Land Ocean Restaurant Meridian — Restaurant in Meridian

What a bummer!!!

My wife and I were looking forward for a while to try this new restaurant as we love fine dining. Sadly, we were both very disappointed.

The atmosphere, the ambiance is perfect, warm and inviting. The staff are smiling, eager to assist and very friendly! The service was superb and spot on!

Then came our dinner, rather fast from the 2 hour wait comments I have read about....

For over $50 I ordered the Filet medium temp with a 6oz Lobster tail. My filet came out cold, the butter on top was not melted, and the outside was over-charbroiled with a deep pink center. The portion size was no more than 4oz best. The lobster was cold and over steamed. I was also not too impressed with how the plating presentation was, nor the portion size of the meal. In all fairness, when we brought this to managements' attention, they did credit the bill, which I thought was fair, but I don't like when places have to loose money over things like this.

My wife ordered the wood fired chicken, and there was no way her dinner was fresh, nor wood fired. Her plate presentation was lopsided with a huge portion of mashed potatoes and gravy, cold to the touch and the 3 asparagus on the plate were soggy and overcooked. The chicken flavor had no smoke or wood fire grilled taste and was very bland.

Our 2 boys did not like their meals either, I tried my sons' chicken tenders and they were nothing better than what Dave and Busters are, but for the $9 price, I can't complain too bad about that.

It certainly appears from reading the prior reviews that the kitchen is having a lot of issues, and by our experience, they are trying to solve it by staging food....and in this case our food was staged for a long period(s) of time.

We declined dessert and also cancelled our prior reservation for New Years at the front desk. In my opinion they are trying to be part of the great fine dining experiences that Boise has to offer, but they have missed their mark by a lot tonight.

To me, they are wanting to be a Brick Yard, Cottonwood Grille, or Anthony's, but I really do not see them at a caliber higher than the Longbranch on its' worst night, and with higher prices. Since they do not have their liquor license yet, they are offering canned cocktail drinks for $10 per drink poured into a glass.... that is not a good deal at all.

I hope the management and staff can get this figured out. The building they have remodeled does not hold restaurants there for long; with our experience tonight, I see another pattern forming rather quickly.

If the stars were for service and staff alone, my review would have...

Date night tonight at Land Ocean. Back in the day this joint used to be Pinnacle sports bar. Walking in, I was so impressed at how stunning this venue is! The lighting, the fire pits, the fabric they used for the booths.... it's all perfection. It's so pretty and romantic! Perfect for a date night or for a group event. It was busy for a Friday night and a busy as it was, it wasn't chaotic.

We were sat at a beautiful booth. The set up of the restaurant was fun. You can get a full view of everyone. Our waiter, Eric came and greeted us. We were waiting for another couple so he grabbed us drinks while we were waiting.

Appetizers and dinner was ordered after my friends showed up. Eric was kind and gave us the night's special. I appreciate that they have photos of food. Some of us are visual people so the pictures are fantastic!

We started off with bread and butter as an appetizer. The bread came out so warm!! And the butter was perfectly temped for the most even spread. The butter was salty and when added to the warm bread it was heavenly. I also grabbed a small wedge salad. For a small, it was a really filling salad. It had tons of blue cheese, dressing and bacon. I did find the salad to be a little bulky. I wish they would have removed the center of the lettuce. It was interesting trying to cut into the thing. Dinner came out shortly after we finished our appetizers. For dinner I ordered the 2 lobster tail dinner. My husband ordered Land and Sea. Both were beautifully plated. The coconut rice that was paired with my meal was sweet. It added a nice sweet tone to the savory meal. I did find the brocollini served on my plate hard to eat. The lobsters looked beautiful on the plate but it was a miss for me. They were tough, chewy and not seasoned at all. I do wish they had added some seasoning to it because the butter was unsalted as well. I hate adding salt to dish that a chef should have seasoned. My husband grabbed the 6 oz for his filet and it was rather small. It was not 6 oz. And he also stated that his lobster was tough and chewy as well. Rather disappointing considering you can get a 6 oz filet and lobster tail at Longhorn Steak house for half the cost and is prepared better. My husband did say that his filet was prepared nicely so it wasn't a complete fail.

Overall, it was a decent meal. The venue is very stunning. But as a whole, it was a nice dining experience for an overly...

UPDATE 9-1-24

Last week, went in for lunch and had the ribeye. It was tough. Sides were mid with nothing standing out.

Decided to give them another chance and try their brunch today. What a mistake. Small portions of low quality food. The frittata was severely overcooked. Most of the edges burnt to the skillet losing 20% of the dish. Bacon was obviously cooked this morning (we are at 2pm) and put on a warming tray. Very burnt. The pieces that weren't were rubbery. Ordered a whiskey sour. They didn't ask with/without egg white and just omitted it. Surprising for such a bar forward establishment. Absolute waste of money. Won't be back.

DON'T LISTEN TO THE BAD REVIEWS. TRY IT YOURSELF.

We heard about L&O opening last winter but after reading the bad reviews, we decided to hold off on visiting. Last night was our first time there.

We we promptly greeted and seated. It was dinner rush on a Saturday night and they were busy but that didn't stop or slow the service at all. My wife ordered just an iced tea and Bella (server) had it in front of her within a couple minutes. I ordered a Vanilla Manhattan and received it within 5 minutes of ordering. It was delicious. Very well balanced cocktail.

We went with the Calamari & Cheesy Bread for starters. The Calamari was top notch. Very good. We decided to also try the Clam Chowder. That really surprised me. Generous portions of clam that had no sand and perfect tenderness. Potatoes cooked perfectly and nothing over done. Very well done. All the appetizers were at our table within 10mins of ordering.

We ordered the regular Ribeye and Blackened Salmon. I was a little disappointed in the steak cut. It wasn't very marbled for a Ribeye but it was cooked perfectly. The mashed potatoes were great and so were the mushrooms. Again, cooked perfectly. I would have liked more than 2 spears of asparagus also but that wasn't a deal breaker.

The Blackened Salmon was divine and the Mrs' loved it. Flaky and delicious while having a great sweet heat to it. And it was balanced so you could still taste the delicious salmon.

We went with Bella's recommendation on desert and got the Banana Cream Pie. It was a very welcome spin and very delicious.

In closing, we'll definetly will be back. The service was impeccable and the food was executed almost flawlessly. They just need to get better cuts of steak and add a high end...