The Pub at Shelburne Hotel — Restaurant in Long Beach

My wife and I used to love The Shelburne Pub, we frequented it regularly, but have not been able to because of covid. It has since been remodeled and is not quite the quaint and relaxing Pub environment it used to be. But the ambience aside, it does not explain the absolute horrible experience we had the other night. I do not normally give bad reviews, but this was so messed up I felt I had to warn others.

Firstly, the two drinks we ordered were incredibly strong to the point of gasping, and my kamikaze had so much lime in it, I could barely drink it. But it did help pass the 40 minutes it took for our appetizer and food to arrive... At the same time... If they were busy I would have understood it, but there were literally 2 other tables filled.

Secondly, we both ordered a couple of steaks that were listed at $29 on their menu. I do not mind paying a lot for a good steak. But what we were served were some badly cut loaded with gristle New York Steaks with a "pile" of pub fries on the plate. Nothing else, no vegies, just a small saucer of ketchup (real small). The flavor of the steak was decent, but nothing more than I would expect from Denny's or Shari's, definitely NOT a $29 steak. Then when I asked for some ranch to help with this massive amount of fries, I was told "I'm sorry, but we're an organic restaurant, we don't do ranch". WHAT? I didn't even know how to respond to that so I let it go.

Then as I looked at the menu, on the back in small print it says, there will be a mandatory 18% fee charged for our employees living wage. What the HELL is that. Do not FORCE me to pay a tip for bad food and bad service from employees that they underpay because they need to take vacations over seas. That was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. And because of it, the server did not get an actual tip. Normally I tip between 15% and 20% as it is, but to FORCE me to a specific amount is unacceptable.

After we had left we were going over the receipt and saw that both of our steaks charged $32 rather than the listed $29... They're already ripping me off with that 18%.. Really, now their charging prices other then your menu states? That steak and fries wasn't even worth $10.

Needless to say, if we do return to the Shelburne pub for drinks or food, it will not be for a very long time, and we will no longer be recommending Shelburne to friends and family. I do hope they fix their issues and maybe care a little more about their employees and pay them a livable wage rather than syphon it from their customers. Maybe then we'd get better...

3 stars for the food, 4 stars for the ambiance, 5 stars for the service, and 1 star for adding an EXTRA 18% "LIVING WAGE FEE" TO EVERY BILL!. We're staying at the hotel and could live with paying over $300 per night for a "garden view" room (note: no flowers, some dead plants, a few green ones, some bocci ball like court and a neighborhood street are the "garden view") and decided to have dinner downstairs at The Pub (part of the hotel). Dinner was ok. Tempura sweet onions with an avocado demi is a fancy way of saying onion rings with an avocado smear for $8! My wife's $29 steak frites dinner was very good. My $28 double cut pork chop, however, was over-cooked and dry. I couldn't even finish it and found myself instead eating the fries from my wife's plate. I didn't complain and said everything was fine until I got the bill. On top of the over-priced food, there is an EXTRA 18% LIVING WAGE FEE ADDED ON TO EVERY CHECK!!!! BUT ONLY 7% ACTUALLY GOES TO THE SERVER AND THE HOUSE KEEPS 11%!!!! I am a business owner and this should be included in the cost of doing business! If you want to pay your employees more than average, that's great. But don't pass along YOUR cost of doing business directly to your customers in the form of an 18% LIVING WAGE FEE! I would NEVER do that to my customers. I don't know how you sleep at night as a business owner by screwing over your customers and your staff. Our poor server, who did a fine job, has to listen to customer after customer complain about this asinine 18% LIVING WAGE FEE and YOU lose out on repeat business because us customers are so offended by it and consider it double-dipping. You don't even explain this prior to seating/ordering. You only put it in fine print on the back of a one-page menu that nobody sees because it's a ONE-PAGE MENU! If you were smart, you'd pass the cost along through your product pricing but that might be tough too since, as I said before, the menu is already over-priced for the quality/quantity. Bottom line is that your 18% mark-up (of which 11% goes in your pocket) gives this Historic place a black eye and, in good conscience, we could never stay/eat here and help line the pockets of greedy...

Service was very bad. The woman with dark eyebrows who served us at first was very unfriendly from the start and made it seem like we were a burden for her. Then, my party's food all came out except for mine. The second server told us after a while that they just started making it and I asked if it could be made with egg whites instead of over medium and she said that they probably already started...but seeing that everyone else were almost done with their food and mine had just started to be made, I don't think changing the egg should have been so difficult. Mine finally came out and the eggs were over easy. I told her that and she said well I asked for over medium and left it at that. I could only eat the bacon from the sandwich and a couple apple slices. They never came back over to us after that to see how our food was or to check on us. Then it took maybe 45 minutes after we were all finished before we could ask for the check. A third server came over to take the plates and that's the first time we could ask for the check. They charged us for the sandwich that I couldn't eat (except for the bacon slices) and charged gratuity. Never asked how the sandwich was or anything. They pretty much avoided me after they brought the sand which that I told her was not right...after I had to wait 20 min after my friends got their food to get. Just bad. Super bad. I only gave two stars because the hotel and restaurant is really cute inside. Really rude, unprofessional, unfriendly service. So bizarre, honestly. I worked in the restaurant/bar industry for ten years and I would never have left my customers like that especially after I forgot to put in one of their orders. That's customer...