Lark Creek Grill — Restaurant in Millbrae

One of the most ridiculous service experiences I’ve ever had. Won’t be back.

The host was friendly, but it all went downhill after I sat down.

I wanted the half chicken dish, but the side items listed for it on the menu seemed a bit odd. The server (never offered his name, but he was a tall East Asian man in a mask) failed to help me understand the overall set up/flavor profile and even seemed a little annoyed that I asked, so I just asked for the pickled onions to be on the side. Easy fix for everyone.

Before I even had a water on the table, this server not only brings a side bowl of onions out — Uh… Okay?? I did not ask for them early, just on the side — but he also set the bowl down on the opposite side of the table from me (see image).

I thought maybe it was a fluke, but then he sat the wine I ordered down in the same spot! Later he’d do the same for my water, then a straw, which he flung on that side of the table instead of handing to me.

I had nothing in front of me on the table except my phone, and definitely not a force field.

At this point it felt legitimately disrespectful in a super passive aggressive way, and if that was his intent I have no clue how we got off on the wrong foot. The vibe was now completely off and I was wishing I had just gone to Burger King up the hall.

To boot, that table faces a dirty dish drop area that was piling up in the open instead of being taken to the dish pit, so flies were also dining in with us. In fact, a fly found its way over to those random onions at the other edge of the table. Gross.

So I asked the host to move me to the bar side on the opposite end. There were a pair of 2-seater booths open that would’ve been perfect, but the host suggested I sit at a high top counter connected to a wall under the TV. ????

There was no line and the place was maybe 70% full, but for some reason he acted like he couldn’t give me what looked like the best seat in the house for a party of one. Okay fine. At least there were easy reach outlets to charge my phone, no filthy dishes or flies to look at, and no weird server.

The countertop is probably fine if every other table is taken but you’re hungry or in a hurry, however, I wanted to actually relax after a busy trip and ahead of a 5 hour red eye. Instead I felt like I was in timeout since all I could see was the wall under the TV.

I should’ve asked to move again but I didn’t wanna feel like trouble and overcomplicate what was shaping out to be a high stress experience.

While the rest of the crew seemed nice and professional enough, that server gets a 0/10 for me. And we just need the friendly host to make more mindful decisions for guest comfort as far as where to seat people.

Food was okay, pretty mid. Needed more seasoning. Plenty better...

I travel with my dog all the time and he has been to the SF airport many times. The whole SF Bay Area is generally considered very dog friendly and that’s the overall context.

The lady that checks guests in at this restaurant did not say anything about my dog when we were checking in, so we started ordering food at our table (waitress also was friendly with the dog). Two minutes after our food was brought to the table, one of the servers came to our table and alerted us that the dog needs to stay on the floor and cannot be picked up, which I think was reasonable and the dog was already laying on the floor, so we said ok and continued the dining. Then 2 minutes later the front desk lady came to our table again and said the dog needs to be put into a carrier and cannot even stay on the floor. All of these happened when the dog was behaving very well and super quiet. Only our dining was interrupted multiple times. This team’s continuous interruption just made us no longer able to enjoy a meal as normal, so I requested to check out, leaving without even touching most of my food.

This experience is simply a joke, if you are not service animal friendly, state that at the beginning so I won’t even dine in here. But you didn’t say anything and let us in, we started ordering, you served food and expected to charge us, and then in 5 minutes send multiple alerts right after the meal was brought to the table, not allow your guest to enjoy the food.

You operate at an airport, you are not fine dining in a city. Dogs are welcomed onboard to cabins if they meet certain sizes or are service animals. The airlines checked us in, the custom and security let us in, the boarding gate welcomes us, so you should expect travelers with dogs appear in a terminal. You should educate yourself about animal policies at an airport as common sense and decide to serve them or not and communicate that with your guest. Should you ever told us at the front desk that service animals are not allowed or dogs cannot come in, we would have definitely selected another option. But you didn’t say anything upfront and only decided to be annoying when the guest sat down and food started to come to table. Why do you act like this is the first time you see a dog at the airport and you happen to serve a guest like that, and this was so confusing to you???

This is so rude, that front desk lady was so unprofessional, and the food was also very basic. Good experience at this restaurant probably is just a 2-3 star, bad experience at this restaurant only makes it a 0 star if...

WARNING WARNING WARNING

This place is an embarrassment to an All American Restaurant. Let me start with the omelette with bacon and other gross processed meat I called it inedible as it’s hard, tasteless and gross. Dogs might spit it out as I did.

The server was nice enough to ask if I want something else so I ordered a medium well grass fed burger. I guess medium well means too much pink though blood was not dripping as it was probably have been frozen for years. They replaced it with well done burger that’s burnt you won’t let your dogs eat it as it will give them cancer. The manager said that’s how they cook it on the grill. The restaurant is Lark Creek Grill-I guess they have to learn how to properly grill a burger to not burn it!!!

Then, as a last resort as I was hungry, she asked if I want a clam chowder so I said yes with anticipation this could be it! It’s a STARCH CHOWDER with clams you can’t eat. The clams are too hard it might have been a thousand year old, potatoes that are soggy and too much starch on the soup that you can use it to wash jeans to make them hard and crispy. I’ve tried too many clam chowder this is by far the worst.

Please don’t waste your money on this place until they change either their ingredients or the chef(if there’s one) or maybe they just need to disappear. I went there as there was a lot of people eating and I thought it was good and there were not a lot of options in this area for a sit down restaurant.

They did try to make me want to eat their food to no avail but thanks for trying, the food are just not good, in fact they’re bad, gross and overpriced for cheap ingredients that they use and methods of cooking that are bad...