Mastro's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Thousand Oaks

Looking for a Disastrous and Disappointing evening, visit Thousand Oaks Mastro Living in Malibu, we stopped visiting Mastro’s in Thousand Oaks. The Malibu Mastro is more convenient, has better ambient and atmosphere than T.O. Not being there for few years and hopping for better food, for our daughter’s birthday, we made a reservation at T.O., Sat. 7:30pm and asked for a nice table because of the occasion.

T.O. Mastro does not have the Classical Steak house formal sittings anymore, (even though they claim so and charge for such); it is a combination of large bar sittings (very noisy) and small dark rooms with very tight sittings. The hostess showed us a table next to the door with plenty of noise from the bar plus traffic from the staff and guests; we rejected the sitting, I reminded the hostess that during my reservation two weeks ago, I asked for a nice table, NOT any table.

After 15 minutes, we followed the hostess to the smaller second room, in order to get there, one had to go through their kitchen while kitchen personnel were working and running around (seriously, I am not joking). Another sitting next to the door, now we had noise from kitchen and the revolving door from the staff and the guests.

Our waiter claimed 40 years in the business; he assumed that we had never been close to a steak, arrogantly answered our questions about the type of meat or level of preparation. I ordered a Porterhouse steak (24OZ, medium prepared), wife and daughter ribeye with bone (for flavor and juiciness, 22oz, pink prepared) plus side dishes.

None of the three orders were prepared close to what we ordered, wife’s and daughter’s steaks went back for improvement; while my food and side dishes were sitting on the table (Mr. 40 years in business did not ask to keep the remaining food warm while waiting). After 20 minutes, one dish was burned and the other dry and overdone (no pink anywhere).

Mr. 40, realized the situation and offered if they want another steak, they ordered two Filet, 12oz, hopefully a tender steak. After looking at my steak for an hour, I was able to cut through my cold rubbery steak with their dull steak knife for couple of bites.

Now it was 9:30pm, no sign of the food; after two hours waiting and still no food, wife and daughter decided to cancel their order and leave. We paid for our appetizers, drinks, side orders and my lousy steaks plus 15% tips (tips was for the hardworking staff in kitchen).

When one pays 2-3 times the price of what large chain steaks houses charge, then one expect better service, better quality of food and better sitting, not to be packed as Sardines, arrogant staff behavior and lousy overpriced food far below the quality of less pricey restaurants.

The quality of their Ribeye with bone equaled or was below what the chains like Ralphs and Albertson offer during their holiday sales ($4.75 per pound), definitely not a Prime quality as Mr. 40 claimed.

Do not waste your time or your money on Mastro, there are many better Steak...

I asked 437 people over a period of 2 months which restaurant in this place they recommend to eat and 174 people recommended this place to eat which is considerably more than any other place the second most was the McDonald’s on thousands oaks boulevard with 22 recommendations so I was certain this location would be perfect for my work. The best factor in getting good results for my exercises has been the amount of (human) thoughts considering the origin point for my main ingredients and with the exuberant amount of people recommending(thinking) about this location it was almost(never be certain when practicing the art of science)guaranteed to work proficiently. I purchased one rare 8-ounce filet mignon as my initial test element and brought it to my land, after letting it get accompanied with my estates' energy in my stateroom I brought it to my workstation and began exercise one. The Colombian boys were semi-well rested as I took the first one out of their resting place(cage). I put the traditional chains around his wrists and nailed his heels to the metal bars beside his feet and connected the filet mignon to its vivacity unit to collect the(human, again)thoughts swarming around its being, I then rubbed pine tree needles against his temples and lower abdomen to connect him with his blood-kept American spirit and once the steak was fully charged I coated it in 6 ounces of human seminal fluid to contain the thoughts and opened my boys stomach with my original Lubavitcher shechting blade and placed the steak inside. Using my cauterizing knife I closed the steak within his abdomen and let him sit for 15 minutes while listening to the things he said. I heard few words spoken but I still made sure to listen to his cries to remind myself of the importance of my work and the severity of my choices and efforts. After 15 minutes the process began. Horns like those of Baphomet sprouted from his cranium and it was at that moment I knew my work had not been in vain. I’d proven the origin of our level of humanity as Adamic and the certainty of millennia of study and testing was now mine to bask in. I had finished the work of “humanities” forefathers and I now had the divine reason and permission to attempt the conquering of astral light. I of course being a human know the layout of my own self and lay myself before the demiurge and put on hold my aim for the goals of our future races and instead further try to uncover the still unknown abilities of the original polar race but again any time spent in search of the knowledge of humanity’s true meaning and purpose will be time spent well. All that was needed for the completion of this phase of my/our studies was the internet for its mass collection and archives of knowledge and congregation of minds led to the focusing of enough raw mental energy on one compact-nutrient-producing location that an alchemist like myself may...

Food was great, service needs some attention - especially for the price.

Part of the problem is the volume of the band playing in the bar - too loud!!

When taking our order, the Waitress didn't write anything down (I'm sure she meant it as a sign of professionalism), but she got both of our drink orders wrong - we sent it back and had to re-order (she couldn't hear us but didn't say anything until it we had to send it back). She then had to come back to confirm our sides 2 min later, then a 3rd time to confirm the salad, and never delivered the appetizer we ordered after all was said and done. We didn't get charged and had plenty of food, so not a big deal, but probably because she couldn"t hear what we were ordering.

She also never told us that each side was large enough to feed a party of 4, so we over-ordered for two people and spent more money than we needed to. I ordered the house salad, for example, as a starter. My brother didn't want a salad - but guess what - he got one. He ordered a crab cake as a starter, which he never got.

Turned out that the small salad was more than enough for two people (larger than a side salad per person, and I ordered it just for myself originally). Would have been good to know before ordering. Waitress never said a word - what the heck, she gets tipped on the total bill, right?

I had 22 oz bone-in ribeye which was very good, but not the best I've ever had (Delmonico's in Vegas and Forbes Mill Steakhouse in Los Gatos are melt-in-your-mouth good, for less money). My brother had the bone-in Filet, which was excellent (and he is a Rancher). He had twice baked potato and broccoli and I had garlic mashed potatoes, most of which came home with me.

We shared a Chocolate Sin cake which lived up to it's name... very good, but way overkill on the whipped cream which, thankfully, came on the side, and therefore ended up in the waste.

Overall, very nice and I would try again, but I would not sit in the bar and I would order with a bit more experience (no sides/shared sides).

P.S. Skip the whipped cream unless you are a huge fan or plan to bathe in it later. I saw gallons of it parading through the room and most of it thrown away. Just remember - you are ultimately paying for...