Wences Restaurant

Tried this again –have to say that his food in Oakland and walnut creek was good –and I think it’s important to support local businesses but really? You still can’t hire competent help?
Here goes –we ordered an appetizer –fine
Then we ordered a first course each –fine
Then main course each –that’s when it went downhill fast
I get my oysters Rockefeller and 10 min later I call busboy over to ask waiter what happened to my husbands dinner? Another 5 min and waiter Nick shows -«oops –I put your order in as another appetizer» — gone another five and then my husbands fish arrives and he removes my oysters for a reheat! Another ten minutes and my cheese is glued and clumpy –clearly inedible
Nick is gone never to check out ill-​timed meals until we ask for check
Now that arrives indicating that my husband had 4glasses of wine –okay we are Irish but this is a joke –only two were ordered
Why would his errors be ours?
Please –5 ladies walked out irritated with their messed up bill –either hire right or train them –but hope you buy lotto tix to pay off lease hold improvement as it was half empty and something needs to change
Two stars for your flavorful food!

The two stars were for the food as it was good. We had reservations for 5, they inputted as 4. Asked for a quieter area, but this place is not quiet at all. We moved outside because none of us could hear one another. Not the restaurants fault, but it got cold and windy. Their heat lamps are for show, and put out no heat.
The server while probably a nice person was so absent that it almost made us get up and leave multiple times. It took over 30 minutes to just get our drinks. That’s unacceptable to me! Once we moved our appetizer we ordered that took forever finally came. Since we had moved outside to hear each other, we had no plates or silverware. Had took go inside and ask for it, even though our server knew we moved and knew we had apps coming.
Not to mention the cream curdled in the coffee when my grandfather poured it. We had already had a clearly not good experience that my grandfather was going to just push it to the side of the table and not drink it but not say anything. Sure this stuff Happens, I totally get it. But it felt like one thing after another here tonight for our table. The larger parties our server was attending to were clearly more important.
A female server and the host were more helpful than our own server. Our own server eventually came by and admitted he wasn’t fully there tonight. That’s not something you tell your table who has already been waiting on everything forever! It’s obvious to us my dear. We had been sitting at our table for over 45 mins before our appetizer (fried calamari!) hit the table, then at about 1.5 hours total dining so far we were asking about our food. Not once were we offered water refills, eventually a coffee refill was offered, I asked for more hot water for my grandmother and over 30 mins elapsed and nothing. I had to flag the waiter and ask for it. As a former restaurant manager, this is unacceptable! No matter how good the food is, this is not ok!
I came here based on word of mouth high reviews. I am in no hurry to return. From start to finish this was a less than mediocre experience which was really a bummer. Not once did a manager touch the table to see how things were, had they done so I would have been open and honest about start to finish service. So very disappointed! And we brought a relative here from out of state tonight! This was a major bust.
Wences I have heard great things but things seemed very off and disorganized. We left given two complimentary dessert cards. I’ve never know a restaurant to have pre made complimentary cards for items, this to me states they have frequent issues with service and had to get cards to hand out. This does not apologize about slowness of food or lack of service, this is a cop out and a pretty bad one. Had the presence of a manager even taken place this could have solved many issues.

Very very average food. Had the fish tacos. salsa way too hot. good size portion … Accompaniments unremarkable and not flavorful. I would imagine hat the other food was possible better. Service was good. I was there on Tuesday night early. 6:30 pm.

Good food, great place to be with friends, good service, good price. I love to come here for the oyster happy hour with my husband on Sundays. It’s just a great place to be!

Service is great! The atmosphere is even better! As for the food this may sound weird coming from a seafood restraint but by far the best Buffalo wings I’ve ever had! And the spicy chicken Cuban Sando was also very good!!! We will definitely be coming back here!!!

This place is amazing! I ordered the crab cakes which were expertly prepared and served with a creative cucumber salad. The presentation was exquisite. The menu here is varied with many seafood favorites – oysters on the half shell, fish and chips, crab stack, fish tacos and lobster bisque. The service was excellent and the decorum was tasteful but not stuffy. This little neighborhood gem is worth a try. You will not be disappointed.

While I’ve known this place existed in the past, I had never actually been to, or even knew what the name of the restaurant was called.
Since the torrential downpour of rain finally stopped, I was ready to go out for a nice meal.
I wanted to try something new, so I decided to play Unilocal roulette, and just started typing in random things I was hungry for to see what pops up in the search results.
Lo and behold, Wences Restaurant popped up on the list. I peruse the reviews, thought about it a bit, and then decided to give it a shot.
From the outside, you can’t really tell what kind of a place it is. Is it fancy? Is it a dive? Is it both? The décor does seem to kind of have a mixture of both, but definitely fancier than just a regular restaurant. Just waiting for the restroom feels like I’m waiting in a doctor’s office. They even have a bunch of plaques carefully located in the center of a big, blank, empty wall. Fascinating.
The service was great, and in general the staff were very friendly. A couple of them may want to smile a bit more though, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t nice. Appearance isn’t everything, and I’m glad in this case it worked out well as our server was friendly and helpful.
Everything from the Lobster Mac and Cheese, and the Crab Stack, were delicious, with the exception of maybe one dish, and that was the chicken sliders. Reading a bunch of reviews, it seemed that this was a good idea, but I found the meat to be incredibly dry, and not really thought out well as a slider as it was incredibly hard to actually eat the thing with all of the different components inside. It was just okay, but that could be because it was outshined so badly by all of the other dishes.
Prices are a bit high, so generally don’t plan to come here unless it’s for celebrating something. When my friend and I were sat down, almost everyone around us appeared to be celebrating something, or they were dressed very nicely as if to seem like they were. My t-​shirt and shorts are just fine, thank you very much.
Overall, I would definitely recommend coming here if you’re in the mood for some fresh seafood, and some new takes on traditional comfort foods.

Hands down love this place. Excellent food, great service. We’re becoming regulars so I’m just going to start a running list of our favorites thus far:
Charbroiled king salmon, delicious!
Fish Tacos, satisfying!
Cerviche, mmmm the best!
Nicoise Salad
Grilled Artichoke
Cheesecake

Our party of four had dinner there and we each had different items. Most of them were quite good and portions were large. The restaurant is tastefully decorated and a nice addition to the neighborhood.
The good:
I
Our party enjoyed the Jambalaya, grilled seafood, and seafood with linguini.
The scallops appetizer included nice plump scallops and tasted great. Crab cakes were also good.
The bad:
I was really looking forward to the truffle mac and cheese with lobster based on previous reviews. The dish tasted OK but there was only one small piece of lobster about an inch long and a few tidbits. This was not worth the extra $ 7 for the lobster at all!
We always try the calamari appetizer whenever it is available. The Wences version needed a lighter breading, the calamari was more tasteless than others, and the accompanying sauce had way too much lemon, making it quite sour.
One other thing: when they bring you the charge slip, they only have one suggested tip amount and it is 20% of the total AFTER tax. I think this is a very slimy technique because 20% is higher than the normal rate anyway, and it should be calculated on the pre-​tax amount. I don’t know how many people fall for this but it just makes me inclined to tip less.
I think the restaurant is worth a repeat since there were other items on the menu I wanted to try.

Great menu. Amazing place for brunch or lazy weekday lunch. Outside seating is nice and closely parking.

Excellent little restaurant hidden in Pleasant Hill. My wife and I went here off a recommendation from a friend. The seafood dishes were incredible. Wine list was small but sufficient and priced well (not overwhelming you on choices). We enjoyed the crab cakes for the appetizer and enjoyed it greatly. For dinner, I had the swordfish and my wife had the seafood grill plate. The seafood grill plate was the clear winner but that is not to say I didn’t enjoy my swordfish (it was a little dry and could have had a better sauce than the tomato caper sauce, but I still enjoyed it). My wife’s plate had sea bass, prawns, scallops, and salmon, all in a butter caper sauce that was incredible. Highly recommended. Dessert was a chocolate torte that was shared and we’ll appreciated. All in all, the food was excellent.
I see some of the reviews complain about the service, but we didn’t have any issues. Our server was Rain (yes, her name is Rain) and she was attentive while still giving us time to talk. It was a quieter night (Sunday early evening) and the place was not extremely busy. Excellent service overall.
Ambiance was similar to a steakhouse. Nice, wood tables, not white tablecloths. I would have felt comfortable in a polo shirt with shorts and sandals, but that is the most casual I’d go. Music was popular classic rock and a bit on the loud side but I can see it being ok of the place was busier and more crowded.
All in all, a great restaurant that I’m sure I’ll be visiting again.

My family brought me here for Mothers Day. Service was slow because there were several large parties. Our reservation was at six. We were able to give our order to the waitress 30 minutes later. It was a slow trickle of service but then got better. As our food arrived a little girl at the big party table near us started puking! My daughter has a very strong gag reflex and wasn’t able to eat her food after seeing that. The family handled it as best they could but it took a while to get it cleaned up. Every restaurant should have a plan for this. They brought napkins and a to go box and the little girl sat there and continued to get sick until her parents took her outside. I felt sorry for the family they tried to be descent but it just ruined our meal. I would definitely go here again, the food is very fresh and flavorful!

We Love Wences!
We have been to this restaurant at least twice per month if not more and the food and service is great each time and consistent. Their food has always been fresh and delicious!
The BBQ chicken salad and Fuji Apple salad with fresh grilled salmon instead of chicken is our favorite. Grilled cheese and hamburgers are good for the little ones.
Recently tried a breakfast burrito and I have to say… it was fantastic! The menu has a variety of quality fresh food to choose from and although you pay a little more than other restaurants, it’s worth it.
Atmosphere is upper scale casual but not too fancy. The service is fast and always friendly. Recommend it for any occasion.
Highly recommended :)

We first walked in and no one was there to greet us, I said to myself — here we go.
We finally got seated and ordered the following:
Calamari
Fish Tacos
Salmon Sandwich
Chicken Tenders
The calamari was out of this world delicious. The sauce that accompanied it was very good. It wasn’t to oily or salty.
The fish tacos were delicious. The fish was halibut. It was grilled to perfection. They topped it with lettuce and tomatoes. The sides were guacamole, salsa and a grilled Jalapeño which I have to tell you was HOT. I didn’t mind it because I like spicy foods but just giving you a forewarning.
The salmon sandwich was also delicious. The fish was grilled to perfection again.
The chicken tenders were absolutely delicious. Not oily at all. The fries that accompany the tenders were GOOD!
I didn’t like how the waitress didn’t come to our table to ask us if we wanted refills. Overall a must go place to eat.

Just had dinner at Wence’s for the first time. My friend had a gourmet cheeseburger, while I had the lobster Mac n’ cheese. Absolutely delicious! Topped it off with the Kahlua crème brûlée. Everything was wonderful, including our professional and attentive server. We’ll be back!

Been there several times. Saturday night we went there and ordered. Our food took an hour to arrive. About 45 minutes into our wait, I told the waitress that I was not happy with the service as most everyone else in the restaurant had their food and most had finished eating already. To my surprise, the waitress merely defended the tardiness and told me she had no control over the kitchen. Instead of getting a manager she just walked away. My wife’s tortilla soup finally came out cold. She asked for it to be reheated three times before it arrived at a warm temperature. At the end of our meal, the waitress said that the manager would buy us dessert. I would have expected that the Manager would have come by our table to better understand our complaint, not just throw a free dessert offer at us to shut us up. We did not stay for dessert needless to say.
I hope this previously fine restaurant can turnaround their service or hire more competent help interested in customer service.

Wence’s has a great variety of comfort classics and seafood on the menu, and fantastic service to match.
My dad & I sat at their bar top to avoid a long wait for a table and throughly enjoyed our experience. I was initially drawn to Wence’s because of the grilled artichoke on their menu– I’d been craving artichoke for a while and my inability to prepare it correctly had me searching Unilocal for a solution! The artichoke at Wence’s was delicious– grilled perfectly and served with two different types of aioli for dipping. For dinner, I had the rib eye steak and dad had the Chilean sea bass. Though my steak pretty good– cooked a little it more than I wanted, though still tasty with a nice grill char on the outside and topped with garlic butter and bleu cheese– I was pretty jealous of pop’s sea bass after having a few bites. The saffron broth was SO good.
I’ll definitely be returning!

This review is for a month ago… I caught them using IMITATION CRAB MEAT in their Lobster Mac n Cheese ($ 19) and pointed out how bad it tastes since the dough («crab») absorbs the truffle oil.
The server brought this item back to the chef to confirm this and came back with a excuse «oh yeah they use this from time to time»… THEN WHY THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU CHARGING ME $ 19 FOR FAKE SHELL FISH???
False advertising and I’m sure they’ve gotten away with it for so long because naïve people don’t know the difference. Terrible practice and wayyyyyy over price for fake stuff.

So this review is for the Christmas dinner only, upon a future visit I will update accordingly.
I wish I had known it was prixe fixe for dinner — someone should have told me or informed me when reservation was made via open table. I also double checked their website and there was no mention of a prixe fixe menu. The menu was just okay. There were two priced menu options $ 40 and $ 50. Each came with the first course, entrée and dessert. I had the chillean sea bass, which lacked seafood freshness. It also didn’t pair well with the rissoto that it sat on, or the clams that accompanied it. Also had the lobster chowder, which was okay. I would have preferred a lobster bisque. Wouldn’t really taste lobster flavors or seafood notes. The hubby got the lamb, which had too much of the pomegranate sauce. Brussels sprouts also lacked luster.
I honestly have to try the regular menu.

2 star for service
–I’ve been waiting 30 minutes right now waiting for my chicken sandwich and chicken salad
–who waits more than 15 minutes on a club and salad ?! Disappointing
–ambience is nice, but would not reccomend for people on tight lunch schedules
–IMO, doesn’t matter how good a food is, if service is bad (includes waiting for food, and attentive workers)
Also! Chef or waitress forgot to serve salad with dressing! How can we eat a salad that’s undressed? Came during a normal 1pm lunch and left around 2:30. Will not come back for service