Rocks & Drams — Restaurant in Ventura

Serious 5-star food and service. Upon walking into the restaurant, I was thrilled by the gorgeous decor and furniture. Whoever did the interior designing has stellar, vintage-inspired mod taste. My boyfriend and I sat at the bar after kindly being greeted by our friendly bartender Matt. We sat down set on only doing drinks since we had our names down at Lure, but upon perusing the selection of food options, we found it irresistible and decided to dine in--gourmet tacos, burgers, and fritters. Who could possibly say no?

We loved the unique and artsy fartsy drink menu. I chose a Cosmo and my boyfriend got the Gin and Juice. My Cosmo was oh, so yummy, pretty, and expertly made. My boyfriend enjoyed his Gin and Juice so much, he guzzled it down and ordered a beautiful White Russian. We ended up getting the Luau Pork Tacos, Wagyu Burger, and Batted Cauliflower. The pork tacos were incredibly decadent and tasty, and my boyfriend thoroughly enjoyed his wagyu burger. He's not a very emotive one, but he was "mm"-ing throughout his entire meal. The cauliflower bites were perfectly crisp on the outside, tender on the inside, and extremely flavorful. Also, Matt and Jane provided excellent service. Matt showed the perfect amount of attentiveness and kindness, and Jane was jovial and enjoyed talking to her customers. They both made our first experience at Rocks & Drams a very special one. We both agreed that we would absolutely be back in the future.

The only caveat for the restaurant is that the sign for Rocks & Drams is very discreet and kind of hard to see, especially because most of the downtown Ventura foot traffic is on the other side of the sign. I think a better sign would amp up visibility and interest in new customers. I first thought this place was a furniture boutique at first glance. Hopefully the owners fix that issue up really soon for their sake, because we really want them to be around for a long time!

Side note--I had never heard of a "dram" before and found out via a Google search that it is a unit of mass in the avoirdupois system (equal to 1/16 of an ounce)....

Made a reservation for the miracle pop up. They had us sit 6 inches away from other parties on both sides and said “sorry about this crowdedness I guess make friends” by the host. I ordered the poke nachos and my bf ordered the NY steak hibachi plate. She didn’t ask how he wanted cooked so they brought it cold and over done. She DID NOT read back the order. Someone from the kitchen brought two plates of it. I wanted to ask Our server but didn’t come around after that so I ate some of the second plate. Also my bf doesn’t usually complain so he ate the majority of the subpar food. We asked for the bill and paid. When I brought it to her attention she had a man come out from the kitchen he said that I should have gotten up to say something and because I ate it it was my fault because if I didn’t they would have taken it back to the kitchen and served it to someone else. That’s a crazy thing to say! Had I known that I would have never ordered food there. I NEVER ASKED THIS MAN TO GIVE US ANYTHING FOR FREE WE NEVER ASKED HIM TO REMOVE ANYTHING FROM OUR BILL. So whatever I said fine. At this point it was just crazy to me that they couldn’t just apologize… we had already paid and given a tip anyway. I noticed they also didn’t give us a credit for the $10 paid for the reservation i brought it to his attention and he said you are right. I wonder how often they steal this way? He said he would go back to fix it. We waited a while and then gave up and left. I called and they said the best way is to dispute it with my bank… Reservations made by Daniel and paid by Paloma. It’s pretty clear they remember. Weird how they are pretending they don’t see our reservations after responding about...

Tried the Miracle Pop Up experience at Rocks and Drams. Their festive decorations and inviting atmosphere provided for a great backdrop for a fun evening. I made a reservation ahead of time and have been trying to go to a miracle pop up for years, I was really excited for this! The hibachi menu was delicious, the food came out fast hot and fresh. We got poke nachos, mango habenero wings, scallop hibachi and chicken hibachi with fried rice. All 5 stars for every food dish! I was super grateful for the service and accommodation to get a non alcoholic version of a drink in the special holiday glass. The kitchen also handled a food allergy in our group perfectly. Unfortunately after the beginning our service went downhill into non existent. We were never checked on by our server for 2 hours, towards the end we had another server check on us and try and get us dessert. Waited 25 min it never came and we finally got our original servers attention back and just closed out and didn’t get to enjoy our dessert. For the price point I was definitely expecting a higher level of service. Bummer that such a strong start and highly anticipated outing had to turn out kind of awkward. Wish their service was as thoughtful as their decorator is. I would still recommend checking Rocks and Drams out for some fire 🔥 food and their...