Firebirds Wood Fired Grill — Restaurant in Orange

My husband and I decided to treat our mother to dinner for Mother's Day. This is a restaurant that we frequently visit whenever we're in town. Unfortunately, this visit was differently than the rest.

My guest and I arrived to the resturant approximately 30min early. While checking in with the host I requested a booth and was told it couldn't be guaranteed. Another party arrived about 15min after I that the host proceeded to check in. They were standing behind me. The host inquired as to their party size and if they had a reservation. The guest also inquired about a booth and the host responded yes ma'am.

As my family awaited to be seated i observed the host making preparation to seat the guest that arrived after i did. Now waiting wasn't the concern it was the fact that the host attempted to seat the other party prior us. Their reservation was 30 min after ours and we had the same number of guest. I immediately reminded the host of my reservation time. Now I'm wondering if it was due to an age difference as two of them was near the age of my mother. But that shouldn't have mattered

While be escorted to our table, we passed by three available booths. The host was escorting us to a middle four top table area. We would have had to politely get passed the other seated guest just to get to our seats. Not to mention that, my mother is on a rolator walker.

Immediately, I inquired with the host about being sat at one of the open booth. Glady my request was considered.

My party and I was greeted by our server attendant Jeremy. Jeremy, welcomed our party to firebird. He demonstrated excellent customer service as he was prepared and attentive to our drink and food orders.

We ordered lemon drops, water, mule, and hot water with lemon. As an appetizer, i ordered the lobster queso appetizer, which was amazing as always. This dish comes served with chips, but we prefer the table bread as an alternative. Unfortunately, our drink orders wasn't satisfactory appeared to be watered down.

Next we placed our food orders. I ordered the Grilled Salmon topped with lobster and spinach fondue, served with ancient grains pilaf & seasonal vegetables. Now this is my go to meal that I order everytime I eat here. Sadly, thus time I was most disappointed. The lobster fondue had everything besides the lobster. I informed Jeremy and he wasn't familiar with the meal nor how it's prepared after I told him there were no lobster pieces. I requested a supervisor to assist with the issue. The manager came and requested that I'd allow a remake although I requested just to return it to the kitchen. Once remade the dish remained the same. I again requested the Manger. She then looked at my plate with no obvious concern. I again inquired about the lobster pieces. She explained that they're small pieces inside the queso. I explained that im use to visible pieces of lobster on this dish. She explained that previously it had been prepared abd served wrong. She said the lobster get blended up in the queso and poured on the salmon. I don't know this to be accurate but to have served this dish in thus manner for over a year and just figure it out seemed off. Especially, since I was just here 2...

This place simply did not deliver the fine dining experience that it seems to want to give with it's high end prices. I was so excited to dine here for the first time. I was expecting fancy due to location and price and the fact that it's reservation only unless you want to try your luck with open seating near the bar at the front door. The first thing that did not sit well with me is that as soon as my wife and I walked in we were greeted by an older woman who opened the door and actually stood in our way to ask us if we had reservations. There was no welcome to... or any of that and she stopped everyone right before entering to ask the same thing. I can only assume the open seating and bar were full and her job was to turn people away who did not have a table reserved. That's understandable especially due to the fact that the waiting area is only large enough for a couple to sit and wait to be seated. However, it was a very unattractive and unpleasant welcome to first time diners who in fact had reservations. We got seated after just under 10 minutes and I was immediately underwhelmed with the appearance of the place. The design and the over all set up is just dull for such a new place. They sat my wife and I at a table that was set for 6. That seemed to be the norm because I questioned it and the staff member said that's just how they do it and simply removed the 4 extra place settings at the table. Fine with us, but from a business stand point it does not quantify. Then I noticed we had a clear view into the storage slash break- hang out room for employees. I could see boxes on shelves wide open. I could see staff hanging out.... texting on phones, and I noticed a few staff members in particular throughout my time there and I know for a fact that person was stationed at the front of the restaurant but was always in the back🤷‍♂️. It also took a while before we were greeted by our server for the first time. It was already becoming a sub par experience and we had just sat down. Once we did get our server he was great very pleasant. Now for the food. We tried onion rings for an appetizer they were the best. My wife and I both had fillets and I added shrimp because they were out of the half pound lobster tail I wanted so badly. Both entrees about 40 bucks a piece which is not the most expensive but still on the high end. All of the food was very flavourful....but some may argue that they over season the food depending on your preference. If you are the type that normally adds salt to your food, do yourself a favor and take a bite first or you could risk messing up the meal. With me, more flavor is better than none but I just noticed some bites were very very savoury without anything added. Over all it was just ok the food was delicious enough. I really expected more elegance and certainly more professional polished surroundings. I certainly wanted warmer greeting at the door. Sadly this may be my only trip to dine here. The food was good but this place overall left alot to be desired. I would prefer Pin Stripes over this...

Hello yesterday night me and my friends went to Firebirds for a New Year’s Eve dinner. We had reservations at 8:45 ( yes, some of us did arrive later than others ) under my friends name and when we got there, the hostess basically just pointed to the table and not directing her to the seat and she said they’re sitting over there when I arrived. She did the exact same thing and I said the reservation was under this particular name and she basically just ignored me. Once we sat down, we waited about 20 minutes before our server came over and once he did come over, he took our drink orders and we were then approached by the manager, who we asked for bread from and never received it until the server came over about 30 minutes later and brought us bread upon taking orders. I received a beverage that was not made incorrectly and then the bartender was very upset about me asking her to remake it because it was not the standard of what those drinks . Once we got our dinner orders placed I gave my specific order which was the lobster fondue salmon With mashed potatoes with extra sauce when the order came out it did have tomatoes on top, but that was not in the description I also asked for extra sauce on the side and they gave me the sauce that comes with the steak tacos, which if I’m not mistaken that is a tomato base product as well . A friend of mine at the table also ordered the exact same thing, and there was not any consistency with either of our plates. The server and the manager agreed. One of my friends had hair in their food another’s food with cold and when I gave my food back to the server he then came back and told me that they were not remaking my food because the kitchen was closedand they brought me out bread and said that basically this is what they could give me . I’ve then said hey are you guys not able to make anything? The manager said we can make you A salad I said I do not want a salad and I said I can’t eat tomato so I don’t want the red sauce. She never brought over the menu and at that point she did decide to give me 100% off my food and the beverage because my next drink was not made to par either. Based off of the atmosphere in the restaurant, we were definitely treated unfair and another manager walked up to the table and said that we have been rude the whole night when I addressed the managers with thank you please excuse me & was never demeaning to anyone and neither was anyone at the table. Yes, it was a later reservation, but the kitchen Should have not closed before you knew that everyone’s food was made properly, and the fact that there was hair in the food our food with our food then the window before it even was brought out and we had to tell the server to get it for us it’s definitely unacceptable. If we did want to get desserts, we didn’t have the option to do so we were rushed to do everything in the server didn’t take our orders till after 10 it was 1012 to be exact so with that being said that is definitely not fair and there were people who came in after us who were...