Oaks Local Craft Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Thousand Oaks

Unfortunately, four of us we went in for dinner last night. We were seated right away and were the only people in the restaurant besides guests at the bar at that time. The gal who sat us also got our drinks and then we sat from 5:05-5:30. We got up and asked the same young woman who brought our drinks if she knew who our server was so we could order. She said she didn’t know but she would check. It was alarming because the restaurant was almost empty. She returned five minutes later and said she was the only server, and that her reliever never showed up for her shift. She said she would take our order and profusely apologized for the 30ish minute wait, but she looked like she was about to cry. We felt terrible for her. We saw her talking to the manger and he was NOT nice to her. By now a few others had come in and that same grumpy man, presumably the manager by the way he was barking at the poor server trying to help us, was waiting on the new guests.

We ordered and some 20 minutes later the server returned to say the kitchen informed her that two of our four meals were unavailable. 20 minutes later AFTER we ordered!!!! So by now we’ve been there an hour and our order still isn’t in. All the while the manager sat and served other guests coming in, ignoring our table, oddly, even though It was evident that there were issues…. like no food after an hour and we’re all just looking around trying to figure out what was going on. He wouldn’t even look at us.

Anyway, we changed our order to something “in stock” and about 20 minutes later our food came out. The two of us who changed our order to fish and chips because they were out of the pastrami we originally ordered, tried our meal. YUCK! It was soggy, tasteless and the breading so wheat-tasting and thick it was barely edible I’d kindly ask that management try the fish and chips.🤢

I’m not sure if maybe the manger was just having a terrible night, because he was SO unfriendly to guests and seemed generally, VERY irritated, that he was having to help out. Never a smile. Nothing. Just militant and intimidating to the woman who worked there. That part is SO disheartening. I hope the young server finds a better place to work. She deserves better than to be treated so poorly, and right in front of guests. Luckily sometime after 6 additional servers arrived.

We won’t be back and I hope management provides some training to their “management” because it was a shameful,...

Stopped by for some happy hour drinks and food. We came during live horseracing, not intentionally, and it gets pretty loud and wild during the races. Kinda fun to watch people get exciting and cheer for their horse.

Chips and Guacamole Guacamole was delicious. It wasn't just mashed avocado; this had tomatoes, onion, and some really nice seasonings in it. Pico de Gallo was fresh, tomato heavy and refreshing. Mix them together and you've got a nice appetizer. The chips seemed like they were fresh fried on site, tasted fresh and were hearty enough to hold up to the guac.

Wings The wings were really nice sized and finished over fire leaving a nice char texture and taste. The BBQ sauce seemed bland to me. It needed a little more sweet and a little more spice, I didn't taste much of either. Overall, great chicken but could use a different or more flavorful sauce.

Crispy Chicken Tacos The tacos came out looking good, all dressed up in a fresh fried tortilla shell. The chicken itself was kinda dry and didn't taste freshly made. The shell was nice and crispy and tasted really good. Overall, the chicken tacos were not my...

We went tonight with our two year old. Almost left because we didn't see anything she'd eat on the menu. Asked the server and she said 'oh we have chicken strips and fries'. Cool. Husband got the 'world famous ruben' and I got fish n chips. His ruben was SMALL. I have Jersey Mike's make a meatier sandwich. His side of fries was like 15 fries. My fish has zero flavor. Even the chicken strips were bland and the fries just didn't have flavor. Service was not great either. It was DEAD and the waitress didn't come back after dropping our food off till we were done. Will...