Castaway Burbank — Restaurant in Burbank

It was my wife’s birthday and I had reservations for castaway. My wife always wanted to come to this restaurant and I had everything set for her. I made the reservation and called Castaway ahead of time to ask would I be able to bring my cake a day before our reservation and I was told yes! I was so excited and grateful. I picked up my cake from “Cake and Art” located at 8709 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood who done an Excellent job with the cake. My wife loves her “Cocoa Butter” Lip balm, Got it all around the home lol. I thought this would have been a great experience. I drove all the way up that hill Friday Nov. 04th at 3:45pm to hand the cake off to them. I knew since I was tall, Black and a male antennas would come up and it did. I came to the front desk and was met with this man that approached me. I felt like he has the word “No” ready for me. I can already tell he was being very explainny! I told him I spoke with someone over the phone about bringing my cake and was assured I could and even told nothing would happen to it but I was told there is “no guarantee nothing will happen”. I wonder does everyone have that experience after being told nothing will happen, it will be put up in the fridge (No worries). I asked to speak to a manager and you can tell he was searching for another excuse or explanation to say no. He used the next thing he could think of was “Managers are in a meeting and that he was a manager”. Immediately as he is saying this one of those managers that were in a meeting happen to walk by. He ran towards that manager to get to him first and proceeded to say to him “He wants to leave his cake” like I don’t understand that he is being funny and making me look like an idiot for trying to bring a cake when I spoke to someone about this ahead of time before and this was not my first time speaking to someone about my wife’s cake. I had to cut him off being I realize that’s what he was leading the manager into. Of course I wanted my cake to be held that’s the obvious but that’s not the issue. The issue is I was told I could bring the cake a day before my reservation. The attitude of this staff was everything is weird and stupid when It was asked before coming in. It’s a reservation so it’s not weird or stupid to ask whether I could. A simple No over the phone would let me know before me being told yes and driving up a hill to Burbank and wasting my gas to be met with a racial situation. You can say it isn’t but I believe I am the only person to go through this experience with them. Mostly white and Latino there anyway so of course I’m the so called Odd ball to them! He took the cake out of my hands to put in the fridge and I was really stuck by being told what I was told. As I left I thought about I bought this expensive cake for my wife’s birthday and giving to someone that didn’t value it as much as I did for her birthday was extremely disrespectful and rude. I turn around and went back. I walked in and both men were gone. There were two females there and I said to the one that was there when I presented the cake that I’d like to just get my cake back whether that is ok. When she walked away the other women there said to me “You know nothing would of happened to your cake”. I said to her “I can not gamble on a We can’t be held if something happens - I spent money on this cake for someone not to care”. I mean the attitude at this place is so reckless and disregardful. Treat me like a person that is interested in your place, so my review is an honest review of what transpired. I had to ruin the surprise for my wife’s birthday by bringing a cake home so it didn’t ruin. Thank you Castaway, Your doing such a remarkable job towards your black customers that was just looking to have a good time. We know how business today think 5 stars is what they’ve deserved but I cancelled my reservation not because i did - My wife was not pleased with the way I was treated so she decided no as well. Nice view from the top but those praise only go to God not castaway. Thank you for letting...

Wonderful….waste of time and money.

Impressive how substandard the food and furniture is by the “fire pits” $600 for the WORST, bar none, seriously the most disappointing Valentines Day dinner I’ve ever booked. See attached photos for the so called “fire pits” it’s literally just a bunch of large rocks with the most puny and insignificant flames ever, completely useless, had to ask for a heating lamp to be brought over. View is great, but it’s of Burbank so nothing too special. Drove all the way from Long Beach 2 hours of traffic my money and time would have been far better spent at Queensview Steakhouse. Honestly ANY steakhouse in LA, like Prime at Bonaventure, Del Friscos at century city mall, or the one DTLA, Ruth’s Chris, even a Flemings would have been a better choice. The night was ruined by the lackluster food and the tables and chairs legitimately look like they are from a motel 6 foreclosure sale. White and cheap plastic material. Really doesn’t fit the vibe at all. Super disappointed with the presentation of the fire pits. Also, I called over 10 times from 3pm until 5pm and no one answered a single time, and the voice mail was completely full.

No choice but to Valet park, $11. Parking lot is literally right there, not necessary but no choice. They had a 5 course meal that was the only choice for the fire pit area. The first course was terrible. A black truffle sprinkled into a gross cheese inside a small round crust. Second course was OK, I had a weird burger and my gf had the salmon. Nothing special. Third course a let down, a pasta with meat, the pasta was terrible, way too thick and the dish was very bland. Sauce made no flavor difference but helped to make the pasta less dry. Fourth course was OK, the steak was overcooked, a cardinal sin for a supposed “steakhouse” while the flavor was 6/10, my girlfriend’s cut was very fatty. Included steak sauce was good though, I’ll give them that. Smashed potatoes were the best part of the night, which is saying a lot. AYO. Dessert was another let down. A chocolate cake - sort of…it was an incredibly thick piece of flan on a small sliver of chocolate cake. I hate flan, so I can’t say if it was good or not, the chocolate cake wasn’t bad but there was so little of it.

Also, I wanted to order an old-fashioned at 5:25 they said they were out of Makers Mark, Bulleit, and Woodfords Reserve. He offered me a Jim Bean old-fashioned but it was terrible. I asked them to send it back to switch for the Wilson! Off their cocktail list.. It was OK, but I wouldn’t ever order it again. How Are you out of the three main whiskeys less than halfway through the night???? Really poor management on the bar stocking end of things.

The property is nice overall. But the ambience was somewhat ruined by the party vibes going on inside , I think the popularity of this place has ruined its ability to compete as a high-end steakhouse. You don’t get to 82000 Instagram posts mentioning your business without losing your touch for the finer things. There was a DJ playing music and tons of people waiting around the bar area and in the front by the hostess desk. Didn’t feel very well organized..

Took a long time for our server to come over initially, but he was very good and attentive and did his best to accommodate us , my review is not a reflection on his individual service. As it was the highlight of the night, I can’t deduct any points for his part.

Also, you can tell they’re milking the Valentine’s Day crowd because they have the worst selection of roses upfront and they charge an exorbitant amount for even a single rose it was $20; or $45 for a small bunch of The Most bottom of the barrel, decrepit roses you’ve ever seen. See attached pics.

This place may be good only if you’re going for a drink during sunset and you sit at the bar because you live close otherwise absolutely not worth any effort to get here especially if you’ll be battling traffic…go to literally any other steakhouse in LA county and you will get a much...

I visited castaway Burbank for my birthday on 8/4 and to say the least I was very displeased. I believe that the treatment directed toward me and my guest was racially motivated and I was beyond embarrassed and completely disgusted. I made a reservation and arrived promptly, when we walked in we were escorted to our tables and one of my guest was already seated, shortly after that our server came by and I requested if we could be seated outside.. the server (or at least i thought she would be serving us) Lauren said she wasn’t sure if we could and she would get back to us. She never did the entire night and she passed our table several times. I specifically came to this restaurant for the views and the outdoor seating. I then had another server come to the table and take our orders i ordered myself a drink as well as my guest and we were denied.. the server said he was told by his manager not to serve me any drinks and if I were to request that to bring the manager to the table. This is not something I’ve ever experienced before. Nonetheless the manager came to the table and I’d asked what seem to have been the issue? The manager explained that it appeared that I and my guest were intoxicated. I asked the manager how could one determine that we were in intoxicated when they haven’t even spoken to me? I said it was my birthday and and I think this is a bit ridiculous especially since I didn’t interact with anyone in the restaurant other than my guest and I just got here five minutes ago. The manager said to me that my eyes were low and my speech was slow. Unbeknownst to the manager I actually have a disability and one of my eyes are lazy, so I was extremely offended when he said this, and as far as my speech being slow I don’t know what the difference is between talking fast or speaking slowly has to do with being intoxicated.. my speech wasn’t slurred it was perfectly clear. The manager was very aggressive and his responses were combative. For everything that he mentioned I had a graceful response and he only got more aggressive so to shut me up he said he would bring the drinks to the table. I thought that would be the end of this fiasco. I requested another round of drinks at least 30-40 minutes later as another one of my guests arrived. The manager was brought to the table again and he said to me I gave you that drink for a courtesy and especially after you just downed the drink in less than five minutes I do not feel comfortable giving you another drink. I explained to him that I was 35 years old and I ubered there I did not drive why are you trying to police my drinks? I used to work in the restaurant business many years ago I was a server, a bartender, and I also managed and I’ve never been treated this way nor have I ever seen a guest being treated in such a way. I was completely mortified and not only was my experience was tarnished but my birthday was ruined as well I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone and another thing the food was very subpar. The managers name...