Gladstones Restaurant

Reviews 4

BI

Bill Mcclain

I have eaten here close to 100 times over the years. First off. I made a reservation for 8pm. We arrived at 7:59 to the desk and they had booked us at 7pm. Given the lady put us on a first come, second seated to our seats. Which to me means a waiting list! Why make a reservation if they foul that up and put you on a waiting list to be seated? Second! The menu is lacking!!! The old Gladstones yes may have been more fattening of a menu and the new menu is healthier. We all need that. But The old menu had both and I really think the restaurant should reconsider that menu. Maybe mix fried with their healthiness. If you need some help with seeing how a successful menu can combine both. Might look on Joes Crab Shack online menu. They show how you can combine the two and still . Third! What seafood restaurant doesnt serve King Crab Legs? We came here to eat King Crab legs, they only offered Snow Crab. Really!!! Thats sad! Hell, I didnt even see crab legs on the menu. You have to ask for that and the waitress didnt even offer what is fresh. If I remember the old menu offered both crab legs and lobster at current market price. Fourth!! The waitress brought us bread without any flatware, napkins or plates. The next time we saw her she was bringing out our soup. My lady friend asked politely for them and thanks her for bringing them. Started to eat the soup and maybe 5 minutes went by our meal followed. The waitress, kept bringing my lady cokes after she had drank them down a half a glass. For some weird reason never filled my glass once during the entire time we were there. Before my lady finished her meal she started to get a little sick and had to rush to the restroom. Go figure, We both had clam chowder soup, we both ate the lobster brisk with beef and some rice drowning in a sauce. The only thing she had that I didnt was 4-5 extra sodas brought to her and none brought to me. Really Strange..... Gladstones is a landmark to many of us in Southern California. I have eaten here so many times and even had a few parties here years back. After last night, This wont be my first choice to go eat seafood in SoCal. Heck the Fishermans market down the PCH has a better menu. I really am missing the old Gladstones. The owners really need to rethink that menu. Maybe add suggestion cards with the check and a drop box at the door. Might even read them to see how your old and new customers are thinking about the new Gladstones.

A

A Private User

Great, sbe takes over and ruins everything. Menu was fair but hugely EXPENSIVE. Our waitress was explaining to me that she couldnt bring any bread over to our table until we ordered drinks, but then she offered to bring water so then she could bring bread. Really? Do we really need this senseless information? Just do it, we dont care to know your behind the scenes instructions. Then, we order and she explains how our main courses will not be delivered until were finished with our first course. Guess what... Here we are (party of 4) eating our soup and ONE entree arrives. We send it back. The waitress comes to our table and starts to explain how they have two kitchens and that the one entree was prepared separately from the other entrees, which was why it was delivered first. She offered to hold it aside until our other entrees were finished, I told her to make it over again so it would be fresh. HONESTLY? We dont give a crap about your two kitchens. Make it fresh, make it right and DO YOUR JOB AND KNOW HOW TO SERVE CUSTOMERS. As it were, our entrees were delivered while we still had soup spoons in our mouths. Theres that, theres also this. Noisy toddlers behind me playing drums with silverware on the glass windows, charming. No fault of the restaurant, but didnt add to the already unpleasant experience. Not to mention nasty mother who was overly defensive of said brats. Also, be prepared for LOUD obnoxious techno-club music. Its annoying and doesnt work. Here you are watching the ocean (and the pod of dolphins playing in the waves) and you feel soothed but NOT because of this awful, hurky-jerky club music pounding your head into confusion. Annoying. I am a native and have been to Gladstones often through the years. We had friends from the UK visiting and wanted to have a truly unique, L.A./beach experience and honestly? We will NEVER return. A hugely expensive dinner that was just average at best. As my title states, dont bother. Lame experience all around...

A

A Private User

Its very strange to write a review of a restaurant where you havent actually eaten, but thats the case for me and Gladstones. I went there with my wife a few nights ago, and the service was so bad that we never actually got any food and just ended up leaving. It was perhaps 7:30 p.m. on a Sunday, and probably 75% of the restaurant was empty, but (I wish I was kidding) more than 15 minutes after arriving we still hadnt even been seated. The host claimed that the manager had told him not to seat anyone until he heard back from him (why?). As we and the other potential customers got a bit frustrated about this, a waitress went to look for the manager, but apparently couldnt find him. Later, she said that the she DID find him, but he was doing paperwork and couldnt be bothered. We decided to leave, but when we were out in the parking lot, a man who at least CLAIMED to be the manager came running out to us, asking to seat us now. Um... no. The really astonishing thing here was that the manager genuinely couldnt understand why we and the other potential customers were frustrated. He kept saying that he needed to finish this paperwork, and he confirmed that he had told the host not to seat people until he got back. Why would that bother us? I could understand how something like this could happen if the restaurant were really busy (well, no, I couldnt then either, but lets pretend), but when there are more than 40 open, clean, ready tables and most of the wait staff is watching a football game? It speaks to how poorly trained the people who work there are. There are many similar restaurants up and down this stretch of the beach--dont waste your time or money at Gladstones.

MA

Marlene Plumley

Went for dinner 8/16/2015. Gladstones was highly referred by friends for food and view. Dinner and sunset (hopefully), if I only had a reservation - 1 hour wait...sigh! UPDATE 1: 1 hour 22 minute wait! This BETTER be worth it. UPDATE 2: Some restaurants hit and some restaurant miss. All Im going to say is THIS day they didnt earn their Google and Facebook rating. Im a very easy person to wow. I was overwhelmingly disappointed in the customer service and quality of the food. The best item served to me was the iced tea. Brian was my server and was pleasant, but you could tell he was stressed. Deep frying a 2" thick piece of grade C fish will never end well. The view and location is the only thing that puts this restaurant on the radar and the only reason why theyre getting 2 stars. Learning about the theory of constraints and how to break bottlenecks would benefit this business greatly. From a customer service perspective, these were your bottlenecks: you were understaffed everywhere; bar, wait staff, bus and kitchen. Half of the tables were occupied, yet everyone was running around like headless chickens. For a summer Sunday evening this is a recipe for disaster. The servers were only focused on their areas of responsibility and not helping each other out. Somewhere along the lines you forgot the customer is the reason why youre in business. Break the bottleneck and earn my 5 star rating.