Tavern at the Mission — Restaurant in San Juan Capistrano

I just left this restaurant and it was by far, the worst dining experience I’ve had in awhile. First off, I want to state that our waiter John, was a consummate professional. My family and I sat down at 4:55pm and we ordered 5 items off the happy hour menu (soup, poke, coconut shrimp, shrimp & grits & chicken sliders). I requested the soup and poke to come out first. After 15 minutes, Our waiter John came over and apologized that it was taking too long. At about 20 - 21 minutes they arrived and again, he apologized. It should take no longer than 10 minutes to deliver a soup and poke. Especially, when the restaurant was not busy at all. It took another 23 minutes for our entrees to arrive and the order for my children was wrong. John owned it again, apologized for the mistake and agreed the food should not take this long. I asked to speak with a Manager. The Manager brought out the corrected chicken sandwich sliders for my children who have now waited 47 minutes to eat. The manager was extremely unprofessional. Instead of just apologizing and taking care of everything, she proceeded to question me as she wanted to see who was to blame. Was it the server or the kitchen? I advised her that having worked in the restaurant industry for years, you NEVER do this. You simply apologize and handle it later. You don’t grill customers to figure out who is the blame. Again, super unprofessional. I told her to comp the entire meal as this was inexcusable. From my perspective, it was unequivocally the kitchen’s fault not John our waiter. Again, he was excellent at handling the situation.

Now, the food was egregiously overpriced for the quality. My children’s chicken sandwich was inedible. The chicken was chewy and disgusting. It was as if it was frozen and microwaved. The children couldn’t even eat it. I took a bite and spit it out. The shrimp & grits was bland and had zero flavor.

Overall, a horrible dining experience. It’s not hard to make great food. Actually, It’s quite easy. I hope ownership reads this because as a business owner myself, I would want to know my establishment is producing this type of subpar, mediocre at best food and customer experience. Again our Server, John, was a consummate professional and he deserves better than a Manager who is looking to bus roll him for what was clearly the establishments shortcomings.

Never coming back here again.

Yours truly, One unhappy,...

I made reservations on OpenTable to celebrate the 75th birthday of a close friend at this restaurant, which was her favorite. I specifically made reservations for the patio which is the most popular space at the restaurant, 9 days before. I confirmed these reservations twice - by text and email the day before . Less than 2 hours prior to our reservation time, I received a call from the restaurant saying that our reservation for the patio was no longer available because some party has “bought out” the entire patio. I have never had this experience before. I told them that our event was as special to us as it was to the party that ”bought out” the patio was to them . I also noted that if the reservation to buy out the patio had happened prior to my reservation being made on 7/17, why was their patio seating shown as still available? If it hadn’t been available, I would have made reservations elsewhere. I also objected to being contacted on such short notice which didn’t allow us time to easily make other arrangements, particularly since our other party was traveling a distance to attend the lunch. Jennifer, the manager called me. She was argumentative, wouldn’t listen to my concerns, talked over me and was insensitive to our predicament. She lacks a basic understanding of customer service. She was in an untenable position (the restaurant screwed up)but chose to lash out at the customer instead of apologizing or taking responsibility for this situation. I hung up on her after telling her this was unprofessional and disrespectful to their customers. I’m sure there is a backstory to this situation which I’ll never be privy to. We will never go to this restaurant again. Neither will my friends. This was a breach of trust, ineptitude and horrible...

My son, grandson and I ate at the restaurant yesterday for Thanksgiving. I had reservations for 1:30. We were seated around 1:40 and ordered at 1:47. I could be mistaken but thought they opened at 1:00. When ordering I was told they were out of end cut prime rib. I order white meat turkey and was told I got 2 ounces of white meat and two ounces of dark meat. No substitutions. Really? For $65 a plate. I talked to manager at 2:00 and basically got what I felt was “the runaround.” I have worked in restaurants for many years and know when I am getting double talked. All of the food was room temperature, as was the soup. About 2 tablespoons of creamed corn, creamed squash, and Brussels sprouts and a tablespoon of mashed potatoes with no gravy. The dinner rolls tasted like Kings Hawaiian bread. The dessert choices were cheesecake and coconut cake. The cake looked like it had been sliced hours before and sat in the kitchen. The frosting was literally forming a puddle on the plate from melting and sliding off the cake. I should have taken a photo. The wait staff acted like they were waiting tables during rush hour at In-and-out. Kind of running around and slamming food on the table. They all looked stressed out. Hardly the “dining experience” I expected from a chef. It felt more like a short order cook experience. Had I invited guests I would have been supremely embarrassed. I would give it a C-/D+. Management I felt gave excuses saying it was their first time serving Thanksgiving. They have been open since January and should be able to figure it out. They took reservations so they had an idea about a ballpark number of guests. Excuses from a “chef” are not acceptable. Would I eat there again? A...