The Cooperage American Grille — Restaurant in Walnut Creek

My boyfriend and I went to this restaurant to celebrate his birthday. However, there was nothing to celebrate about this meal.

I could not be more disappointed in a restaurant. In theory, The Cooperage seems like a great dining choice: a nice exterior, a nice menu, and, based on the prices they’re charging, you’d expect fine dining and quality service. In practice, the Cooperage is charging Flemings prices for a Red Robin experience.

We ordered the tuna tartare and Caesar salad for starters, the petit filet mignon and scallops as entrees, and mac and cheese as a side. The tuna tartare was fine. The sauce was delicious. The Caesar, however, was prepared in a “fancy” way - a few full romaine leaves covered in dressing, cheese, and croutons. It tasted fine, but I prefer not needing a knife to eat my salad.

We were only about a quarter of the way into our appetizers when they brought out the mac and cheese. We were very confused. We clearly ordered the mac and cheese as side to our entrees (and the mac was listed as a side on the menu). We didn’t say anything because it came in a little cast iron dish. We figured it would stay warm for our entrees.

We were right. The mac and cheese was warm when our entrees came out because our entrees came out only a few minutes later while we were still working on our appetizers. We were extremely confused. We are not slow eaters by any means. We were seated at a two-top table with barely enough room for the food they had already brought out. I asked the food runner if they could hold our main entrees for a few more minutes. He guffawed at me, rolling his eyes. A waitress came by and saw what was happening, and I explained to both of them that we were still in the middle of our appetizers. She nodded, and the food runner eventually took back our food.

They brought out the filet and the scallops for a second time. The filet was fine, but not memorable. Not worth the price. The scallops were also fine, but the bed of forbidden rice was not cooked all the way through. There were hard bits of rice throughout the dish that were so unpalatable that I thought they were bits of bone.

When we finally got to the mac and cheese side dish (it was still warm thankfully), there was something off about it that we both couldn’t quite place. I think they must have used a particularly strong and funky cheese in the sauce. This seemed like a strange choice because it gave the dish a gym-locker smell and taste. We didn’t eat more than a few bites.

The waitress came by to clear our plates. No offer of dessert even though we were celebrating a birthday. I won’t be returning here, nor will I recommend this place to anybody I know. Please do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY. Overpriced food, unable to pace courses (which is a basic skill that the waitstaff and kitchen should have), and my stomach hurts as...

First off our server was outstanding and on top of it. Solid 5 stars to them and the front of house team, bussers too.

Atmosphere: dinner time was quite packed and this place has nooo sound abatement. We are talking about 70 -85db, so I’d recommended if you’re wanting to have a nice date conversation, come earlier or much later. Great aesthetics though.

Menu: I got the shaved Brussels Sprouts and the fried chicken. I subbed out the potatoes for French fries. I got a margarita as well.

Margarita: spot on right proportions and tasted well crafted.

Warm Shaved Brussels Sprouts: so flavor wise, we had some nice smokey robustness. A decent serving was brought to the table. 6-9 ounces. I’ll say it was not what I expected visually. My date and I were thinking roasted for some reason, so having the plating in the style of a salad, warm with no crisp didn’t align with how I’ve had spouts served to me.

Fried chicken: the description from the server was accurate in that it was one piece that was deboned and pounded out evenly like a steak. The breading was great in texture. It was a decent size for 1 deboned flattened and fried chicken thigh, though I am glad I asked to leave the syrup on the side. I think the good hearted intention of giving that chicken n waffles vibe was there, but after a few dabs, I personally found it to be lackluster in celebration and didn’t pair up. I will say it was tender and moist, cut easily and not soggy.

Mango salad with shrimp: the shrimp was actually tasty and they actually proportioned out 7-8 shrimp. The mango was minced and wasn’t popping with mango flavor, maybe underripe. It was nice but then it just wasn’t as exciting as what I or my date expected.

French fries: This is just a silly pet peeve, but I like a little crisp to my fries, unless it’s poutine. They were served fresh from the fryer in a little brown bag, but were sogged down a bit too much to add the excitement of nibbling on something crunchy.

With tip, my meal came to $59 for the cocktail, split of sprouts, 1 piece fried chicken and about 4 oz of fries.

While none of the order was bad or ill prepared, it just didn’t stand out to me as terribly remarkable as I had hoped and envisioned in the menu descriptions and hoopla. While I know prices have popped through the roof on everything, I think portions could have been a little more in line with price points. Maybe throw in twice the fries. The cost would be negligible and then that could also pop out when people review? I dunno. I just genuinely wanted the food to be a much more “wow”

I’d still go to try again. I would ask for some items to be prepared more to taste and would also be aware of checking on how busy/loud the place is so I could match the energy with...

Very sad food.... So for Easter Brunch, I don't normally expect amazing experiences. It's usually busy, and the kitchens can get overwhelmed at certain times. (I know this because I've worked more Easters than I care to remember.) I do however expect effort, a decently oiled machine, attention to some of the details, and some heart in the food. What a huge disappointment!! Even on a day where I had cereal at home to tie me over and keep my blood sugar up, they really dropped the ball. I was in a fantastic mood, was hoping to enjoy a great family outing. As a non-egg eater (though I wish I could), I chose to go the sides route instead of doing the egg dish minus the egg. I asked for a simple side of sausage, side of toast, and add avocado. I didn't care the cost, as I was expecting to pay a king's ransom anyway (okay, that's a little dramatic). Everyone else at the table was having a normal meal, mimosa, coffee, etc. So by all standards, we were an easy-going table, very easy to please.

Food took about 25-30 min to come out, the waiter disappeared way too much, the entrees for our party of 6 came out staggered over a 5 minute period. It was obvious that my sausage and toast were under the heat lamp for way too long, as they both were bone dry and stale. took another 5 minutes to get butter for the table. My wife's Eggs Benedict was dry, and when I spoke to her afterwards, we both said the same thing, "SAD FOOD". As the busser was rarely around to fill water, server was rarely around so I couldn't even ask them to get me a fresh piece of toast. The most annoying thing was that as the kitchen was obviously behind on all the tables I could see, and making these mistakes, the head chef was out schmoozing some tables with a sparkly clean chef's coat, while the kitchen was left to fail on their own. Boo! Positives - The server was trying, good effort on his part. If there's a next time, I would prefer to see the management stepping up to help the overwhelmed staff in an "All hands...