Foray — Restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea

A Total Disaster – Not Worth the Hype or Price

Foray in Carmel-by-the-Sea gave us one of the worst dining experiences ever. What was supposed to be a special farewell dinner for our 80-year-old grandmother and a Chinese New Year celebration turned into a complete disaster—frustrating, disappointing, and unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.

False Advertising

Foray’s high prices, elegant menu, and beautiful food photography promised a Michelin-level experience. Reality? A complete letdown. The best work here was done by the menu writer—dishes sounded incredible but were executed terribly.

Service – Neglectful and Slow

From the start, service was atrocious. We waited over an hour before even being asked about drinks. When we ordered, the cocktail and tea for Grandma were forgotten. Our child’s request for a non-alcoholic drink was ignored.

The wine service was a joke—our $60 half-bottle of Pinot Noir tasted like a cheap $10 bottle. The sommelier lacked knowledge, and the wine list seemed randomly assembled.

Food – Overpriced and Mediocre

Oysters ($24 for 4) – Served warm, without ice, vinaigrette, or lemon. Took 50 minutes to arrive. Spot Prawn Crudo ($16 for 2 shrimp) – A raw shrimp tossed on backyard greens. Bread & Butter ($18) – Arrived 1 hour 40 minutes late after three reminders. Cheese Plate ($28) – Served too late to pair with the bread. Contained a tiny cheese selection, a dot of honey, fig spread, and pea-sized carrots—the smallest I’ve seen in 44 years.

After two hours, all remaining dishes arrived at once:

Lobster Soup ($29) – Tiny portion, three dice-sized lobster pieces drowning in oversalted brown sauce.

Abalone Risotto ($43) – Overpowering cheese flavor, chewy abalone, too salty.

Roasted Scallop ($28) – Just one scallop with edible flowers and roe.

Black Cod ($66) – Overpowered by mushroom sauce, drowning the sea urchin yuzu emulsion.

Total Chaos & Mismanagement

Service was non-existent—servers walked past without acknowledging us. Dessert wasn’t even offered. Other tables waited 40-60 minutes per dish.

With 10 servers and 5 cooks for a 60-seat restaurant, it still felt like a disaster. Staff was more focused on ironing tablecloths than serving guests.

Final Verdict: A Waste of Time and Money

Foray is all style over substance—fancy descriptions, terrible execution, abysmal service, and outrageous prices.

I’ve hosted private dinners with my wife that ran smoother than this.

Avoid at all costs—plenty of better restaurants in Carmel actually care about their guests.

1/5 Stars. A complete disappointment.

Dear Foray Management, prove us wrong. I eat for a living and have never had to write such a harsh review. The price-to-experience ratio feels like white-collar crime.

Thanks for reading my honest opinion.

The full uncut Review on my Instagram...

Incredibly disappointed to have spent my New Year's Eve here, the restaurant missed the mark on every single dish. We went there for an 5-course dinner for New Year's Eve and every single dish was bad and no one asked us how did anything taste even though they picked up few plates that were full and barely touched. The bread was dry, the lobster was not cooked well and the sauce that came with it was burnt, the scallops smelled fishy and didn't have any flavor, and the steak was cooked well but no flavor. Finally I was so surprised about the dessert because I thought this would be an easy one to pull off but it didn't taste any special or any good.

For the price we paid and the fact that it was New Year's Eve, I expected great food and great service. Not just no one asked what we thought of the different dishes, no one explained what was in each dish, it was a very robotic experience. At the end, I asked if I can write feedback to the chef but they said I can write an online review instead so unfortunately I had to share my experience here instead.

I wish I had a different experience to start the year but this was the worst New Year's Eve dinner I've ever had specifically for the price and for being in Carmel. Oh and by the way it was also the eve of my birthday..

Adding this following the owner's misleading response: First of all, no one should be in this business if they can't take honest feedback from customers who actually have taste and respect for good food. Second of all, the owner is mixing my experience with another customer.. again, I'm not trying to hurt anyone, I actually did ask for a way to leave feedback and was directed to leave an online review instead. You wouldn't remember me or my husband because use we didn't meet and because we didn't make a squeak. Nevertheless, my reservation was at 8:45pm and I was wearing a striped dress and my husband was wearing dark pants and sweater. We had New Year's Eve dinner at Foray, sober, we already had appetizers before we went to Foray and went to have full dinner which was of subpart quality and taste. We shared one wine glass together and no owner came, the only people that came to our table was the waitresses and if an owner came I would assume he/she (unlike everyone else) would at least be interested in my feedback but I guess the owner at Foray is not. Again, I don't recommend this place to anyone, especially not to a foodie, and of course not after seeing the owner's...

Edited to acknowledge response from the restaurant:

One hour after posting the review below, we received an e-mail from the General Manager stating: "We take all feedback good and bad seriously, and we utilized it to help with training and development of our staff. While we cannot change what happened, we will like the opportunity to have you come back and experience what it should have been your dinner last Friday. We will like to offer an invitation for you and a guest at no charge to you, as is the least we can do after what occurred on Friday. "

This is a proper response to a review such as mine, and I trust that they will rectify any past errors in treating guests as we had been treated. I have updated the star rating for my review from 1 star to 4 stars. Since I was visiting Carmel from Colorado, I won't be able to accept their invitation, but appreciate the prompt and appropriate response.

Original Review: We had reservations via Tock (Confirmation: TOCK-R-AXU5JS7K) for dinner at 7 PM on Friday, September 12th. Upon arrival at 6:57 PM, we were told in a dismissive/unfriendly manner by the young gentleman serving as host that we would have to wait to be seated, as they do not seat early arrivals. We were asked to either stand outside, or move to the bar until they were ready for us. Mind you, we were greeted 3 minutes before our scheduled reservation, and at the time, we observed two other parties of 2 seated in the entire dining room, and 2 gentlemen seated at the separate bar area, with appoximately 15 open tables at the time (at primetime on a Friday evening.). We saw no other employees or patrons in the building (although we did see 2 kitchen personnel standing outside a side door as we walked up to the restaurant.) The brief interaction with the host made us feel unwelcomed and unvalued as customers, so we simply said "Thank you", walked out and scouted out an alternate restaurant for dinner. Obviously, I can't comment on the food/drinks/dining experience beyond that. I might add that we were two gentlemen in our 60s and were well-dressed, groomed properly and with reservations upon arrival, and we arrived with a smile and were non-confrontational. We...