Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?

A. A restaurant.

Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

A. In Newport Beach.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 27 (of season one), "The Ties That Bind", in the scene where Seth walks into the restaurant, planning to interrupt the meeting of Summer, her father and her new boyfriend (Zach); but Seth chickens out at the last moment when he sees that Zach seems to be making a much more favorable impression on Summer's father than Seth did himself (when the trio went out to dinner).

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. An actual restaurant, but not in Newport.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. The restaurant was actually called The Breakwater Steak, Jazz & Seafood, located just outside the Portofino Hotel, at 260 Portofino Way, in Redondo Beach. New owners have recently renamed the restaurant Baleen Los Angeles.

This fine restaurant is located on the west side of the Redondo Marina, right across the water from two other O.C. restaurants: The Balboa Lighthouse and the Yacht Club. They're open for lunch and dinner if you want to stop by for an O.C. experience.

Here is a photo map link.

Here is a link to the restaurant's official website.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. This was fairly easy. For once, the real name of the restaurant was on the front of the restaurant in the scene.

On The O.C., they call Harbor Drive "The Balboa Lighthouse", and they call the Bluewater Grill "The Yacht Club", but the Breakwater is really the Breakwater. So all I had to do was check the Yellow Pages for the address. (That was before the name change to "Baleen Los Angeles".)

(As you can see in my photo below, the Breakwater restaurant is tucked away on the other (west) side of the marina, with a nice view of the boats.)