Cottonwood Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Truckee

What a disappointment - we arrived for our 7:30pm reservation and although nobody was at the hostess station, nobody acknowledged us either. When the host/man finally came back to the station, we were told our table wasn't ready yet. 35 minutes later we were seated. I made the reservation 30 days prior and we were celebrating a milestone birthday--5 of us. The host indicated that the people in "our table" had already paid so it shouldn't be long. After 15-20 minutes I inquired again, and he stated that they were still drinking their wine and didn't feel he could ask them to give up the table. Instead, apparently, it was okay for us to wait 35 minutes. Although he thanked us for our patience he did not apologize or offer any accommodation for the unprecedented delay for our party. We all thought it would have been more than appropriate to provide us with a complimentary drink while we waited, or a bottle of wine upon being seated, but he was fine with us hovering around the host station. After awhile, a table for 5 opened up in the bar area where we continued to wait. We have all wined and dined for decades and felt that extremely inconvenienced and ignored, and honestly have never experienced anything like it.

Once seated, we ordered wine and our waiter was pleasant but somewhat inexperienced. Our water glasses remained unfilled longer than usual and our giant Caesar (signature dish) was not accompanied by fresh ground pepper. When we asked for pepper, we were provided with a coffee shop pepper shaker. Another opportunity to make things right with us would have been to provide our table with free bread - they charge $5 for a fist-shaped "loaf" of bread, but we paid for it. Our bill was nearly $600 and many opportunities to make the situation right were presented but not seen by the management.

While there is nothing that can be done about the acoustics or a busy Saturday night (a bridal party of 8 was seated directly behind us immediately after we were seated), the noise level in the restaurant was borderline damaging.

We all agreed the food was very good; however, we struggled to place our order as a couple of us were planning on ordering the short ribs after seeing them on the on-line menu. However, we were told that they had been removed from the menu over a month ago. While there are two pages of drinks, the dinner menu is somewhat slight, and we all had difficulty choosing an entree, including our vegetarian friend. Only one red meat--ribeye for $68; one fish dish; one chicken dish. If any of these are smothered in tomatoes or whatever you might not like, you have to look elsewhere. Not enough menu options, and there were no specials.

We made the best of it but to say we were all disappointed and quite surprised at how our evening started out is an understatement. And being local, it is doubtful we will return or recommend The Cottonwood...

I recently had an absolutely awful meal at Cottonwood with the only positive being a nice view. It was such a let down to have an experience like this in such an iconic building.

Disappointments were as follows: Almost all of the meats, including grilled ½ chicken, were listed at "MP" (market price). I've never seen this before except for items like lobster or daily specials. The bread, which there is an extra charge, was tasteless and hard. The starter of hummus was topped with cold vegetables, which had been grilled at some point, was served with cold, soggy pita bread. My drink finally came, after 20 minutes, and I was told the bartender was “away”. Next, the caesar salad was delivered. It had so much garlic I tasted it well into the next day and the lettuce had some unpleasant grit (assuming it wasn’t washed well). Finally, the steak arrived, which I ordered medium rare although I wasn’t asked my temperature preference. It was between well done and medium (only a couple of bites had any pink) and dry. One of the two steak sauces we ordered, each for an extra charge, was simply seasoned butter which was cold as they either forgot to melt it or couldn’t because of the plastic serving container like the ones at fast food restaurants. When half way done with the steak, the side of mashed potatoes arrived cold so I asked for them to be reheated. I never saw them again. When asked about desert, I shared my “delight” and asked the server for the check. He apologized and said he’d take a drink and the potatoes off the bill. Upon returning, neither item was deducted which I pointed out. He apologized again and said the manager told him they would be removed. After the second try, the two items were deducted.

I regularly dine at upscale restaurants in Truckee, as well as The Bay Area, and don’t resent paying for high quality food/service. As noted above, nothing about this experience was high quality but the prices were extraordinary. Vegan meatloaf (primarily black beans, potatoes and soy) for $35, fried chicken for $38, hummus and caesar salad (both described above) run $18 and $22. Again, most prices are not even listed on the menu which maybe was an initial sign I should have...

Not so sure why everyone raves about this restaurant, although the ambiance is nice at night with the view and the cozy interior, the maitre d was stoic and emotionless (no inviting welcome when you walk in the door), the cocktails were average although so was the price so a better rating on drinks than food. We ordered the wedge salad which had far too much blue cheese and the ahi special which included a melon ball sized wasabi ball on the plate and no soy sauce, not sure if this was garnish? But the most disappointing was the New York steak, which you could tell had been previously frozen because although it was charred nice on the outside, when I chewed it, it was flavorless and watery inside - for $44 that was the most expensive meal to date my dog finished when we got home. We decided that for that price we could have eaten the same meal anywhere in San Francisco and had a better experience. We were very miffed by the high prices and the low quality. If they were a diner and that meal cost $15, I would not have reviewed it. But you can't set yourself up to be great then disappoint. I was curious where the executive chef was last night as that steak should never have left the kitchen and although our waiter was extremely helpful, I wonder if he had ever eaten that steak or was he knowledgable about the pre-frozen meat. He was aware that the $35 ravioli dish did not include home made pasta - so we didn't order that on the premise that $35 is a lot of money for a pasta dish if you don't make it yourself. PLEASE LOWER YOUR PRICES! Or improve your food. Either way we will not eat there again and we were so looking...