The Gambling Cowboy — Restaurant in Temecula

A solid 4 stars for me.

I normally like to include photos on reviews, but we missed the opportunity to do so this time.

The Gambling Cowboy was recommended to me by a gentleman in passing for brunch. I was having family and a friend come in from the midwest for the holidays, so I booked us a brunch on a Saturday morning.

We were greeted up front by a very nice young lady. I have to say that because so often I've gone to restaurants and the front hostess person is very nonchalant, just holding up space or directly rude. We were the first to arrive that morning. Which mostly never happens.

Our wait person was Maria. She was amazing! Her personality and high positive energy were so very appreciated. She allowed my sister to tey a bloody mary and decline it when it wasn't something she wanted. Her service was a solid 4.7!! And I tipped her well.

The stars I took off were for a few reasons:

I ordered steak and hash. I was a bit surprised that it wasn't actually hash in the traditional sense, but the main reason for a con was that the steak was very well done. I wasn't asked how I liked my steak. It was not to my standards of eating beef at all. I was surprised because it seemed a place that knew how to get a steak right.

When I mentioned it to Maria, she offered to have it remade, to which I was grateful. The part that rubbed me the wrong way and it was said more than once, was something to the effect of - normally they wouldn't remake a meal that they didn't get right, but because it was slow that morning the chef agreed to remake it. Excuse me! Pffft!

When I did fet the steak med rare and not well WELL done, it was done right and tasted good.

I allowed them the opportunity to remake my steak and not send it out dry and over done because I normally would send it back and tell them don't bother to remake it and that I would be paying for it.

Of the 2 others with us, 1 of us had a meal that was done right despite the fact that it was a bit customized. And by customized, I mean she is vegetarian, so she requested to just have no meat in the burrito. The other meal that came out was not correct either, and a new meal was ordered. So, it was 1 for 3 on meals in a restaurant that was "not busy at all" that morning. The sentiment each time was that we were being done a favor by getting the food made right as opposed to being more apologetic that we had to wait for a new order to come out.

Other than those snafu's, everything else was good.

I was disappointed that the brunch/breakfast menu was so small. I definitely wouldn't go back for breakfast/brunch, but I do think they more likely than not have a steller dinner menu and service, and that would be worth another visit. One other good reason to try it out is that they DO NOT add extra fees or gratuity on your bill like so many others do. This insane trend makes me not want to tip past the amount the other restaurants pre add to my bill. I tipped well because of Maria's personality & service AND because the restaurant stuck to the bill being the bill.

So, overall, I recommend The Gambling Cowboy, and hopefully, soon, I will have a reason to try...

My wife and I were really excited to visit this restaurant. I made reservations for her birthday to try it For the 1st time. I showed up a little late, But they still allowed us to get seated quickly, which was nice.

It took our waitress a little bit to get to us as they were at capacity, but she was very nice and attentive once she arrived. She took our drink orders and all the drinks were really good. I had a watermelon mojito and my wife had a fruit sangria.

Where things started to fall apart was the wait time. It took a long time to get food to us. She even miss-recommended splitting a wedge salad. I asked if it was big enough to share and she said, yes, it was a good size. When it came to us it was probably the smallest salad I have ever eaten. Definitely not big enough to share. It was delicious and had I had a full order, it would have been perfect.

We started with the appetizers which my son and I had shrimp cocktail. That was really good except for they hide all the cocktail sauce in lettuce in a cup and it makes it very difficult to dip the shrimp in lettuce mixed with cocktail sauce.

The next course we got was was clam chowder for me and my wife ordered French onion soup. My wife's French onion soup was absolutely fantastic. Probably the best I've ever had flavor-wise. The only issue was the temp of the soupbwas not hot enough. As if it had sat a good while before coming out. My clam chowder was one of the worst I've ever had. It was very chocky and full of large lumps of flour.

Due to the small salad size and my lack of taste for the soup, I opted to order a steak Burger for the next day or if I was still hungry at the end of our dinner.

For her entree my wife ordered a filet mignon with French fries. She felt it was slightly overcooked but I thought it looked about what she ordered. By that point we had shared enough food that we were both fairly full and had just enough room for dessert.

For dessert I ordered bread pudding and she had the creme Brule. Both were really good and my son opted to share my bread pudding with me so I had a few bites and shared the creme brule with my wife.

Overall it was a good meal and good experience it's not likely we'll go back. Although my wife's soup was phenomenal it came out a little hotter than room temperature and that kind of put her off even though the taste was very flavourful.

The service was excellent and the hostess and staff were all very nice, but the prices were prices were 5 star dining prices and I would give this restaurant roughly 3 and a 1/2 stars or maaaaybe 4. If they made small tweaks it would be a solid 4. Maybe we came on amnoff day. Who knows. If we do return it would be for appetizers and for sure the French onion soup and drinks.

Side note, when I got home I checked my steak Burger and they got it wrong and gave me a steak and fries instead.

Almost forgot my son, he ordered Mac and cheese and it was absolutely phenomenal as well so that was a plus.

Sorry for the half eaten food pics. I generally try and remember to take pics but I was distracted by my...

This was my first time here and it was absolutely delicious.

Parking sucked a little since I didn't know the area but once we found the expensive parking (of course!), things were a breeze. This is parking next to the restaurant that's free, but I guess our timing was poor. This is street parking that looked free and another parking structure that seemed free by a salon.

Going inside yet took about 2 minutes to figure out since the first floor are different shops. There's a sign that tells you to go thrift the double does and use the elevator to go to the 3rd floor.

That is what we did and coming out of the elevator is very country with the decor, however, it feels cozy.

The girls at the front desk were pleasant and understood our lateness due to traffic on the 15-N. We checked in and less than 5 minutes later, we were being led to our table.

The place is a good size that I didn't realize until leaving. But we sat outside and no more than 14 people were outside all together. Although it's summer time, we sat by the door and I was freezing every time it opened due to their well working A/C.

We ordered cowgirl kisses, blistered burrata, and clam chowder. Everything looked appetizing! I didn't try the cowgirl kisses which are bacon wrapped jalapeño with Chipotle sauce and raspberries on the plate because I don't like Chipotle. The blistered burrata was tasty and I loved the bread it came with. I'm adjusting my taste to warm tomatoes but there could have been less of those in my plate. I love clam chowder, especially Red Lobster clam chowder, and this was scrumptious! I wish I ordered the bigger size. We were also given sourdough bread later in the time frame, but it was very good.

The guys ordered beer, a girl ordered prosecco which came in a cute little bottle, I ordered the Watermelon mojito, and my BFF ordered a sangria.

Our server was so patient with us, because the girl kept asking for strawberries for her prosecco and the waiter brought at least 3 saucers of strawberries.

For the main course, I ordered the Gambler which is 24oz of bone in Ribeye (medium well) with garlic mashed potatoes. I barely touched my plate due to the apps, but it was amazing! For dessert, I had the chocolate mousse (due to birthday) which was the probably the best mousse I've ever had.

My BFF ordered the steak and fries which she said was great. She didn't finish her plate but she did take the leftovers home.

My bf ordered, I believe the ribeye steak with a lobster tail with cowboy potatoes and you guys... YOU GUYS! THESE THINGS WERE DELICIOUS! They were perfect, round French fries basically, but with magic on them. I ate 2 of them off my bf's plate. He finished his whole plate.

I don't recall what the other 2 ordered, but they shared their plate and enjoyed their food.

I want to go back for brunch since the food and service were so great.

It's a good thing they are not close or I would be...