Stag Bar + Kitchen — Restaurant in Newport Beach

Juice Cleanse is made with Ion Vodka, Scrappy’s Firewater Bitters, lemon, ginger syrup, and cayenne pepper. If you remember back in the early 2000’s, there was a lemon detox diet drink that was all the rage and tasted like lemonade with a spicy chile pepper kick. Well, Stag Bar has brought this back, but transformed it into a fancy libation. The vodka is apparent but not overwhelming. The lemon and ginger refresh the palate as the cayenne pepper gives your tongue and lips a spicy kick. Rating: 5/5

Meatball Skillet ($8) is your choice of house-grind, chicken balls, or stag balls topped with your choice of grandma’s marinara or herb cream sauce and choice of mozzarella, ricotta, or provolone. I went with the stag balls topped with grandma’s marinara, and mozzarella cheese. The meatballs are meaty and juicy with a tasty flavor from the mix of venison and pork. The marinara is sweet and slightly spicy, but it would be nice to have a little more for dipping. The cheese is creamy and gooey. Rating: 4/5

Abe Froman “The Sausage King of Chicago” Pizza ($8 for 8” / $16 for $16”) is hand-tossed crust topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, sausage, fennel, and leek. I had to get this pizza on name alone since I am a HUGE John Hughes film fan and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of my favorites. It is “saucy” like the Sausage King of Chicago. The pizza has a good mix of toppings from the sausage, creamy mozzarella, zesty flavor from the sauce, and herbaceous flavor from the fennel and leeks. The pizza is more Neapolitan-style with a bubbly crust versus a Chicago deep-dish pie. Rating: 5/5

French Fries ($3) can be ordered regular or tossed in garlic parmesan. Of course I had to get the garlic-parm. Their fries taste very different with a flavor reminiscent of mashed potatoes, but are super crispy on the outside. The garlic parmesan is a great flavor for fries but needs more garlic, at least for me. Rating: 3/5

Sweet Chili Wings ($7) is something a little different than I am used to. When I think sweet chili sauce, I think of a light sauce with sweetness and chili flakes suspended in the sauce. This sauce reminded me more of a mole as it was very dark and caramelized. The chicken wings themselves are juicy and tender. I might try the buffalo wings next time. Rating: 3/5

Meatball Slider ($3 each) is your choice of house grind, chicken balls, or stag balls topped with your choice of grandma’s marinara or herb cream sauce and choice of mozzarella, ricotta, or provolone. I went with house grind balls, herb cream sauce, and provolone. The bread makes it much more filling than just the balls alone. The house grind balls are meaty and juicy. The cream sauce and provolone work great...

I’m not sure who the bartender thinks she is, Brianna idk if that’s her real name cause she really tried not to tell us. (EDIT: She gave us a fake name her name is Amanda!! Stag, can you seriously justify all this? You have a reputation to uphold in a prominent county) I politely asked if I could switch out my drink because it really tasted off to me and since she made it I guess her ego took a hit. She immediately smirked at me and said “No” and walked to the next customer, unnecessary reaction and then said this isn’t a restaurant and continued to berate me about my simple question that cost her nothing to do if anything she could’ve made another tip, but not after all of this. She was very rude, condescending and disrespectful. When I tried to point out that we did tip her for that first group of drinks we ordered, she spun around immediately rolling her eyes like the tip is 1000% expected and not based on her behaviour, talk about entitlement. She continued to ignore me and argue with me when I did finally get her attention. At one point she wouldn’t even come around so I could order another drink, which I’ve read she did to someone else. She’s on some kind of weird power trip and seemed very bitter, which I feel like has hit a lot of the service industry and Stag seems to be one who hires people with the worst attitude. She was threatening to kick us out (which at least one other review said she did to them) and losing this business money. She’s the RUDEST person I’ve ever encountered in the service industry and I used to work in it. Stag, you need to get rid of this chick she’s costing you business and reputation and taking away from the fun vibes on the Peninsula. She doesn’t fit here, or any other service job. PHOTO OF HER FROM STAG IG. Stay away unless you wanna get yelled at on...

Overall ok bar very lively, young crowd. Got awful experience with bouncers when they started to kick everyone out of the bar at 1:30am. They just had the last call for alcohol a few minutes earlier so I had a drink full in my hands. As I got yelled at by the bouncer to leave, i asked if he could give me 2 minutes so that I could finish my drink at least. That’s when he shouted “no!” and angrily told me that he gave me 30 seconds to leave the bar. He started to shout a countdown from 30 and I was just waiting because I didn’t want to finish my drink in 30 seconds especially being yelled at. When coming down to 0, he started to push me and tried to grab my drink. That’s when another bouncer told him to calm down. He went away for a few seconds and then stormed back, yelled more at me, asked me if I wanted to “be a problem” to which I was just so fed up that I left. This is beyond my imagination that they just abuse you with no reason and get away with it, even if you’re just respectfully talking to them and not causing any trouble. Very disappointing, will hit other bars next time, you should do...