Mad Madeline's Grill — Restaurant in Temecula

Giving 3 stars because the burger patty and bacon were really good, outside of that i did not enjoy my first and likely last trip to mad madelines. They have signs stating 8% surcharge due to "inflation" but it feels very price gougey. They also have a sign stating to please wait to be seated, so me and my family obliged. After at least 5 minutes of standing waiting to be seated, my wife had to go seek out the hostess/waitress to ask how long until we would be seated, considering there was only 1 other table dining at the establishment, the wait seemed unnecessary. The hostess then said we could seat ourselves which essentially nullifies the point of the "please wait to be seated" sign. The hostess/waitress seemed annoyed that we disrupted the conversation her and the kitchen crew were having as we could hear them loud and clear talking and laughing from the kitchen.

The menu had a solid selection to offer and i will say they should considering updating the images because the pictures in the menu do not represent what the food actually looks like, it looks much better in person.

Hostess/waitress seemed like she couldnt handle the customer flow. it did pickup while we were there but definitely wasnt something that couldnt be managed.

Our food was brought out one plate at a time so everyone in my family essentially ate alone while we all waited for our own plates to come. Some food was hot, some food was lukewarm. fries were seasoned on one plate, fries werent seasoned on others. We asked for ketchup and were told that there was ketchup on the tables. Our table did not have any ketchup and almost every table in the vicinity only had mustard like ours. I went on a ketchup hunt, Which out of all the tables in the establishment there were maybe 7 bottles of ketchup, 4 of those bottles were directly in my eyesight and i went to all 4 of those table and the ketchup was empty at every single table. Our mustard was also empty. They did mess up my wifes burger and had to remake it which was a mild inconvenience. The hostess/waitress was very selective on which tables she checked in on and also didnt know what was on their menu. They very clearly advertise a beyond burger but when the table next to mine ordered the beyond burger, they were told that they no longer carry it. If thats the case why is it advertised everywhere in the establishment. We inquired about shakes and were told that the shake machine was "frozen" and needed to thaw out but it should be ready to go after we were done with our meals. Before i got to follow up on the status of the shake machine i over heard the hostess tell the table next to us that their shake machine was broken. Understandable, things happen. However a few minutes later the hostess proceeded to bring a shake out for another table. So is the shake machine broken or not??

After we finished our meal we were never checked in on and i had to go find the waitress to ask for the check which we waited on for another 15-20 minutes before she brought it out and the check was wrong becuase the hostess/waitress did not account for the daily special on our bill.

All in all the food is decent but not good enough to make up for the bad service. The place has alot of potential that they are not reaching. I was excited to finally try this spot but i dont think my family and i will be returning. There are plenty of other options with better ambiance in old town...

TL;DR: Bad food, bad service, ludicrous prices. Avoid if you value your time and money.

In all my life, I have never left a review for anything. Online reviews have hardly ever been helpful to me in determining whether or not I’d end up enjoying something. As such, I did not consult any reviews prior to visiting Mad Madeline’s Grill (MMG) tonight. Perhaps I should have, and it is out of a sense of duty that I try to warn others here and now.

There was a line out the door when I pulled in tonight. Surely a mark of quality, I thought. I waited in line for no less than half an hour, despite the patio being visibly half-empty. Many tables, though long unoccupied, were still cluttered with the empty plates of previous patrons. The waitstaff seemed too harried to tend to this bottleneck, and they had my sympathy. Management should hire more help.

On my way in, I noticed a sign on the door that explained an 8% “inflation charge” would be added to the bill, and did not count towards a standard gratuity. I felt this was silly at first, and upon seeing the menu prices for the food items, found it to be downright mercenary.

$25 for a cheeseburger. At least it came with fries. And hey, it had won awards. So what if it was expensive, there’s a reason this place does so well. Tonight’s a splurge anyway.

I ordered the chile relleno burger; my dining companion had the fish sandwich ($21). 2 fountain drinks were $7- not the most unreasonable, but still relatively steep. I also noticed, but did not order, that upgrading fries to onion rings would have been an additional $6. Milkshakes were $12, a hot dog plate was $23. All of these seemed grossly inflated.

The food took forever to arrive. When it was finally delivered, the burger was enormous, yes, but also largely greasy, flavorless, and inconvenient to eat (the chile atop the burger was more akin to a fried palm frond). The fries were like the ones at In-N-Out but worse. I asked a waitress for hot sauce, which never came. At least drink refills were free. As I choked down the last bites of the burger (I wasn’t letting it go to waste for that price), a terrible sense of doom spread through my nervous system, and I felt as if I’d made a grave mistake.

We left without a word, our dissatisfaction palpable. I truly felt awful after the burger, and went home to shower. I couldn’t stand the smell that it had left on my hands or in my beard, and felt weighed down by the grease bomb in my stomach.

$70. For two sandwiches, two fountain drinks, and a tip for the poor waitstaff. The food was mediocre at best, and was delivered after an hour total of wait time. This place is more expensive than practically anything comparable, and the food is not good enough to justify its absurd prices, let alone its laughable inflation charge.

If any of the variables had been different-- the prices, the wait time, the quality of the food-- I would not be leaving this review. But because I felt my time and money gouged for a meal I’d have regretted even if it were free, I’m angry and want to speak up here.

I will not be returning to MMG. Truthfully, I have no idea how they’ve stayed in...

The biggest thing that stood out to me here was the price. Just wow. 30 bucks and some change for a burger, fries, and a drink. For one person.

The burger was ok. The meat was good, a little overcooked. I mean, if I'm paying 20 bucks for a burger, I'm hoping the meat is high quality but I never got a choice on the doneness of the meat. I thought that was a little strange. It came well done. Shame because, good beef should be allowed to bleed a little so the juices and flavor come out. Instead, it was loaded with grilled pineapple and a couple of other Hawaiian toppings. I think it had teriyaki but I honestly couldn't taste it. The entire burger, didn't really have a lot of flavor. It seemed like good quality but there was really not a lot of flavor. I could barely taste the pineapple after a piece slipped out and I picked it up and ate it plain. Everything just seemed like processed, canned, and frozen. Again, huge shame because it was probably the thickest patty I've had and it seemed like quality beef because it didn't break apart at all. But, I just couldn't taste it.

And the fries. Yikes. 5 bucks. They did look like homemade fries so I'll give them that but they came out cold and it was barely more than a handful. Come on. Potatoes are not a high food cost. I know the labor might be but all you need is a good potato slicer and a young strong kid that can fill 3 buckets of fries in 30 minutes. Should not be 5 bucks. No seasoning and they were cold. Nothing bums me out more than feeling jipped. And I really felt jipped. I couldn't believe people were feeding families here. 100 bucks easy for a family and I gotta say, the flavor was just not there for me.

Another Temecula local place I'm trying to support but there's no way I'm going here often even if it tasted good.

Sorry, I just can't promote something like this for that much cost. The value and the flavor just killed it for me. If food costs are high, then the guy needs to think of a better way to save money.

Oh wow. I almost forgot. I don't know where this guy gets his recipe for bar bq sauce but I have never seen sauce with rough chopped onions STILL in it. I'm just gonna guess and say he does that to add volume to each serving because food costs must be really high if the prices are this high.

It's like he has these great recipes but he doesn't know how to properly make them. He SHOULD strain the onions out with a chinois. But, again, judging by the super high prices, I'm guessing this is his way of spreading out sauce thinking this is gonna lower his overall food cost but wow man... if you are pinching pennies on your "famous" sauce, you must be hurting real bad. I know it's tough right now after a pandemic but you gotta realize that everyone is hurting. There's no way I'm paying 30 bucks for mediocre meal for another...