Bull Valley Roadhouse — Restaurant in California

Third or fourth time eating here and may be the last. Best part of the evening was the Crispin Glover cocktail at the bar but it pretty much went downhill from there. Actually, it was downhill from the get go. Made a reservation online and selected "Anniversary" under "Occasion" option on Open Table. Host at the door should have seen this and said something like, "Happy Anniversary". Server should have been informed of this and said something. Didn't happen. Whatever, don't really care about this but hey, why even have this drop down option when reserving a table if it means nothing? Got seated in a nice spot, got some orders in and then waited for water, and waited, and waited. Had some bread (was it supposed to be three distinctly different types of bread or was this the bottom of the bread basket and that's all that was left? Hard to say but the rustic loaf was good, others less so). Carrots with miso vinaigrette were pretty good but super salty. Mac and Cheese was pretty good. Quite salty as well but that's pretty much expected with that much cheese. Red wine (when we were finally asked about drink orders) arrived well after the entree and was quite cold. Seemed to have been pulled straight from the walk in but maybe was stored in a cold room on a cold night. Do not order Baby Back Ribs unless you want them well smoked, dry, and you have a very healthy set of teeth to rip the meat off the bone! Menu merely says, "Baby Back Ribs, Cornbread, BBQ sauce". By reading this, one would think of the countless ribs one has eaten in the past, ribs that are just holding onto the bone and actually taste like bbq ribs. Nowhere does the menu state, "Smoked Ribs". Directly above the ribs in the menu is "Smoked Pork Chop". Why doesn't the menu say, "Smoked Ribs"? A few minutes before our entree arrived we overheard the table next to ours send their order of ribs back to the kitchen because the meat was so hard to gnaw off the bone that it was unacceptable. This was the first indication our choice was the wrong one. However, we wanted to keep an open mind so when we received our meal we tore into it. Unfortunately the smoke flavor was so strong and unexpected and the meat so tough we too had to send it back after eating only a small portion. Hours later my wife was still nauseous from this meal. Plus points for the server who was apologetic...

Absolutely perfect sunday brunch experience. Came here with my sisters recently and everything was a home run. The area reminds me of a ghost town reestablished into a lovely spot for food and shopping. The interior oozes with photo ops with its pre-Prohibition theme: Old timey black and white portraits everywhere, even as wallpaper, comfy sofas, corner sitting area with fireplace. I ate it all up.

Service was fantastic...I don't recall our servers name but he was quite the hottie and a natural at his job. Attentive, personable and did everything right to add to our overall experience.

On to the food:

*items meant to all be share plates

We started with the Buttermilk Biscuits & Blackberry Jam - hot damn, delicious and highly recommend for the table

Halibut ceviche. Im a ceviche addict and this did not disappoint. It was so odd that the bowl was hot for this cold item. Did not impact the food at all...just odd. Kudos for using watermelon radish, the prettiest radish there is ^.^ General avocado.

Arugula Salad (roasted beets, fennel, goat cheese, pistachio, citrus vinaigrette)- this item was fine...i mean it had all my favorite things on it, but slightly unmemorable

Chicken and waffles. ok so, i dont have fried chicken often and my first C&W experience in Portland left me with a terrible stomach ache after. I wrote it off completely, but my sister recommended this to share and Im so glad she did. FRIGGIN DELICIOUS. get this. The chicken was so succulent and tender and the cheddar waffles were crispy and yeah, just plain nom, omg.

I cant remember the cocktail I got and Im not seeing it on the online menu but it had rye whiskey and egg yolk and was quite tasty.

All this ended up being about $40/person to split after tip, which is on the high end for a brunch but so so worth it.

**dirt lot behind the restaurant is on the small side and seems to fill up on the weekend. Also gets quite muddy after a...

Overpriced and overcooked!

This was my husband's birthday dinner, and what a HORRIBLE disappointment! We checked out the online menu to decide what we wanted before we got there. Our first disappointment was that the menu online was NOT correct. No steamed mussels.

We opted for the fried chicken - which people rave about in the reviews, and my husband ordered the $22 hamburger.

We ordered an appetizer - thank the food gods! - or we would have starved. Then we waited.

And WAITED. And waited...

We were seated at 5:30. Dinner arrived at 6:20 and I was STARVING. The waitress muttered something about ALL those orders hitting the kitchen at the same time as if that were an excuse for being ignored for nearly an hour. If they get that backed up, they might throw some free bread on your table to tide you over, but this place wants $6 for 4 slices (i saw the table next to us order a second plate of bread and they got 4 pieces each time).

The hamburger patty was splendid. Juicy and delicious.

That is the last nice thing I will say about the food. The bun was dry, and the only thing on it besides the meat was some jam and a few pickles. Needed lettuce and tomato or some kinda veggies. French fries cold and soggy.

My chicken was cooked to shoe leather. By the time I finished eating my jaw was exhausted. For $30 I got two tiny thighs and one third of a chicken breast with a tiny side of coleslaw. That's it!

We wanted to order dessert for the birthday celebration, but after we survived the entrees we didn't see the waitress again for another 30 minutes. We were so depressed by the whole experience by then that we just paid the bill and went home disappointed.

The outdoor dining space is lovely, and our two dogs were satisfied, but then I brought home-cooked chicken to feed them from the table. They give the place five woofs, but I could barely...