Sea Fresh Ojai — Restaurant in Ojai

I have spent milestone Birthdays at Seafresh so I thought since it was my 40 something's bday I would go I joked with the owner Gus about a free bday drink no intention of actually accepting more just wanting people to acknowledge my day I had the money in my hand enough for a few drinks, but to my dismay The owner very rudely scoffed at me and said "we don't do that here" a litte hurt and completely embarassed I took it further trying to get him to see that I was kidding so I poked funand said what about a price cut laughing as i said it he very disgustedly said " uhhuh no" and i said well what about happy hour then even more sickened looking not looking me in the eyes actually rolling he said" Monday thru friday 2-6" this happened on a Satuday approximately 4 pm. At this point he never once looked me in the eyes never said happy bday have a nice day nothing that's what I guess I wanted like I said I wouldve declined any price cuts if offered but he was shockingly unnerved by me. It was humiliating the bartender was so taken aback that she hadn't even started making me my drink she looked like maybe I would tell him off or he would kick me out but I laughed it off and she slowly started making my drink wished me a happy birthday which Gus still didn't get that that's all I really wanted and she and I started talking and she was glad to see I didn't flip out and leave another waitress saw how badly I was treated and went and sat with my mom as I drank my first drink at the bar then ordered a beer for the table she even said shocked looking "you're staying and you want to order a beer oh good" so I think she thought that the way he treated me should've been brought to his attention and by some reviews on different sites although they are doing very well I am séeing a huge popularity decline for there policies and slow service bad customer service over priced food and drinks for non garnished undesirable looking but still good food although he did end up even ruining the food that day because I have a nervous condition generalized anxiety disorder and I was so upset that when I got home my hair was drenched in sweat and I used the restroom more than once with my guts hurting and cramping now I don't think it was the food but the service the way I was treated is what made me sick. There is a policy that if your not sitting at the bar for happy hour the drink specials don't apply to you so even though they have a dog freindly open area outside if you have a dog and just go for drink specials because your not at the bar you cannot get the discount many people have stopped going because of this policy so basically only 4-5 people that choose or can sit at the bar cause thats the only room they have they are not really giving anyone a happy hour cause the bar area is too small and no one else is eligable and they told me one time that they wer going to add the dollar back on my bill if I walked my drink out of the bar area to go sit with my family and had the nerve to ask why do you want to go over there anyways i said because im here with my mom and dad and we are still going to order lunch I just wanted to get a beer first they said well if you take your drink to the rable its going to be full price even though I drank halgh of it at the bar and already paid for it they were going to put the dollar on my parents bill so I downed the rest like a teenager at a kegger and put it down and went about lunch with my family there customer service sucks and now I know why Gus is a really tightly wound guy that doesn't respect the customers so neither does the staff so last bday anyone in my immediate family will be spending there and I know that wont make any difference in there business but if enough people get treated this poorly his business will suffer I for one will not feel bad...

Food (4/10) (Oysters and sushi order. The no name oysters were questionable. Sushi does not get cranked out here. I hope their regular food is a lot better.) Waitress (5/10) (Was nice but not really efficient in her waiting skills. Could be because we had dinner on Sat at 730pm, but capacity was definitely at 60-70% when I arrived. Also she could be new. ) Mario (8/10) (Bussing tables or waiter? He should be switched over since he is definitely more personal with the customers while still doing his job.)

Flew in from NE for a wedding and decided to visit Ojai which I only heard good things from. Tried this restaurant out as I’m a big sushi and oyster person. Overall sushi experience is that you shouldn’t even try it. Not worth the money. Kind of disappointing since they definitely have prime location. I didn’t try any of their entrees on the menu (which I hope is their specialty). Service could be a lot better. Slow but I’m coming from the city where everything is so much faster and efficient that I kind of should have expected this. First, our drinks came at a reasonable time. Second, our oysters and tartar came only when our waitress looked over at our table and paused while we, gf and I, looked back and she realized we are still waiting for our apps. Third, Mario got rid of our empty dishes quickly which was good). Fourth, waiting on our sushi to come out as I watched the ‘sushi chef’ complete our order already. 10mins go by as waitress is punching in another order at this time which is fine but Mario came to the rescue again and served us our food with requested to get me an extra serving dish because my first one was switched out because it was dirty. Fifth, water was drunken out of a 12oz cup I believe quick and couldn’t get a refill as our waitress was 100% giving an older crowd better service. Sixth, we had to find her to ask for the check which she forgot once more which took 2seconds to do once she realized again. Total was around 111 tipped 20% and tipped Mario $10 on top because he was the actual waiter of my table. My waitress only came to our table for our orders. Only came once to see if we needed an extra drink after we finished our oysters. Overall, not that great of an experience because of ticket times and food quality. Servers were decent. Figured if it’s in a prime location for tourists there would be more quality, but got the opposite.

Oysters on a half shell (3/10) (One type of oysters which wasn’t listed. Very basic oysters that were warm and not shucked correctly. We had to get them out ourselves.) Louisiana charbroiled oysters (3/10) (I wasn’t expecting them to be close at all to NOLA but I couldn’t pass them up. Said it was cooked with butter but I barely got any.) Spicy tuna tartar (6/10) (More like a ahi poke stacked on avocado. The wasabi cream sauce was the only best part of the dish.) Texas Mule (8/10) (Can’t mess this up, right?) Mojito (6/10) (GF had this. At least they had mint in stock.) Tigers Eye Roll (3/10) (Not great. Seafood to rice ratio wasn’t the greatest. Eel sauce good.) Mike’s Shrimp roll (5/10) (Ratio was a bit better as the veggies helped. Better sushi then the rest imo.) 2x Salmon Nigiri (4/10) (Discoloration in first cut of salmon. Big is not always better especially if your rice isn’t warm either. Big fish portions which through off the taste.) 1x Yellowtail Nigiri (3/10) (Again disproportionate fish to rice ratio. Rice was formed in a mold before topped fish.) 1x Escolar Nigiri (3/10) (Same comment as above.) Wasabi, Ginger, and low sodium soy...

Sadly, this rates as the second worst experience to date.

We were super excited to dine here, as my girlfriend had regaled me with tales of her experiences here with her mother while visiting Ojai.

Upon arrival at 6:58 pm Wednesday, we were promptly shown to a seat outside wherein we placed our hands on an exceedingly dirty and dusty table top surface for the next 12 minutes to wait.

And wait.

And WAIT.....

We were NEVER SERVED.

The lone server in our area was at each of the 3 other occupied table around us, making banter, clearing dishes, taking orders, and clearing more dishes.

At one point, the server looked directly at me, EVEN made eye contact, and then walked away to see to other tables.

A party of 4 were seated in our area almost a full 10 minutes after we were seated, and the server began take their orders as well.

*(why any server would do so is beyond me. I can only wonder IF it was because he judged me as a bad tipper, because I am a Dark Skinned Native American Man??)

That was the point we got up to leave.

I informed the hostess *(who was LAZILY leaning across her podium, and did not stand straight to address us at any time) of what had just occurred over the last 12 minutes, and WHY WE WERE LEAVING.

WITHOUT offering a single word of apology, she simply said, "well, if you come back in, I can get you started."

Why would we, when our taste was already soured by the negligence and lack of professionalism or even sympathy.

We'll probably never be back to this place, unless of course the Owners felt compelled to reach out and express empathy and some sort of restitutional compensation for our time and ULTIMATE...