The Raymond 1886 - Modern American Cuisine & Craft Cocktails in Pasadena — Restaurant in South Pasadena

We dined on Christmas Eve, so the atmosphere was enhanced by three excellent carollers, who came by twice, singing several songs each time. The entrees were delicious! I had the Branzino, perfectly cooked, and served with red rice. My dining companion had the prime rib, cooked exactly to order and served with roasted potatoes. Neither entree included green vegetables, however, though there was plenty of room on the plates for a serving of green beans or broccoli or some other seasonal vegetable. The only green vegetables on offer in the prix fixe menu were in the vegeyarian entree and in one of the appetizer options, a winter salad that had great potential but was about half a reasonable serving (why be stingy with field greens, for pity sake?!), and it was drowned in too vinegary dressing. The "starter" was bread and butter. It was very nice sourdough bread, with delicious cranberry butter, but I'm sorry, bread and butter is not a "starter." It's just common decency. The dessert we ordered was supposed to be sticky toffee pudding, but if you can imagine a muffin from a Betty Crocker spice cake mix, turned upside-down, drizzled with caramel sauce, and topped with whipped cream and a fancy, lacy, leaf-shaped waffle cookie, you would have this concoction. Nothing about it was "sticky" because it wasn't steamed and lacked any sticky ingredients other than the caramel sauce on the outside. The menu I have described cost $135 a person. There was tax on top of that, of course. Then the restaurant added a mandatory 20% service fee. Presumptuous. But okay, I suppose we got service worthy of a 20% tip. When we settled the bill, however, I was invited to add a tip. What the . . . ?! (I did not add a second tip.) So in summary, the atmospere was wonderful, and some of the food was excellent; there was just too little of it for the price. The sticky toffee pudding was a disgrace. And I felt insulted by the mandatory "service fee" followed by a request for a "tip" on...

I've been coming here for almost two decades and the service has always been on the slow side but the food is good and the people seem nice. My wife and I announced our engagement here. We later invited my parents to dinner to let them know we were expecting here. I really want to like this place but I also cannot let tonight's experience go undocumented.

I had one of the most frustrating experiences at a restaurant tonight. My wife and I do not mind the slower service but we had our two year old with us this time. We knew service would be slow so we made an early 4:45 reservation. As expected there were maybe 3 other tables seated when we took our seats. After placing our order I asked for the menu back so I could order a drink. After turning around constantly to make eye contact and watching this waiter wander around everywhere else for 5 minutes I finally asked a busser if I could just place an order with him but he said he would get the waiter for me. That's fine. I then waited and watched this waiter visit several other tables including the one directly behind us then just walk away for another 5 minutes. The busser reassured me several times he had told the waiter but I then see him standing there chatting with another employee. At this point I asked the busser not to bother. I would not be having a drink.

He came back two more times after that - to drop off dessert menus and to drop off the check. He did not apologize. He did lower the shades to shield us from the sun but I do not know if it was for us or one of the other tables. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt but it hardly redeems the utter lack of hospitality.

For management: the waiter was the mid-30s Caucasian gentleman. The bussers were great, even apologetic. They were attentive and general around before we needed them. It would be great if only they could take an order back to the kitchen or bar. They certainly deserve more credit for...

1886 is a classy bar located in the beautiful cozy cottage-like restaurant called the Raymond Restaurant. You can easily miss it while driving if you're not paying attention to your gps.

PARKING: Street parking (very narrow) or if you're lucky, behind the restaurant (limited). No valet.

SERVICE: Our server was knowledgable about the cocktails we asked about. She also recommended one that's not on the menu for my boyfriend who loves whiskey. From what i've seen and read, it seems like the service here could be a hit or miss. Our neighbor decided not to order food because of the wait.

AMBIENCE: Dim, cozy, chill, classy. There's an outdoor patio outside if there's no room inside.

COCKTAILS: :: The Smoking Jacket :: l LOVE theatrical presentations. The bartender poured the drink into a glass full of maple wood smoke (smells like campfire) topped it with orange-vanilla ash. It's a glass of Irish whiskey with tobacco bitters. This is not on the menu. I liked it because the whiskey had a subtle sweetness from the bitters.

:: Bonita Applebum :: Fresh pear, amaro nonino, apple jack and lemon. The waitress recommended this because I wanted something sweet and refreshing. I couldn't taste the alcohol but I did get drunk off of it on an empty stomach. You could taste the sweet pear with a citrus after taste.

WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION: I found out that they serve 2 very unique cocktails.

:: Cake cocktail:: Table next to me ordered the freshly baked chocolate cake bite topped with bourbon icing with a shot of White Russian... It sounded grander than it looked.

:: Cucumber cocktail :: they serve cocktail in a hallowed out cucumber with salted rims.

WHAT THEY NEED TO BRING BACK (our server agrees): The snowman cocktail!!! looks like a creamy cocktail topped with a round ice cream ball decorated to look like frosty the snowman.

I'm def coming back to try their...