Decker Kitchen — Restaurant in Agoura Hills

Won't go back. Was hopeful based on reviews and that there is a dearth of nicer restaurants in the Conejo Valley. But we (family of 4) had a bad experience. Saturday night and it was about half full so not really busy. Server was super nice, but.... very untrained. These all happened in the span of 10 minutes...

Wife: how is the Pinot noir by the glass? Server: I don't know.

Me: what kind of oysters are they? Server: I don't know.

Wife: what is the ratio of beets to greens in the beet salad? Is it more beets than greens... is it balanced..? Server: I don't know.

Other things: Ordered the baked mac and cheese for our daughter. The bartender dropped it off at the table quickly (guess the server was busy?) saying, "Careful, it's hot," and scooted away. Well... it wasn't. It was cold. Like, out of the cooler and thrown in an oven for just a couple of seconds. Told the server and she offered to "warm it up" (wrong response) but by then our daughter had eaten some of our son's pizza and it worked out, so we asked her to take it off the bill and she seemed shocked. I ordered "the burger." SERVER: Which one? ME: "There's more than one? I didn't see a second burger on the menu..." SERVER: There are two in the system. ME: (flipping the menu over and double checking) "Only the Spanish burger is on the menu." SERVER: OK, so you want the Spanish burger? ME: "Well, I don't know now. What is the other burger?" SERVER: I don't know, there's just another burger in the system. (Another IDK!) ME: ....... I'll have the Spanish burger, please." (the burger was really good, btw) Burger came with roasted potatoes. They were totally scorched. The burger was $21 on the menu... but got the bill and was charged $24. They made the adjustment when I pointed out the difference and asked the server to change it back to $21. But still........

Anyway - bummer. Really wanted to like it -...

I really want this place to succeed and I’ve given the new location several visits since it opened. A few things that need to be addressed…

The food is generally great. The bread is as good as any I’ve had and the burger is excellent. But the last few visits were disappointing.

We were at the bar waiting for a friend to join us for dinner. It was maybe 5 PM. There was one other couple at the bar and it was not busy. The bartender seemed nice enough but his shirt was unbuttoned past his chest. Cool tats bro, but gross. He didn’t seem to know what he was doing. He didn’t even let us know there was a happy hour. Watching him take 10 minutes to make a drink was painful. He must have walked by us 3 times looking at our empty glasses and didn’t bother asking if we wanted another round. We had to constantly flag him down and ask for silverware, water, another round, and more food. He was terrible. So much so that when our friend arrived, we paid our tab and went next door for dinner.

Some friends went last week for happy hour on our recommendation and had a similar experience with the same guy. Only their feedback mentioned the furniture looking like it was from Craigslist and said something about a rusty patio table inside the actual restaurant? For the prices of the food and drinks, I...

We played hooky for the afternoon while our son was at an activity and celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary at Decker Kitchen. What a memorable experience!

The food was enchanting! We started with an alcohol-free mocktail and a couple of Oskar Blues pilsners from the tap. We followed that up with an order of their famous, 3-day rise, sour dough bread service with butter. Wow! The crust was crispy and amazing! I could not cut through it with a butter knife. We had to grip it and rip it, as they say in golf. Wait! I think I'm still chewing it!

Then, we ordered an heirloom tomato salad with homemade, crispy croutons. It contained yellow and red heirloom tomatoes with a light tomato vinaigrette. It was so light and delicious!

We then shared a margarita pizza, which was perfectly crispy and charred in their wood burning pizza oven. Check out the photos, which, by the way, don't do the food justice, regardless of their quality.

Finally, I asked whether they had a dessert menu, and the waiter acted a bit coyly while responding that he'd check. When he returned, he brought with him a complimentary creme brulee Napoleon. It was so creamy, and crispy and delicious! What an experience! We'll definitely be back, and I highly suggest you do the same.

Please check...