Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop — Restaurant in San Diego

Cowboy Star restaurant

A review of Happy Hour Food. (One item not on the HH menu, and we don't drink, so no drinks reviewed)

We showed up just as they opened we were the second ones in the door so the food should have just been started. Our server was Arturo, with excellent service and a great friendly attitude he answered all questions my questions on the food and menu.

3 Sliders from left to right in the attached photo. The first is a Cornichon remoulade slider. The next is a cheese truffle slider. The last is a bacon jam slider.

The seasonings on these burgers were spot on. They were all just slightly overdone which dried them out a bit. The Cornichon pickled mustard slider. It was ok, I think the word unremarkable is what comes to mind first. The Truffle slider, how do I say this? The truffle oil is foul and it makes the hamburger horrible as well. It was a poor choice of a topping. Do you want to guess how I feel about truffle oil? The bacon jam sider with caramelized onions was sweet and it was fairly good aside of being a tad overdone and dry.

C-Star Fries with 3 sauces. Whole grain mustard in mayo, a spicy ketchup up, and a Bacon mayo. Sauces we all top-notch, fries were soggy. Which is odd as we were the first to order. You would think they would be crisp and fresh. They came out lukewarm. They were served in a basket inside a napkin which just kept the moisture trapped inside so they got soggier as they cooled. The sauces and the mustard mayo were a nice surprise and might have been the best of the three. The spicy ketchup was good, I enjoyed it quite a bit my spouse thought it was overdone with the heat. The bacon mayo was good but not as good as the others.

Beef skewers came with slaw and three skewers. All the steak was well done, which made it slightly chewy and dry (I cut open every piece of steak and checked each for this review). The spices and sauce give it a very bold flavor and salty flavor. After eating 2 of the 3 skewers the flavor quickly becomes overpowering. I couldn't eat the third skewer at all. The slaw is great at first then, there is a strange aftertaste. Very deep edamame flavor to it, very earthy, it has to be whatever vinegar they use.

Potato skins have great skin, it's crisp and salted well. On the inside, they have corn beef with a horseradish sauce. That is some sharp horseradish, it has a bite. The corned beef makes the inside of the potato kind of soggy meat in the middle of a good potato. It was quite disappointing.

House-made sausage is sweet overly so for sausage. The sausage meat was moist (the best quality of meat all night). The sausage was sweet because it had chunks of pineapple in the sausage. The whole-grain mustard served with it just overpowers the sweetness of the sausage. It comes with Sauerkraut, which was good. Odd since I don't like Sauerkraut at all.

The one item ordered not off the happy hour menu was the Roasted Beets… It was the BEST item of the whole meal. It was sweet, refreshing, and delightful on the taste buds. It had slices of apple that broke up the Beet flavor, added a sweetness that was stunning. It's also the only redeeming part...

I honestly want to cry. This has been the worst experience I’ve ever had at a restaurant. I’ve been a regular customer here because I live across the street, and I’ve always loved the ambiance, service, and food. But tonight shattered everything. Not only did the manager, Malia, or whatever her name is, embarrass me in front of the entire staff, but she also humiliated me in front of other customers.

I had originally been seated in a corner seat, which made me feel isolated and uncomfortable, so I politely asked to move to the seat next to me. There were no other seating options, and I just wanted to feel more at ease. What followed was absolutely shocking. I waited an hour and a half for my drink and food. I was sandwiched between two other groups of people, which only added to my discomfort. Usually, my experiences here are smooth I get my food promptly and enjoy my time, whether alone or with a friend. But this time, everything went downhill.

After waiting more than 40 minutes for my food, they told me I could leave if I wanted to. They offered to cover my drink, but why would I stay for a drink when I had already been waiting so long for my meal? The scene they caused was beyond humiliating. They made a public spectacle of everything right in front of the bar, with other patrons watching.

The first staff member who approached me was polite and tried to assist, which I appreciated. Then another employee named Kiana came to help, and I worked things out with her she told me I could just move to a nearby seat, which was fine with me. But just when I thought things were resolved, the manager stepped in and escalated the situation for no reason. She turned it into a huge scene in front of everyone, and I was left feeling embarrassed, anxious, and heartbroken.

Dining alone as a woman already takes courage, but to be treated like this—publicly humiliated and disregarded was incredibly painful. I walked out of the restaurant in tears, and I’m still crying as I write this review. I’ve always held this place in such high regard, but tonight was the last straw. I no longer feel comfortable coming back here, and that breaks my heart because it used to be one of my favorite places.

If you’re a woman, a person of color, or just someone looking to enjoy a meal in peace, I strongly advise against coming here. Whether it was discrimination or something else, I don’t know, but no one should ever be treated the way I...

I've thought hard about this review since this place came so highly reccomended. TL/DR. Good, not great, not very good. This is comparing this to other high end restaurants that we have gone to, with an expectation of everything being top notch to over the top.

1st, the service was oustanding, worthy of the price point (Shout out to Veronica).

Now, the atmosphere there is weird for me. Hard to really put a finger on it, but the changing music from country to jazz to swing to oldies, the tables very close together in the middle of the restaurant, but then deep booths around the rim, all of it combined to feel disjointed. It was never bad, or worth of bringing to the attention of anyone, but when I compare it to Golden Steer in Vegas, or even a Hell's Kitchen, or other fine dining restaurants, it just wasn't consistent with whatever brand they wanted to be. Offering to give us our menus when they were just standard steakhouse menus on paper? Weird. If they had been printed with our names or something, then maybe so. We typically only see that with Prix Fix menus or seasonal menus.

Okay, the food. The steaks were cooked and seasoned perfectly, 100% on point. My brocclini tasted like the chef forgot to count the turns on the peppermill, my wife's was bland. (Doubled up mine, forgot hers?) I like cracked pepper, so it wasn't awful, just not "Great" which is what I would expect. The tartare, which is a feature and reccomended, was out of balance and HEAVY with the garlic. Again, we like garlic so it wasn't a show stopper, but the balance wasn't there that I would expect at this price point. The french onion soup was yummy, but overly sweet. Again, it's a factor of the balance, not anything else. Finally dessert, the Peach Napolean. The execution was amazing, the pastry chef was a real artist in textures and styles, but the rasberry over-balanced the peach. Individually, great bites, but anytime you tried to combine flabors the coulis or the sorbet overpowered the peach portions.

With the plethora of options in the SD and LA areas, this likely won't be a second visit, but you...