Vail Ranch Steakhouse

This was the first restaurant visit I had in Temecula. I have to say the experience was lovely. Myself and my date came here on a Saturday night (²⁄₂₇) not knowing what ro expect. The only complaint I would have to say I had was the loud group hovering the door way that complained obnoxiously loud towards the hostess and manager. I myself had the urge to intervene. As expected, large groups hardly go completely smoothly and it seemed that they were forcing their frustration towards the employees as well as trying to make the experience unpleasant for the people around them.
I don’t remember our servers name but he was incredibly helpful and nice. Not only did he have an answer for every question I asked, he explained in detail and made sure I understood. He also gave great recomedations as to what flavors would go best for the steaks we were looking at. I asked for medium rare steak and I have to say it came out perfect. I have always been adamant with how people, beside my family, make steaks. I will definetly would love to come back and have already recommend this place to friends.

I used to be a regular and was a big fan. Tonight I brought in a party of 12 on my best friend’s birthday. They made us sit at our table for 15 minutes without bringing us drinks or even refilling our waters. The service was atrocious. I talked to the manager, Dino, and he did nothing to help. In fact, he somehow tried to put the blame on us as to why we couldn’t get water or drinks. What an ass. Worst restaurant ever. Only go there with people you hate. Terrible restaurant and the worst restaurant manager in all of Temecula.

One of my favorite restaurants in Temecula by far, but not sure what’s going on lately at Vail Steakhouse. Management or the Chef needs to get their act together.
Firstly, the positive — customer service is always tops! Now, not for the not so positive, I had a reservation for 8 on Thursday at 7:15 and it seemed like half the menu wasn’t available.
It started with the appetizers, I always get Oysters and to my surprise they were out and that was just the beginning.
Besides the Oysters, the Dry Aged — Bone in Filet Mignon, Bone in Ribeye, T-​Bone and the Prime Rib were all out by 7:15 pm. SMH
A couple weeks ago it was almost the same thing! Only one Dry Aged Bone in Filet Mignon and No Bone in Ribeye or Prime Rib.
Also, it took 15 minutes to get extra serving of bread. What the hell is happening at Vail Steakhouse?

Firstly, I want to say the atmosphere was wonderful. The inside has a very old school appeal with dim lighting and a piano player. It set a very relaxed and casual tone.
The service was wonderful! I believe our server may have been a bartender as well so that may be why we enjoyed his very attentive yet not overbearing personality. We never once got the feeling of someone hovering over us, but we always had a drink or anything we needed.
Now the food is huge clearly because who wants to pay steak house prices for lousy food?!
We started off at Happy Hour with a platter of different cheeses, cured meats, mustard, jam, sweet pickles, etc. Now we have had many of these from all sorts of restaurants and by far this was the best one we have ever had. The portion size was wonderful and it was fresh and savory. We then decided to have the lobster bisque and some lamb pops. As we love steakhouses I do like to compare them, and this lobster bisque is definitely in my top two! It wasn’t sweet like some restaurants do, so to me it was perfect. The lamb was simply amazing! Enough said.
Now for the main dishes. I had a chicken dish and it was so flavorful and hearty. All of the flavors blended nicely together instead of any one flavor being too overpowering. I would get this dish again in a second. My husband ordered a Porterhouse steak and whilst the cut of meat was beautiful he found it to be on the bland side. He didn’t seem to mind because he said he would take it home and add what it needed, but I could see the disappointment.
I want to say that the steak not being amazing means we would never visit this place again; however, all the amazing food outweighed what may have just been an off day for this one steak. We will be back to eat again and I feel comfortable recommending this place to everyone we know!
Just as a last note the prices were very reasonable for the quality and quantity of food.

Try the dry age ribeye! Best steak I have had in a long time. Had it with a Bombay sapphire gimlet and it was the best.

We have passed by this place many times during our trips to Temecula and finally went in. Classic steakhouse look and feel as well as a ageless menu. Classic cuts and sides. A lot of the reviews said they run out of some sides offen as they did for us as well. They even note it on their menu that at times they are out of sides and cuts of steak. Kind of odd. There was a 1 man band playing at the bar who was pretty good. The steak was amazing and cooked how we ordered it. Moscow mule was good but needed a little more vodka. We make it to Temecula 2 – 3 times a year so this place will be a part of our visit rotation.

I will never go here again. This is now the second time I walked in not having a «reservation» (7:45pm) and was turned away and told there were no tables available yet when I looked around the restaurant there were plenty of empty tables as well as no one waiting in the lobby and plenty of open tables in the bar as well as plenty of open parking spaces. The hostess didn’t even offer us to wait in the bar for the next available table. If this restaurant is reservations only then they need to make people aware of this policy. For god sakes we’re in Temecula not New York City. Will never go there again not recommend it to anyone!

My husband and I decided to celebrate our anniversary here due to the fact that we had a gift card and I am always in the mood for a good prime rib.
I really enjoyed the ambiance of the place, seeing the dry aged beef right when we walked n made me feel like we were going to be in for a treat. The main area was rather loud, but part of that was because of the live piano player. We got lucky and got sat in the wine room and when we got there there was only one other group in the room, so our meal started off nice a quite. The darker, cozy feeling of the room made it rather romantic (which was great since we were there for a romantic reason!). The only complaint I have here is that as the room began to fill it became rather loud and I was happy that we had already finished our meal when a big party with a baby got seated near us (The baby was already expressing how unhappy it was.)
Our server was Steven who was just amazing, and honestly he was the reason why I’m giving this place 4 stars instead of 3. He was interactive, engaging and seemed to genuinely care. I really feel like he went the extra mile for us to ensure that we had the best time possible.
Now for the most important part of any meal: The food and drinks!
We both started off with one of their martinis, he got the Brownie Martini and I got the Peach Bellintini. We were both really happy with these since a lot of the time mixed drinks come out with the booze far over powering the flavors.
We also ordered the calamari, which came with three different dipping sauces. The Calamari was good, lightly battered and tasted fresh.
Of course the most important thing about a steak house is their steaks. All the great appraisers and drinks in the world can’t save a steak house if their steaks aren’t anything special.
My husband ordered the Ribeye, he said that it was «good» but nothing spectacular that he felt really justified the price of it. He ordered it Medium and it came out on the medium rare side, but Steven was quick to get this fixed for him.
I got the prime rib with crab legs on the side. Like I mentioned I LOVE a good prime rib and this one really fit the bill. It was flavorful, juicy, and the Au Jus was amazing! The crab legs were good, but if we ever ate here again I think I would skip them and just get a bigger chunk of prime rib instead.
Overall the price was a little on the high side for what we got. Our total meal came to $ 150 but nothing really stood out that really justified the cost (except maybe my prime rib!) and while we had a good time, I’m not sure we will make the trip there again unless we got another gift card.

Love the food and the quick service. Very nice and quit environment, definitely a place where you can get away from the kids.

We’ve now been here twice (a Monday night and a Saturday night), and plan to return. Somewhat surprised at some of the negative comments.
We like the idea of non-​intrusive entertainment. We do not care for loud entertainment where people sitting next to each other are forced to yell in order to have a conversation. Vail Ranch has quickly become our preferred choice of places with entertainment.
The setup in the bar area is very nice. We’ve sat in it both visits. It consists of a large horseshoe shaped bar surrounded by tables and booths. The stage is elevated at the square end of the bar. Music starts at 5PM. Monday night there was a saxophone player. It happened to be his birthday and a couple of his friends (a clarinetist and a pianist) also showed up. Very enjoyable. They were able to get the audience quite involved. Saturday night they had a pianist. He was ok. We were told that the really good pianist is Paula, who is always there on Sundays — will definitely have to check that out.
The bar area features a happy hour from 4 to 7PM daily. Decent prices on drinks and some menu items. We like this idea because it allows us to check out several items to get a better idea of the food choices. So far we’ve had (not all of these items are on the happy hour menu): Oysters Rockefeller — excellent, would have again; Lamb «lolly pops» — very good, would consider having again; Calamari — I thought that the coating was very heavy, though she did not. Also, the order is way too much for two people. Would probably not order again; Potato Scallion cakes — not what I expected. Basically mashed potatoes with some chopped scallions in a batter deep fried. Would not order again; Angus burger with fries — excellent! Would definitely order again; Beet salad — very good, would consider ordering again; Prime rib — she says that this in one of the best she’s ever had. She let me taste a piece of the peppery crust — delicious! Another «order again» situation.
The above is only what we’ve tried — the menu is very large. In addition to steaks and prime rib — which are very nicely displayed in the walk-​in glassed aging case in the entry — there are many other items that entice me: Chilean Sea Bass; Cioppino; various salads, etc.
So we definitely plan to come back. There are many items that we want to try, and we really like the atmosphere. Also, the service has been outstanding. One of these days we may even sit in the restaurant itself!

Had lobster bisque. The soup was meh, it was more tomato and cream than lobster. My soup was Luke warm & so was was my coffee. There were 3 pieces of lobster. Husband had prime rib. It was overly season, had better.
…General Manager,
Unfortunately we cannot return for a 2^nd try, we are from out of town. I would expected excellence from food & service, off day or not. Server was great but does not comp for lack of delicious food. Even though we’re from out of town the food should be good the 1^st time as an incentive for us to return the next time we are in town. Hopefully future reviews will overshadow what I have written.

Steak earns 5 stars. Service earns zero stars. 2 stars seems like a decent compromise for a place with very expensive plates and waitresses who won’t even acknowledge your presence until someone from your party gets up, grabs a manager and asks «WTH is going on? Are we invisible?»
All these uptight, rude women running around looking too busy for us, refusing to even make eye contact and acknowledge that there’s a table with 3 human beings that might want to order some drinks and dinner.
At least drop by and be like, «Hey, sorry, we’re very busy tonight, somebody will be with you in a few minutes.» I’ve waited tables. I’ve bartended. Customer service cannot be overlooked, no matter what. Doesn’t matter how busy you are. Unacceptable.
Guillermo finally was the only one kind enough to wait on us and poor guy was busting his butt to make up for all these useless princess waitresses that were too good for me and my family. Guillermo was awesome, I really appreciated the way he took care of us, when nobody else gave a crap. We all enjoyed having Guillermo as our server.
It makes me sad to give this place a low rating because it has been hyped up to me, but as long as they have horrendous service, take your hungry butts and fat wallets to another steakhouse.

Good place to have a nice dinner at when in the Temecula area. Good steak, good pork chops and good dessert. Also tried the garlic shrimp in butter and I didn’t really care for it. They play the piano live.

Pleasantly surprised, outside façade had us fooled inside quant and intimate.
Amazing steaks, cooked wonderfully and full of flavor!
Very nice romantic way to end a day of wine tasting.

I had dinner here with a party of 35 very hungry people. The service was on point. The waiter and waitress was attentive and fast. We ordered from the banquet menu. I ordered the ½ organic de boned chicken and it was amazing. Juicy, tender and sorrounded by potatoes, portabella mushrooms and a garlic pan jus. My honey had tbe surf n turf. He said, «the steak was great.» We had a good experience. Oh and the calamari was a hit too with the aioli sauce.

This place seemed more like a Texan style themed restaurant, kind of like a Lone Star Steakhouse. I ordered the Scottish Salmon and the boyfriend ordered a 12oz New York steak with shrimp scampi. Both items were surprisingly delicious, but not for the price they were asking for. However, the portions were pretty hefty. Some of the meals actually came with sides instead of everything being al la carte like most steakhouses. Our server was Heidi and she was phenomenal. Keep in mind that they have a daily happy hour from 4 to 7pm, BYOB of Wine Tuesday with no corkage fee, and 50% off all bottles of wine on Wednesday. Overall, the experience was tremendous and we’re more than likely to return.

This place smells awful. We barely made it through drinks and starters before packing up and leaving. Menu looked great though!
Apparently there is a sewage problem, but they should have either closed or given a heads up to those who make reservations. I took a $ 20 über ride to get here, and it was a waste of time and money.
I offered to take an order to go, if they offered some discount for our trouble, but management said we can only have a discount if we stay for dinner. We couldn’t bear it.

I really wish I could give this restaurant more then 3 STARS! We were waited on by Erik who was not the best waiter which made the experience just OK. My Husband ordered the RibEye and I had a Filet. For an appetizer we ordered Oysters but then Erik came back saying they don’t have Oysters? Really. That’s why we came… Anywho we had a Caesar salad and it was very plain along with the rest of the food. The steaks didn’t have any flavor and I ordered mine medium well and received medium rare. VERY DISAPPOINTING! The side of Au Gratin was so tiny you could eat with two bites. All in all it was OK & I would recommend the Grand Oaks in Pechanga for a GREAT Steak!
Reason I gave 3 stars and not 1 is because the setup is nice. Place was clean and seating was not so close together. When you walk in they have a beautiful glass looking at all the steaks. So I was impressed until the Waiter and food came out. Or should I say lack of food (no oysters)…

I really enjoyed the prime rib here, all the meat is aged and very tasty! The sautéed mushrooms are a definite must, they compliment the steak very well!
A little pricey so be prepared to spend some money.

Stopped by after a day of drinking wines in Temecula we did not have dinner this time, however, we enjoyed a few more libations in their bar. There was live music being played and the pianist was a great sport as we turned his pleasant music playing into a karaōke scene with no words.
Definitely a great place to unwind. The drinks were good we ordered the chocolate brownie desert as well and it was good too!