Bushfire Kitchen - Temecula — Restaurant in Temecula

Was expecting a lot more.

If you don't know what you are ordering, the menu is intimidating. It's very big and right up in your face so you have to walk along it just to read it. I read the reviews first to see what I thought i wanted. Even knowing what i wanted, there were still options and that was hard to hear so I had to ask the cashier a couple of times to repeat himself. The people are very loud inside. He seemed annoyed that I had to ask him. Price is a little on the higher side but lunch for one was under 20.

The food came out and it was very underwhelming. I ordered the Thai chicken curry bowl with veggies. It seems like they cooked all of the veggies at once. Carrots squash and peppers. Reason being is that the carrots were under cooked and the peppers were over cooked. Not the most experienced cook. The shredded chicken in the curry sauce was tasty but there was just so little of it. It's less than half of the bowl and even that is sitting on top of a bed of rice. The rice was way overcooked as well. It probably wasn't rinsed right either. It was clumpy and chewy. It could probably use a little rice vinegar.

I was really trying to like the food but while waiting, a family sat just adjacent to me. They weren't too bad but the kids were running around freely and it was hard to concentrate on what I was doing. I felt like I needed to watch them. I probably wouldn't have really noticed but then another family sat right behind me. I was already smacked up against the bar I was sitting at but they still felt the need to bump my chair several times and the kids were super loud. The wife politely asked for the chair next to me and I could've sworn she gave me a little wink, lol. But then her husband was slamming chairs around as he was re positioning them around the table behind me. It was noticeably annoying. Like, I'm pretty sure it was intentional as if it was some kind of way for him to tell me he was with a family behind me and wanted the space. I turned back several times to glare at him because I was still eating and his wife put her head down in shame every time. The dad just had a blank stare like he didn't even realize he was being a total idiot. Then I overheard his dad talking to the daughter about missing money. Like he was accusing her off taking it. They seemed to have a lot of issues but 100% not something I want to deal with when I'm trying to make the best of this mediocre meal.

I guess I could have gotten it to go so I didn't give them 1 star. I gave them 2 for the effort. Don't think I'll return though. Cheap food is going to attract cheap people. Won't make that...

Super disappointed, especially for the cost. The food is absolutely overpriced for a place where you order at a counter. I got the American Burger and asked for medium rare. The patty was a well done husk and the bacon unpleasantly thick and tough. If a patty can't be cooked medium rare then don't ask someone if they want it that way.

For the price you'd think the burger would come with fries or some other side, but no. This business wants you to believe that a lone burger with one thin overcooked patty is worth $14.25 because they slapped some avocado and bacon on it. Off the top of my head I can think of at least two different small business fast food restaurants that serve a burger with comparable toppings (bacon, avocado, cheese, etc.) that are priced around $9.00 and are twice as good on a bad day. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, I've had awesome gourmet restaurant burgers priced around $3.50 more... and those came with a side! If I'd bought a side to go with my burger here it would have been equal to or greater in cost to those gourmet restaurant burgers. Absolutely ludicrous. Even if it had been a good burger it still would have been overpriced. So either save your money and go support local small business fast food or go to an actual nice restaurant for a few bucks more per plate.

My husband got the Thai Chicken Curry Bowl and he said it was bland and disappointing. He loves curry. All types of curry. I didn't try it so I can't personally speak on the flavor, but he's someone who hates to criticize anything at restaurants so the fact that he expressed disappointment at all is pretty telling. Pricing was, again, too high for what it was even if it had been good. Which it wasn't.

I can't speak for the other dishes here, though I did eat a sweet potato fry from my cousin's order. That was pretty decent and I probably would have had a better time if I'd just ordered some of those and not gotten an overcooked and overpriced burger I'm still thinking about 3 days later.

I have nothing negative to say about the line level staff. I also wouldn't put my heart and soul into a job that almost assuredly pays minimum wage, is in a store with a layout that resembles a fancy looking Subway, and wants you to fill the roles of cook, wait staff, and (god forbid someone order a cocktail) bartender while you're trapped behind a fast casual counter. I don't know where the price markup is going but I'm pretty confident it isn't employee compensation. I'm absolutely baffled by these...

Went to this location at 11am on 3/10/25.

Girl who took the order seemed irritated. No hello, no 'what can I get you' no nothing. Just a dirty look on her face. Acted like we were bothering her.

We placed our order and I was confused to see them put the food in little paper cups.

I had not been here in a couple years because I moved, so I was really excited to return (I used to eat here from the time they opened llike 10 years ago?) and I remember they used to serve everything on nice ceramic plates.

So I was shocked when they brought out these two little paper cups, and my husband's was served on a paper plate - it looked like cafeteria food.

I asked the staff what happened to the ceramic plates and they looked at me like I was stupid. I was explaining to them that the food used to come on ceramic plates and the girl just looked at me.

And then I asked her if this was all of my food, cuz I ordered a brisket bowl with brussel sprouts and it was two teeny tiny cups of food and she said yes.

That's so at that point after being treated so rudely and having the food coming out looking like that, I just asked if I could have a refund.

So I took my food up to the cashier, there was nobody else in the place, and I told her that the Food looks like cafeteria food and this is nothing like how it used to look. And she asked me what I was talking about and I explained to her that everything used to be served in nice dishes. She said Oh they haven't served anything on dishes in ears. So I said okay well it looks like cafeteria food now and this wasn't what I was expecting and she told me to calm down and to not insult the food. She told me I hadn't even tasted it and was very rude. I explained to her that since this was the food I was brought, it was perfectly acceptable for me to have an opinion. Especially since I have been coming here for years. How she was processing the refund she kept telling me that I had no right to talk about the food like that and blah blah blah.

Done. I will never ever set foot in a bushfire grill ever again.

I'm sure that will make the staff very happy, but you have just lost a long time customer who raved about Bushfire to anyone who would listen. I've taken friends there, family there......