Riviera Supper Club and Turquoise Room — Restaurant in La Mesa

Review of The Riviera Supper Club, we went to try their Happy Hour foods. This is unusual, I am a pretty harsh grader when it comes to food. This place was spectacular.

We had two servers Andrew and Kim both of them were top-notch. We never had to wait for drinks or ask for service.

Brisket corn dog.. is more like brisket sausage inside. It's fried in a homemade cornmeal dip. Very, very good, crisp on the outside with a nice soft breading on the inside. It comes with a homemade honey mustard sauce. You would find something like this at a fairground. It was comfort food the way comfort food is meant to be made and worth grabbing at LEAST one order.

French onion was in a word, magnificent! The onions were so sweet, and with just a touch of wine, and the bread held a crispness in the soup.

The deviled eggs were very traditional with little pops of bacon on top. Tastes like grandma made them in her kitchen with love. The potato wedges were more like baked potatoes with a French fry skin. Ask for salt. Add these with the steak skewers and you have a meal in themselves.

But the star of the show was the steak skewers. The marinade is perfection! The tenderness the marinade gave them, melted in my mouth. How good were they? Well, I ordered 4 orders of them they were that good. Every piece of meat was a perfect cook to medium rare. Different size pieces on 4 skewers every one cooked exactly point on that takes talent.

The only thing I was disappointed with was the bacon shrimp. They were overcooked and it made them chewy. They lost the flavor. I would suggest Key West pink shrimp. The sweetness of those shrimp with that bacon. That would put them on par with the steak skewers and that's a high bar it hit.

This place is...

NEVER COMING BACK HERE AFTER THEY BLOCKED ME ON IG and the poor food. So me and my partner went out for date night. The drinks and atmosphere was good. But the food and the pricing for it was okay AT BEST. The apps are overpriced for how little they have when it comes to seasoning or ingredients. The entrees weren’t any better. The steak was good but nothing that really stood out. The loaf of garlic bread is doused heavily with garlic butter and burnt. Not much of flavor in that bread. The worst of it all was the Mushroom fettuccine. Boy for 23$ and almost as much as a steak. My partner and I were expecting something at least warm, but no, it was cold and the pasta was not cooked properly. My partner has social anxiety due to her upbringing and didn’t want to be rude to the waitress about the pasta. She only told me about it after she had her fill and we were about to pay and leave. I myself didn’t want to bring it up since we had already gotten the check and the plates had already been picked up. After we get home do I go on IG and go to their page to leave a comment about the pasta. Only for me to later find out that they blocked me. Instead of taking it on the chin, they do a cowardly move and erase the comment and make sure I can’t see their page. I didn’t insult the establishment with the comment I left. I simply explained how I felt and that the price of the pasta wasn’t fair. Anyways, I would’ve gone back there for drinks, even my partner and some of my friends were interested in that, but now I’ll never go back. And I’ll be sure to tell as many people about this...

The Riv.

Yes the whole name is The Riviera Supper Club & Turquoise Room so you can see why I affectionately call it the Riv.

Grill and drink it up like you own the place. It almost seems like a regular restaurant except with more room to roam. Here's the kicker I that there are these huge communal grills where you cook your own food, the majority of the sides and apps are done in the kitchen, but your steaks, chicken are grilled by you. They have tons of sauces, and shakes to work with. Here's what you do though. Get your meat, season and sauce it, then grab another drink and give it a few minutes. Throwing sauces and spices on while it cooks does very little in actually adding flavor. Or if you a traditionalist like me find the hottest part of the grill and really lay a sear on it. Then move it to a cooler spot to fully cook it you chose the thickest ribeye cut they have like me. Now don't have 3-4 drinks and try and cook, maybe 1-2 because then things get sloppy and your throwing everything all over the place. Actually I'd recommend a nice wine while you wait, and some good conversation. I ask for a few sides of bacon just cuz I like throwing it on everything, that helps and they oblige without gauging my wallet.

Normally when I grill steaks I'm drinking a beer enjoying the sunshine, not here, it's dark it's inside and there are other cooks, but either way I'm not making sides. Get the mac and cheese for the kids and the adults, they'll both love it. The salad's are forgettable, salad's at steak places never taste...