Terra Laguna Beach — Restaurant in Laguna Beach

We went to the Terra Restaurant because we had been to the previous Tivoli Terrace restaurant at the same location before, and because it could make a pleasant preamble to visiting the Pageant of the Masters. Please be warned that all the charming and delightful trees of the old Tivoli Terrace restaurant have been cut down - the Terrace is now a slab of concrete. Whoever is running the restaurant has no idea of organization. Last year we booked our reservation in February when we booked the pageant, and when we turned up in August they had no record of our reservation. We forgave them because the place had only just changed hands. However this year we called the day before to confirm our reservation. It turns out they had handed over the reservation function to an incompetent website which only takes reservations, but will not confirm or cancel them. So I called every hour on the hour from 8AM till 3PM, leaving messages. Eventually around 3pm a man called me back and behaved exactly as if he had no knowledge of our reservation, but gave us a new one anyway. The computer system had reported that there were no reservations available for 6.30PM, however when we got there at most 60% of the tables were occupied. Maybe they were limited by staffing rather than tables. Our waitress was a pretty girl who could have been a student. She was charming enough, but it was not until 15 minutes later that we realized that most other guests had been served bread with their salad course and we had not. Luckily another waitress found bread for us. We had planned to spend two hours in the restaurant before going to the pageant, for which purpose we had ordered a nice bottle of wine. It was 15 minutes after our order was taken before we got the bread to go with the salad. Five minutes later when we had hardly started the salad, another waiter, not ours, came up with our main course. Now most restaurants manage the feat of serving you one course when you have finished the previous one. Not this one. The same waiter (not ours) turned up at 15 minute intervals for the next 45 minutes trying to deliver the main course which we were not ready for. The food was tasty enough, I personally enjoyed the lamb shank. We discussed tips when it came round to paying the bill, and concluded that we would be generous and give a 15% tip, despite the multiple screw ups. However the waitress presented us with a computerized bill which gave us three choices only - 20%, 24% or 28% for a tip. Our conclusion is that this restaurant is a temporary event staffed mostly by students. But whoever is at the top just has no idea of how a restaurant is run. By the time they have learned on the job how to run a restaurant, the pageant season is over and they start all over again. We probably will not come again next year, after many years of enjoying this annual event. (The pageant has changed, but that is...

Food poisoning for 9 out of 17 people in our group. I kid you not.

I came to Tivoli Terrace with a large group last weekend, (Saturday specifically) and got sick Sunday night. I vomitted 5 times late Sunday night/Monday morning and missed work Monday because I got food poisoning. 9 people out of the 17 people in our party all got sick and 2 of these people ended up going to the hospital. I know what you're thinking, "How do you know it was this restaurant?!" -Because this restaurant was the only time and place we all met up at for food over the weekend before we went in to see Pageant of the Masters. We never saw nor met up with 5 of the 9 people whom got sick on Sunday!

I called the restaurant on Tuesday and a person claiming to be the manager told me that I'd be hearing from the owner and that she was not in yet. The manager took down my name and asked for the last 4 of my credit card to match me up with my party. He then told me he'd already heard from someone in our party and that the owner would be getting back to us. The manager then called me back Wednesday asking me how many people were in our party and requesting further information with another promise the owner would be contacting me. Thursday evening and I'm still sick with diarrhea 5 days after eating there and I haven't received any call from the owner, no refunds for getting me and my friends sick, and no form of reaching out to apologize and why?! Because the owner doesn't care. She was probably told not to contact us or admit fault per a lawyer. She also probably believes this is all going to just be forgotten and that there will be no repercussions but she is mistaken.

I implore you NOT to eat here and face the same total disregard I have received for being a customer whom dropped over $100($101 actually). Do not come here for you wedding or otherwise! AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE! The food you get at this place is bland, canned cafeteria food dressed up to look like its well composed but it's all a mirage because it tastes horrible and somewhere along the line there is food contamination. If it's in the ingredients (which may be spoiled), food preparation or the the waiters not washing there hands we will never know until there is a health inspection which brings me to my next course...

DO NOT GO HERE. If you are attending Festival of the Arts or Pageant of the Masters, I STRONGLY recommend eating elsewhere beforehand. We wanted a nice dinner before our show, yet when we arrived, we were seated by an apprehensive, timid teenage hostess who was way in over her head and definitely lacked the social skills required to seat people in a supposedly high-end restaurant. Little fault to her though, as she probably shouldn't have been placed in that position to begin with. Once we were seated, we sat for 13 minutes without a waiter, and it would have been longer if I hadn't walked up to a random waiter and asked if someone could serve us. While we were getting served, the family that was sitting next to us just glared at us from the moment we sat down, which I could only attribute to the fact that we are an interracial couple living in Orange County. God forbid if we wanted to go out without being stared at. When my fiancee received her salmon, it was of a lower grade than something you'd expect from Chili's, and definitely not worth $40. When the time came for dessert, the family that had been staring at us the entire time was given a wide assortment of cheesecakes, yet somehow, the only kind that was available to us was chocolate. The overall dinner was over $100 for two people, lousy service, and less than mediocre food. Save yourself some money and do...