyfriend on one of my foodie adventures and we had such a great time. Dive Coastal is a fast casual seafood restaurant in Highland Park. Some of you may not know this, but I work for a technology company that caters to the restaurant businesses, fast casuals being one of our most important segments. So it’s always cool to see new concepts changing the restaurant industry and standards.
Berry Sangria. Refreshing and perfect for a Friday night.
Walking in, it’s such a cute restaurant. There’s a small area made just for kids, communal tables and a regular booth and table dining section. The space is open with simple metal furnishings and tasteful “coastal/sea” decorations. We had an opportunity to meet the owner Franchesca Nor and talk about the diverse menu. I could see she’s passionate about food and where it comes from. She takes great pride in sourcing her fish from the best places and I couldn’t help but admire that. Everything sounded so delicious, we couldn’t wait to dig in!
For starters, we tried the Dive Ceviche and the Jack Knife Tartare. Both were beautiful and a pretty decent portion size too.
The ceviche is made of striped bass that is marinated in lime juice, mango, cilantro, onion, and comes with a kick. It’s served with house-made paintain chips and was fresh and delicious.
I preferred it over the Jack Knife Tartare, which is surprising because I’m a sucker for anything tuna. It’s a mix of ahi tuna, grilled shrimp, striped bass and served over mashed avocado with plaintain chips. There was a sour smell that I couldn’t get over, but the boyfriend loved it. I was more than happy to consume the ceviche and let him have it.
Next up were these amazing kale rockefeller oysters. Typically, comes in 3, but Franchesca was nice enough to throw in an extra so that we could each have two.
These are rich in flavor and delicious. It topped with kale, pesto parmesan, and bacon. If that’s not an explosion on your tastebuds, I don’t know what to tell you. Definitely a thumbs up.
Next were the mussels and I am a huge fan of mussels. These came highly recommended and is a house favorite. We absolutely loved the mussels. The portion is abundant, not a bunch of empty shells, and the broth is so savory. It’s made with champagne, tomato, garlic, and CHORIZO! After the mussels were long gone, I was sipping it as though it were soup. I could seriously just drink it.
Approaching food coma status… And we weren’t done. I’m so glad we didn’t opt to order two entrees and decided to just split one. We tried the snapper over chorizo hash and cilantro rice.
The snapper, which was imported from Chile, was cooked perfectly. It was moist, the meat was flaky and seasoned perfectly. The chorizo hash was a bit deceiving. It was definitely more of squash or veggie “hash” with bits of chorizo. Definitely gave the plate a nice pop of color and a complement to the snapper. The cilantro rice balanced everything out really well too.
To end the night with bang, we made some serious room for the banana split.
This beautiful monstrosity of a banana split was out of this world. One large scoop of french vanilla and chocolate on each side covered in crushed Heath bar sat on top of barely visible bananas and served with whipped cream, berries, chocolate sauce, and sliced almonds. Each perfect bite of ice cream, caramel crunchiness from the heath bar, almonds, whipped cream and chocolate…so good. I described this as the answer to all my woes. I could literally cry into a bowl of this. We made a valiant effort to finish this. I’m still dreaming about this dessert. Holy moly!
Dive Coastal is a great place for it’s high-quality food, casual environment, and friendly service. It’s family friendly and affordable. The menu is quite diverse, offering salads, wraps, a variety of appetizers, sides, and full entrees. There is also a kid’s menu as well. Definitely take a peek at the dessert menu. If the key lime pie is as good as they say, you don’t want to miss out on crying into your food. I will most definitely come back.
Deep Fried Fit received a full media comp for her meal at Dive Coastal. However, all her opinions are her own.
