Madera Kitchen — Restaurant in Los Angeles

First off, had a wonderful wedding day! The atmosphere was beautiful and our guests, for the most part, enjoyed everything and we only paid $7,000 for 30 guests with a 4 course dinner, due to Covid -19. WOW!

However, for those of you looking at this place when Covid is over, you should know our concerns for the amount this venue generally charges ($16k). We have concerns...

VENUE COORDINATOR CONCERNS: For the most part, we worked with the woman in charge of the venue for events. Her name is Jennifer. ⁃ Very unprofessional who talked down to us when we pointed out what was wrong with the food(my husband is a well trained cook). She called us “perfectionists”, which we found strange because we were just calling the venue out on some food items that didn’t seem quite right for the price... ⁃ She texted us twice on our honeymoon about feedback. The first text came THE MORNING AFTER OUR WEDDING. ⁃ She usually sent very unclear and unprofessional emails filled with speak text that was hard to decipher, also emails that came in bright colors and odd fonts. Very off putting when you are trying to plan a wedding. ⁃ She never got back to us after we reached out to her with our concerns about our wedding a few weeks after our honeymoon.

COVID AND SAFETY CONCERNS: -No temperature checks at the door that we were promised!!! No host. A VERY HIGH PROFILE GUEST WE HAD HAD TO LEAVE BECAUSE THEY FELT UNCOMFORTABLE AND UNSAFE. -No one guarding the door, so anyone could have just walked in!! We saw hosts at another persons wedding when we had our tasting, and were told it would be the same for ours, but no one showed.... -We had an unwelcoming, poorly timed, disorganized and rushed tasting. We didn’t even get to try some of the items we chose days before. Jennifer barely came to speak with us. We felt rushed and they weren’t being timely with the food... it took forever. And when food did come out, it was in waves all at once...Our tasting was from 1:30-3. But I was there till 4:30... We also received FULL portions for each item we tasted, which we found strange.

FOOD CONCERNS: ⁃ Our VEGAN guests were given EGG noodles!! Our guests said they had to eat around them in their “vegan pasta”. Unacceptable. This comes even after we specified to Jennifer and the chef that the noodles we tried at our tasting for the vegan items looked and tasted like egg noodles... We asked them how they make the vegan noodles, since they apparently make them in house. We were never given a clear answer as to how the vegan noodles were made. Very disappointed! ⁃ Weeks before our tasting, we informed Jennifer of a HUGE nut allergy we had. We arrived at the tasting, and was served not only a flatbread we didn’t choose to taste, but a flatbread that had NUTS ON IT. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Jennifer was apologetic about this, however, it did leave us concerned about how the kitchen deals with cross contamination as it relates to allergies... very concerning. ⁃ ZIP LOCK BAGS were used at our wedding to box up our guests food... We were told they were out of Togo bags! Who does this???? It's a wedding for 30 guests... They didn't want to spend the "extra" money on to go boxes? ⁃ Served Poor oysters With some small shells still in them ⁃ Served a Poor cut of steak (very fatty) and they charge $33 for this on their menu! ⁃ Jennifer and the chef at first DIDNT want to work with us on steak temps for our 30 guests, 13 of which, ordered steak. Very strange that the kitchen was unwilling to cook 13 steaks to temp. Understandable for a party of 100+, but not for 13...

All this to say, just be AWARE of these things going into your event. Overall, this space is gorgeous, the location is amazing (right in Hollywood), the photo booth was to die for, basically, we enjoyed our event, but unfortunately we did not enjoy working with Jennifer. Whoever was there facilitating our wedding on the day of our event was amazing! I don’t remember his name, but he was on top of EVERYTHING since Jennifer coincidentally had another event...

**Update May 2022: Noticed the fake reviews mentioned in Jan 2022 update have been removed. See original review about wedding below.

**Update Jan 2022: It looks like a lot of the recent 3 and 4 star Google reviews are from fake accounts or for the wrong place, as they don't describe Madera factually at all (one references it being in SOMA and another references a downstairs wine cellar, neither true). Each such account only has two reviews, one for Madera and the other for an electrician or appliance repair shop. And they are getting posted regularly about once per week. Seems like a lot of effort to boost one's star rating rather than just focusing on providing a good experience!

**Original review

Unfortunately, I can't recommend Madera as a wedding party venue. Despite it being a charming location with good drinks and food, the event management soured the planning experience for us.

We hired the restaurant's in-house planner, Jenn (Red Light Special Events/Weddings by Jennifer Laskey), but had to fire her and hire someone else a month before the wedding because we weren't satisfied with her planning services. We paid her her whole fee anyway without argument. Nonetheless, she still showed up at our wedding, despite saying she would not. It was awkward to say the least.

Additionally, the photo booth that we paid extra for, which was central to our guest party favor, did not function properly for most of the night.

We also paid a mandatory 20% service charge (over $3K) that was supposed to go toward gratuity according to our contract, but we were told the day before our wedding that if we didn't allow tip jars on the bar, the bartenders (who were wonderful) would not get any tip. It put us and our guests in an awkward position.

Finally, we also rented the house owned by the restaurant owner to get ready in. While nice, the day after our wedding we got a call asking for more money to clean, despite paying a cleaning fee already, because we left two boxes by the garbage can.

It was just one thing after another. There are lots of beautiful venues in LA. Just make sure the management is up to the task of not ruining...

I was looking for a Happy Hour spot in LA near a venue I was going to, and this place came up! The place is GORGEOUS, especially outside. It doesn't get too cold, but when there's an event they'll block out the other side. The inside of the restaurant is quite nice too, it's pretty dark and intimate and the bar looks nice to sit at. Apparently there are blankets outside, so you can ask for it and they'll provide it to you!

Happy Hour menu: I ordered the Penicillin ($14), it was a little weak and watered down, but overall good. Chicken ($7) - This was DELICIOUS, there were a lot of flavors, crispy, and it was cut into three pieces. Eat it fast because it cools down quickly. Ceviche (Thursday special for $5) - This was yummy as well, it comes in a small martini glass. The other Happy Hour special was a bbq pork slider, my friends tell me it's delicious.

Keep your timer ready because we didn't get a notice when Happy Hour was over. We were charged original prices and had to get it sorted out (we ordered some items...