Owen's Bistro — Restaurant in Chino

I had heard great things about this restaurant in Chino from friends and Yelp reviews, so my expectations were high. My girlfriend and I had been looking forward to dining here for a while, and we decided to celebrate our 3 year anniversary here this past Wednesday night.

The night started off on a positive note: the restaurant had a cozy ambiance with pleasant music, and the staff left a personalized anniversary card with heart confetti on our table -- a thoughtful touch I appreciated since I had mentioned our celebration in the reservation.

Unfortunately, that's where the positives ended.

Our server, Jordan, was friendly but clearly inexperienced. He struggled with multitasking and took longer than expected to take our order using the tablet. Both my girlfriend and I have past experiences in the restaurant industry as servers, so we know this wasn't due to a busy night -- the place was relatively slow. Jordan also didn't seem knowledgeable about the menu or ingredients, and he kept running back and forth to the kitchen for basic questions.

He recommended the swordfish with eggplant as the special of the night, which my girlfriend ordered, and I got the Wagyu Ribeye. I asked for grilled onions on the side -- a pretty standard topping request at most gourmet bistros -- but was told they weren't available. Odd, but I let it go. Thankfully, my steak came out perfectly cooked and well-seasoned.

The real issue came with the swordfish with eggplant dish. Right away, my girlfriend commented that it was dry and completely bland. I tasted it myself and agreed -- it was far from the standard you'd expect, especially for a nightly special. We flagged it to Jordan, who didn't show much empathy or concern. He simply said he'd take it back. We requested the salmon instead.

To make matters worse, it took over 25 minutes for the replacement dish to arrive. By then, my ribeye was cold since I had waited to eat with my girlfriend. Again, Jordan didn't acknowledge the delay or offer to accommodate us in any meaningful way. He lacked the attentiveness and awareness expected at a higher-end restaurant, and it really put a damper on what was supposed to be a special night.

When the bill came, the swordfish dish (which we didn't eat) was removed -- which is fair -- but no other accommodation was offered for the overall inconvenience. We had to ask if anything else could be done. Jordan went to speak with a manager and returned offering either 10% off the replacement dish or removing a glass of basic champagne from the bill. He laughed while presenting the options, which came across as unprofessional and dismissive given the situation.

In the end, while I appreciated the personalized card and initial gesture, the poor service, disappointing food quality (especially the special), and lack of accountability really soured the experience.

This place might be great on other nights, and I understand not every experience is perfect -- but I felt it was important to share our honest experience so others celebrating something meaningful aren't left feeling...

Completely satisfying and insanely delicious.

Came here for my cousin's birthday dinner and cannot stop thinking about this meal. Start to finish, it is one of my favorite meals in a long time.

THE SCENE You enter through the back of the building, and immediately are asked if you want patio dining or inside. Patio has heat lamps, live jazz band playing on Thursdays- Weekend, and christmas lights strewn overhead. We opted for that naturally.

It's intimate, comfortable, and casually fancy. A perfect dichotomy of many things.

THE FOOD Mind-blowingly delicious.

Started out with the garlic cheese bread. I know, I know, it's just cheese bread, but it was delicious. It was a french baguette with sea salt and cheese melted over, and for $4 it was amazing.

I had the house cabernet for $7 -- highly recommended.

For mains, we had:

1. Italian Beef Short Ribs - my favorite short ribs I have ever had. No joke. Served with mashed potatoes in a broth of some sort and pepperoncini peppers to add a slight kick, this was just to die for. Tender enough to cut with the fork, and the melting of flavors together.... I found myself almost licking the bowl clean.
2. Smoked Wild Boar Stew - served with creamy polenta and topped with a fried egg. This dish was awesome. Served like a layered stewy lasagna in a glass container with a lid, we were to leave the lid on until we were ready to eat it, to allow the "smoking" process to continue to infuse all those flavors together. Each bite was all mixed together, and was so hearty and savory.
3. Chicken and Waffles - the sauce was a honey sriracha, which sounds odd, but was a perfect dichotomy. It was delicious, and coated the chicken all around. The chicken was not KFC fried -- it was more subtlely fried, but still delicious. The waffle was perfect. slightly crispy, soft, fluffy.
4. The Camping Trip - a good, but ordinary grilled salmon. Plated nicely with a sizzling river stone and some nice greens. Salmon was well-cooked. This was our least favorite of the night, and it was still a darn good piece of salmon, just everything else was overwhelmingly amazing.

Desserts: Cracker Jack rice pudding with potato chip crumble was interesting but delicious. It was salty and sweet, and creamy but crunchy. Totally intriguing dish. Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts with Mexican hot chocolate (cinnamon, yummm!) - the doughnuts were so soft, and sweetened to the perfect level. The hot chocolate was amazing, infused with cinnamon you could taste. Coffee was fantastic, served with a delicate cream.

This is by far my favorite new place to celebrate anything. Food and service were beyond fabulous, and I cannot wait to be back.

And totally affordable. 4 entrees, garlic cheese bread, tea, wine, and 2 desserts cost me $90.

TIPS: Parking is free on the street in front, or in the back. $30 for a 3 course pre-fixe on weekends, not on weekdays. Make a reservation -- I don't think they will...

Wow what can I say that 4 months ago we had a lovely experience. This time it was like a mediocre service. To start off we had a 7.30p reservation which they took is in early which was the only plus of the day. After that it went down hill. DENISE acts like she cares but her actions show different. We sat down at 7.05pm and didn't get our drinks 30min later meanwhile the neighbors next to us showed up 15 min after us and they were already enjoying drinks and appetizers, while for 30min all we ate was there expensive 6 leaf salad. Funny part is that Denise walked by us more then 3 times serving drinks and wine and not onces did she stop to explain that there's was a delay due to a bogus print out. I had to sto stop her and ask "is there a reason why our drinks are taking too long" then she gave her cliché excuse....Finally when our main dish arrived and the server drops my steak knife and says he will bring it out promptly, but instead I see this guy walk by 5 times for about 10min until my wife has to stop denise to ask for a knife. For 10 min me and my wife are sharing a knife!!!! For 200$ meal this was a garbage experience. The dude who dropped my knife then says "I'll remember your faces to take care of you guys next time" ....YEAH WHEN U COULDN'T REMEMBER IT TO EVEN BRING ME A KNIFE TO EAT MY FOOD. ....THIS PLACE IS A JOKE AND NOT WORTH ANOTHER DOLLAR OF MY BUSINESS AND FUTURE BUSINESS GATHERINGS....OH AND THE DEMI GLAZE ON THE STEAK TASTED LIKE SOME OLD ASIAN SAUCE. To top it off the dessert never came out and we just asked for the check, we ended up ordering doordash from BJs for dessert and got it in less then the time we waited for the check.... My name is Al Corro and I stand by this review. PS STICK TO FLEMINGS WHERE THEY HAVE UPPER MANAGEMENT TO ANSWER TO, AND NOT A LADY WHO GETS CAUGHT DRINKING BEHIND THE BAR.OWENS IS FAMILY OWNED AND THERE...