Ox and Anchor — Restaurant in San Luis Obispo

Ox and Anchor downtown SLO

All the apps in the building:

Oysters- tasted just like the ocean was poured into our mouth, I dont know anything about oysters so this low review is probably all on me. The only thing I didn't like, so let's get that outta the way. 5/10

Prawn cocktail - huge meaty prawns that were cooked perfectly, standard cocktail sauce, great presentation. 8/10

Crispy crab cake- huge chunks of crab, wasnt full of binders. 9/10

Yellowfin tartar- good sized chunks of tuna, sauce was excellent 10/10

Chicken Egg rolls- outsides were a little too crispy and rolls were kinda dry. Came with standard mae ploy sauce which everyone loves. Probably the only thing I'd not order again, they were good but seemed out of place amongst all the other upper tier goodies. 6/10

Goat Cheese Croquettes- cooked perfectly, melty cheese, excellent 'breading' on them. The marmalade and honey sauces went perfect with it. I dont like sweet stuff but they did this right. 10/10

Grilled artichoke - step down from the mclintocks grilled artichokes from farmers market, nice light smokey flavor to them, nothing to write home about though. 6/10

Tomato soup- with a surprise scallop didnt say it had a scallop on the menu, but it do. Really creamy and rich tomato flavor, much better than the tomato soup from luna red. 10/10

Wedge salad- awesome huge ripe tomato chunks, radish ribbons lookin like bacon, it was great. Step down from the man salad at the range..8/10 but enough with the vegetable shmegtables

Duck leg- I love duck, this was an excellent representation of duck. Not too greasy, skin was scored and crispy, the onions on the plate were unreal good too.10/10

All the beef they had:

Bavette- great little steak especially for the price, seemed a little larger than 10oz but I ain't complaining 'bout mo' meat. 8/10

Prime hanger steak - killed it with this one. Great seasoning on it, cooked perfectly and had an awesome crust on it. 10/10

Prime New York- really good, one of the few prime steaks they had which was surprising, typical SPG style rub on it which is all you need 8/10

Porterhouse- nice sized filet on it, nothing that great, I'm not a big fan of these cuts normally but they turned out a nice steak here. 7/10

Choice ribeye - cooked, seasoned, charred perfect, we tried them with all of the toppings and the crab and blue cheese were our favorites. I cook a lot of steaks and this was right up there with my best ones and it was a choice cut not a prime 11/10 (that's right)

Cowboy ribeye- the big dog. I didnt want to spend almost 100 on a steak but ya cant knock it till ya try it right? I tried it, wasnt that great. I'd go with the regular ribeye over this, all day. If you want to impress someone with the fancy fanc of the bone in, sure go for it. It wasnt bad but just kinda unnecessary, and I think the smaller ribeye was cooked better.8/10

Well since you read this far you get the prize. The best thing here was the mashed potato, potato puree, bowl of heaven, whatever you want to call it. They were so good, you cant put it into words. The best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten. I might just go here for lunch if they are open and get these, a lot of these...maybe enough to bathe in. 12/10

Place exceeded my expectations for a steak house, I'll put my stamp of approval on it. Staff was excellent, service excellent, very friendly and attentive. Oh yeah the Cadillac margs are on point too, and the first beer on the list was lizards mouth.

Loved it....

I went here a few months ago and it was amazing so I decided I would come back for New Year's and we were severely underwhelmed. I will say though it would be worth it just to have the tuna tartare it's the best thing on their menu and since it's raw they know how to make it. It's by far their best dish and I actually would give the dish itself four stars but for the experience that we had and the food itself I think that the restaurant itself as well as the steep price deserves one star review. I think that we should start by when we were seated we were outside with heaters in the ceiling that were so high up that they were inadequate to heat either of us considering one of us was right underneath it. We were poured still water, but we noticed that when the table seated next to us was sat they were offered a choice of still or sparkling and given that choice I would have definitely gone with the sparkling. The bone marrow tater tots do not have any type of bone marrow taste to them and they are quite bland The horseradish sauce is nice but the dish itself doesn't pair well considering that bone marrow is a key element on the dish and yet absent. The tuna tartare was amazing, the only good dish there in my opinion and then on to dinner, the Kobe flat iron steak was interesting because I like to have my steak medium rare and I was going to ask for it medium rare but the server recommended it to be medium because of the supposed marbeling in the steak which I couldn't find. When the steak arrived my partner's steak was cooked perfectly medium rare and mine was raw which was very surprising considering it was supposed to be medium and mine was so chewy it was inedible and a very tough situation to try to chew through. The dinner sides that we had where the mac and cheese and the lobster risotto which I also do not recommend, they sauce on the mac and cheese was very thin and watery and bland as well as the lobster risotto which was well salted but did not have an taste of lobster or of anything. The truffle fries were on point though very good would it have those again especially with the sauces that came with them. I think for the price being about $100 a person and us splitting one steak the price is quite high especially for the current quality of the food. Also my alcoholic drink with limoncello was watered down and didn't have any particular taste other than sparkling water which apparently we could have got with the meal if it was offered. I remember ordering the same drink last time and it being a lot better. I'm not exactly sure what happened but the restaurant has gone downhill in my opinion, while going uphill...

Look, objectively speaking here: This is the best Steakhouse in SLO County. The ambiance is upscale, but not stuck up. The food is incredible, almost anything on the menu is a guaranteed smash hit, whether that be steaks, appetizers, drinks, salads, even desserts, it’s all phenomenal.

But the heart of this review rests squarely on the shoulders of our server, Jason. Sure, the food is incredible. But Jason is one of the most charismatic, attentive, welcoming, and passionate servers that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. It’s important to mention that I am not a regular, in fact, I’m a visitor from out of town who ate at the bar here a single time. He recognized me immediately, and welcomed me in by name. The genuine enthusiasm he had to see me again was right off the bat, so warm and welcoming. He made sure to give us objective descriptions of our potential food choices, while also giving his own personal, and honest opinions on the options we had available to help us zero in on the most perfect of selections. After describing our flavor profiles for what we were looking for in our potential drinks, he came back with some of the most refreshing and well poured drinks we’ve had in a very long time. We trusted his opinion on dessert, as we were conflicted between several options, and boy, did he choose wisely. I brought my wife with me for this second visit to Ox+Anchor, to enjoy a good meal and celebrate our wedding anniversary; but it truly would not have been such a special night without the magic, charm, and natural wit that Jason brought us this evening. Bro is an absolute savant, and one of the greatest assets Ox+Anchor has at their disposal, here’s hoping he sticks around for many years to come.

(Also, honorable mention to our busser, Canela. They were kind, and patient with our questions about the sauces we were served. They were so quick to clear out our finished plates, but made sure to always double check that we were finished before taking anything. They also got our food wrapped up in such a timely manner, with fresh refills on all of our favorite sauces from the night. 10/10 customer service for this...