Prelude Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Sacramento

I was so bummed to pay almost $400 for this food. We were a part of three girls. The drinks were good. We ordered 3 starters: bread, peppers, and tuna. They all came cold. No question, the bread was at least 3 days old. The waiter claimed it was fresh, but come on, you can’t lie about old bread. He did bring another bread, which was slightly heated, but it didn’t taste good either. We waited a full hour for the entrees to arrive!!! It was just too long that we were forced to munch on the stale bread. We ordered half chicken, steak, and Scallop. Finally the main course arrived. IT WAS COLD. The chicken had a tasty sauce, the steak came with old and soggy fries melting on the dish (see the image) even a pizza place would make the fries better. I didn’t complain about the food before eating it. We were so hungry and there was no time to redo. Besides, at that point, no remedy would have fixed the situation. So we ate old, cold, stale food!!!! When the waiter brought the dessert menu, I thought maybe we could end it with a good note… wrong! We ordered chocolate (brownie) and vanilla ice cream. For goodness sake’s could you go wrong with those. The brownie was at least a week old. The ice cream came in the bottom of a cup with 2 old cookies. It was so hard to cut into the brownie. As little as it was, we left it on the plate. To recap, our food stayed in the kitchen no less than 20-30 minutes before it was served. The restaurant where we sat was empty. See my video. We were the only table in there! It was a Thursday night.

Message to the restaurant owner: When you charge $59 for a dish, you should provide not just the food, but the experience of joy. That’s how people justify paying a high price for those ingredients. If you’re not willing to serve fresh food on certain days of the week, shut your restaurant down on those days.

My first visit to your restaurant was in December 2023. I must say that we paid a high price but we enjoyed the food so much. The chef was talented and I remembered to come back again. This time I’m 100% sure that you hired a second hand chef who brought the quality of your restaurant down and I’m certainly...

This place is absolutely one of the best spots in town if you want to go out for a nice date night or are looking to impress guests! Don't be discouraged by the goofy low reviews about odd seating or not enough decor or the hostess being too young to tell him what to do or to put a mask on (lollll).

The ambiance is really nice, the decor is a bit simple but ...who really cares if there's not enough things to stare at? I'm there to enjoy my company and share food!

Both times I've visited the service has been absolutely 6 stars. I have food allergies and the amount care they take to check on everything was way above and beyond what I could hope for. Drinks always refilled, always asking if we need anything or if they can clear plates, etc. Just felt incredibly well taken care of by the first gentleman to wait on us and the young lady this time around. I mean I really don't think it could be topped, they're just really attentive and seem like they want you to enjoy your visit.

Even with the service, the food is the star here. Although some of the appetizers and salads are a bit small and perhaps could use a little more variety - The main dishes are fantastic and in perfect portion. The salmon is great as well as the rigatoni, but I highly recommend the risotto!! And I also HIGHLY RECOMMEND LEAVING ROOM FOR DESSERT because there is an absolute god in the kitchen whipping up something you'll want to come back for. My first visit I literally ordered desserts to go because I feared I may not try them again, and this time I just ate 2 desserts right there on the spot. No shame. You're just likely not going to find desserts(and some GLUTEN FREE) desserts at this tier in the area often. I left stuffed and happy. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the food, maybe next time and I'll update. But the food is just as pretty as the photos you see...

Today we tried the Braised Pork Shoulder dish as well as the Chicken Meatball Pasta dish for our entrees and the Esquites and Artisan Bread for our appetizers.

Overall great service, friendly, quick and didn’t wait too long for the food.

My main disappointment was the food. Starting with the artisan bread, for $9 for just 3 pieces of bread I would expect nothing short of freshly baked bread or at least recently baked unfortunately it was not. The spiced butter however was the saving grace as it was quite tasty. Our Esquites on the other hand was very delicious, fresh and packed with flavor. No complaints there.

Moving onto the Entrees, the Braised pork shoulder was a bit of a let down. For $45 we received pork shoulder that was very tender but also on the salty side and lacking much depth of flavor. The polenta that it was served over was cooked perfectly however it was very plain and not very enjoyable unless it was paired with the pork. Most of my polenta was left on the plate. The tomato’s were cooked well and tasted incredible as well as the snap peas. They were certainly the star of that dish.

The Chicken Meatball Pasta dish which was $36 was also underwhelming. While the pasta was cooked to perfection and seasoned really well the star of the dish, 3 big meatballs were oddly large compared to the rest of the dish. They were very bready and quite dry. The flavor was also a bit pedestrian and lacking much depth.

My overall assessment is 3 out of 5 stars. Prelude Kitchen and Bar definitely succeeds in staff and ambiance as well as quality of ingredients but missed pretty hard on flavors and value. Presentation is what you would expect from a fine dining restaurant but the food I...