Hunter Steakhouse - Oceanside — Restaurant in Oceanside

This was my first visit to the Hunter Steakhouse. I had mixed feelings about it, but it wasn't an all-around bad experience. I think they could use some improvement with service, but the food was pretty good.

I scheduled reservations for 6, arrived, and let them know. Unfortunately, we had to wait a bit, as the hostess didn't seem to be altogether that night. She was a bit frazzled and seemed as if she had a long day. She was polite, however, and not rude. She took us to the back and seated us.

We unfortunately sat for 10 minutes without anyone coming to greet us or take any orders. A gentleman then came over and dropped off some bread (which was really good. It was a brown bread served warm with a side of butter that had a nice hint of cinnamon and sweetness to it). We sat for a bit more and watched another table be seated next to us. Eventually a waitress came over, however, instead of coming to our table, who waited for a while, she went to the other table who had just been seated (it is possible that it was because they were all seniors and were a party of 6 versus us being younger and a party of 3????). She finally came to our table, took out drink and appetizer orders, and then left. She was actually super pleasant, kind, and very engaging. She was attentive to our ordering and did a great job. I think she was by herself for the entire area and more. Thinking they were short-staffed.

We had the artichoke dip appetizer, which was SO good. Cheesy, gooey, and packed with flavor accompanied some toastettes. We ordered our meals, which wasn't terribly long in getting to us. Between the 3 of us, we had the sirloin steaks cooked medium, loaded baked potatoes, the made to order tableside salads, and their split pea soup.

The steaks were seasoned and cooked perfectly. They had a great crust on the outside and was tender. My kids had the peppercorn sauce added to it, which was exceptional. It was savory, peppery, and rich. Not overpowering with the pepper, but had a great balance.

The tableside salads were cool, as the server brought a platter with lettuce along with a wide variety of items to add per your request, including carrots, tomatoes, red onions, cheese, egg, garbanzo beans, peporcinni, and more....

The split pea was very pleasant. It was rich with a smoky flavor to it. It had tiny pieces of bacon in it and was definitely one of...

came in to a wait, no problem but asked for a menu, was told it was on a board? there was no board in site. asked again, told twice, still not sure what she said exactly but was told there is a table downstairs in 15 mins, cool. someone else handed me a menus as we were being taken to the table, so i sat the menu back on the stack, thinking we'd get menus at the table. got downstairs(kinda felt like the belly of a ship, low ceilings, lots of wood, dark) had to stand there and watch as our table was cleared and "cleaned" but not reset. she dried it with a silverware linen(doesn't absorb anything, it's for wiping your mouth), then sat. the waitress asked what we wanted to drink, we asked for two waters with lemons and menus. was brought waters and asked if we wanted straws, no lemons. mentioned the amount of debris on the floor, the confusion about the menus and asked for menus again. the server made an excuse and started cleaning the floor, had to ask her to please get us menus before she cleaned, again asked for lemons and asked for drink menus, was told there are no drink menus(as she was holding the carpet sweeper in her hand) but "there's a full bar. i can bring you a list of what we have." which would be a drink menu... we were then asked if we'd "rather not dine here tonight".. said we'd love what we've already asked for and some menus. was told we were refused service. asked for the mgr. she said she is the mgr but could get the owner on the phone. i've been in the industry for almost 25 years, this is sad for an expensive restaurant. we all have our bad days but when i showed displeasure with what has happened so far, waters were removed and server started talking smack. if that is the mgr, tsk tsk... would rather not have our food spit in so, definitely not eating here. same server was still talking smack as we were leaving. blonde chick, late 30's-early-40's. no finesse, no people skills, no customer appreciation. hope everyone else has a better experience than we did but cracker barrel wouldn't treat their...

I still remember the first time my parents brought my sister & I to Hungry Hunters as it was know then. It was late 70's early 80's. You got soup in a turine at the table to keep it warm, salad bar with toppings of your choice at the table. Now obviously with covid, times have changed accordingly and it's soup or salad, not both. Tonight's meal was ok. We were celebrating my best friend mom's birthday & she chose Hunters. We waited briefly as we had reservations. The table was in the corner by an emergency exit. Our waiter seemed nice enough but he wasn't around too much. They were out of the item my friends husband wanted so the waiter left to get the other 3 salads ready. He told us they don't do the salad bar anymore because of covid. Just a basic lettuce salad, nothing fancy. A little disappointing. Best friends mom & I ordered the standard fillet, I got potato au gratin she chose the wild rice. My steak was ordered rare, seemed good to me. She said hers was alright. Best friend ordered the chicken with sun-dried tomatoes, she said it was delicious. Friends husband ended up getting prime rib, seemed to like it. The waiter came by after we were done & took the second chicken breast my friend didn't finish & the rest of the plates without asking if she wanted a box. Thought that was odd. Then when we went to pay, we asked if he could use my card to pay for mine separately & the rest on their card. He said no it was too late to do that. He said he could only split it. I don't know, food was ok, not great like it used to be. Service used to be amazing. Service was sort of subpar tonight. I overhead another waiter telling other customers that the owners have sold & they were closing soon. Maybe that was part of the problem? I still will have fond memories of eating there the first time. (Don't know why this is saying Oceanside as it was the one in the Hotel Circle that just...