La Cave Restaurant — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

I’m gonna be real honest here and say, that this was a one and done. I am not giving the waiter/waitresses the 2 stars they actually deserve 4 stars because they were super accommodating and nice.

The prices: I have no idea as my boyfriend paid and there were no prices on the menu. Even Mastro’s has prices on their menus…sorry to include another steakhouse on this review but this had me scratching my head. All I know is, it came up to over $200 for two people and we didn’t even have a second round of drinks. The steaks: maybe it was a fluke that night since a lot of people talk about how great the steaks are. I ordered the filet mignon with the twice baked potato my boyfriend ordered the rib eye with the twice baked potato as well. We like our steaks semi mooing, we do order medium-rare. The steaks were juicy but not melt in your mouth tender, they were also SUPER SALTY and were too charred. They must have rested a lot because they were also warm. Drinks: They were okay. Nothing special here, those do have prices. Ambiance: Must be just locals, I am from Texas and when I heard we were going to an amazing steakhouse, I went in there with a different mindset, I came out very confused and totally disappointed. It’s very dark and feels damp in there, they had a “live band” that night which consisted of a very talented lady and her partner on the keys. Jazzy type feel in a steakhouse, eh. We sat in the room where the stage is and it’s very loud in there so we could barely hear her singing and she did stop after 3 songs, which was weird. The manager/owner (?) seemed to hover around a lot but she mainly was preoccupied with certain customers as she approached a few people and made sure they were feeling special lol. Not that we like that type of attention but it’s very obvious who the regulars are as they walk around like they own the place lol which is fine, but everyone should feel very welcomed and I did not get that vibe. What to expect: you’ll go downstairs into the basement (la cave) into a very small space, super loud, super dark, wobbly chairs, steaks are just ok, paying high prices for it all while thinking you could get better at an Outback’s. Staff was nice. Manager was whatever, she seemed stressed as we didn’t see her crack one smile the entire time we were there.

We left UNSATISFIED and...

I waited two weeks to decide to post this negative review...and I've decided it's worth sharing if for no other reason than in the hopes the restaurant gets their act together. But then also a cautionary tale to other diners. 2 weeks ago my wife and I along with another couple made a reservation in the music room. We purposefully got there ahead of the music asking what time it started and being told that the singer starts at 6:30. We wanted to get there early so that we had a chance to have a conversation over dinner. One member in our party in particular was excited about the live music and we made a point to ask the reservation line and the hostess about when the music started so that we had planned everything accordingly. Before I go any further I want to make mention that by the time we paid tip our bill was just over $500. I say this because when you spend $500 for 4 diners at a table there's a certain level of Elegance and courtesy that is expected. The music didn't start at 6:30 it didn't even start at 7:30 it started at nearly 8:00. The singer was there at 6:30 setting up his gear and doing singer things.... but we were not given great information or we would have made our reservation later So we waited and ordered drinks and had dinner and waited more and as the second song was playing the manager came to our table and she told us that we were invited to move to the bar to listen to music and free up the table. When I asked a question about how long we had....ornif we could listen to a couple of songs, the manager even raised her voice at me. I've never had any restaurant I've been to and I've been to some nice restaurants and shook hands with some fairly nice people been subjected to raised voices at fine dining. To that point they advertise themselves as the best steakhouse in Orange county and I think they're only better than average. I would way rather eat at mastros (and others). The experience put a damper on our evening we did not stay any longer. We left the restaurant. And for some people who may be thinking there was a long line waiting for our table the waiting room was empty. I don't know why we were asked to leave when there was two empty tables next to us. And from what we could tell nobody waiting. I won't be back, ever! Mastro's has better steak, better food and frankly...

La Cave... generally a good place to listen to live music or DJs. We loved coming here. We reserved a table, we were accommodated promptly, and had a nice table. Shortly into being seated, we were treated nicely by the Waiter. (Btw the Menu has no prices. Supposedly because the Shellfish prices fluctuate too much to have prices on the menu. According to our waiter) We were told they wouldn't show us the cuts of the meat anymore, since Covid restricted this. (Other tables did get the service of seeing the daily cut of meat served, maybe someone forgot about our table?) We waited not long for our drinks to arrive, the cocktails were of ok flavor. Water was refilled promptly until halfway through our dinner. The main dishes came out after some time, and two guests at our table had to wait 5 minutes longer than everyone else for their Dish. When it arrived it was lukewarm and my Steak was so salty, I couldn't finish it. I was offered a new steak but kindly denied it. The Mushrooms were also very salty and are not market fresh more like frozen or canned mushrooms. The flavor was good, besides the salt. The steak had a nice cut and was tender but I had to stop eating after a few bites due to the high salt content. I asked my table neighbor to try and they said it was very salty. ( I assume this must've been a mistake since we never had any steak like this before) I also assume that it was a mistake that we were told by the band that they had to stop singing since some guests were enjoying the music and other people were waiting at the door. They needed the tables we were sitting at to accommodate these people. We weren't offered any more drinks halfway through dinner. Water was also not refilled after the plates had...