Mastro's Ocean Club

My husband and I have been going to Mastros for years and have had so many wonderful experiences dining there. Recently, my friend and I were talking about OC restaurants we loved when she told me she’d never eaten there before. I made a reservation on OpenTable and was really excited to be able to bring her to her first Mastros dining experience. Unfortunately, the evening of the reservation, I was running 9 minutes late but was relieved when my friend called me 7 minutes prior to the reservation time, saying she had arrived early and was going to ask to sit at the bar if the table wasn’t ready. The left turn lane to enter Crystal Cove was significantly backed up so I called my friend to make sure she went inside under our reservation (which was for the bar area) b/c I was concerned that if she hadn’t, by the time I parked/walked over I would be arriving 15 minutes past the reservation time. When she answered the phone, she told me that the hostesses told her there was no reservation under my name. I sent her the email confirmation, parked, walked over and she was still waiting to be seated. I apologized to the hostesses for running late and was told we could still be seated but needed to be done by 7:30pm so that the table could be turned over for the next reservation - this gave us 1 hr and 45 minutes which was completely fine. The hostesses did have a bit of an attitude but I was willing to let it go, after all, I was running late. Once we sat down, I asked my friend why she wasn’t able to sit down earlier and she reluctantly told me that the hostesses were incredibly rude and condescending during both interactions she had with them. Upon arriving, she was told there was no reservation and after showing them the confirmation 20 minutes later, she was told she couldn’t be seated b/c I hadn’t arrived yet and that we were “late”, despite her arriving early and asking to be seated. I’ve never known this to be their policy and additionally, my friend saw several groups get seated without their entire party being present. Maybe the hosts misheard her when she initially gave them my name but they acted as if the first interaction never occurred and it really put both of us off that they felt the need to emphasize not being on time when in reality, the reservation hadn’t been pulled up correctly. My friend, who has worked as a server for many years, was genuinely taken aback by the demeanor and tone of the hostesses. She told me that if I was treated the same way she was, she was going to suggest we eat somewhere else. The interactions with the hosts really put a damper on the mood/energy but I assured her the rest of the experience would be great. Aside from the food which is always great, the rest of the evening was extremely subpar and felt incredibly rushed. We were asked at least 1/2 a dozen times if we were done eating (while actively eating) so that plates could be cleared - I’m assuming they just wanted to assure we were done by 7:30 but this was a bit much…1 hr and 45 minutes to eat is still A LOT of time (also, I don’t know if this is important but we only ordered drinks, oysters, salad, a filet, and one side dish so it wasn’t like we ordered tons of food with lots of plates to clear and taking forever to get through each plate we ordered). I really hated writing this review but felt like it needed to be addressed b/c I’ve never had this experience at Mastros before. My friend has stage 4 cancer and we were there to celebrate her upcoming wedding but it wasn’t the fun, celebratory dinner I thought it would be. The overall experience in regards to service was just extremely disappointing.

Wife’s selection for her birthday dinner- Fave fish, halibut, was in season and delicious. Bone in rib-eye medium rare was well marbled and melted in the mouth. Medium-rare petite filet was more “perfect” than that of a werewolf drinking a pina colada.Tuna tartare, wild mushroom and black truffle gnocchi, garlic mashed potatoes and chopped salad were all spot-on! Service was impeccable and the butter cake was the perfect tastes sensation finale! The grey goose martinis with stuffed blue cheese olives eased us into the evening and the red wine eased us out. All in, a fun celebratory evening. Recommend you order what you like - think you will love it!

Upscale Restaurant. View of ocean on the patio. Ordered Bone-in Filet which was excellent. Reservations required.

Highly recommend the Chilean Sea Bass. Underwhelmed by the Brussels Sprouts and Butter Cake… very noisy atmosphere deterred from the experience. Overall, food and service was good.

Amazing setting and ambiance in this restaurant! We got an ocean view the last time we came. Food is great! I highly recommend coming for a romantic dinner or celebration. Both times we came we felt the service could have been better in comparison to other restaurants of this level but great experience and great foods.

I love the music and the bar , cocktail is my favorite