Matan Zinger

Review of Jack O'Neills Bar & Bistro

We were looking forward to celebrate my wife's bir...

We were looking forward to celebrate my wife's birthday here, but had a really bad experience. The service was horrible (see below), and the food was so so (definitely doesn't justify the high prices). View was really nice, but that alone can't justify eating here.

My wife ordered a salad as a starter, which the waiter said was his favorite. Really just a plate full of kale leaves with no dressing, and it was really hard to find the couple of tiny pieces of goat cheese and asparagus.

We were there for almost an hour before our entrees arrived, at which point out toddler son was done with his meal and was getting close to his bedtime. I should also point out that the restaurant was half empty, so it's strange that the kitchen can't function within reasonable wait times. The server apologized for the huge delay and was nice enough to offer us wine (on them), but with a toddler who needs to get to bed we really didn't feel like ordering more wine.
My wife was disappointed with her $30 fish (had way better in San Francisco for much less than that), and my steak was so-so. We just tried to finish our meal before our son was losing it.

Our son's kids meal presumably included a drink and desert, which were at no point offered to us. Nobody has every refilled the water glasses that were empty for more than an hour. We didn't say anything because we just accepted the poor level of service and wanted to be done with it.

At the end the server offered a free desert, we said it was already really late and he has offered to get us one to go. That was nice, but then it took him a long time to get back and ask what we wanted, and our son was already getting restless and we didn't want to stay there and hope that would arrive within a reasonable time. We just got the check and bought some ice cream on the way home.

Bottom line: horrible service, mediocre and overpriced food, great view. Can't believe we paid a $100 for an evening that left us with such bad taste in our mouth. There are far better restaurants in Santa Cruz for these prices.