JC Bruno Restaurant — Restaurant in San Bruno

Hard for me to write negative rewiev, but i have to do it....but boiled over!

I AM STRONGLY DO NOT RECCOMENDED THIS PLACE FOR PRIVATE EVENTS!!!!

We came to Marcela a 1,5 month ago for reservation for my husb 40th BDay party on May 11th. She said that maximum capacity is 35, but my event was for 30 or less (26-28 person, i didn't know exact head counts because i didnt sent my evitation yet at that moment).She said than we can give her head count 24 hours before party. We choose menu, i sent invitation for our guests. At the end of the March she send me a text message that she cant close restaurant for private event on Saturday (i even newer asked her to close restaurant for us...WTH??). I was totally shocked! Guest was invited already and i had very low chanses to find another place 5 weeks before event. Finnaly she change her mind again and confirmed our party at that restaurant . I brought her deposite ( 2000$). She sand me a final agreement . I checked agreement where was $250 per waiter (before that on parers she wrote down 200$. Changed and event didnt tell me).i said that i am no gonna paid $250,becase agreement was $200. On May 9th we gave her a final head count :23. She didnt say anything. May 10th (24 hours before event) i texted her again with final head count :23. She texted me back and said that she wants to talk to me about our head count (9.30 pm). She called ,she was unhappy and she said that this head count doesn't work for her and we have to pay for 30 (this is $700 extra for nothing!!!).She said that restaurant has minimum 30 persons rule for private event...Damn! She never said anything about it before! And now, 24 hours before she decided to let us know about it. This is unacceptable !!! When my husb said that he can't and don't want pay for 30 persons, she start to yell on him "I will never do russian party again!!!" and hang up on my husb .My husb called back and talked to the owner JC (who was more adequate) and they are decided that we will pay for 26. Finnaly on May 11th when we arrived picture was like that : maine door was locked (WTH???),gate for our guests parking was closed (she promised that we will parked up to 6 cars overthere). Our guest suppose to enter from back doors!!! She explained to me that she looked maine door because "people come every 5 mins and i suppose to lock that door". Marcela,wht about to put sign on that door "PRIVATE EVENT" like all restaurants do???? Coctail hour table was not served properly : cheese ,berries and crackers,no linen on the table. I suppose to find some one to bring champagne to us (really??? Do i have to ask about it??? NO!!!)! we was waiting for champagne for 20 min. So disrespectful ! Want to say than food was really good. At least this.Bravo Chef ! Meat and sea bass was espetially great. Our guests liked all food oncthe table. Yes, we had fun just because we get party with our closest friends. Regarging manager Marcela : rude and unprofessional person with language barrier (she don't speak English good enough to work with customers). Manager suppose to be nice with other people and professioal ! Manager is "face" of any restaurant. She changed her mind couple of times without any agreement with her customers. We felt unwanted there. So sad, because we trust them our special day!!!!...But negative remains. Some of our friends really liked their food, but when i tell them everything - they said they newer ever will want to do deal with their managment. The worth...

I really wanted to like this cute little family run San Bruno spot with a nice little vintage vibe, but it really fell short, especially on service.

I had made a reservation on OpenTable and the table was reserved at ready for us upon arrival which was a good start, but after being seated we didn't see a server again for a good 20 minutes. The place isn't really that large so the lack of attention becomes awkward at some point. Eventually I had to ask to just get water. It's a good thing my dinner guest and I had lots to catch up on or the lack of attention during this meal could have really ruined the night.

We finally place our orders with a brisk server who seemed ready to be on to the next guest, no apologies for the waiting time, and we don't see anyone again for another 20 minutes. At which point we receive a bread basket with some cold baguette slices dumped on the table. Again I asked or more water. I have to think they were short staffed? Or I hope at least I hope that was the problem.

Thankfully I had tried to find the wine list in advance on their website and found out by reading reviews elsewhere that they don't have a liquor license. So I was able to bring my own wine for the dinner. But there was no mention of this on OpenTable or on their website. For a restaurant charging over $40 for an entree you really should know in advance if that they don't have their liquor license. Our wine was opened when we finally got a servers attention but we poured it for ourselves throughout the night. Which really isn't a big deal considering there is no corkage fee, just something to be aware of.

As for the food, it was fine, maybe a little basic, but basic isn't a bad thing when done well. We both ordered the special bone in NY steak cooked medium. They came closer to the medium/well side which was a little disappointing but its my fault for not ordering medium rare, they weren't very hot so maybe they sat too long before being served.

The throw back steakhouse ambiance is nice and I appreciate that this is a family operated business. I think the food has great potential to please a variety of palettes for groups but I really wish they would work on their service. Maybe hire and/or train some folks so that the highlight of dining at the restaurant isn't just the...

We came and ate here on Thursday evening and it was one of the worst dining experiences my family has ever had.

I want to clarify, the food tasted delicious but it was the wait time and overall general service we received that really dampers the experience. My fiancé and I came to eat with our infant son and spent about 10 minutes waiting to check in with the host who was inside. It’s not until I walked and told her we had called in prior to coming to make sure there was a table available for us. We get sat and ordered an appetizer along with our drinks. The appetizer comes out first and by that time another party comes in and gets sat. They get their bread first before we do even though we had been sat down first and it was just two other tables at this point. It took over 40 minutes to receive our food, but the reason why it was taking so long wasn’t communicated to us as to why it was taking so long. My fiancé had ordered a steak rare and when he had cut it open it was medium, he had asked to have it remake since it was incredibly over done. The server got very defensive and told him it was even though it was very clear that it wasn’t rare as he had asked for. She makes him take a bite and disappears, she comes back and asks how it is as if he was in the wrong about the steak. When he retells her that it’s over done, she reluctantly goes to the back to have the chef check it and comes back out with a new steak. When we had asked why our food took so long she said that it was the chicken plate that I had ordered that made it take so long, but we weren’t told that we would have to wait a bit longer because of it. Yet, the other table that got sat after us already had their food. It just seemed that they weren’t interested about us and just left us be.

It’s the lack of communication and general rudeness for me that ruined the whole experience trying to dine here. Unless things change, we will not be...