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An overhead shot of a grilled steak sliced onto a dark round cutting board and surrounded by other dishes like scallops and vegetables.
Set Steak & Sushi’s perfect set meal.
Set Steak & Sushi

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Big Money Comes to Party at Orange County’s New Steak and Sushi Spot

Set Steak & Sushi does dry-aged beef, caviar bumps, and whole tempura lobster inside the brand new Pendry Newport Beach

by Farley Elliott
Photography by Set Steak & Sushi
Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

The Orange County steak and seafood contingent has a lot to be excited about these days, as Newport Beach’s glossy new Pendry hotel opens wide with ocean views, 295 rooms, and the luxurious indoor-outdoor Set Steak and Sushi restaurant inside.

Run by Clique Hospitality, a large group that oversees projects in Las Vegas, San Diego, and beyond, the new Set Steak & Sushi is primed to become one of the ’it’ spots for the coastal area near Corona Del Mar. As the ampersand name notes, the restaurant focuses equally on grilled meats and raw fish, all served under the direction of group chef Jose Ruiz who also oversees San Diego’s Lionfish and Serea. Chef James Jung, a Nobu vet and former chef de cuisine of Yellowtail in Las Vegas under Akira Back, is also on the new project, with its tall ceilings, wood-lined dining room, and airy open patio set underneath a pair of towering trees.

Set’s menu offers expected options like Parker House rolls and a Caesar salad, and more surprising options like a bluefin tuna pizza, whole lobster tempura, and lacquered duck with scallion pancakes. Dry-aged steaks are available, as are specialty rolls and seafood towers with plenty of caviar add-ons available. This is one for the spendy Orange County crowd, to be sure; the opening menu can be found here.

Rolls of raw fish sit in a tan broth inside of a stone bowl on a marble table.
The Baja trio with bluefin tuna, shrimp, striped bass, and caviar with rocoto leche de tigre.
An overhead shot of a round pizza with tan truffle shavings atop raw seafood on a white cutting board.
Bluefin tuna pizza with truffles.

Set joins a slew of other busy projects that have come to the coastal waters of Orange County lately, from Broad Street Oyster Company out at the Huntington Beach pier to the glitzy new Palmilla Cocina y Tequila down on Balboa Peninsula. More projects are on the way too, including Orange County’s first Sugarfish and Kahani, the county’s most anticipated new Indian restaurant in years.

The new Set Steak & Sushi is now open and serving dinner at 690 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660.

An overhead shot of slices of duck with pancakes and accoutrement on a wooden cutting board against a marble table.
An order of duck with side dishes like wagyu beef carpaccio.
A dim dining room with marble tables looks out onto a wide open patio with hanging lanterns in trees.
Inside the dining room at night.
A wide patio of wood under two trees with lamps at an evening outdoor restaurant in Orange County, California.
Ample patio space.
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