Magellan's Restaurant — Restaurant in Tracy

Based on a friends recommendation we choose to try Magellan's on our way home through Tracy to have a nice dinner before our teens started school.

We called and made reservations to stop for dinner on our way home from a great day boating on the lake. We arrived with a party of 6 at 7:40 on a Friday evening. We were the biggest party in the restaurant. We were seated immediately by the hostess. She poured us water while we looked at the menus. We had a few questions and her response in an unpleasant tone was "I don't know, I am the hostess". If you can't answer how about, I AM SORRY you will have to ask your server.

Our waiter came over and asked if we wanted drinks, we said, "no but we were ready to order". He asked again about drinks, we told him we had been out in the sun all day and really just wanted water. The look on his face was one of aggravation. We pushed again for him to take our orders which he did. This waiter did not crack a smile or pleasant look. Some of us ordered salads which came quickly.

Then almost 50 MINUTES after we ordered with no check-in from our waiter. We sat at our table fading fast and not one word of apologies from anyone. There was another waitress who walked around with a scowl on her face and the hostess looked frustrated as she reset tables. We heard a bell ring and knew it was our food. Our waiter was making bar drinks for another table and sent the other waitress to start bringing our food. The look on both faces were that of exacerbation. I am not sure what we did to deserve such visibly aggravated staff.

Finally, our meals came, 4 of the 6 meals were similar pasta dishes, one was veal and one was filet. This should not have taken 50 minutes. The food was ok, not anything great after such a wait, not anything I would travel back to have or recommend to others. We finished our meals and were exhausted and ready to go. Our waiter asked about dessert, when we said, "no thank you", he again showed how frustrated he was.. We asked to have food wrapped up, my husband asked for a couple of slices of bread from the table to be added to his box. The hostess was nice enough to fulfill this request. I watched in the open servers area as our waiter approached her and openly showed his frustration that she was slicing bread for the box.

It was a little after 9 pm, we paid our pricey bill with hefty gratuity included because we were a party of 6. At this point the owner was in the dining room talking to guests. He said to us as we began to depart, "that was fast." Sir if you think a ticket time of 50 minutes is fast you are sadly mistaken. Had we not had to wait so long we probably would have had a few desserts and coffee. The staffs disdain just made me feel that I wanted to get out, why would we want to linger with such a negative vibe in the space.

Even the two teens with us knew the wait staff was not treating us like we were paying customers and the service and wait would not be okay on any food network reality show.

We eat out a great deal and have had many kinds of dining experiences. I can't remember a time when 24 hours later I still NEEDED to write a bad yelp review. The owner should visit some of the best restaurants in Livermore or Pleasanton to experience good service, happy staff and delicious food for the same price of Magellan's. Perhaps just watching food network will give you some clues.

Sorry we gave it a try and will not return, we will keep...

We had been recommended this spot for a great lobster and prawns .. our service was poor.. for 45$ we expected a full size Lobster tail.. and more then 3 prawns.. it's started with us being seated and asked if we would like a few mins to order.. never asked us if we would like water or anything to drink before we looked at the menu.. then we were asked if we were ready to order after ordering we were then offered our drinks.. then as the second waiter brought out the appetizer mind u 13$ for grilled scallops and we got 4 tiny scallops not the bay scallops we assumed we were paying for.. he is the one who offered bread and butter.. then when got the bread and butter the bread was warm but the butter was frozen?? Then I received my refill of my iced tea and it had a few pieces of bread floating in the bottom. I grabbed the attention of the hostess and she immediately grabbed the drink then showed the waiter and he returned with bread drink in hand and asked if I added any sugar to thins drink cause sometimes the sugar clumps at the bottom. I told him I added it to the first glass and this was a refill.. he then states hhhmm that's a first.. not an apology not a I'm sorry let me get that for u...If I knew I'd receive grief for asking for a non breaded drink I would have ordered a 5$ bud light.. yes 5$ bud light.. Then our "waiter" was serving us with a blue tooth in his ear. We thought this was completely un -professional. Then the food finally came out and that's when we saw the baby lobster tail filleted out to look bigger. I feel like we were definitely not treated like they wanted us to return and for 100$ bill for 2 people that was hard to believe the lack of care for patrons. Needless to say we will never return...

Decided to try Magellan's after multiple locals recommended. Small wine selection but fabulous and to the point, full bar. Hard to find parking, even on a Tuesday. Fragrant, warm bread on request, but cold butter. Not too annoying, as the bread was lovely. Now, the revelations! Caprese salad had beautiful beefsteak tomatoes and a high-quality mozzarella with a tasty balsamic reduction, and perfect basil chiffonade. On to the filet with peppercorn sauce and a red wine Demi-glace: I cannot express how impressed I am that the chef chose to use green peppercorns! That's typically how I made kangaroo with a green peppercorn sauce in Europe, but it was a learning experience for me to have this presented on filet mignon. Appreciated the addition of fresh parsley to the sauce. Absolutely brilliant!!! I suggest a deep Cabernet or at least a Merlot to bring out that peppercorn, I had a Pinot noir. It was absolutely to die for. The vegetables were an excellent accompaniment with a bit of broccoli, red onion, pepper and larger diced potato- everything was seasoned well and cooked perfectly.

Side note: Magellan's is one of the few restaurants that doesn't need salt and pepper on the table as everything is perfectly seasoned and salted, but they are unpretentious enough to offer it. Loved this!

All in all, we are extremely well fed and satisfied which is what anyone wants from fine dining. We are happy to have found this in Tracy and will return for the duck and lamb. Thank you, Magellan's, for a wonderful evening of spectacular food! Thomas, we enjoyed your company and will...