54 Degrees at Duane’s

Great scenery and flavorful food. Top notch place for a full meal or light appetizers. The 54 Degrees bar area is a nice place to kick back and enjoy a drink. Their drink menu could be better…

This was our first time at Duane’s. The food was good. What made this visit even better was being helped by Malia.
We will be returning again.

The mission inn is absolutely beautiful. Yesterday was my first time there and 54 degrees was one of the best experiences I’ve had. Our waitress, Kymberly was so sweet and attentive. She made sure we had everything we needed. I will be coming back.

Service at he mission inn is always good and the place is always clean. The food quality and choices at Duane’s 54 Degrees is definitely subpar. I expected better considering Duane’s is a great restaurant. I wouldn’t recommend 54 degrees– go all the way to Duane’s or go to the Presidential Lounge for an app.

The Mission Inn is absolutely beautiful. I have never been here although I have head about it. I was meeting a friend for dinner at a nearby restaurant and decide to find a drink inside the hotel so I could check it out. I went in and found 54 Degrees. It fits nicely with the overall layout and feel of the hotel. It had the fancy old classy feel. It is dark and romantic. I took a seat at the bar. The service was good but slow, especially considering I was there early evening during the week and the bar had few customers. The main focus is wine, and therefore the selection of wine was good. They have one of those cool wine dispensers as well. I was more in the mood for a mixed drink and lucky for me they have a nice cocktail menu. The drinks were good but a bit spendy. I think the atmosphere is probably the best thing about 54 Degrees.

We live downtown in Riverside (just moved).So being Mission Inn close by we like to go there quite often and we did. Staff was okay till than. But However just recently our friend was visiting from E. Coast so we took him to this Bar on Friday night and sat down at the bar. The Bar was so so busy.
Anyway one of the girl“Bar Tender” comes and just flapped the menu at the bar and leaves. Well we thought she might in hurry so said nothing but I suppose she did look CRANKY. But I was wondering why with the customers that just sat down.
Well she comes back after awhile and we ordered a bottle of wine. Enjoyed the wine the music, the atmosphere except the CRANKY We received a bill for $ 102. When inquired Miss CRANKY said ‘you ordered off the by the glass menu. If you wanted a bottle you should have ordered off the bottle menu.
Well it was dark there so we could hardly see the menu and also being a bar tender she should have explain us what’s in the menu not just flapped the menu and leave.
So guess what that bar is on the list. And it’s not the good one it’s the worst one and that Miss CRANKY.

The Mission Inn is one of my favorite places in the area for small a getaway. They have always been a place with excellent service and I have never had a single bad experience until last night at 54 Degrees.
Granted it was a busy night, I expected a long wait for service. Understandable. No problem.
We ordered drinks and appetizers. We ordered pork belly and Parmesan fries. The pork belly was delicious. Our friend ordered the fried heart of artichokes.
Unfortunately this is where the experience went sour.
The fried food was cooked in old oil. The distinct flavor of bad oil was not as strong on the artichokes so our friend tolerated it. The fries, however, were simply intolerable. The taste was off putting and lingered.
I asked our waitress to send them back. She came back and rudely said, «My manager said they are fine and we can’t take them off your bill.» I explained to her that I wasn’t looking to get the off the bill, but to send them back to the kitchen to make the staff aware so it doesn’t happen to other guests.
I could have lived with a simple apology and a more courteous response just fine if it wasn’t for the attitude. I later asked for a coke but it never came.
We joked around that I might have pissed someone off and that’s why the coke was never sent. We ended up splitting the bill. I decided to not leave a tip. The service and attitude do not warrant a tip. I signed the slip and even left my name, phone and email with some remarks about the food.
We left. But it was not over.
This morning I noticed that the portion of our bill that was charged to our card had been reversed. Unbeknownst to me, the full bill had been charged to our friend.
It’s now clear someone there is just being vindictive. It’s not coincidental that they simply decide to reverse the charge on my card and charge the full bill to someone else in our party.
I expect better from this place. Through the years the Mission Inn, its restaurants and bars have been a go to place for me. Judging by other reviews it looks like 54 Degrees is simply not living to the standards of the Historic Mission Inn and it’s pretty evident they simply don’t care about the customer.

Been in here a few times to just have a quiet glass of wine and an appetizer.
First off, they have those really cool wine pour things that you press the button and get the wine, but they dont actually use them, apparently they are just for looks behind the bar. Secondly, the wine selection here is a joke. Justin cab from paso robles is disgusting mediocre wine at best and thats just one example. They don’t even have rancho santa margarita. I thought this place was supposed to be high end? If i want to pay $ 20 for a glass of $ 6 wine, i will go to beverly hills.
Also, the cheese plate is good there and the lobster spring rolls but neither are consistent. Always get different set ups for both and sometimes they are good and sometimes not. It feels like they just needed to fill the space here with something so they threw a bar in without giving it any thought.
This place is just overall disappointing. The staff has never been friendly, and i just expect more when i’m in the historic Mission Inn.
Havent been back in months and probably never will again.

Dark lounge vibe. When I dont want to be bothered I come here to relax. They have comfortable lounge type seats, with the ol’ school lamps on the table. Happy hour is till 7pm when most places end at 6pm! Check it out :)

Should be rated no stars. The bars at the Mission Inn just keep going down in service especially 54 Degrees. At least 15 minutes before server came to our table. Ordered after dinner drinks and dessert. Took another 30 minutes for deserts to arrive. Server left without giving us napkins. When we finally got her attention she just threw cocktail napkins on our table and left. Then we had to track her down again to get a bill which was $ 65. You would think for a 5 star hotel the service would be better. Sent a letter to Mission Inn about this but never received a response. So the Mission Inn just does not care about customer service.

My girfriend and I meet about once or twice a month for happy hour. We decided to try 54 Degrees at Duane’s. It is located past the front desk outside of Duane’s Restaurant. There is a featured Special Monday through Friday this month from 5pm — 7pm get any of the six appetizers for $ 6 each. The choices to choose from are:
Calamari Fritti, Cheese Quesadilla, Cheese Platter, Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken, French Onion Soup and Crab Cake. I have personally tried the Caesar salad. It was a nice sized appetizer and just filling enough without leaving me overly stuffed. I have tried several of the other small plates. My favorite is the Tempura Lobster Roll at $ 7. It consists of Fried tempura lobster, micro greens, English cucumber, topped with avocado and served with chili aioli. My only thought would be to serve ut with more of the chili aioli. I have also tried the Spicy Seared Filet Mignon $ 9, which consists of Marinated filet, cayenne pepper sauce, grilled fresh peppers and onions It was very good. The other item I tried is the Hawaiian Chicken $ 4 which consists of Marinated chicken, pineapple and Hawaiian sweet rice. This was my least favorite small plate. I found it too sweet for my tastes. It is the lowest priced small plate. My girfriend loved the Steamed Australian Mussels at $ 6, consists of Garlic, shallots, crushed red pepper and chardonnay wine. There is an extensive wine list, very very impressive. They offer three separate sized glasses. Each is sized by ounces. I do not recall those particulars at this time. The med sized glass I believe is about 3.5oz. I have tried a glass as low at $ 5 up to $ 10 depending on the wine. It is a great way to try different wines at a reasonable price. The atmosphere is very relaxing. There is usually a live musician who plays a variety of music. Since our initial happy hour trip we have since returned another two times. I try a different wine each time.

This is our local bar, great atmosphere with a great selection of drinks and the bar staff are awesome. We always like to start or finish the night here.

Worst visit. Waitress spills water on us and then brings someone else’s apps to us. No urgency to bring us towels. No mgr came by to apologize either.

Delightful Chill Happy Hour Inside Mission Inn
SITREP
On work junkets to Riverside, whether I stay at The Mission Inn or not, it is nice to chill at Duane’s bar inside The Mission Inn.
THE SETUP
Oh my god. Sweet bartendresses here! And whether they make a martini or a margarita or a daiquiri, you will delight in their libations
HAPPY HOUR FOOD
Duane’s always puts out a great spread of munchies to go along with the drinks, so we make a point of getting out of the State California Tower on time so we can enjoy some cheese and wine, or fruit & daiquiris.
It’s a little pricey at any establishments inside the Mission Inn, but well worth the ambiance as it is NOT the neighborhood dives I am accustomed too in Midtown Sacramento.
THE LOWDOWN
A great stop for drinks in Riverside!

Went here after dinner to hang out on ³⁄₂₁. We came in around 9:15pm and found great entertainment (Skip was awesome). Unfortunately he was closing his set. We found some seats and sat down. It took some time for the server to initially come by. Then took some time for us to get the menu. Then took some more time for us to get our orders in. We realized that she was the only person serving the whole lounge. Once she brought our drinks and orders, she told us it was last call. We asked for the dessert menu and waited some more. We tolerated all of this until there was a mix up with the bill. The ladies wanted to order ½ glass of wine and didn’t realize that they were served a full glass. Instead of taking care of it, the waiter had to get her manager to handle it. He was gracious enough to take part of it off the check for the misunderstanding. He was also gracious to accept our complaint regarding the service there.
Regarding the food. We had loved the garlic fries previously, but this time there were stale and lukewarm. Probably the last batch of the night and had been sitting there for some time. Dessert was good (crème brûlée and apple pie).
I told him that Mission Inn has high standards to live up to and I didn’t feel that this lounged lived up to it.
Would probably return to give them another try.

This elegant lounge has a tasty tapas selection. The Maui onion rings and the shrimp quesadillas are my favorites. The Christmas special drinks are the best deal at $ 9 – 12, like my Three French Hens-​champagne and courvoisier served in a sugar rimmed flute. A bonus was the musician playing guitar and saxophone. Several wine by the glass selections and pleasant service make this a great place to relax after viewing the fabulous light display of the Mission Inn.

Cool place. We stopped in for a drink, and it was happy hour. There was a nice little selection of fruit and cheese to go with our wine. That, plus the spicy nut mix and wasabi peas, make it a terrific happy hour deal. The wine selection is nice, and they offer different size pours. You can choose 1.5 oz and taste a bunch of wines, 3 oz for a small tasting or a small drink, or 6 oz if you want to focus on one wine. I wish there was a place like this closer to my home. I really like the concept.

Great atmosphere, great (minimal) wine selection. If you come between 5−7pm, you will be treated to free cheese, grapes, dried fruit, and flatbread crackers.
Very relaxed, great place to converse… go here, you won’t be disappointed.

The food was good, well cooked (we had sword fish and new York strip). We had an unstable table (I was surprised they even sit you at such a table) but they moved us directly when we complained. The service was good as well.
I could buy a very good wine for a decent price (buena vista Pinot noir for about $ 40).

When I had heard about their Wednesday night wine tasting I thought to myself, «Hey I like wine». Then when I heard it was Pinot Noir for the month of March, I thought to myself «Now your talking my language».
They called it: A Celebration of Pinot Noir!
For $ 18.00 each we got six 3 ounces pours of various regional Pinot Noirs. My favorites were a great Carneros regional I believe it was called «Educated Guess» and a New Zealand Pinot (my favorite). I really loved the ambiance of the location, dark wood beamed ceilings and nice plush chairs. There are cheesy pictures of famous people that have patroned the Mission Inn over the years and lucky me, lucky me I got to be next to Tears for Fears and Vendella. They had a an über cheesy jazz saxophonist wailing out some tunes, but this only enhanced my overall experience. You want to do dark wine lounge, you gotta be in it, to win it, and that includes the 80’s Sade songs on saxophone. Although we got there about 10 minutes before they put them away, I found the cheeses they had out to be yummy. I just wish they still had the bread.
A great, relatively inexpensive date night. I think this would definitely be a perfect spot for a first date.