Gulliver's Restaurant — Restaurant in Irvine

How does this place NOT has all 5 star reviews!?!?! We came here only because we were in the area for work and looking for dinner. I saw there was a Groupon, so I snatched it up.

Three of us walked in on a Saturday night (booked a table through Open Table just in case). It was a bit dressier than we realized (we were all dressed very casual), but they sat us right away. As we were looking at our menus and salivating, the Manager came and asked us if we would mind moving into a table in the corner. At first we were a little startled, and wondered if we indeed were under dressed and they were going to stick us out of view of everyone. He then explained that they had a party of 15 coming and they weren't supposed to have sat anyone there. The Manager the explained that he was moving us to the table where John Wayne sat, and that dessert was on him for the inconvenience. Ok.....

I knew going in that I was ordering the Prime Rib, as it's what Gulliver's is known for. Our waiter, who rocked btw, told us that they used to ONLY serve prime rib, but even now they still sell 70-80% prime rib. Furthermore, with all the reviews I read, I'd say 90% of the reviewers talk about how insane their creamed corn is. I don't like creamed corn at all, but the more people raved about it, the more I knew I had to try it.

The Prime Rib comes with certain sides: the apparently world famous creamed corn, creamed spinach (which I also hate), Yorkshire Pudding and Au Jus. I didn't really want half of that, but, I ordered it the way it comes. Don't fix what isn't broke right? Well, guess what....THIS IS THE BEST MEAL I'VE HAD ALL YEAR, MAYBE MORE!! This is THE best prime rib. Period. Two of us got the Traditional size (not the thin cut and not the huge cut). Um. This was still INSANELY big! It looked like meat from the Flintstones car. The cook was a perfect medium rare. The seasoning was on point and the Au Jus was some sort of magic. We all kept grabbing the gravy boat and pouring more and more over the meat. I can't stop tasting it still. It was that good.

Now, let's talk about the creamed corn situation. What the entire heck do they put in this?!?! All 3 of us could not stop talking about it, even on the ride home! No wonder everyone talks about it!! I don't understand!

The creamed spinach was also ridiculous. I didn't eat it all, but I was very intrigued by how good it was. Again, not sure what they do to it. Tons of garlic, I know that. The Yorkshire pudding (which is not pudding at all, but a delicious bread used to sop up that de-frickin-licious Au Jus) was also quite perfect.

The BF got the Ribeye, our normal go to cut of beef, and while it was really good, once he tasted our Prime Rib, he greatly regretted not getting it. Next time he says he'll order it.

After it was all said and done and we just about popped, we got THREE free desserts on the house! We ordered the Bread Pudding, on the waiter's suggestion, the Gelato and the Lava Cake. They were all stellar.

All in all, while it is pricey, it's not eating hot dogs. It's paying for top notch quality food, expertly prepared and we will come back every single time business brings us...

I have never written a review in my entire life until now, but this place was so beyond disappointing, it warrants a review so I can save others time and money. If you like rude workers, overpriced food and sub-par quality and taste, this is the place for you! If you don't... take yourself to Houstons or Flemings down the way for a lovely experience.

For starters- we had an 830 reservation. However, when we walked in and shared that info, the guy looked down at his iPad, said my name, then never looked back up? Like are we supposed to sit and wait? Are you going to seat us now? He literally just said nothing so we went and sat and until someone seated us (right off the bat, this place was an L).

Their menu last night was the holiday menu (we went on NYE). There were no sides listed on the menu except with the prime rib special, which comes with creamed corn, spinach, and that pudding stuff. No sides were listed with anything else. We wanted to know if they had other options and asked the waitress what our other options were for sides. She looked at us like we had 3 eyes when we asked if they had other sides. She asked us, "what do you mean?" and we were like, well, do you have potatoes or something? She pulls down her mask and says, "What do you want?" with a fat attitude. We replied " Well, we are looking at the filet and prime rib," and we wanted different sides. So she rattles off the potatoes and fries and whatever else they had for side options that are not listed anywhere.

The food came out SO quick, but the sus kind of quick that indicates it's not fresh, which was later proved by the lackluster flavor. After getting our food, no one came back once to check on us. Literally not once. The mashed potatoes tasted sour and were cold, the green beans were also room temp and were not good and had no flavor, and the "twice baked potato" looked like the chef had baked it about 5 times a week ago, not to mention it was TINY and the skin was so hard you couldn't even eat it. The filet was not bad, but was SO salty, as was the prime rib. However, they screwed up my order and gave me the monster dog prime rib at the regular house prime rib price, so that was cool. My boyfriend got the filet and it was very tender (which was surprising and pleasant) but very, VERY salty.

For two sodas, an appetizer, a prime rib meal, and a filet meal it was $140. If it were Flemings' quality and service, I would have been cool with that. But no- this was like TGI Fridays quality and Flemings prices. It just was not cool. At all.

The place was packed, and I honestly have no clue why. However, the Christmas decorations were super cute, and they played Christmas music which I was happy about. Besides that, it was a whack experience, and we were left confused about the hype, food quality, service, and...

My first time dining here. I was so excited... maybe going on a busy night like NYE was not a good choice.

We had reservations @ 7:45pm they were running behind *(we didn't mind). Decided we would have a glass of wine in the bar area while we waited. We got lucky, and found a seat and our server was very sweet. Didn't appreciate the 3 trays of dirty dishes on  jack stands along the wall that never were removed and it kept growing! They just kept piling them on.

We were sat in the back dining area about 8:15pm.  Our server was Sean. He was the only server in the entire room and it showed. We sat for at least 5 minutes before we were greeted by his busser *(he was pleasant) and brought us bread. Sean came to our table a few minutes later.

I am not going to get super long on this, tho I could. If the manager wishes to have a conversation I am more than willing.

Few key points. Too much room not enough server. Server seemed to be very rushed and rushing us. Ordered another glass of wine, he walked off we had to call him back *(So he would know what I was drinking). Said glass of wine shows up *(wine glass had just been washed, completely wet with water and some lipstick, had not been dried off). Note: **Had appetizers, main course, then dessert. We ate our appetizer (Caesar Salads) and then received our main courses about 9:00pm 9:20 - Your Servers in their uniforms are now sitting two tables away from us, doing their checks, eating food, one has laid her head down taking a little nap ? *(mind you there are still 3 paying tables seated in there including us and we haven't finished eating yet). Another server comes out with voice raised, asking "oh my gosh do you have the stapler"? 9:30pm. Music in the restaurant is turned off !?  - we inquire to our server- who has been hovering..why has the music gone off. He states it's been a very busy day and it's coming to an end. He disappears. We decided to ask the busser for togo boxes take the rest of our dinner home. We order dessert. Chocolate Lava Cake with ice cream. Which arrived, looked beautiful but was luke warm :(  We took about 3 bites and that was it. This cake needs to be hot. Sean dropped the check when he delivered the dessert. And those same 3 trays of dirty dishes along the wall area in the bar were still there when we walked out.

Okay longer than I wanted but honestly I just couldn't believe all of this.

So disappointed.

I now realize that Gullivers choose to close at 9pm on New Years Eve.. I guess because it was a Monday ??? And their staff obviously wanted to get out and go party. Given the price increase incurred on the menu because it was NYE, the lack of service, execution and cleanliness. And need to rethink your timeline as well. Poor choices were made it seems...