La Colline — Restaurant in Castroville

I was excited to try this place by some of the reviews , but sadly we were disappointed.

I’ll start with the pros, ITS A REALLY CUTE hotel / restaurant combo, Tastefully redone. The food was good. The pork belly app was really yummy, taco flight was really good, but would be better if they removed the chicken portion and whatever the rice was. I was disappointed that they have prepackaged rolls ! A little tacky in my opinion. Restaurant looks very clean and food came out in a timely manner and hot ! The romantic ambiances is there, view is pretty from what you can see at night, but when escorted to the back outside patio area it had no lights turned on until the VERY END of our meal ( this made reading the menu extremely hard ). I think that’s about it for the pros!

Cons, drinks are stupidly OVER PRICED !!! And are absolutely horrible!!! The server never introduced herself!! ( seemed as if she had an attitude about being there ). Only way I figured her name out was through the receipt. “Ashton” she had no personality, was very short and never came to check on us when we received any of our food, but only asked after everything was done “how was it”? And that was it … not “would you like dessert, coffee and more drinks “ NOTHING. I think there also was a huge lack of experience because when ordering out alcohol beverages she brought out the wrong drink for me and didn’t realize ? Like how ??? Not until my husband said I had the wrong drink did it get fixed, and it was god awful. As someone who has worked in some very upscale restaurants in my younger years as a server and bartender, it’s key to know what goes out of the kitchen and bar AND what IT LOOKS LIKE ! Sadly I don’t think I would waste my time getting a sitter to come back to this place, mainly because the service and lack of experience...

I was super looking forward to this stay. I had been stuck in the Texas ice storm and had been held up for a couple of days in another hotel. On my way out of Texas, I decided to stay at this boutique hotel. The hotel is great and I'll leave a separate review for them. I've long heard stories about the quality of steaks in Texas. I had yet to experience one. They charge $40 for their 14 oz ribeye and it's the most expensive item. I was excited to end my Texas stay on a positive note. However, after nearly a 30 minute wait (dining alone) my ribeye came out and it looked awful. Instead of a juicy ribeye cap, it was a curled up tough piece of fat. The steak itself was so tough it "rejected the knife". I'm 100% convinced this meat was frozen and the chef defrosted it in warm water. It would explain the leathery texture and the long wait. The asparagus was very thing and the potatoes were lazily placed in the middle of the dished and pressed flat. I tried to eat a couple of bites, but it was tasteless and awful. The server was very understanding and polite about it. The manager was also very accommodating. I feel bad for leaving them a bad review because of how nice the staff is. But to have the best item, and steak of all things, to be so terribly prepared, is a crime. The glass of wine was also incorrectly poured. They use small wine glass for Reds. I'm guessing 6oz. First off, get the proper stemware for the prices you charge. Second pour the proper amount. Wine should be poured to about 5oz, which in this case would fill the glass up to about 3/8" from the rim. This pour was about 3oz, and a $12 price. Overall, I was extremely disappointed and ended up heading into the nearby town to grab Mexican. Just a sad...

The location and atmosphere was lovely. I loved the views and the space. It has a lot of potential to be excellent but is really not that special at the end of the day.

This rating is due to the quality of ingredients. The food lacked sophistication and was overpriced. It was not high quality. My steak was incredibly tough and cold, the corn / potatoes thing was also cold and lacked flavor, the roll looked and tasted like mrs. schubert’s rolls in the frozen section of the grocery store. I was incredibly glad I asked for the chimichuri to be on the side because even it was just oily and bland. Usually I feel a bit overpowered by the cilantro, but nope. Not this stuff. The chocolate ganache cake was also meh. I liked the carrots that came with my companion’s meal but then I took another bite and immediately regretted it because of the strong taste of garlic salt.

Basically, if you are going to market yourself as a cute boutique hotel, the menu / food suppliers need a makeover.

The drink menu was better than expected with a good selection of wines and cocktails.

The two meals with drinks and a dessert was $80ish.

I would come back only for patio sitting / drinks / appetizers. I saw a nice looking charcuterie board in the pictures of other reviews, but it was not on last night’s menu.

The area where weddings take place could be a cool place for an outdoor concert.

Again, it was a relaxing setting with so much potential to be a gem in a unique small town. But didn’t live up...