Bourbon Steak by Michael Mina — Restaurant in Dana Point

As a steak lover who has been grilling steaks on a weekly basis for over a decade and has tried some of the best steakhouses in this country and beyond, I can say that this is one of the best steakhouses in SoCal.

Short review: Excellent food. Even better service. Try the Wagyu steak trio. Their complimentary fries, soups in cups and a fried bun are excellent offerings. They ask about your dietary restrictions so as to accommodate you fully. Their dessert offerings were delightful. Ask for blankets if you get cold sitting on the balcony. Valet parking only ($10+tips with validation)

Overall Experience: 9.5/10 Food: 9/10 Service: 10/10 Cost: $$$$ Reservation needed: No, but I would recommend getting a reservation just in case.

Long review: To begin, the restaurant is located inside a Waldorf Astoria. Valet parking only and the restaurant will validate the parking ticket making it come out to $10 plus tips.

The restaurant looks classy (as expected). We sat on the balcony which had views of the ocean and the resort. When we got cold, we were offered blankets (very nice touch) and the heaters were turned on. Excellent Service. Meal started with complimentary fries (3 different kinds coupled with individual sauces), and cups (actual cups) of tomato soup. The fries were likely duck fat fries and were definitely a treat. Tomato soup was great (it's tomato soup, not much to say here) but definitely tasted well after the fries. They offer table side bourbon which is an experience altogether but as we drove from San Diego, we opted for non-alcoholic cocktails. Furthermore, they provided bread/bun but it was pretty unique as it had cheese inside and was first baked and then fried. Kudos to Bourbon management for pairing those great little appetizers.

We kept the order short and sweet. 2 orders of the Wagyu Trio and a side of Truffle Mac and Cheese. Wagyu Trio was $198 each and came with 17oz of Wagyu beef (10oz of Missima Ultra NY Strip (American Wagyu), 4oz of Snake River Farms Ribeye (American Wagyu) and 3oz of Hokkaido A5 Wagyu (Japanese Wagyu)). I ordered them Medium rare plus. The steaks came out with the right warmth (maybe a smidge overcooked, I didn't expect them to hit medium rare plus anyway) but the steaks were perfectly seasoned. Needless to say the A5 Wagyu melted in the mouth so it was our favorite. The Snake River Farms have always stood out as one of the best, if not the best, American Wagyu producers and it was very evident here. Think of it being the middle ground of A5 Wagyu and the Missima ultra. The Missima ultra (ultra being the highest richness in Missima meat categories) fell short compared to the others but that was expected. They also came with peppers and they weren't spicy and tasted great with the steak. The Truffle Mac and Cheese was a little disappointing to be honest. It tasted like a regular Mac and Cheese from any steakhouse. I was expecting a hint of truffle flavor but didn't feel anything was different.

As we were dining, rain started pouring out of nowhere. The servers sprung to action and moved us into the restaurant quickly and efficiently and each and every server genuinely apologized to us for the rain. They didn't cause the rain, but they apologized. Nevertheless, it's a sign of a very empathetic team of employees. Excellent service!!!!

As dinner ended, we ordered 2 desserts. We were already stuffed from the steaks (which neither of us could finish more than half way) but ending the night on a sweet note is always good. We opted for the Souffle and the Beignets. The souffle was passion fruit so very fruity yet not too sweet. The Beignets were large and coupled with a chocolate ganache (maybe a thicker consistency than a ganache) and they were the perfect end to the evening.

But wait. They offered us 2 cubes of honey when they brought the check. Think of a lightly sweet cube of honey gummy. That concluded the dinner.

Will we back? Considering we live in San Diego, driving an hour to come here regularly is tricky but for celebrations, I don't...

About a week and a half ago I met with my manager and was informed that I had been promoted!! We had a lot going on last weekend and this, but we finally made it out to a celebration dinner. This place did NOT disappoint. My husband loves his old fashioneds so he started off with a "new school" version of an old fashioned and I got myself a fruity little mocktail that was pineapple juice with strawberries and ginger beer topped with freshly grated nutmeg (I do not like the taste of alcohol).

They started us off by serving us a component of the chef tomato bisque with a drizzle of chile oil in the cutest little espresso cup. It was 10 million degrees, but it was creamy and delightful! The sweet/savory was a perfect flavor to start the evening off. They also brought out a trio of French fries. (See posted photo) Left side is furikake fries with a sesame mayo dipping sauce. Probably both of our favorites. The sesame oil in the mayo was so delicious and really shined with the furikake fries pairing! The middle set of fries were Parmesan fries with a truffle cream dipping sauce, which were seasoned amazingly and the truffle flavor levels of the sauce were absolutely perfect! The right set were house fries with a yuzu ketchup dipping sauce. The yuzu ketchup threw us off because it worked. It just worked so well!

They had a special off-menu appetizer offering, today. The restaurant has its own private fisherman who caught a 98 pound tuna on Friday and they were serving toro from this fresh catch! We were originally going to go with the "instant bacon" appetizer, but once they told us about this, we were both like, "Yes." It was marinated in a housemade ponzu topped with a generous pile of green onions and freshly shaved black truffles. Phenomenal. Melt in your mouth delicious tenderness. You could really taste the freshness!

Following that, we got a bread roll that rocked our world. The roll had salt crystals on the top and brushed with butter, and they were STUFFED with truffle butter. No joke, both of us had butter exploding out of our rolls with each bite! It was messy, but soooo good!!!

For our sides we got the truffle mac and cheese (phenomenal) and the roasted fingerling potatoes with bacon and cheddar. We are pretty sure they boiled those potatoes in butter, because the buttery flavor was throughout the potatoes lol!

My husband ordered the 6oz Mishima reserve Wagyu filet mignon crusted with blue cheese for his entree and I ordered the 8oz Snake Rivers Farm Eye of Ribeye with a king crab Oscar accompaniment for my entree. Both were amazing, cooked to perfection, seasoned to perfection, and we both preferred our chosen cuts of meat over the other's (as it should be).

DESSERT!!!! We ordered the basque cheesecake. Holy sweet mother of all things creamy and delicious... I can't even describe. The sweetness was perfect. Not too sweet. The custard texture was smooth and not too thick. The strawberry sauce was sweet at all the perfect levels. Despite being beyond full, my husband and I demolished this slice together. Hated ourselves afterwards, but enjoyed the ride to self-hate.

To end the night, our check was delivered with these dark chocolate covered caramel squares. My husband is not a fan of dark chocolate (I am, though) and even he enjoyed...

We made reservations for dinner when we made hotel reservations. We were called the night before reservations and told the Chef had a special menu for Valentines Day and not able to order off regular menu. The cost was $180.00 per person. We weren’t crazy about the menu and because was night before Valentines Day we kept reservation as other locations were already full. Valentines Day was our 35th wedding anniversary and was a special occasion! We asked for no oysters and they gave us extra scallops. The Caviar was an extra $65.00 up charge and if not we may have tried it.,We were first brought Flight of Fries that were not on menu like an appetizer. They were saltier than we like. Next we were brought bread with garlic butter inside. The tomato bisque soup (not pictured) was brought by 2 servers that each poured soup into our bowls that had 2 small pieces of bread. Next we were brought salads with avocado mouse. It was a very small salad. Our striplion entrees were brought next and steak was good size and delicious, though mashed potatoes & vegetables were minimal. There was no actual cheesecake with strawberry Nutella desert. There was a bed of graham cracker crumbles under strawberries. Lastly we were brought 2 pieces of chocolate with sea salt and 2 to-go bags of Carmel popcorn when the server brought the check. Our dining experience was about 3 hours. We noticed some others that came after us received some of their courses at the same time and glad we didn’t. The kept out water glasses full most of the time, until closure to end. The service was very attentive. They de-crumbed our table and brought fresh plates and silverware between each course. We expected the regular menu may have cost about $100.00 each and were not expecting this higher cost and menu the night before our anniversary reservation. Overall was not what we expected, as would have ordered different items we saw on the...