DownTown PUBlic — Restaurant in Murrieta

First I will apologize for the dark pictures of the food. Sorry but we ate outside and lighting was to dark for good photos and flash photos on food aren’t my fave.

We will start with location and presentation. We love this location being in the old town Murrietta. It is much more laid back without all the hope of old town Temecula. In fact while we were waiting for our drinks on the outdoor patio, a couple was on the horses walking down the sidewalk adjacent to the restaurant. There is something you don’t see everyday. Anyhow, inside and outside was very modern and well appointed. There is bar seating inside and outside. Inside seating is nice and spread out. The patio is where we chose. The weather was perfect for outside dinning and it is set up with large tables and a couple smaller high tops. We are not a fan of high top chairs. We felt bad because though the patio tables are beautiful, they are large enough for 6-8 guests and there were just the two of us taking all this space. The table had a center fire pit that they lit when the sun went down and was a nice touch to the ambience.

We walked in from the rear door and we were immediately greeted with a smile and our options of where to dine by Page. She was so eager to help us and make suggestions on our meal even though she informed us she was not our sever. We appreciated her time and efforts still.

Our server, sadly I did not get her name, was amazing. She greeted us and checked on us about every 5 minutes during our 2 hours stay. She was there for our every need and appeared to be enjoying what she does.

Ok, the drinks and food. We ordered drinks and the bar was backed up a bit and slow to deliver but our server advised us of this and apologized. We ordered the Peach Emoji and the Amberheard. They both arrived and looked beautiful. We each had two drinks. They tasted good but neither of us felt the effects of after two drinks indicating a little light on the alcohol. We ordered the Tomato Addiction appetizer. Wow! This was amazing. Perfectly toasted bread and the tomato’s cooked up and served in a cast iron skillet along side a potion of brie cheese. I can’t say enough about this app. I ordered the “What what in the pork”. It arrived hot and beautifully set. I started into the large portion of pork and poked into a 1/2” strap of fat down one side. At first I though oh no this is going to be terrible but I was wrong. The fat was there for flavor. Once I removed the fat strap there was still a plentiful portion of tender flavorful pork. The vegis on top added sweet with a light spice of peppers and this whole meal was great and I will get this again. My wife ordered the “Nothin rhymes with orange chicken”. This meal presented nice. The broccolini looked nice but we’re a bit hard. Maybe a bit out of season. The chicken was good but a little dry. Strangely the sauce did not taste like orange chicken but rather more like teriyaki. So the total of this meal was a little misleading on the expected flavor. Overall this meal was good but not great. Now time for dessert. We ordered the “Cinnfully apple coffee cake”. This was full of flavor and fluffy. It was covered with a sugar glaze which tasted good but ruled the flavor as it is so sweet.

We enjoyed this place and will return. The entire staff that we came across were great to be around and very helpful. The atmosphere was great. The drinks would be better with a little heavier pour. The food was good and we look forward to exploring more of the menu. I really wanted to give this place a 5 but the drinks and my wife’s meal persuaded me to drop to a 4 but we look forward to updating this on...

It's a beautiful building with a real trendy decor that shouts cool comfy hangout... however for our group it did not work. We came as a family group of 8 from ages 10-91. We made reservations for an outdoor table seating several days in advance. The actual entrance is in the back of the building and that is where you will also find additional parking off street. The hostess was not very friendly and almost seemed flustered when we arrived. Not the friendly welcome we anticipated. We were finally brought out to the patio however passed the table and were being seated at a low cement table with regular height wood benches and funky deep plastic chairs. Fine to sit back and sip drinks but very awkward for eating and uncomfortable to linger over a meal. Could not pull chair up to table because the edge of our knees were even with the table edge so you had to really lean over and down to reach your plate. They should also consider placing some pillows on the outdoor chairs and benches (like they have inside) and perhaps some sailcloth or umbrellas for shade. We were all looking forward to and hoping the food would wow us after reading about this restaurant and menu however we were again disappointed. The vanilla French toast was probably the best, however the banana nutella French toast was overdone and barely had any nutella. I took a bite from my granddaughters plate and all i tasted was burned toast. I turned the piece over and was not surprised that it was mostly blackened but instead of making a new plate they chose to try to hide it by putting it on the bottom side. We brought this to the attention of the staff but of course the child ate most of the plate so we were not offered any compensation or asked if they could make a new dish to go. The prosciutto Benedict was just okay however the sauce they call hollandaise was nothing close. It was more like mayo mustard and cream sauce and the dish itself was over salted. The bread was good however and eggs cooked perfectly. The best part was our waitress who was very friendly, accommodating, and provided wonderful service to our group. I don't know if i would come back as there are so many other great...

The 2 stars is not for the food or drinks both were really good. The 2 stars if for the treatment we received. When we got there we asked if our dog was allowed, they said yes but only on the patio which was perfect cause that is where we wanted to be. We sat at the outside bar near a very sweet couple. Both parties were having a great time discussing our pets and whatnot. When our first order came the server said she was deathly allergic to dogs yet stayed to ask us questions about our puppy. She asked if she was in training which I found odd and I said no. We continued to enjoy our salad and chat with the table next to us. The same server who said she was deathly allergic to dogs came by 3 more times never serving us nor the only other table near us. Our puppy stood up, as she always does, when people walk by. She is excited but she never engages unless you engage her. She never jumped or went toward the server walking by, just stood up and then laid down when the person has passed. As we were eating our second order, the same server asked us if we wanted to move. Now we never asked to move and the couple next to us hadn’t asked either. We found that odd and said no. 2 minutes later the supervisor comes and asks us to move because her deathly allergic server is frightened and on edge. At this point the couple next to us tells the supervisor that this is uncalled for as our puppy hadn’t bother a soul. We move to an area where people are walking by constantly. Our puppy lays down near the tree and never moves. However the same server is now walking by more than she did before. My frustration with this whole situation is that if the server was deathly allergic which we believe she was just afraid of dogs, would have avoided our table to protect her allergies. Yet instead she continued to walk by multiple times when there was a better/safer way for her to get to the main patio. By which I mean the main doors where I saw every server except her use. We feel the situation was handled poorly by the supervisor...