Riviera Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in San Clemente

My wife and I were staying at the San Clemente Inn and were just too lazy to go out, so decided we'd try the in-house Riviera Restaurant. In the past we've often found the restaurants within hotels to be very standard at best, and weren't expecting much; well, the Riviera was an excellent exception! I had a properly seared filet mignon with maybe the best bernaise sauce I've ever had. The filet was on top of some tasty mashed potato, and included a brocollini with crispy fried tops that was SO GOOD. My picky wife ordered the salmon, and was super happy with its mild flavor, firm texture, and delicious, silvery, crispy skin the chef used as a presentation on top. She also loved the side vegetables. We had the small plate of garlic grilled string beans with chili sauce to share along with the entres. Very flavorful and cooked to a perfect al dente. Even though we normally don't order dessert we were in the mood after such a nice meal, and had the peach cobbler with vanilla gelato. It wasn't overly sweet and seemed to be from fresh peaches. An excellent finish to the meal. Randi, our server, was really great. She paced everything perfectly, and had the friendly, competent presence of a professional, veteran...

My family and friends had the opportunity to eat at Riviera in San Clemente located at the San Clemente inn on Thursday night. It was fabulous. What I loved about this place was the menu, something for everyone! Two of my party members were vegetarians and a couple of serious meat-eaters, and they all were extremely pleased!! The shareable choices were enough for the whole table to bite; we had the Brussel Sprouts, fresh Oysters, and incredible chicken dumplings!! I sampled the entree, Brunt scallops which I loved but had the House Burger (½ lb Chop steak, Blue Cheese, Onion mustarda, Apricot jam), was to die for!! The burger came medium rare without me even asking how to cook it, which was perfect!! Leave room in your tummy for the incredible desserts my favorite was the Blue Cheese cake, WOW!! Hats off to the chef Cody and the entire team for making this a...

Well, we were so impressed with the restaurant that we came back a week later with friends and it was just as amazing as our first visit. This time we had the Brussels Sprouts starter which was excellent. My wife and her girlfriend had the Sea Bass which they both said was the best Sea Bass they EVER had! Our other friend had the Fillet which he too said was one of the best steaks he had ever had and I had the Rack of Lamb which was out of this world. The kitchen is doing some amazing work! The service was excellent and I’d like to give a big shout out to our server Rose who is very personable and very professional, she does a great job!

Needless to say, we’ll be...