Mastro's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Santa Clara

TLDR: This was our first time and will be our last. I so wanted to love this place and had been really looking forward to it. But it just wasn't great.

It is beautiful inside and had the potential to be a great vibe. Unfortunately, the music (which was good) was just so loud in some parts of the restaurant that some conversation at the table was consistently in competition with the music. It took quite a while to get water and even longer for bread service. Which our server said was made to order. OK, if that is true. I love a place where things take a while and we aren't being rushed. But I saw a larger table that came in after us that received drinks, water and bread, well before we did. It just didn't add up. The beer my husband ordered was not available and the server brought another option, which we appreciated. He said if he didn't like that, he could get him a different one. Much appreciated. Except he ordered a lager and the replacement was an IPA. If you are a person who drinks lagers, then you might understand why that replacement makes no sense. The problem was that we then had to wait to ask for a beer menu because that was taken and not brought back when the server realized the beer ordered wasn't available. We finally got that squared away and made our order. We ordered 1 appetizer, the maple glazed bacon steak. Obviously that was very yummy. Though I didn't love how heavy the smokey flavor was but my husband did. Then the Brunson 35 Day Dry Aged Kansas City Strip, Dry Aged Bone-In Ribeye, Sautéed Broccolini, and White Cheddar Mac & Cheese. Both steaks were ordered medium. My steak was cooked to medium rare. Which was perfect. That is how I like my steak and in my experience, steaks tend to be a little under cooked. So I order medium with the hopes of a perfect temp. Which I got. However, I didn't get a medium steak, which is what I ordered. There was a little too much char on the steak. Otherwise, it tasted good. Our other steak was cooked rare. I mean, extremely rare - as if only on the grill to get outside color and immediately removed. We had plenty of food and knew we would be taking leftovers home. So we shared my steak and opted not to send it back. Often doing that doesn't result in a well cooked steak and sending food back makes me so uncomfortable. So we chose the easiest route. The broccolini was fine. It was served with LOTS of fresh shaved parmesan on top. Which is OK but given the menu doesn't give any details, I was a little surprised. The mac and cheese was OK. Nothing bad but I wasn't really impressed either. Close to the end of the meal my husband mentioned the issue with the steak to the server. We declined sending it back and let him know, we just wanted him to know incase adjustments needed to be made in the kitchen. He offered to provide dessert. Not necessary but we appreciated the effort to make it up to us. He brought us the butter cake, which was delicious. 10/10 However, as he dropped it off, our server said (only in passing, not like standing in front of us trying to genuinely apologize for something) that he was sorry our steak wasn't cooked to our liking. And perhaps that isn't what he meant but it was diminishing what happened. It wasn't that we were just displeased with how it was cooked. He requested medium and the steak came our looking raw. That is simply not receiving what I ordered. And again, yes we could have chosen to send it back but given that often doesn't give good results, we opted not to. We just said thank you, paid our bill and went on our way. After the very slow service in the beginning, things continued to be slow but more in an appropriate sense. In the, we are not rushing you, enjoy your food and company, kind of way. That was very nice and good thing that we didn't have anywhere to be after. I believe we were there for 2 hours. Overall, I think it was just an "eh" experience. And given the price you pay for a place like this, I would expect better. You should...

UPDATE.

Changing to the five stars because of impeccable service and absolutely amazing taste of the food! Manager Michael was very nice and helpful, we talked over the phone and because of our previously bad experience he gave us credit for our next visit. When we first visited the restaurant it just opened a week ago, so he explained that might be the reason of our bad experience and they trying to fix everything that isn’t perfect yet, but he wasn’t trying to use it as an excuse for bad service, he was just hopeful we would give them one more chance. Yesterday we finally were able to go to Mastro’s again. Steaks were cooked to perfection and exact temperature we requested. Manager himself asked us multiple times if everything is good with our order. All other staff was very professional and nice. Perhaps we weren’t lucky the first time or they really improved since opening, I’m not sure which one is that, but we definitely will be coming back!

—————————————————————————— Doesn’t worth your money and here is why.

My husband and I had dinner here yesterday to celebrate my birthday . I made a reservation for 9pm, although when you arrive you’re being asked to wait, therefore we got our table only at 9:27pm! 27 minutes after reservation time! If not for my birthday I would just turn around and go home, but still had a desire to celebrate. We placed the order: 2 fillet of 12oz -medium and well done, caesar salad, mash, mushrooms, and corn. To begin with we’ve never gotten out Caesar, so had to cancel, coke was also forgotten.

Now the most interesting part We’ve never asked for fillet on a bone, but they brought us those ,but that wasn’t the biggest problem even though it is more expensive than a regular 12oz fillet. My fillet that was supposed be medium ended up being completely rare in the middle, so I returned it back to the kitchen , my husbands well done fillet was medium-medium rare so we returned it as well. Once they brought my beef back I was disappointed to see that it was the same piece that was already previously cut , so they just cooked my steak second time. I cut it again and what a surprise in the middle my fillet is rare again , so I returned it back to the kitchen. When they brought it 3rd time (they cooked the same piece of meat again, so 3 times) it was not a medium it was now well done. I was tired and hungry and decided to not return it the 3rd time. Also can you imagine what happens to the fillet that being cooked over and over , after being cut previously in pieces. This is just unacceptable! Giving two stars instead of one only because I liked mash potatoes that I never eat anywhere and because while we were waiting for our steaks they brought us fresh sides on the house. Please fix the service and teach your chefs how to cook steaks to the temperature that your...

My husband and I decided to give Mastro's another try since we had the worse experience when we dined there on 12/23/2022 with our family. Service was horrible and our tomahawk steak was completely burned in which they called "charred" and over cooked. How can you mess up a tomahawk steak??? We thought maybe since they just opened they needed to get their ishhh together.

Fast forward to 10/21/23 my husband and I dined here for our 24 year wedding anniversary. Our waiter was Riley. He did greet us Happy Anniversary. My husband asked him what the difference was between the 3 types of ribeye steak and his only answer was to just get wagyu tomahawk steak because it was the best cut and quality. He didn't even answer his question. We ordered the scallops for appetizer, Bone in ribeye, baked potato, truffle mushroom, and broccolini.

Scallops 8/10 Ribeye steak 1/10 Baked potato 2/10 Truffle mushroom 9/10 Broccolini 9/10

Again, our steak was super charred on the outside, and cooked medium rare on the inside. Each bite tasted like burnt steak. Literally. At this point I was already regretting coming back. Especially on our anniversary. Their 1lb. Baked potato wasn't even soft and just not good at all. I only asked for the bacon the side but all the toppings came on the side. We couldn't even find Riley to complain about our steak and baked potato, so we just started eating the scallops and other sides which was good. By the time Riley came we kinda lost our appetite and just wanted to leave. He briefly asked if we need anything else and took away my husbands empty glass of ice tea and didn't even offer or ask if he needed a refill. We assumed he was getting a refill. Nope, he never came back with the ice tea. At this point we were over it. This is so disappointing because we really enjoyed Mastro's in San Francisco. Although this location is closer to home, it was just a waste of our time and money. He didn't even offer us a complimentary dessert or anything to celebrate our anniversary.

If you want a delicious rib eye steak, go across the way to LB steak in Santana Row, Forbes Mills in Los Gatos, Alexander's steak house in Cupertino, or Henry's Hilife in San Jose. Seriously, this overrated restaurant is not worth it! You're just paying for the location, and ambiance. Skip this place unless you like "charred" burnt...