California Roadhouse

*CLOSED
I drove by yesterday and it was gutted. I’ll miss the brisket, pitchers of beer and the random videos we created while waiting forever for service.

This location has so much potential, it’s sad that this is what’s there. I wish I had the money to take it over. It’s your basic, American frozen food. The service is spotty, the bar was boring and lacked character. It just has «successful location» written all over it… but it’s not getting in the hands of the right people.
Last I saw, there was a sign saying there was a change in ownership… and according to Art S., it’s now closed. So that’s a good sign. I just hope the next owner can do it right.
Here’s an idea new owner — meet with us Mountain View Unilocalers and get some feedback from us!

It looks like the «Asian Cowboy» has seen the Roadhouse suffer enough and has finally put a bullet in it’s head to end it’s one star misery. The Roadhouse is now CLOSED. Another Castro Street casualty…

The roadhouse is not that bad… but I wouldn’t say its fantastic either, but its your standard place to go for generic food. (By generic I mean burgers, fries, steaks, etc.)
If you are allergic to peanuts — DO NOT come here. There’s peanuts and peanut shells EVERYWHERE.
The bar is just ok. It’s a decent place for after-​work drinks and appetizers, since its not crowded.

eh, it wasn’t «to die for» or anything. I went there with my colleagues for a free lunch that a co-​worker had won.
I ordered the fillet Mignon, and it wasn’t the worst piece of meat Ive had, but definitely not the greatest either. The garlic bread was brought out waaaay late. Don’t you normally get the bread before your salad/​soup?
Our waiter was ok, nothing special. I read the reviews on this place before going just to see how i would compare it, and i feel basically the same way as everyone else. Enough said.

— unimpressive.
i’m surprised this place can stay in business with 1.5 stars

Our waiter was super funny. Actually, totally random. Asian guy with pretty strong accent in cowboy «roadhouse» bar & grill joint.
I tend to lift my right eyebrow out of confusion, as this place is screaming — Identity Crisis.
The atmosphere was odd. Kinda cowboy mixed with modern mixed with Sports Bar & Grill. They serve peanuts in buckets as you arrive.
Besides all that… one of the best burgers I have had. I ordered medium-​rare, and I got medium-​rare. Fries are okay. But the burger is juicy, good meat, and mmmm… tasty! Good price too. The burger is under $ 8!

When it was announced that this would be the location of this month’s meeting of the Lady Lawyers Drinking and Eating Society, I consulted Unilocal,saw ten reviews with nothing over 2 stars and knew we were in for a rough night. Could I be disappointed even with my lowered expectations? Yes, there is always room for disappointment where nasty restaurants are concerned.
The whole idea about the Roadhouse is like a corporate strategy meeting gone bad. Have you ever been in a meeting where you feel like you’re the only sane person in the room? I imagine a bunch of people sitting around a conference room table, the florescent lights flickering above them, as they discuss their plans for an exciting new restaurant in Mountain View and totally ignore the practical logistics of running a restaurant. 99.9% of the brain power behind this project went into the décor and music selection, and 0.01% went into the actual management of a restaurant — the food, the service, that kind of thing. I like to think there was one sane person who said, «Maybe we should think about who we’ll get to run the restaurant — who will do the cooking, hire servers, that kind of thing.» and everyone else said, «Oh, that will work itself out. Now let’s talk again about where to place the fake „old“ road signs.» Here is the result:
The food is terrible. I mean ABYSMAL. Thank god it was cheap. I went for a burger figuring that would be hard to screw up and the supposedly «rare» meat was raw. Not bloody, but stone-​cold raw. In a health-​code violation way. How does it take 45 minutes to make a raw burger?
The service was a nightmare. The kind of nightmare where you wake up screaming and can’t get back to sleep for an hour because you are convinced that you are going to have the nightmare again and you’d rather stay awake all night. (Back to the food for a moment — your stomach will be so upset by the food that you won’t get much sleep anyway). We could barely understand the server and she could barely understand us. She was gone from the table for weeks at a time — not surprising since there are apparently two servers for a 270-​seat restaurant. Water was sporadically delivered and never refilled. Missing an entire place setting for the whole meal.
A small selection of beers and no wine. Let me clarify. There is something on the menu called «glass of house wine.» Is that like a «grab bag wine»? You don’t even know what color it is, you just order it and hope for the best? I mean, who would want to drink wine at a steakhouse on the Peninsula, right? I’ve been hoping that at the very least I’d be able to get a halfway decent steak and a glass of cab but HELL NO.
Other things we tried to order and couldn’t:
Margaritas («The bar is out of margarita mix.»)
Vodka and cranberry («The bar is out of cranberry juice.»)
Change for a $ 20. («The bar is out of change.»)
Worst of all, we were right across the street from Cesar, where some of the Ladies had met for wine and snacks before our descent into hell at the Roadhouse. So we had to stare longingly across the street at the people enjoying wine and delicious food as we withstood the eyeball-​shaving torture of eating here.
Finally, on the off chance that the skanky chick at the bar with too much eyeliner is reading this, I’d just like to point out that when I walked in and scanned the room, I was looking for my friends and not checking out the guy who you were shoving your (youthful but otherwise unremarkable) breasts at. You can keep your pasty white guy with the expandable-​waist Dockers, just like you can keep your lofty dreams that he will be sufficiently entranced with you that he will ask you to move in with him to his ²⁄₁ apartment in Sunnyvale, with convenient freeway access, and finally get you out of your parents’ place in San Jose, and you will eventually have the lifetime of paid acrylic nail manicures and the other heights to which you aspire.

If you have time to kill, this place is perfect for you! We arrived on a Monday night and the place was not busy. The service was slow and our waiter had to be prompted by the bartender and the host to tend our table.
Despite the time which it took to have our meal brought to our table, our meal was good — a chicken sandwich and Cobb salad — kinda hard to mess up.
I’ve been here a couple more time before and had a better experience. Service was never this slow.

I went here for lunch with my friend since we decided to try a new place. Unfortunately I didn’t think of busting out my PDA phone and seeing what review this place had on Unilocal,otherwise I wouldn’t have gone in. Thankfully the place wasn’t busy when we went (maybe that was a bad sign?) so we got seated pretty quickly.
The table that my friend and I had smelled funny, but we couldn’t figure out if it was the table, or something else. I ordered something simple — Caesar salad and a cup of clam chowder for lunch. Both were OKAY, but wasn’t so great that I finished my food. My friend had their Texas chili… it looked good from afar but the plate could’ve used some washing in my opinion.
All in all, I wasn’t impressed with this place and I’m not coming back.

Big booths. Okay server. Poor food.
Peanuts on the floor.
Not much else.
I did like the license plates on the walls.
I’m a graphic designer.
I like that kind of stuff.

Since Roadhouse Bar & Steakhouse was the only spot on Castro that I had never tried, I decided to go there this weekend. Man, I really should have stuck with the tried and true spots.
Before Sat., I can’t remember the last time I ate at a place and thought, «Am I going to get sick from this?». Yet, that thought flashed through my mind while eating. The place just seemed kind of dirty and since it was empty I was left thinking that they probably don’t restock as much as a more popular spot.
As others have mentioned, the service was bad. Our server was friendly, but scattered (she refilled water with soda, couldn’t remember who ordered what, etc.).
My suggestion: skip this place.

If I could give no stars, i would. First of all, it took 30 minutes for the waiter to come over to take our order after we asked them around 3 times if we could even order a drink.
So we finally got to order, and he did not bring us our soups /​salads the entire time, brought the drinks right as the food was coming. Then he had the nerve to say, «oh, i’ll buy dessert for you guys»
We finish the food, and he said, ready for the dessert, and then gives it to us after we select the sundaes, and says. «there, hooked you up.» Hooked us up? WTH, you forgot our soup and salad, there was no hooking up there. you just replaced it with the dessert.
I’m NEVER going back.

Why do some burgers stick together and others fall apart? Some burgers just seem so sturdy — you can pick them up, get a bite that involves both the patty and the bun and put it down without ketchup and lettuce flying everywhere. Is it the ordering of the ingredients? Whether you apply ketchup directly to the bun? Or maybe the sturdier burgers have stronger family values. This is the kind of thing I think they should teach you at chef school.
Anyway, I met up with a friend here for some afternoon drinking and fooding yesterday. I ordered a California Burger (with steak fries) and my friend just had calamari. The burger was relatively tasty, but completely fell apart after the first time I picked it up. The waiter actually brought me an extra order of steak fries because «the chef didn’t like the way the other ones looked.» The calamari was also not bad. Think better than a Friday’s or Chili’s level place, but not a real «good restaurant.» Which is fine, since it wasn’t too pricey; either that or I’m used to SF prices now.
The space itself is really nice. I like Castro Street and was able to find easy parking around the corner late in the afternoon. I really like the space they have, with high floor to ceiling windows providing a lot of natural lighting, a big round bar right inside the entrance and TVs with sports on. Each booth has a bucket of in shell peanuts and another bucket for the shells, which I thought was a nice touch. As the afternoon turned into the evening, the place also filled out nicely, giving the place a nice little buzz.
So this is a place that I was very predisposed to like. Unfortunately, the service sucked. The waiter forgot my friend’s drink order the first time (a Heineken!) and was completely unable to understand «Hefeweizen» the second time around (it’s on their menu! «Budweiser? Budweiser?»).
Still, I think unless the service attacks you with a loaf of french bread, it shouldn’t cost a place more than one star — I mean, at the end of the day, the food wasn’t bad and I had a good time there. Would have been two stars if not for the atmosphere.

We finally tried this place on July 4^th because everywhere else we tried was closed for the holiday. My friends were telling us to go elsewhere but I was stubborn — should’ve listened to them.
We waited for over 10 minutes before any waitress even came to our table, and then she said «oh, they snuck you into my section…». Um, no, you walked by our table no less than 5 times without stopping by and you also told us you’re the only waitress working, so clearly you were responsible for our table.
When she took our order, she said she’d «rush» it, but we waited about 20 minutes for our food to come out (burgers and a french dip — nothing complex). Our drinks even took over 5 minutes. It was ridiculous. The horrible service was inexcusable. My guest didn’t even receive the fries that came with his burger.
Our winner waitress brought our check just moments after our food came out — one of my pet peeves. There were only five parties seated in the restaurant (we were the largest at 4), but the waitress just didn’t care about our experience.
It was a complete disappointment for a $ 50 lunch for 4. We will not be back.

I’ve only been here once but I had a pretty good meal. I came in for a very late lunch and the place was totally empty, so I didn’t have any problems with the service (except that the waitress did go on and on about the live music they were going to have over the weekend, which I had no interest in). I enjoyed the steak salad and my coworker got some other steak dish which was also pretty good. Overall I thought it was a decent option for eating on Castro Street if you’re in a meaty kind of mood, but based on the other reviews I guess I’d avoid it if it was crowded.
update: I’ve been here a couple more times — the food is still generally decent, the service is a bit absentminded but if you’re not in a hurry it’s fine. I would avoid the Chinese Chicken Salad — it’s kind of flavorless. I haven’t tried steaks here, just burgers and salads.
Random Fact: They give you a small pail full of peanuts in a shell for the table. Huh?

Wow. This place sucks. At around 7:30pm on a wednesday night, we stood waiting at the host/​hostess stand for about 15 minutes with absolutely NO acknowledgement by anyone who worked there. I thought for a minute that I must’ve gained superhero invisibility powers, but alas, it was just the crappy service at this wannabe Applebee’s (who WANTS to be like Applebee’s anyway?).
We ended up having to force the BARTENDER to seat us, one of the 2 waitresses took our order, and minutes later plopped down some uninspired plates of mediocre food.
Listen to your fellow Unilocalers, unlike me!

I had just moved to Mountain View, and I wanted someplace with beer on tap. The guy at the Hilton said check this place out, so we did…
It took about 10minutes just for someone to come over to our table, and I quickly found out why. The waitress was hammered. And i mean DRUNK. We tried to order some food, it went down kind of like this…
Me: ‘ok i’ll have the chicken pasta“
Her: «Ooooooooooo are you sure???»
Me: «ummm…i guess not???» (thinking it must be bad if the person who works there says its bad)
Her: «i think you want the shrimp angelhair»
Me: «uhhhh sure I want the shrimp pasta»
Her: «good choice honey»
My experience here was amazing because of her — I laughed my ass off the whole time and even more afterwards thinking about her telling me about her hot daughter who i should date (who was 15), her hometown, her last 3 boyfriends, and the time she got hammered and decided to sleep on the sidewalk.
Experience aside, the food sucked. The beer sucked. The atmosphere was lame. They have live bands sometimes, but overall only go there if you like the band thats playing — the food isn’t the reason to go.

This place was under construction for along time and I had anticipated it for a while. When they finally opened I went a couple of times and was somewhat dissapointed. As far as steaks go they’re mediocre and I think some of the lunch sandwhiches are more exciting. Nice large space but unfortunately the the cuisine doesn’t hold up to the ambiance.

Why in heck do we need another restaurant like this? Don’t we already have Outback Steakhouse? How about TGI Fridays and Applebee’s? Don’t forget Chili’s. The name may be different, but once you look through the menu, you’ll know it’s the SAME damn thing again. However, having said that, the food is better than TGI Fridays and Chili’s and portions are good. There are free peanuts in shells on the table so make sure you don’t fill up on those — like I did — before your food arrives. Our server was extremely accomodating so our experience was quite enjoyable. However, I probably won’t return again because I’m just really not a fan of restaurants with this sort of menu.