Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Ventura

I've driven by Prime Steakhouse for years. Every time I've driven past I've looked at the dark grey building and wondered what it was like inside.

I found my chance.

A close friend of mine had a birthday this past week. Planning out what she wanted to do for her birthday, she mentioned that she wanted to go to a steakhouse...a different one in town.

The morning of her birthday, I received an excited text that she had changed her mind and wanted to go to Prime instead.

It turns out that she's a huge fan of Frank Sinatra. She had found out there was a Frank Sinatra show every Tuesday night. It just happened to be the same night as her birthday.

I arrived first. My ears were met by the crooning of some familiar Sinatra classics. My eyes took a minute to adjust to the darkened room. But once they did, it was bright enough to look around and read the menu. Anyone with issues reading in a dimly lit room may want to use the light on their cell phone.

Once she arrived, with a smile no less, we ordered dinner and a drink. She started with a Basil Cucumber Martini. We both ordered the Best of Prime meal. This included an appetizer, soup or salad, and an entree of your choice. She ordered the Tuna Tartare as the appetizer, the Steakhouse Wedge, which is a premium item that cost an additional $2.00, the Grilled Shrimp over Parmesan Rissotto, and the Vegetable Saute as a side. I ordered the Arancini, a delicious fried ball of risotto, as the appetizer, the Prime Ceasar salad, a Ribeye steak, and a side of Garlic Mashed Potatoes. And we ended the evening with a piece of chocolate and ice cream garnished with a single candle.

The food was excellent. The Basil Cucumber Martini was surprisingly refreshing, the slightly sweetened basil and cucumber flavor followed by the peppery bite of the gin. The Tuna Tartare was fresh and light, with a zesty wasabi sauced dabbed around the edges of the plate. The Steakhouse Wedge looked amazing. I didn't get to try it. None was offered, so I'm assuming it was really good. The Grilled Shrimp was perfectly cooked and surrounded a generous pillowy bed of creamy risotto garnished with shredded parmesan cheese.

The Arancini, a fried ball of the aforementioned risotto was delicious, crispy on the outside, soft and creamy on the inside. It was served with a marinara sauce. The Ribeye, a perfect medium-rare, was covered in buttery mushrooms and onions.

The atmosphere was classy, yet casual. Prices were a little on the high side. The dinner as described above with a drink came to just north of $100. But it was for a special occasion. It was worth it.

The service was great. The wait staff was genuine and helpful, checking on us periodically, but not enough to be an annoyance. Nor were we left completely alone.

Everyone working wore masks. There was a hand sanitizer dispenser set up just as you walk in the door. The tables were clean and were placed far enough apart to give diners privacy and social distance.

I would definitely...

Have you ever had dinner at Prime? If so you know how amazing the food is. We booked a table a week prior to going. Following is our experience. I called to make a reservation and made sure the staff knew it was a special birthday celebration for our out of town friends. We were assured we would have a special table on the patio in front of the fireplace as requested. Here's where the review begins. When we get there, they let us know they don't have my reservation, they look confused. Then they try to sit us inside when we had a reservation for the patio, after a few minutes of confusion the one of the managers or assistant managers (Ryan) came over to assist, he found a spot off to the side out on the patio for us, not what we expected, so I made a joke saying " I suppose since you lost a reservation, we get free appetizers and a drink??" Said with sarcasm, he thought I was kidding and he asked me again what I had said snd if I was serious, so I repeated it and I said I'm serious, but there's some sarcasm in there and he looked at me confused and said I'm accommodating you to be able to sit out here, and I said you don't understand we had a reservation to sit in a different location and it's not our fault that we're in this predicament. I was clearly not happy and he could tell by my demeanor, he told me l was being rude and then proceeded to tell me that I could walk out the door and leave. I was flabbergasted at being treated this way, we are the customer and we requested something specific in advance. I asked him if I could talk to a manager and he told me he was the manager. I think that is suspect, then walked away, they sent over the other assistant manager, Nicole was her name and she said go ahead and sit down, have some water and see if you want to stay, It's up to you. She apologized for the prior behavior of her coworker, I told her it wasn't her fault and explain the situation. Not to further ruin our evening we decided to stay had an amazing dinner, and Nicole took care of us, she provided the table with a free drink and made sure that everybody was happy. She basically rescued the evening. Kudos to Nicole. We had an amazing time with the exception of the start. The person's name was Ryan that treated us poorly that probably needs sensitivity training and a little education on how to treat customer. Because of Nicole, we will go back, not sour Because of Nicole, we will go back, not sour grapes just my humble opinion. I plan to call and have a conversation with the Manager to communicate our experience.

I called and talked to Courtney, she interviewed all the participants. She told me that Ryan said he was sorry. I asked her if there was any incentive for us to return, her response was, well you got a free drink and that’s sufficient. After spending $300+ I did have hope that there would be some consideration, but no. We...

Prime Steakhouse is a beautiful restaurant and we had a "pretty good" dinner but were very disappointed by a couple of things and wanted to share....

The hubby and I have visited only a handful of times over the last 15 years and each time we've been disappointed - so we decided to give it another try and again, let down. Not sure we'll ever be back, just not worth it.

It's well decorated and romantic inside; however, service leaves a lot to be desired and our food was cold. We visited for a date night and were looking forward to a great experience before walking across the street to Ventura Music Hall which is why we chose Prime for dinner.

My main issue was waiting over 20+ minutes before anyone came to take our drink order. They were NOT very busy at all, and despite our server visiting all the neighboring tables around us several times, we were passed by over and over. Being that we really wanted to enjoy a cocktail before ordering our food, I finally gave up waiting and went to the bar to order our drinks - our server finally showed up at our table when I was at the bar, so I came back to order our drinks.

She apologized for the wait and I said no problem, but was already feeling ignored by that point. We ordered a maitai and a martini, our appetizers (tuna tartare and bacon shrimp), our salads (wedge), and our entrees (filet mignon and baked potato).

Appetizers were good, but our salads left a lot to be desired - they left the very bitter and hard core of the iceberg wedge in the lettuce so nearly 1/3 of my salad had to be cut out since it was inedible. The filet mignons were cooked to proper doneness and were quite good, but they were almost cold - and our baked potatoes tasted like they had been sitting out. They were not hot at all and were very dry - butter and cheese would not melt. Neither of us finished our meals and took most of it to go.

My husband ordered a glass of wine towards the end of our dinner and I'm 99% sure our server forgot about it because another 20 minutes went by and when she came to take our plates, he reminded her and she came quickly with it after that. We received better, more attentive service from the busser when he brought our bread (again, she forgot) - give that guy a raise.

Overall, for the price, definitely expected much better quality of food and service. In my opinion, food quality can be lacking when the service is good - unfortunately we didn't experience either and probably won't be...