Slater’s 50/50 — Restaurant in Torrance

Planned an offsite dinner event for a business conference and bought out the restaurant for 11/12. It was the WORST experience I have ever had as an event planner. Cairos and Sonia were completely unprepared to host our group.

When I arrived 45 minutes prior to our event start time to make sure things would be ready for our 200 guests, there was no signage stating the restaurant was closed for a private event and they were still seating patrons that were walking in. A few were still seated during our event an hour after it started. A handwritten sign was taped in the door after bringing it to Cairos attention.

We had agreed upon buffet service and I even spoke with them earlier in the day to confirm. NOTHING was setup as discussed and the change of plans were never communicated to me. Cairos decided to have guests place individual orders from our agreed upon menu and assured me that food was ready to go out and our guest would be served within 10-15 minutes. However, there were only 2 wait staff taking orders for 200 people! A lot of our guests left because they waited over an hour to get food, and some even up to 2 hours to receive theirs.

There was only 1 bartender. Need I say more about how long it took to get drinks?

Gaslighting is not ok. Cairos kept telling me not to worry and that everyone was having a great time, which was far from the truth. I spoke with numerous guests who were unhappy and could tell there was something wrong with the staff's ability to serve us. Every time I spoke with him about it he said it wasn't true.

The staff admitted they didn't know there was a private event; that Cairos did not communicate with them and they were not prepared for such a large group. When he was called out on this by me, my Sr. Director and VP, he got extremely defensive and continued to lie about it. It was extremely insulting. I feel bad for the staff because they were hustling and doing their best. None of it was their fault.

In the end, conversations got heated and cameras were recording. Cairos can talk all he wants, but most of our guests know he was out of line and could not admit they weren't prepared. He and Sonia seemed to be stoned or high, which was also noticed and commented to me by several people.

DO NOT HOST A PRIVATE...

I found this place completely by accident back in August 2025. I saw their banner advertising $3 beers and I was blown away. I went inside and spoke to the bartender and was informed that they had $3 select 16oz beers...Coors Light, Miller Lite, and Michelob Ultra. They also have $3 well mixed drinks. Actually the day I found this place, I had a conversation with a friend about the poor state of bars and restaurants in our area. I lamented that most places seemed to be charging WAY TOO MUCH for certain beers. If you charge $6 or $7 for a 12oz Bud Light, that's INSANE! So when I saw Slaters 50/50's $3 beers, I was overjoyed.

Cut to yesterday, we came in for my son's 21st birthday to drink and watch some football. We ordered a bunch of $3 16oz Michelob Ultras, and guess what...when they arrived, they were poured into some fancy Stella Artois 14cl glasses. Problem is, I'm not dumb. I knew this wasn't a 16 oz glass...I did a little digging and found out that these 14cl glasses are actually 13.5 ozs, so we're getting 2.5 less ozs on each beer. And you may say, "Hey, it's $3.00!" And that's all well and good, but when I pay for a 16oz beer, I expect a 16oz beer. If you're going to market a 16oz beer and you give me a 13.5oz beer, that's false advertising and it's dishonest. I had hoped to really enjoy this place and recommend it to people, but if this is the sort of game they're going to play with their customers, I don't want any part of it.

We ordered some burgers and fries as well. And the strangest thing was done to our burgers. The cook shoved a steak knife into the top of the bun. So when you took a bite, the ketchup and mustard that were underneath came shooting out of the hole the knife created. So lesson here is don't shove a knife in the top of the bun...don't do that.

Another thing about this particular Sunday, when we first walked into the bar, they had a DJ who was playing his music at a ridiculous high volume...ABSOLUTELY EAR SHATTERING LEVELS!!!

If you are playing your music that loud, people can't hear each other when trying to talk to one another. We just really want to watch football and have a good time, not bleed...

Honestly this place has really let me down. We have been to the one in Pasadena and that place was awesome. We loved our waitress and the food was soooo gooood. It was so great, we figured we would try this place. The first time we decide to give it a go, the food took forever, apparently the kitchen was slammed and they made us wait a whole thirty minutes to tell us. Our other group was already there before us so they waited even longer. My boyfriend and his sisters boyfriend ended up canceling their order because they had a movie. My boyfriends sister waited on hers for an additional 15 minutes, finally after 45 min. to got her food. The staff really didn't interact with us too much. A few days later, we went and gave it a second chance in the day time. The waitress and staff were more freindly and the food came to us quick. Only down side is the chocolate they used for the milkshake tasted god awful. But overall, it was a good experience. About two weeks ago we decided to give the afternoon staff another chance. We got there and we were practically ignored, finally after an akward two minutes or so they said have a seat anywhere. No one brought a menue, asked us if we wanted water or even said " your waiter will be with you in a sec" . The people behind us were getting the star treatment from their waitresses, and I ment to make that plural by the way. But it was like we weren't even there. We felt so ignored we just got up and left. They weren't that busy that night, if they were, the staff would have had time to be chit chatting and having a leisurely ball with the table right behind us. And even if they were, a " hi welcome, the waitress will be right with you" or even a "hey, here's the menu" would of been fine. I usually don't make reviews like this, but I felt so offended by the staff i just had to write a review. I really hate when people assume that because you don't look like a big tipper, they can just give you horrible service. You never know, maybe it's those people that end up being the most generous. We opted for BJs and they hit it out...