Madeline's Restaurant & Wine Cellar — Restaurant in Cambria

We came to Cambria for a weekend getaway to celebrate our 20th anniversary and were referred by our host at The White Water Inn to have dinner at Madeline's while we were in town as it was his personal favorite. He felt it's being a chef owned establishment helped to make the place a stand out among the many options in town. I am so glad that we did just that. I called on Friday evening and was able to make a reservation for Saturday night. We arrived a few minutes early and were seated immediately. I had mentioned when I called that we were celebrating our anniversary and of course David remembered and congratulated us , pouring a glass of champagne for us both. In addition to our server, there were at least 3 other members of the staff that visited our table during the course of our meal, everyone was so nice! Now to the best part, the food! We started with the diver scallops and found them ,like everything else we would be served, to be perfectly prepared, the mushroom duxelle superb. My wife ordered the spinach salad and the filet mignon with a crab cake. It's so hard to pick any one thing out but if I were to pick ,then it's definitely the crab cake that was my favorite part of the meal. Next time I'll order my own. I'll suggest that if you go that you start with the crab and lobster cakes appetizer! I ordered the special which was the lamb filet, it was oh so tender and flavorful. I would likely have ordered the rack of lamb had this not been offered. For dessert we split the bananas foster, which had a huge scoop of their home made vanilla ice cream. This too was top shelf although, for some reason was not flamed as it would normally be served. I can't say that it mattered, we enjoyed it just the same. Thank you David and all your staff for a memorable evening and a superb meal....

AVOID! We like chef-owner restaurants, and so we tried Madeline’s. To say it was a let down is a huge understatement. The food is terrible, from beginning to end. The scallops, their “signature” dish, our server said, were over-cooked and served in a sauce to cover up the rubbery preparation. The halibut was dry and overdone—also covered in a white sauce which tried but failed to make up for the dry, tough fish, but in itself was terrible. The filet mignon? No marinade, no rub, just a filet covered in brown sauce which they called a wine reduction. How do you screw up fresh halibut and filet???? The kitchen, which in a normal chef-owner restaurant, would be immaculate and well run, was a small, one-range, unclean room with two short order cooks jamming to get the food out, using their bare hands to plate the steaks and fish, with cookware worthy of Denny’s. The service? Guys in suits, nice enough, but the suits, like the sauces, did not cover up the Denny’s style mood and quality of this place. The chocolate “cake” was not advertised as flourless, and we were told the chef prepared each dessert in-house. Oh, don’t look behind the curtain at Oz. You will see the wizard is a fraud—and there is no chef present in Madeline’s. Likewise, there was no cake in the “cake.” It was layers of fudge-like chocolate, not finessed, along the lines of a Swanson’s dessert, which I’ve not had since it was forced upon me as a child. The wine was excellent. I’ll end there, as it was the single good thing at Madeline’s, and I do not usually like to be so negative—if at all possible. But I had to write this to warn people. DON’T EAT AT MADELINE’s. You will throw away $200 on a tv dinner meal accompanied...

We had a group of 4 people to celebrate a birthday (10/7/11). The noise level was outrageously high; despite that, the restaurant was playing jangly music which exacerbated the problem. We knew the prices were really high before we reserved, but we had been assured that the food was outstanding and worth it. At $30-$40 per person expectations run very high and those expectations were not met. The butter lettuce salad was decent, but our friends who splurged for the buffalo ravioli were very disappointed and more than half was left. The service was good, but she didn't ask why so much of this appetizer was left. Two people ordered the scallops special entree and they said it was okay. I ordered the duck and it was quite tough. The filet someone else ordered was cooked in a wine sauce that came very close to overpowering the filet's flavor. Toward the end of the meal, the service deteriorated and we decided against dessert. About dessert---bananas foster was their main dessert and prepared table side. Nice, BUT the person who prepared it walked from the back of the restaurant to the front, and around the restaurant WITH THE TORCH LIT the whole time!!! A little crazy and very dangerous. The bill for 4 people with just 2 beers and one glass of wine was about $245 with tax and tip. It was our one truly disappointing experience in beautiful Cambria. Something needs to be done about the noise level and at least a small reduction in some of the higher prices,...