Engine Co. No. 28

Reviews 5

JR

JR C

From looking at the happy hour schedule, this place is in happy hour literally all the time. The only question that came to mind was when this place wasnt serving happy hour specials. I dont care if its a ploy or not, I just like the idea of happy hour all the time. Walking about 2 blocks from home, I wasnt too worried about the parking situation here but this is downtown, so it already sucks. For those wondering, yes they still have the fireman pole, but the top is blocked off, so there aint gonna be sliding down for a fast exit. Once the pizzazz wears out about dining in a former fire station, you may start to wonder where your food is. It take a bit long, and your server might be out there taking orders or even behind the bar mixing drinks. Our server was still super kool though, but the slow service and food prep makes a hungry stomach growl. -=-Happy Hour Food-=- So we sampled a bit from the HH menu. Pulled Pork Silders and Mac + Cheese were our picks. I probably wouldnt get the Mac and cheese unless you were feeding your 10 year old. It didnt bring anything special at all to the table despite the added bacon and blue cheese. Edible yes, but dont expect miracles. Pulled pork sliders, I could recommend atleast for being not dry. I would have sampled more, but decided to also get a burger from the dinner menu. -=-Dead Hippy Burger-=- The highlights here are bacon, avocado and poached egg. Everything good, and literally no way to mess this up. I dug it, but with the other dining options literally around the corner, I probably wouldnt head to Engine Co No 28 for the burgers alone. Other tempting menu items started dabbing into the $$$ range, but if the burger doesnt exactly fit, then Ill leave that territory to the other explorers. Verdict: Come and sample off the Happy Hour menu, but dont be in a hurry.

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A

A Private User

On our recent trip out to L.A., many friends and colleagues gave great recommendations for Engine Co. #28. As we wrapped up our week (on January 25, 2012), we decided to give it a try in celebration of the accomplishments made at our conference. Unfortunately, the experience was ABSOLUTELY pathetic, miserable and worst I have ever seen (my colleagues and I all work in the event planning and hotel business, so we have worked with and eaten at a wide variety of restaurants and venues). The waiter took an exceptionally long time to check on our table (even though the restaurant was not crowded) and then proceeded to laugh and roll his eyes at me when I asked how big a cup of soup was! We should have left then! The meal was brought out by other wait staff and although he walked up and down the row checking on (some of) his other tables, he never once checked to see if we had everything, nor checked to see if we needed water, etc. We had to grab him when we were ready to leave. He brought back the check and proceeded to shove it into my friends hands and walked away. He didnt thank us for coming. He didnt say have a nice night. He didnt say anything. As we were leaving, two women at another table, flagged us down as they saw that we had complained to the manager. They said they had the same waiter and had waited 2 HOURS for their food. When he had come to them the first time, he asked if they knew what dessert they wanted and they said they werent sure as they hadnt ordered dinner yet!!! Id like to put the blame on the waiter here as it seems many other people have had a good experience but unfortunately, this will not be something I ever recommend. If you do decide to go--steer clear of tall, lanky guy with braces. Hes not worth a second of your time.

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JE

Jeannette G.

The last time I was at ECo28 was over 10 years ago and at that time, this was a place to power lunch or have a nice dinner after work. Fast forward 10 years and this is what you get when the financial and accounting firms leave DTLA - a business struggling to find its new identity in the new DTLA. What brought me in their door was their $35 pre-fix DineLA dinner. On paper, the offerings seemed pretty good. But, as my dishes started to come out, I came to the realization that there was no thought on their execution. It was like someone said - lets throw all of these things together, if they are good separately, then together they will be great. An example of this is their short-rib appetizer, which I chose. I thought I was going to get an adequate portion commensurate to my entree that was to follow. Instead, I got a full plate of short ribs enough to have satisfied me for the night. I am not complaining about the portion, gosh no; I just wish they had not lathered them with your run of the mill BBQ sauce, and it was cold at that. Had they just braised them, and served them with their homemade cold slaw - that would have been perfect. My entree, the fillet mignon with shrimp was overkill (see picture). The meat alone was OK as were the shrimp; but Im no sure both potatoes and vegetables were necessary (one or the other would have been fine). Yet, the overkill was all of this yumminess sat in a pool of a balsamic reduction. A couple of balsamic reduction lines at the bottom of the plate would have been perfect. Seriously, I ordered the surf n turf not soup. All in all, ECo28 is outdated, both the interior and its menu need a makeover. I hope they do get it together, its a beautiful building and a good concept

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WI

William Mandrick

My only regret is not eating here years sooner. I have passed Engine Co. No. 28 a hundred times, and have always been drawn to the nostalgic building. Well...finally a friend of mine & I went last night; OUTSTANDING. First impressions; beautifully captured pre-war interior, gorgeous architecturally restored ceilings, all paired with a truly unique charm that confidently had me knowing this was going to be a great dinner. I ordered the 12 oz New York steak; honestly, Im a filet only person due to a self proclaimed OCD disgust towards fatty, grizzly steak of any nature. However, this was not the case since I trusted our waiter. The steak had me ecstatic over flavor, its cut, and the precise way it was cooked per my request. My roommate ordered the meatloaf, and was beyond satisfied...already wants to come back next week. Finally, our waiter Chad was as cool & professional as can be. He answered every one of my (many) questions, without any hesitation or aggravation and followed up with us in PROPER, genius increments of time. The fact that he would more often than not walk passed us, assess if we were eating or just socializing and then not stop to interrupt because he read our cues that all was great was beyond REFRESHING. I appreciate that enormously...thank you Chad, that is how you check on & not overwhelm customers!! I will see you guys likely next weekend. TEN out of 5 stars for sure.

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GI

gisella cummings

My husband and I met his mother and our teen daughter here Friday before Mothers Day for lunch. Weve eaten here many times for dinner and special occassions. This day was very strange. First the waiter actually struck his nose in my daughters ice tea to try and determine if it was passon tea or not. He could not understand why we wanted a fresh glass. Food was great as always. We had both cars valet parked. When our cars were returned, we headed to San Diego. We stopped to park in downtown SD and needed to feed the parking meter. We immediately noticed the majority of my parking change was gone out of my door console. About 6 bucks in silver dollars and quarters. Now I know the ticket says "not responsible for lost valuables", but my respect for this place tumbled after that. Later I asked my daughter if she noticed anything amiss in her car, and she mentioned her change had been disturbed also. I dont want to make wild allegations about this, but when you cant even trust a valet at a nice place like this not to swipe your parking change, then why am I trusting them with my keys?

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