Knolls Restaurant — Restaurant in Long Beach

My boyfriend and I showed up on a Saturday at 10:15 PM, because Knoll's website says they close at 11:30 PM. The place was dead, besides one other couple sitting inside, but I guess the employees just wanted to ride out the night without much more work beyond that couple considering their treatment towards us. Well, at least we got that feeling when the hostess explained that the kitchen closed at 10:45 PM as soon as we showed up. We sat outside and responded that that was fine, and 25 minutes was enough time to order a quick dinner. And, we did indeed eat quickly as to not put them out for too long, since we apparently were unwanted. I ordered a salad, my boyfriend got a pastrami sandwich on sourdough bread, and we shared the lobster mac and cheese.

For starters, the mac and cheese portion of the appetizer came out nice and warm, and was good. If we didn't have to search for the 4 lobster slivers, then I would definitely say it would've been worth $14.

Since we got an appetizer, I made the mistake of trying to save a buck, and I ordered a salad instead of say, their Kobe-style burger. On the menu it states that the ceasar salad was $10.95 and if you add chicken it's $4 extra. However when we got the bill back we apparently got double charged for the chicken, making this the most expensive standard ceasar salad I've probably ever bought at $19. Thinking I might've been wrong, and already not wanting to bother them any further than what they had already made clear we had, we shrugged, paid the bill, tipped double the tax, and left around 11. At this point the first couple had hardly left 15 minutes prior to us, and a group of young people made their way inside.

My boyfriend's sandwich tasted pretty good. The fries were uninspired rewarmed frozen steak fries.

When we got back home, I checked their online menu, and, sure enough, I was scammed out of $4. Lesson learned. I'll no longer give a flying f* when people are treating you like a nuisance for trying to eat at their establishment within their designated service hours.

Additionally, to me, it seems tacky for a hipsterish restaurant to price everything at $XX.95. Basically everything is priced like this, and I cannot for the life of me understand why a place would want to be so blatant with shady tactics that is commonly known to only be used as deceitful business practices.

Oh well, plenty of other places to eat in Bixby Knolls. Do yourself a favor and go to an alternative,...

My brother and I stopped in for lunch on a Friday. Parking on the street is limited, but there is free parking behind the restaurant. The atmosphere inside is dark and modern with a mix of tables and booths and a well stocked bar with plenty of top shelf liquors and even more craft beers. I'll have to explore these options on a subsequent visit. Now the food. The menu is very heavy on burgers, sandwiches and salads. The entrees consist of all good choices; pastas, seafood, pork, beef and chicken dishes. Enough choices to please just about everyone. On this visit I tried the Slow Roasted Pork and Ham Cuban sandwich and it was delish! The roasted pork was tender and flavorful, the ham slices were browned and covered in melted Swiss cheese, all served with a good bold mustard and crunchy pickles on a Brioche bun. For my side I chose garlic fries and they were equally spectacular; unlike other places soggy fries that are just coated in garlic flavored oil, these were seasoned, battered, crispy and sprinkled with minced garlic and not greasy at all. In a word, divine, but the show stopper was the desert. Sorry that I didn't snap a pic of the chocolate cake. It was tall, dark and spectacularly delicious. If this cake was any more chocolatey it would have been a solid slice of chocolate! Its many layers were moist and perfectly sweet without being too sweet. I would come back for the chocolate cake alone, but the food is also worthy of a return trip and rest assured I...

Mediocre service & bad ownership. Food is basic and not exciting or interesting. Every burger that my table of 8 ordered was cooked incorrectly. (How do you offer 4 different meats, yet have no idea how to cook them properly) Asked to see the manager to request permission to the close the front door? Yes permission!! According to the host it is the owners request to keep the door open so that people could see that the restaurant was open?? I was then told that he was busy with another customer so he did not have time to come and talk to me, but in actuality the owner / manager was just sitting at the bar drinking with friends. I walked up to him in order to address my concerns and he could barely turn from his bar stool to speak with what could have been a regular customer. Of course once I returned to my table dessert showed up. Unfortunately at this point, I could cared less about 4 plates of sub par frozen cheesecake. Weiland's was ok when it was located in Downtown LA but this new location is just unfortunate and sad. Too bad the owner Rick doesn't see that perhaps his restauranteur days are over. Oh well, EJ's...