Ideal Bar & Grill

Reviews 5

JA

Jae Luiff

Now I dont give 2 star reviews based on one visit. I always visit a restaurant multiple times over a reasonable period of time to really get an honest representation of the establishments food and service. As such, my wife and I have visited Ideal a minimum of 12 times on various days, times and occasions over a 2 year period. Why so many times for so long? Well, we have friends who dont mind their food and service, emphasis on the "dont mind". If you visit Ideal with lowered expectations and just want to enjoy the view of the Bay and have a drink and a little something to help soak up the alcohol, then you wont mind the food and service. If however you are looking for a quality or even good dining experience with a view of the bay you should opt for another restaurant. The restaurant is clean, well staffed and the decorum is pleasant. With such a large staff one would expect prompt attention from servers and reasonable service times. Not so, and this is consistent. You can expect to wait at least 10 minutes after being seated before a server appears to get things started. Should you order drinks at that point expect another 10 minute wait, appetizers longer, much longer. Then be prepared to wait sometime before your server appears to take your primary order and an extended amount of time (30 minutes or more) for your food order to arrive. As for the food well, you can expect DRY flavor lacking prime rib, pot roast, burgers, steaks and fish along with greasy fried foods, often frozen appetizers, and rubbery lobster. If you just want something to fill the void go somewhere else where you can get the same lousy food (sorry Ideal) for far less than the $19.50 average price that you will spend at Ideal. Now they have their specials and their free prime rib or ribs for your birthday which is the right price for what you will get. Their only saving grace is the bar (if your able to deal with the noise level) for they do make a decent drink at market prices hence the second star. IF you must...give them a try for we all have different tastes and expectations but for me and mine...we just cant see spending this kind of loot for what frequently equates to hospital quality food and a less than Ideal experience.

---

BR

Brian Catania

Ive been here twice. This review is about the service this time, not the food. Both times I had the clam chowder and bread bowl and it is good. I dine alone when out on an excursion and this is the first time a waiter made me feel like I was a waste of his time. My thoughts are because I didnt order a big meal and was alone that meant he wasnt getting a big tip. I was saving room for dessert, however he never asked if I wanted dessert, just brought me the bill. At that point I decided not to order dessert anyway. Earlier my water was out, and my coffee was almost out. I was right across from the station where the water and coffee are. He filled a pitcher twice, thinking he was going to bring water, but no, he went to a table of 4 who had just received all their drinks and ordered and he topped off their waters while my glass was empty. He did it a 2nd time for another table of 4. Then he grabbed the coffee pot so I thought sure he was coming to my table. Nope went somewhere else with it. I still left a 20% tip, and thats on the total. I dont take the tax off to calculate the tip. Because I am aware that people in the service industry rely on tips, when I do dine alone, I usually leave closer to a 40% tip, and i have been known to leave over 50% for great service. I wish now I had left 15% instead, that would have still been more than he deserved. The name on the receipt looks like its Correll B. 8-5-17 around 6:04 is when the receipt was printed. I hope he sees this and realizes how his actions were perceived.

---

A

A Private User

So my girlfriend and I decided to stop by there last night for drinks. We sat at the bar and waited and waited... Finally a nice girl asked if the bar tender help us and we said No, so she gave us a drink menu. 20 minutes later, she asked if the bar tender had taken our order yet, and we said No. Thank god for the bar-back! Anyway, we didnt want to discount this place based on the bar. This morning, we went for breakfast. We showed up at 9:58 and realizing that the breakfast menu stops at 10am, we thought we were good. Wrong again. The 14 year old waiter wouldnt budge at all. All we wanted was a breakfast burrito and french toast, but he said we had to order from the Brunch menu because it was 10:04. So, my poor girlfriend orders an english muffin and a cup of fruit. The waiter didnt think they could "make" english muffins after 10am. Give me a break. Go back in the freezer and grab one and put it in the toaster. I ordered the french toast. To my surprise it arrived with little packets of syrup. Not a small cute container with a spout. A peel-the-top packet of syrup. Where are we, McDonalds?

---

GR

Gray Stockton

It all started with a beautiful morning in Santa Cruz, enjoying the crisp ocean air with two friends. Sounds nice doesnt it? Well, until we decided to go to the Ideal (scoff) Bar and Grill. My visit here resulted in my worst ever case of food poisoning, which included two trips to the hospital, they had to nurse me back to life. Now, its understandable that mistakes happen, however, its the restaurant managers response to my suffering which compelled me to write this review. There was no sympathy, he was actually quite rude. He began to tell me, "If we refunded everyones meal who got food poisoning here..." catching himself before further implying that it happens often enough it would be a financial drain to them to fix it. Now tell me, is that the kind of restaurant you want to be eating at, bringing your family to? Not me. I will not be eating at this restaurant ever again, and I highly suggest you also do not. In fact I will be seeing them in small claims court later this year. Thank you for reading, I hope you find better food out there than these people can provide. :)

---

A

A Private User

I want to this establishment today and i would not recommend it. You would do better with a Taco Bell. The staff did not accommodate with our dog to allow the three of us to sit on the perimeter of the patio, which only had 2 seat tables. When i asked about I they could accommodate my gluten free diet they told me that they could. I ordered the mahi mahi burger and it came with out the bun or cole slaw i asked if they could substitute the side salad instead. They ended up charging me $5.00 for the side salad and charging me full price for the burger which was basically a small piece of fish and some lettuce and 2 slices of tomato. I had to pay extra for way less food so i could get it gluten free!!! Not friendly, not intelligent and not accommodating. Dont go here. You will be disappointed. They also had run out of the first three menu requests I had. Major Fail!

---

---