Sienna Restaurant El Dorado Hills — Restaurant in California

I booked a reservation a month in advance for my wife’s birthday (this is the restaurant she wanted to try.) The restaurant is beautiful. We arrived early and sat at the bar. The service was excellent. Despite the lights being too bright, the ambiance was nice. After a short wait, a hostess came to find us.

We were sat on the patio as requested, right under the majestic oak tree….perfect. We were still enjoying cocktails but I also brought a nice bottle of wine for our dinner. In a short time our server arrived. He mentioned his name and asked if we were ready to order some food. That’s it…no other information, fact finding, no mention of water (is it coming, would we like sparkling or still, etc.) I started to have a bad feeling about our server and I wanted this night to be perfect so I went in to speak with someone.

I spoke to Matt, one of the managers and told him my reservations. Our server seemed nice, but perhaps would be more at home at a BJ’s. Matt assured me that this was one of their better servers and he would personally see to it that I was well taken care of. So, I went back to my table and made the most of it.

The service was average. I can tell that wine service is not taught at this restaurant. I can also tell that the steps of service are not taught here. One isn’t born a great fine dining server, one is taught. Sadly, this is not fine dining. This is high prices, good food, and average service.

I worked in fine dining many years. One thing all fine dining restaurants have in common is a manager that is watching like a hawk and working the room. A great manager will visit each table to ask how they are doing. A great manager will notice the details and take action to correct them. Things like: entrees being auctioned off to two other tables before finally arriving at our table, and then auctioned off again since apparently they don’t use seat numbers to input orders. Things like not clearing empty cocktail glasses, or not clearing the entire previous course before dropping entree plates on the table. Things like not setting the table for the next course….I shouldn’t have to ask for a steak knife to go with my Filet Mignon. A great manager would notice the shrimp tails on the floor next to us for most of our dinner (they may still be there.) The table behind us was a party of 6 or 8 celebrating something special. I heard one woman get up and ask for appetizer plates to go with their appetizers! Matt did not visit a single table on the patio, nor did any other manager.

I will say the food was well prepared. My steak was the temperature I asked for and the coconut shrimp were good. The menu isn’t very creative and It’s not the type of place to change the menu daily (in fact they don’t run daily specials it seems.) Oddly enough, they don’t offer lobster either.

Come here for an appetizer and a drink at the bar. Do not come here for a special occasion.

Oh and hey owners, what is with that big ugly camera you stuck to the oak tree! It...

Total Ambience Failure

Let's start by pointing out the pictures on Google are of the OLD restaurant that was nice. The new location is so loud and echoey, I actually opened a phone app to measure the cacophony and it was consistently 70-80dB. An HVAC unit droned over the top of patrons seated in a cavernous interior (former upper floor of Pottery World) with nothing but hard surfaces reflecting sound into a confused chaos. It wasn't the music, but they seriously need some fabrics and active noise cancellation. For now, if you want a more serene dining experience, consider a Food Truck next to a construction site at the airport.

Total Service Failure

I ordered one of the signature cocktails they offer on the menu. It was delicious - at least until someone walked up without so much as an excuse-me and reached right between my wife and me to spray something in my drink! No greeting, no question about whether I was enjoying my drink, no explanation about what they were about to do. They had apparently failed to complete the drink correctly at the bar so they just fixed it at the table like I wouldn't notice an uninvited body leaning over the table between us.

I may have excused it if it actually made the drink better, but it didn't. After tasting it, I said, "Why did you do that? It was so good before!" No sorry, no offer to replace it, just "That's what makes them special here." and they walked away. WTH?

Moments later, a server dropped an appetizer at the table that we didn't order and disappeared without a word before we could say "not ours!" No hello, no "you ordered the ?" About as much personality as someone dropping a mop bucket on a utility shelf. Then another person dropped off the right appetizer, but gave us a blank stare and wouldn't take the first away when we asked them to remove it. Walked away saying, "I can't give it to anyone else". Apparently us not wanting or liking it isn't an issue.

At this point I was wondering if the restaurant had any employees or if the Tractor Supply staff had just stopped by after work and taken over. Of course, I don't want to insult those who work at Tractor Supply.

Food Not a Fail At Least, but..

Nothing wrong, but let's just say they won't have to clear a space on the wall for a Michelin Star anytime soon. There are two dozen restaurants in EDH or Folsom with food at least as good or better.

Go somewhere else where you can hear your friends, be served by trained and organized service staff, and enjoy food that's better. I think Pottery World restaurant in Roseville may actually be a step up, plus they still have the fountains to browse after you're...

We came here tonight for a date night. We've been here several times for brunch and dinner and didn't think anything wrong would occur. The service is normally amazing, unfortunately it fell short tonight. I come from a background of cusstomer service and I used to be a server. My expectations are pretty standard. You treat those around you, the way you would like to be treated. We are minorities dining in a very Caucasian dominated city, which probably did not help our situation.

We ordered the skirt steak, which was an extremely smaller portion than we were used to seeing. We also ordered the scallops, that apparently came with a side of sand. When we mentioned the sandy scallops to one of the male bartenders (as we sat at the bar), he did not seem to know how to handle it. The manager, Kayla, then came over and asked what we were saying (she was about 2 feet away). We told Kayla about the sandy scallop. I will say, it was kind of her to ask us if we wanted it to be replaced. We had a lovely women bartender (didn't catch her name) who did apologize about our meal, when she brought The replacement back out; which by The way was a smaller portion as well. The BIGGEST disappointment was the fact that the manager NEVER returned to apologize or even check up on us.

When we got the bill, there wasn't even a discount taken off or an apology from management. We had to ask the server about the bill and then AND ONLY THEN was ONE of our drinks taken off. We had ordered a glass of wine and the vanilla bean old fashion.

Coming from the service industry, we felt like this was unacceptable and a bit racist. Kayla should have done her job better as THE MANAGER. Kayla could have come back to check on us and given the discount without us having to ask for one. We were not expecting or asking for much, a simple percentage off would have done it. The principle of taking care of the PAYING CUSTOMER is what angers me. Kayla did NOT have exceptional customer service that a manager should have. We are minorities who live in Folsom and to feel like we were just looking for a free meal was horrific. If this is how you think your customers should be treated, we will not return.

The most irritating part about this night was the fact that even after asking about our bill, we still DID NOT see the manager, Kayla, again before we left. You should select better management to run...