Marina Restaurant — Restaurant in Pasadena

This is a bit of a mixed review. The most important and the only real positive is the quality and taste of the food. It’s hard to not rate it high although it is not a 5-star quality. However, for the purposes of this review, the food is excellent. From there, everything trends downhill. Here is a brief listing of all the things that need to be looked at:

1. Horrible noise-level. Acoustically, the restaurant is very poorly designed. It’s a pity since this is something that could have been planned better given how new the restaurant is and is benefiting from the architectural advances of a modern building. Just forget about having a conversation with your party!

2. The waiter insisted that we have to order the appetizers and the main courses together so that the kitchen can time things. By itself, it is an odd request and we did not appreciate that. But, the waiter was pushy and just wanted to take the order and be done on hopes of turning the table quickly.

3. Parking is an issue. The few spots on the side of the building are just too few. If you proceed to the public parking under the restaurant, be prepared to pay $6 an hour. It’s amazingly high for a night time and for a non-congested area. The restaurant should strike a deal with the public parking management and figure out a lower cost and then validate.

4. Dessert menu is extremely limited. Very odd since dessert makes money. Again, is it because they prefer customers not to stay long and the dessert consumption extends the table’s occupancy for an extra 30 minutes maybe?

5. The restaurant will not seat if the entire party is not there. Very poor approach given that the table we had was empty and left as is until all our attendees arrived. Don’t really see the logic there.

6. Another off thing: Reservations must be guaranteed with a credit card! Strange again given that this is not a hot spot nor an overhyped restaurant in Malibu.

All in all, the “experience”, given all the issues above, was hardly even a 2-star experience but the food made up for the rest so, on aggregate, a 3-star rating is more than fair. I hope the restaurant’s management reads this review and takes corrective action. We want to go back but, frankly, will not be until all or most of the above 6 issues...

If you're thinking about trying this restaurant- don't. Unless you are a friend or someone of importance, you will receive terrible service and rude attitudes from both management and servers. To start, I received a call from the host letting us know two seats at the bar had opened up and we walked in just as they were cleaning the area. A couple walked in a few minutes after us, immediately got greeted by one of the owners who then offered them our seats without any hesitation or check in with the host. Waited several minutes to see if the host would say anything, but alas had to go up and inquire. She apologized and said she had spoken with a manager who was going to comp us an appetizer. A kind gesture, so we sat down at the bar next to said couple. Proceeded to order a mocktail, hamachi crudo, salami pizza, and the bucatini pasta. This was the first and last time we had any service or attention from any of the bartenders. The food was very tasty, but they must have forgotten to put in the pizza because it took about 45 minutes to receive it after very quickly getting the crudo. The couple next to us (who were very obviously friends with the owner) received outstanding service, with plates of food coming out every couple of minutes and were constantly being checked on and offered beverages. The disparity between how they were treated and how we were is completely unacceptable and unprofessional. To end the evening, we had to flag someone down for the bill, saw that the crudo (which was listed under "firsts"- so an appetizer, yes?) had not been removed. Since the bartenders were nowhere to be seen, I asked the host how to best go about the comped appetizer and she said she would have the owner take care of it. She came back a couple minutes later and told us that since we hadn't ordered an appetizer, the owner just took off the mocktail. So not only did you give away our table, give us horrible service, make us wait almost an hour for one pizza, but you're also haggling for the free appetizer that you offered?! With a difference of $6.

Upon looking around, you can see this exact experience happening with several other patrons. If you're not "someone" to this restaurant/owner, you are not worth their...

I've been wanting to try this place since they opened up a while back. I've heard many good things about them, so I was really excited. Maybe my expectations were set too high because I just didn't think it was that great.

The ambiance and service were great, but the food seemed to be lacking in my opinion. My stars are based on the overall experience. If it were just for the food, I'd give it 2 stars.

I ordered a bunch of first course entrees as my dinner, which included the squash blossoms, crispy octopus and lamb chops. My husband ordered the white nectarine salad and steak frites.

Starting with the white nectarine salad ... it was the best thing we ate from this menu. The flavors all complemented each other so well. I had high hopes for the rest of our meal based off this salad.

Onto my entrees, my squash blossoms were OK but they were really, really oily. So oily they were almost soggy, they could've patted them down a bit to get rid of the excess oil, or maybe let them sit out and drain a little. The ricotta ratio was intense, there was just too much. It seemed lazy. The octopus (which is usually my favorite everywehre I order it), was overcooked and rubbery. It was also super spicy which overpowered the flavor of the octopus. It made me really sad because I love a good grilled octopus. The lamb chops were tender ... I did ask for medium rare and they came out more medium (just a hint of pink in the middle) than medium rare, which I was OK with but would've preferred them a little less cooked (more pink throughout).

The steak frites were another disappointment. My husband ordered them medium and they came out medium well (zero pink). They were a bit chewy because of how cooked they were. The fries were absolutely disgusting. So over seasoned and under-cooked. They were drenched in season salt and pretty much not edible. They're like the kinda fries you would get at Denny's and not something you'd pay $35 for.

I'm sad because it's so close to my house and I really wanted to enjoy this place, but I left feeling so unsatisfied and underwhelmed. Maybe the kitchen had an off night, but I...