Europa Village Wineries & Resort — Restaurant in Temecula

‘This holiday season, immerse yourself in the enchanting world of The Nutcracker at Europa Village, where the timeless ballet comes to life in an unforgettable outdoor performance under the starry skies.’ That was the billing for the event my wife and I attended. We purchased the VIP package which included dinner and a glass of wine during the show. We were underwhelmed by the experience. Although the evening was ‘unforgettable’, it was for all of the wrong reasons. First off, it was painfully cold. Knowing that temperatures in Temecula this time of year can be uncomfortable Europa Village could have, and should have, provided heaters for the audience. The layout of the seats would have easily accommodated this with minimal impact to sight lines to the stage. Also disappointing was the wine selection available for purchase. Europa Village is a large vineyard with many varieties of wine available. At this event there were only 5 to choose from. Merlot, Pinot Nior were not among those available. When hosting an event like this Europa Village should be showcasing their cellars, allowing their guests the greatest opportunity to have an enjoyable experience. The show itself was a truncated version of the Nutcracker. Due to time and space constraints, as explained to us by one of the shows cast, 40 minutes of the show was removed from the performance. This included the iconic battle between the Rat King and the Nutcracker. Additionally, we expected a higher level of performers for this event. Instead we were presented with an ensemble from a local dance school. I don’t want to be overly critical of the performers. There was obviously a great deal of time and effort put into the production. The children did as well as anyone could have expected. In the end though this was a glorified recital and not worth what Europa Village was charging. After the show we proceeded to our gourmet dinner. Once again, Europa Village missed the mark. The setting for our meal was a banquet room. Although large groups had assigned seating, we were given our place cards as we entered, the expectation that we would find appropriate seats on our own. Inside the hall it was still surprisingly cold. Even when the room was filled, it was uncomfortable. Service at the dinner was lacking. There was a single basket of bread at our table which was quickly consumed by the 10 people seated there. 20-25 minutes passed before the first course, a bowl of soup, showed up. In the interim there really was no service. We found out on our own where the walk up wine was available and much to our chagrin it was the same 5 wines to choose from that we had previously encountered. Undaunted, I chose to go to the tasting room to obtain a bottle. There I was told that the Merlot was only available for Wine club members. I settled on a Pinot Nior and returned to the banquet room. Our main course finally arrived after another 15 minute wait. I had ordered the Sea bass. It was prepared well and satisfying. My wife had ordered the steak. It was served very rare, to the point that she and another one the people seated with us found it inedible. Sending it back was never an option as the servers had once again disappeared. After the main course it was at least another 15 minutes before dessert was served. In its totality the evening was a bust. Europa Village capitalized on the season, using the Nutcracker as bait, and provided a sub par experience . Nowhere near worth the $270+ I shelled out for...

My wife and I were visiting Europa Village to celebrate my birthday, we arrived late Friday around 730 or so, and were politely greeted by the reception personnel in your office by Bolero. After that, things went downhill.

FIRST: When we arrived at our room at the Inn on the hill the television did not work. I walked to the door with the big sign that says "ring the doorbell" only to be answered by one of your team members questioning me as to why I was ringing the doorbell (with the sign that says ring the doorbell). I didn't even finish my sentence when she dismissed me and went to get someone else to assist me. If guests are not supposed to ring the doorbell then TAKE THE SIGN DOWN! I was not aware that the additional key on our room key was for that door, but nonetheless, that team member's rudeness was unpleasant. I have stayed at Ponte Inn and South Coast Winery previously and the service at both locations is something that should be noted and implemented at your location.

SECOND: That same evening, we needed ice. I called the front desk and was told to go to the main house again and that there was an ice machine available for guests. My wife went over only to find there was no ice machine. Surely, I figured maybe she missed it or it may be in some obscure place, but no, there was no ice machine when I went searching either.

THIRD: Again, the same evening another guest was also not notified of the additional key provided at check-in was ringing the front doorbell at two or three in the morning incessantly with no one from your staff to answer. This guest then proceeds to start jiggling doors, one of which was our room door which startled my wife.

FOURTH: Saturday morning 02/26 (my birthday) we head over to breakfast at Bolero. We are seated and even though there are only a few tables seated, service was very slow, to the point that I had to go get a manager to ring up our bill so we can head out and start our scheduled day of wine tastings.

FIFTH: The same evening, we have reservations for dinner at Bolero. We show up and I tell the hostess that my wife and I would like to be seated inside the restaurant as it was very cold outside. She tells me that our reservations were for outside. The thing that baffled me was that your reservation system does not allow guests to select where they would like to sit. Your hostess then tells me I would need to wait another 30 mins to sit inside. At this point after all your shortcomings, I LOSE IT. I tell her I will not sit outside and that she needed to find a table inside. She gets a manager for me and he is able to seat us for dinner within 10 mins.

This was how our experience went at Europa Village. What was supposed to be a happy fun-filled weekend celebrating my birthday was just a series of mishaps and aggravations from the different interactions with the Europa...

Brought my girlfriend here for an overnight stay for my girlfriend’s birthday on March 5.2024. Looks great online, so I booked a so called Suite for the night. We showed up to a muddy dirt parking lot and horrible signage. Parked my car and walked through mud to get to the entrance, just to be greeted by some young worker walking out, who was very rude and couldn’t answer our simple questions about where to check in. After walking around for about 15 mins, we finally found the small reception office, with one person working. We were told the room wasn’t ready yet, so we decided to go get a snack in their cafe. It was take out only, so we had to get a bag and cheap paper plates, to carry our food somewhere nice outside to sit and eat with a glass of wine. The entire property is still under major construction, so we went to their so called Italian garden area, but they had 2 large dozers working with dust flying everywhere and crazy loud. Our “suite” I paid $500 per night for was finally ready, so we went to the reception room again to get our keys, only to find out they have no valet service whatsoever so we had to get our bags out of the car in the dirt parking lot and carry them ourselves along distance. When we finally found the proper directions to get to our suite, the room was literally off the property on the other side of a dirt road up a very tall sketchy single driveway. This was literally an old 1980s house that they must’ve purchased and turned into what they call their suites. It was a trashy old house that they had put lipstick on. The room was tiny and no privacy. You could hear the neighboring rooms all day and night. Literally HomeDepot cheap quality finishes throughout. Horribly disappointed , but decided to make the best of it and went down for wine tasting before dinner. Again, we had to get in our car again and drive down this horribly steep and sketchy driveway and go park in the dirt and mud parking lots again and walk back up to the winery area. We were told the winery was open till 530 and our dinner reservations weren’t till 7 PM, so we walked in at about 10 after five and they told us that they were shutting down the wine tasting room so they couldn’t serve us, even though we had purchased a wine tasting in our so-called executive package. The staff was horrible and literally just couldn’t wait to get things packed up and leave and even started turning off the lights in the tasting room as we were looking at some of their merchandise . Anyway, just please never make the same mistake that we did by spending nearly $1000 for a very nice couples getaway on my girlfriend’s birthday which turned into a laughing nightmare. This property is literally 3 to 5 years away from being anything worth visiting and even then they need to figure out their...