STICKS — Restaurant in Pacific Grove

I am totally not happy about my experience here. I've had appetizers here before after a round of golf. This time I went with my girlfriend after work to grab a bite for lunch. We were between here and Roy's. I was in golf attire and preferred to be nicer dressed for Roy's.

We ate at Sticks where our reservation was for. We got a decent window seat inside. It was not very busy, maybe half full.

So we order and nothing is saying wow eat me, to me. We started with the calamari, which could have been fried a tad longer, it was not as crisp as it should have been and had more of an oily taste to it. Maybe the oil wasn't hot enough. The oil coated the inside of my mouth.

I ordered the California Burger, mistake.... My girlfriend ordered the mahi mahi burger. She asked for the Sriracha aioli on the side because she wasn't sure how spicy it may be. Said that three times on two different visits from our waitress. I asked that I have no lettuce, tomato, or red onion on mine and if I could add grilled onions. Somehow bacon jam kept coming up despite the CA burger having mashed avocado, jack cheese and bacon on it. Our waitress was confused by what I said, and then said I was making it too complicated and the cooking staff would not be happy with it being "really busy".

I ordered fries with mine and tots for my friend. The fries were super salted, like line of salt on the fries. Tots did not arrive with the mahi mahi burger. Our waitress was no where to be found. Luckily a nice young gentleman came out, wish I would have got his name, but he was helpful. Brought out the tots and apologized for the sriracha aioli being on the mahi mahi burger. Asked for a side of the slaw without the aioli since the one on the burger was drenched in it.

The mashed avocado on the CA burger was so heavily laddened with some sort of acid- bottled lemon juice? It overpowered the taste of the burger. Burger was well done, prefer a medium. It tasted blah for a $20+ burger. I literally ate half, should have stopped after the first bite but I smothered it in sriracha aioli which hid the bad taste.

Our waitress never came to check on us until almost the very end. She was busy serving other tables. I think what I hate the most is when you get judged by your appearance. What table will give a better tip or spend more money... All patrons should be treated the same especially at the Pebble Beach resorts, they are set to a slightly higher standard because that is what is portrayed.

This is why I chose to eat at home over going out. Why fork out the money for mediocre food? Thought about dessert than decided spending over $80 on three...

We were visiting Monterey on a weekend and I initially had planned to have dinner somewhere on the waterfront but it did not workout and we also had planned the 17 mile drive and saw this and changed our plans. Not waterfront but great views of the golf course and the ocean from the patio. I saw that the 17 mile drive tickets could be discounted if we chose to dine in one of these restaurants here. We reserved seats earlier in the evening so that we could see the bagpiper perform at around 5.45 pm. We ordered a few drinks, the smoked cinnamon old fashioned with the golf styled ice was my favorite. When it comes to food, I think we ordered a lot, the chefs special nacho chicken soup was underwhelming, the sticks burger was also underwhelming, dry meat and the cheese was not melted (not sure if it was supposed to be like that). The blackened fish tacos were very good. The bagpiper performance gave the ambience a surrealism. The outdoor seating had optional heating, we were not feeling very cold so asked them to turn it off....

While traveling the 17 mile drive we made a pit stop at Sticks. K** was our bartender/server and she was GREAT! She made a fantastic Brandy Alexander and White Russian!

I had the BBQ Brisket Sandwich which had a KC style BBQ sauce but was covered with cole slaw which is normally accompanied with a Carolina based vinegar sauce. The combination of both styles made a slight taste conflict so I removed the slaw, which made the sandwich perfect!

He ordered the Reuben Sandwich which was perfect mix of meats, sauce and bread. Some restaurants pile on the meat making the sandwich unbalanced but Sticks has it perfected!

As any good foodie, we ordered dessert to wrap up our meal. We ordered both their homemade carmel popcorn and frozen yogurt. The popcorn was sweet and buttery. So good I couldn't leave a bite behind and took the rest to go. The frozen yogurt, although beautifully presented was tart and fruity but nothing to write home about.

Overall, we would love to visit again. K** made our entire visit...