Vintana Wine + Dine — Restaurant in Escondido

I have dined at Vintana many times with my family and we have always enjoyed the upscale service and food. I decided to surprise my boyfriend, who has never been to Vintana, by taking him here for his birthday. Unfortunately, the experience was incredibly disappointing and did not reflect the standard I’ve come to expect from this fine dining establishment.

I made a dinner reservation through Open Table for two for Saturday evening. In my reservation, I had noted under occasion/special request, “It’s his first time dining here and it’s his birthday. A table by the window if possible please, and a surprise dessert would be nice.” When our server, Monique R, arrived at the table, she read the special request I had left online, in front of us while we were seated at the table, and then proceeded to ask whose birthday it was, and said she’d bring out a little cake later. Not only did she not read the note completely as I tried to make it clear that it was HIS birthday, but she completely ruined the surprise, telling him she’d bring a cake out later.

She said that she’ll be back shortly, and we ended up having to wait almost 15 minutes for water and our popovers. Then, when my boyfriend asked for help choosing a wine to pair with his filet mignon, Monique R showed she was not knowledgeable and offered no guidance. She suggested a Daou Cabernet without explaining anything about it or asking about his preferences. When he asked again if she thought it would be a good pairing, she just said, “Well, it’s up to people’s preferences.” Monique R. was not helpful and spoke to us like we were children.

My favorite dish is the slow-braised short rib. It's excellent and the only entrée I ever order. On this evening, it was a huge letdown. It was 70% fat, dry, and oddly piping hot in the center, like it had been microwaved. I had to saw through it with my knife, as the meat was not falling off with the flick of my fork like it has in my past Vintana visits. Also, I finished my drink during our starters, and was stuck with water during my entree as Monique R never asked if I’d like another drink.

When dessert finally came, Monique R dropped it off, lit the candle, and rushed away without offering to take a photo for his birthday, which is a special occasion, or even refill our nearly empty waters. We ended up asking another server to take our photo. He was kind enough to even relight my boyfriend's birthday candle for the photo.

It was also incredibly uncomfortable and embarrassing when Monique R tapped my credit card on the handheld POS system and then flipped my card over and said my name out loud with a question mark at the end, and then waited for me to say that it was my card. It was as if she was trying to check to see if it was someone else’s card. I have never had a server do that, especially in a fine dining establishment, but I was also sitting right next to another one of her tables, and I didn’t see or hear her do that when the table next to us had checked out.

Sadly, it was very clear Monique R discriminated against us because of our age. We’re a young couple in our early 20s, and it genuinely felt like we weren’t taken seriously. She talked to us like children and purposefully tried to embarrass us, reading the name on the back of my card out loud. The service we received did not match the $180 pre-tip price tag, and it was disheartening to feel like we were being overlooked just because someone assumed we “wouldn’t tip well.” I know I’m young, and I’m not afraid to speak up for myself, but out of respect for my boyfriend and this being his birthday dinner, I didn’t want to tense the night up by calling the obviously rude and classless server out for clearly discriminating against us. I also am not going to stoop to anyone’s level, and I still left a nice tip.

I expected so much more, especially on a special occasion for someone who’s never dined at Vintana before, and I’m genuinely disappointed and feel utterly...

After reading all the raving reviews, I’ll be honest — I expected to be wowed! I had high expectations, so imagine my dismay at such a lousy experience. The best thing about the whole place was easy parking and cleanest bathroom I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. Those should not be the two best things about a place that prides itself on fine dining. I mean, seriously. My mother and I felt so let down.

When I’m offered bread at my table, I don’t think it’s just me, but I expect bread. Wouldn’t you? Instead, we got this puffed up crust thing that was meant to be complimentary bread to accompany a meal. It was a huge piece of crust filled with air. We were taken aback asking, “What the hell is this?” Someone laughed and said it was puff bread. I don’t know about the next person, but you can’t really call it bread if it doesn’t have any bread substance to it. Come on man, bread and butter should be exactly that: BREAD and butter. Not crust filled air and butter. We should have known that if the meal started that way, it had a long way to get any better. It never achieved that measure of excellence we hoped for.

I ordered my steak medium well. To make sure there was no misunderstanding in what I would like served at such exorbitant prices, I said, “Pink in the middle. Not red and still dying, but pink and dead.” My steak was very well done, which is clearly overcooked for medium well. It was so tough I didn’t know whether to make a shoe out of it or cry. I was hungry, and I could not eat this. I dare not send food back to the chef. That’s just a bad idea if you get my point. So I grumbled and decided that this would be a very costly review. Worth what? $160, not including drinks! The drinks should have been free as upset as we were.

Now they say dessert is the best part of any meal. I guess it depends on where you go. And I’ve never been given a serving spoon to eat my dessert. Never until now.

In the end, I did not think the menu was worth the prices, nor the meal worth the wait. We were so disappointed that we are still griping about it two months later, so I decided I’d do a review and see if it helps me feel better. Nope. Not really. Like I said, at those prices you’d expect perfection. The servers were polite, but that was only part if the experience one should receive. Food. What about the food? Was the chef having a bad night? Was this a rare bad occurrence? I don’t know. All I know is I’ll never go back at those prices. There are too many other options for dining. Well, at least the bathrooms were clean....

The food was amazing. I got the brie appetizer & green beans. The entertainment was amazing. The issue that I had was with the service. My waiter walked by my table 5 times without asking me if I needed anything. I had to ask another waiter for a glass of wine …. & water …. and for another appetizer. What was more disheartening was both the managers were not very open or receptive for constructive positive feedback. I then had the security guard walk up to me and told me that I’ve been asked to leave the restaurant. Huh?? I was very direct in my conversation with the managers, however I was not rude. They simply were not open for feedback. I tried to make it somewhat of a funny conversation and suggested that maybe possibly my waiter had smoked a little weed and he just was not on his A game. The female manager then got highly offended and said she didn’t appreciate me making accusations about her employees. Huh?

In the elevator with the security guard, I asked him if he was asked to escort me out and he said yes the managers asked me to tell you to leave.

So if you desire a place that has great food and great entertainment and shitty customer service … then go here.

My preference at this point is to go to places that are ran more efficiently from the heads. Yet I’m not surprised with how these managers behaved. I’ve always been taught in a business structure that it starts at the top and if employees are not fully performing with excellence it’s because they lack better leadership from the top and/or being trained efficiently.

I will miss the brie and the entertainment, however, I will never come back to this restaurant. My bill was $80 and I probably would’ve come every month.

You just lost a regular customer from shitty customer service :(

It’s becoming a new sad reality at restaurants.

Oh! I forgot something in my former post. Also, the female manager felt it necessary to blame me saying that I should have notified management earlier if I wasn’t happy. I then had to explain to her that I was enjoying the entertainment and I didn’t want to have that conversation in the middle of my experience. So once again, very poor management to blame the customer when they are sharing a complaint...