Down Home Grill — Restaurant in Victorville

Rotten food, untrained staff, unsafe handling of food, and more.

I just got off work and decided I wanted to grab some dinner, came here and issues begun at the drive thru instantly.

I ordered a Portobello & Veggie on Ciabatta Sandwich for $8 and they had no idea what I was talking about, literally told me they were reading the menu to find it, gave up looking for it and insisted that I must have meant the Portobello Burger when I definitely did not. Then I ordered a Wild Caught Grilled Salmon that comes with a salad and your choice of Friend Zucchini, Fries, Quinoa or Rice

I chose Rice and then Ranch dressing.

I have no clue what they thought I ordered because then they started asking me what side I wanted and said that the rice was an addition on the side and wanted to know what I said “no” to when the word no or even the sound of the word “no” never left my mouth...

Took 8 minutes of back and forth to explain what I originally ordered and when I finally got it all corrected, they admitted to thinking I ordered the Pineapple & Habanero Salmon which has its own special sides.

Took a very long time to get the food from the window, had to use the drive thru for safety reasons during the Covid pandemic.

Once we got our food, I drove around the corner to park so I could eat while the food was at its hottest.

First off, everything was cold, hard and stiff.

The salmon smelled off, really off, it’s cooked weirdly and they managed to make it look more like chicken than salmon. They also listed this as Wild Caught, when it clearly wasn’t, wild caught salmon will always have a national pink tint too it and farm salmon will be grey, typically dyed pink by the farmers before they send it out to stores. This salmon is white, very white. It was also overcooked and dryer than the sand in this desert.

The rice that came with the salmon definitely isn’t fresh, it was hard, stiff and clumped together into huge blocks. It was either from the refrigerator or it was cooked in the morning then put into a cooling area for hours and never mixed around. Anyone that serves rice at a restaurant knows that you need to keep the rice warm and mixed well after cooking to keep it fluffy and soft. Just from this dish alone I can tell that this restaurant is either ignoring the basics or they simply don’t care to get the proper training, the rotten fish is a huge no no also, i don’t know how anyone could serve this with how awful it smells.

The salad overall was fine, a typical basic salad, really hard to mess up, but then the dressing was like the mucus of an egg, so thick that it held the salad still while I held the container sideways, the dressing also had a terrible after taste that leads me to say that it was likely off as well, just like the salmon (picture was taken at home because I drive home right after seeing how awful the food was so I could start cooking)

The Portobello Burger which wasn’t even what I originally tried to order first off, was completely soaked this a thick mayo tasting Aioli, they had it under and above every single topping which leads me to believe that they put it on after every topping to really drowned this Burger in it. Likely they did that to drowned out the flavor of their Mushroom, it was colder than the food in my refrigerator, looked like someone had flattened it as all the spines underneath and the sides were crushed flat and mushy. The bread was so thick compared to the mushroom and honestly the bread took up 80-90% of the sandwiches size and when you take a bite into this, the bread is all you taste and feel, then you get a small sliver of ice cold vegetables.

They charged me $25 for this, honestly disgusting, they don’t know how to cook in my opinion and I’ve been working in...

First time trying it this evening; my wife ordered the food over the phone. I went to pick it up, and had a great experience. The staff were very friendly and seemed to keep a nice, clean and organized kitchen. Bomb! Definitely worth stopping through if you haven't already! We got the salmon salad and ortega chili burger with zucchini. 👍👍

Aaaaaaand.... Nevermind...

As much as I hate to say... Today, for our second visit we had a terrible experience. Onion rings were very overdone and were obviously held in a hot hold for quite some time. I do realize that I came in right before closing.. But c'mon guys, a solid preclose should never compromise the quality of the food... Don't batch cook after 8. Everything cook to order. I had a great guest experience with the gentleman up front while putting in my phone order and picking it up. The cashier had to remind the cook to add bacon on my chili burger... Which I'm not joking.. Had about a tablespoon of chili on it.. It was a pure joke and disappointing experience as opposed to my first time. I bought my wife a bacon burger combo with fries.. Fries were non- existent, burger was okay.. Again with the batch cooking (in regards to the bacon).... I called to let them know that they forgot my fries so that I could come in for them... The kid told me that I could come in on another day for my (paid) French fries as "compensation".. Which makes NO sense.. After telling him that he offered one bacon burger with it... My wife is pregnant and wanted some damn French fries tonight... And I wanted a delicious chili cheese burger... This was a TERRIBLE experience.. And please, to the owner... That is serious advice to maintain food quality throughout slow business hours.. Batch cooking wastes food and ultimately lowers the quality of things. I would seriously seek more experienced cooks with higher standards for YOUR restaurant.. You've got a good thing going... Dont let your employees mess that up ever. Quality is the biggest...

My family and I went in last night 10/25/2024 for our very first time. Let me tell you, we will not be returning or referring anyone we know or love to come eat here EVER! We ordered our food and everything coming out was wrong we ordered meals with chili cheese fries they all came out with regular fries so we had to wait for them to fix that. Then one of my sons bit his burger and spit out a small square white plastic bread clip, I informed one of the servers and handed it to her and she just went back to the cooks and told them what my son had in his burger. Nothing was done about it! No new burger, no let me take it back, no let me give you your money back, NOTHING WAS DONE!! then my husbands sourdough melt burger was supposed to be double I informed the server and she went back and told the cook and you could hear him loudly stating he put double patties in it when I had the physical Burger in my hand showing them I only had one patty in it. So I was offered a muffin "to make up for it " did not accept because Im not trying to get free food just simply get what I paid for and ordered. The food also tasted spoiled and we left most of it. My husband and 3 of my kids have been throwing up and have had diarrhea since leaving the restaurant. My family and I were very disappointed. If you would like to possibly choke or get food poisoning then this is the place for you. I would highly suggest that the owners retrain their whole staff on food service, food safety and problem solving. Really disappointed in the lack of care of someones hard earned money being spent in an...