Playa Mill Valley — Restaurant in Mill Valley

I yelp reserved a table. Upon arriving the system doesn't work with them for them, so we didn't have a reservation. They didn't contact us. Even to tell us there is no reservation. They couldn't see it. Then after I got super upset and made a scene about how they decided to allow this system to be utilized makes it their fault it malfunctioned and I'm not going to wait an hour and half behind a line full of people without a reservation, we were offered a table for about an hour or so until the next reservation would over take our table. The guests that were joining us drove down in Friday traffic to be entertained and instead got ushered into a door way entry way table instead of allowing us outside which was the point of our choosing this restaurant. So after all this, the manager came over and said he, "allowed us to be seated, what was the problem?" I then described the level of disrespect he was showing us for our attempt to use their only reservation system on their own website, their lack of follow through to provide us notice, then telling us we were limited to a fix time schedule, leading me to be anxious the whole time that I'd be embarrassed for the 2nd time in one nights dinner. Clearly after all this you kind of wonder what kind of service you are getting after a scene like this. It just made for a terrible start to what could have been a very pleasant engagement. I enjoy going here some times but other times the young dark hair hostess is quite cold and borderline rude about anything and everything like she is also doing us a favor. I feel like going to a restaurant should be hospitable, never would I treat a guest in my home this way, and I surely don't expect someone to be poignant about "allowing" me to enter theirs. Its a great patio and the place has charm but unfortunately after eating here many times, that will...

Very sad after my experience here with the manager who was so combative and rude.

I wrote some constructive feedback in a previous review months ago. (see below) We decided to come back to Playa to see if they’d made changes to the menu. We sat down and were asked to leave by the manager who seemed very emotionally charged.

Instead of asking us what happened or nicely asking us to change the review, he took things very personally and did not want to work things out in a proficient manner.

My previous “bad” review was never responded to by their establishment, nor did they do anything to address our feedback. We even gave the feedback after paying for the meal months ago. ^He acknowledged that they should have done all of the above to address the feedback but he still insisted on fighting with us for 10 mins about what happened??

At that point we were so confused and had completely lost our appetite. It was a very bizarre interaction that was not handled professionally so I’ll have to leave the review. I would have happily taken down the review had their management not been so rude.

Please see below for my original review:

•Second review: The updated menu is not good. They got rid of the best things including the birria tacos and the new replacements are not dialed in. The branding is also bizarre and looks like it’s for an Italian restaurant. They jacked the prices up and quality of flavor went down so much.

The fish tacos are still very good.

•First review: The birria tacos were life changing. Ceviche was...

This was honestly one of the best dining experiences I've had in months.

We had the Guacamole y Totopos, Pork and Chicharron Asian Pear Tacos, and Birria Tacos. The chips were super crunchy, salty, and definitely homemade. The guacamole was super tasty, I wish there was more of it. haha. The pork tacos were good, but they needed a bit of salsa. They were next level after putting some Salsa Verde one them. The birria tacos were amazing. Basically mini quesadillas. The dipping broth was of course great too. When my tacos were gone, I drank the whole bowl. Our server brought us a complimentary dessert which was amazing. It was ice cream with chocolate, nuts, basil, and what I think was an oil.

Our service was the highlight. Luis A was kind, complimentary, and personable. The dude just made our whole night. He was there when we needed him, and went out of his way to take care of us and talk with us. He told us about his son and his wife, and him giving us free dessert was more than nice of him. He made the night very special for us and was just amazing! I watched him and the other servers moving quickly to take care of guests and even use a knife to get stuff out from in between the wood planks in the table while cleaning up.

The atmosphere was great. Exposed brick, lots of windows with natural light, pretty lights, a well-stocked bar, clean and professional-looking staff. Even their bathrooms were nice.

We had such a good time. We will...