The Wine Room — Restaurant in Palo Alto

Had a really bad experience here last week. Moved from the Bay 3 years ago but came here nearly every other week or so with coworkers or friends while living here because I absolutely loved the vibes of this spot and the variety of wine. Was in town during a work trip this past week and stopped by with an old friend to catch up after dinner and drinks elsewhere.

We were pretty buzzed, so we asked for water when we sat down, and after looking at the menu we decided we wanted to start with Perriers or soft drinks to just sober up while enjoying the vibes of the lounge. When we shared this with the waiter and asked what they had to offer, he got visibly and audibly upset. He took the menus and finished cups of water and said “this is a wine bar.” Didn’t even mention what we could buy. Afterwards, he walked away and didn’t offer anything else. Never brought our cups back. Never offered more water. Didn’t even check in to see if we wanted wine later on, which we did after about 30 min, and I definitely was not asking for his attention after his episode. I’ve never experienced that before in any establishment. We felt completely unwelcome. It was insanely disrespectful, and it was so disappointing because I spoke so highly of this place to my co-worker who was also from out of town. When things were closing up, the bartender and waiter were mocking us in Spanish. My co-worker and I understood all that they said since we both spoke Spanish fluently. They were also sharing their thoughts openly in English with a friend of theirs at the bar who seemed to be a frequent patron. So much so that this person approached me mockingly while walking out because “he just wanted to introduce himself” and also said “you’re ‘one of those,’ aren’t you,” which caused laughter among the waiter and the bartender, to which the bartender responded “that was the perfect ending.”

This used to be my favorite place in Palo Alto to come to after grabbing dinner somewhere nearby, but mark my words I will never come back here. I used to host group outings for a “wine and cheese” group from work while living in the bay and I’m still connected with people who still run it. We will never bring our business here again, and we’ve removed this venue from our recommendations for people out of town to check out. To the owners and management, fix your staff because they are shockingly disrespectful and don’t reflect the culture of your venue, which is really a staple in this community. If you don’t believe anything I’ve written, check your cameras for Monday night Sep 25 an hour or so before closing. If you’re someone planning evening drinks and you’re considering this location vs another, go elsewhere. This behavior, poor hospitality, and blatant disrespect does not deserve any of...

The wine is decent, the cheese is lackluster, atmosphere is good, and as other reviews have noted, service can be quite bad. The Wine Room is serviceable but clearly phones it in, and while I didn’t actively dislike it, I won’t remember it by tomorrow except as a place not to visit.

The wines are crowd pleasers but not great quality. A decent but uninteresting selection that doesn’t hold a candle to good sommelier-crafted menus. Great menus feature interesting, sometimes novel wines that stays in the memory. Nothing here will do that, but I suppose that wasn’t the goal of this place anyway.

The cheese of the day is a poor experience. Staff outright does not know what the cheeses are, and when going back to ask the kitchen, was told “it’s cheese.” Are they chosen by dice roll? Do they not keep the wrappers? Worse yet, they serve primarily the rinds. Most places cut vertically so all of the cheese is included in the slice, but The Wine Room gave us the peeled rind of a Gouda and exclusively the gooey part of Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor. It’s hardly goat cheese with truffles when the truffled part is not included.

Finally, service was not excellent. The guy serving the outdoors tables was nice but disappeared. After 20 minutes without interaction I went inside to get the check from the less than personable man helming the bar, who I assume is the manager based on other negative service experiences here. I first walked through the whole place looking for the server that we had and could not find him at all. The whole place is about one room, so it’s unlikely I missed him. A decidedly sour way to end an already...

I would put a negative 5 star if there was an option.

Not many places are open at 10p in Palo Alto, so 2 of us went to this bar. Since we don’t take alcohol (allergic, etc), I asked for non-alcoholic drinks and was going to order food. This is the reaction I got from a male (Hispanic looking, mid-aged) bar tender/server. Unfortunately I didn’t take his name. This was an incident on Wednesday evening on, January 11th.

I was told (literally these words) You don’t belong here (He said this multiple times). This is a wine bar. We are really busy and you are occupying space for customers who orders $15/glass. This is just $10 for two (I had San Pegrino). You really shouldn’t come here, if you are not drinking. I’m being REALLY nice to you by giving this. My boss, the owner would have kicked you out. I’m really being nice to you.

I asked to keep the tab open bec I was going to look at the menu to order food with my friend. He ignored me and closed the credit card.

After 30min or so, the bar tender came to our table (there were other tables that looked like they were there for long hours and finishing up, but…) and asked us to leave because there were 4 people coming in and he needs the space.

We left without saying anything to this bar tender but we would not recommend our friends and others to go to this place for the way we were treated.

This was my first time in my life where I was told smack in the face that “You don’t belong here”. I was quite shocked from the incident and learned how harsh certain place and people can be, treating others like this and exercising...