Gemmell's Restaurant — Restaurant in Dana Point

We needed a spot to meet that was about halfway between Long Beach and San Diego. Dana Point is always nice, and I picked Gemmell's based on some of the comments. WOW... The outside of the restaurant isn't very impressive, but the meal was fantastic. I started with the escargots - the menu says it best - "Farm raised Helix snails, sautéed with garlic, shallots, mushrooms and diced ham, in a rich burgundy sauce". Outstanding - the snails were tasty, and the burgundy sauce with the finely diced pieces of ham, mushrooms, garlic, and shallots was amazing. It will be hard to go back to plain butter escargots after this. My wife had the Chef Byron's smoked salmon appetizer - lots of thinly-sliced salmon with capers, lemon, and toast points. I had a bite and it was very tasty. The toast points were very light and airy - almost like biting into foam. My sister and I also shared the pate canard - also with toast points and aspic. Delicious!

For our salad course, I had the wilted spinach - baby spinach leaves in a flambeed bacon dressing. WOW - we all agreed that I won that round. The spinach and dressing was rich and flavorful. My wife had the lobster bisque and said it was the best she had tasted. I tasted it and agreed that it was truly rich and full of lobster flavor. My sister passed on the salad/soup course - saving room for dessert later.

For our main courses, I had the scallops. From the menu - "Eastern Sea Scallops sautéed in Garlic champagne butter sauce, vegetables and rice". The garlic champagne butter sauce perfectly accented the scallops, and the rice gave a break to the richness of the scallops and sauce. My wife had the chicken crepe (chicken and mushrooms sauteed and wrapped in a crepe) and I think I will have that next time - it had a great flavor and texture. The crepe texture with the chicken and mushroom pieces was a perfect mix. My sister had the "Chicken Elizabeth" - from the menu - "Fresh Tender chicken breast sautéed with artichoke hearts, garlic and gulf shrimp, In a citrus chardonnay sauce vegetables and rice". Another winner.

Finally, for dessert, my wife had the Creme Brulee - served in a large ramekin with artistically arranged strawberries and blueberries. Again, she raved about the flavor. I had the blueberry tart, and my sister had the Meyer lemon tart - both were delicious and not too heavy.

Prices were quite reasonable (actually lower than we would have expected for the quality of the food and the presentation).

We are already planning on coming back. Even though it is an hour's drive from our home in San Diego, it is definitely worth the trip. This may be one of the best French restaurants in...

If I could, I would have given this place a 3.5, but I can't and to give this place a 4* would have been a disservice to other 4* places. Food was very good. Our party of four had John Dory, Sand Dab, Pasta, and Crepe with Chicken. All the main dishes, as well as the appetizers were very well prepared with a traditional french flair (i.e. excellently paired sauces). It wasn't spectacular but I would be happy to come here again for their food. Unfortunately, the staff and the service left a lot to be desired. It took much too long to take our orders and unacceptably too long to bring the main course. This was not a case of intentional slow pace but that of an inattentive service overall. The main hall had 15 to 17 tables which were all occupied and the entire staff consisted of two Servers, a busser, a hostess, and a manager(?). And yet, there were too many occasions where I could not see any staff in the dining hall. Where did they all go? Considering that the bill comes out to be in the high 40's to low 50's per person, I expect better service. Finally, the one big positive is that the portions are surprisingly large. We all arrived really hungry and yet we all struggled to finish our...

Decent meal but nothing amazing or out of ordinary and majorly lacking in any creativity or wow factor.

Came here for the prix fix 4 course dinner for the living social deal. Was able to make a reservation very easily on opentable. Arrived and we stood at the door way for a while before the hostess acknowledged us. The restaurant was pretty empty on a weekend night which is usually not a good sign.

We seated ourselves and got water and bread right away but did not get any menus. Waited for about 10min, was ignored and had to ask for menus. We made our dinner selections and our waitress just disappeared, never came back to check on us, just brought the food and came back to clear the plates. The whole service was very impersonal and lacking.

The food was decent, mixed green salad wasn't very good, mushroom soup was very tasty. Both of our entrees were very tasty, sirloin steak was a good quality cut and cooked perfected, the fish had too much batter which took away from the fish even though the quality was superb. Both desserts were very good.

Really expensive for what you get so probably would...