The Copper Room — Restaurant in Yucca Valley

I love Last Word Hospitality restaurants to the moon and back but this ain’t it.

We sat down at 7:15, ordered at 7:25, first appetizer (marinated cucumbers) landed on our table at 8:25. This is royally messed up on so many fronts I don’t even know where to start. Maybe it’s worth pointing out the 20% mandatory service charge in every check that I dislike with all my heart, yet still agree to support Last Word Hospitality restaurants and always gladly tip, but paying extra $40 for waiting an hour only to get marinated cucumbers that should’ve been served 10 minutes after accepting the order is straight up robbery. We didn’t ask to take the service charge our but I’ve never been closer.

3 of the 7 dishes we ordered were sold out at 7:25. What?!! Isn’t this a restaurant where you know, you get food that’s on the (very limited) menu? Never seen anything like that and will never understand how a restaurant can be our of vegetable fried rice.

My cocktail was delicious.

Food was okay. Above expectations for the location, but nothing to come back to.

Toilets were tired and beat up and definitely not a match to the restaurant price level and cooking ambition. I don’t go to dinners for toilets, but the contrast of a $17/cocktail restaurant with a dive bar restrooms just felt…odd?

I will never be back that’s for sure. Big yikes, Last Word people.

Updating my review with a note that there’s a lawsuit against Last Word Hospitality (mostly LA restaurants) accusing them of withholding tips that they bill as a 20% service charge. I don’t think I’ll ever go to any of their restaurants, even though I’ll miss Found Oyster dearly. Biggest of yikes, Last...

Had dinner Wednesday March 27. We had reservation and we promptly seated We knew from website that menu was quite limited but figured that they would do those few items very well. When we went to order we were told ginger beer was not available The fried rice which 3 guests wanted to order was also out. So the limited menu was even more limited. 2 ordered the Pilot burger and 1 ordered the regular burger. 3 ordered chicken cutlet. Dishes did not arrive at one time, sort of scattershot. The 3 burgers arrived with the bottom of the buns totally flattened and totally soggy. I couldn’t pick up my pilot burger so decided to eat with knife and fork. Burger was very undercooked, not even rare and was only warm. The other pilot burger was just barely rare and the regular burger also extremely undercooked. The fries were good. I was very unhappy with my pilot burger & sent it back, no replacement meal requested. The regular burger was sent back with request to cook it well done. When orders were placed server did not ask how we wanted them cooked. When the regular burger was returned to the table it wasn’t well done is was burnt like charcoal. The 3 orders of chicken cutlet looked they’d been just dumped on the plate with some sort of “salad” piled on top. One would think that with limited menu that they could do a better job. Burgers are fairly straight forward. We had selected this place based on some online reviews. After having “dined” there we wonder if we had the right restaurant. Seems like this was once very good but is living on its past glories....

Sat at the lovely bar with a panoramic view of an airstrip and mountains. Was greeted and taken care of by John, a spectacular bartender and very personable guy.

Starter: Happy Hour spring roll, crunchy, delicious, tons of fresh herbs and fantastic sauces to accompany.

Seconds: Fried Rice. Chunks of chicken, shrimp, and a side of chicken skewer made this dish well rounded and flavorful all around.

Main course: Pilots burger (wagyu beef, shrettuce, pork belly style bacon on a classic sesame seed potato bun. Chicken cutlet with their take on a Caesar salad atop. Both of these dishes were brilliant and left me wanting more, never getting sick of any one flavor.

Dessert: cheesecake with burnt miso caramel sauce. Cheesecake was mild and tame combined with a miso caramel sauce that balanced it perfectly with it's wild, funky, and sweet flavor.

Drinks: Sasha's revenge (twist on a mojito), Mai Tai (made fresh and from scratch), Shady Lady w/ rum (Pina colada), espresso martini. Everything was great and again served by a knowledgeable and fun guy.

This restaurant is sort of an American food - Asian fusion. It works so so so well. Where other places try to fuze flavors and flop due to overcomplicating and cluttering their menu; this place prevails. The aesthetic is that of a bar you could fly your plane to, sit at the lovely bar with a classy beverage and listen to a piano. You can rack up a pretty nice bill if you do the full rounds like we did but I find the prices fair for what you get; an...