Bushfire Kitchen - La Costa

The food is excellent when the order is correct. The last 3 out of 4 times I’ve ordered the sides are completely wrong. And the meat is overcooked to the point it is difficult to chew. I’ve given up after today’s order. No more.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 3

Unwelcoming staff

Service: 1

Sadly was very disappointed with our experience at Bushfire. We’ve heard great things and were excited to finally try it out but to our dismay we were served cold food. We ordered three sides (Brussels, cauliflower, mac and cheese) and they were all cold when they arrived at our table. I brought the mac and cheese back to the counter and let the staff know that it was cold. They placed the mac and cheese in the warmer and brought it back to our table. She proceeded to thank me for letting her know about the cold food, because she went and checked and the warmers were off! But sadly did not offer to replace the other items that were served cold. Definitely a bummer to pay for cold food, don’t know if we will be back.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 3

Horrible experience last night , the tri tip was undercooked , portion sizes were small in comparison to the past times I’ve been, server never brought utensils, plates didn’t even come out with the bread , we had to ask for it , plates looked depressing. This place is nothing like the one in Delmar and ruined my parents first time experience eating at bushfire

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 1

I waited 20 minutes at the restaurant and they brought me cold food.
Bad service.

Slow service. Bland food. First time I can remember walking out of a restaurant after barely touching the meal. Beef empanadas were blah. Also, not heated up as requested. Brisket bowl tasted like corned beef out of a can. Brussel sprouts tough as nails. Mashed potatoes tasted like they were out of a box. No idea how this place has positive reviews. Cookies and beer perhaps?

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Recommended dishes: Brisket, Empanadas

Really helpful and nice staff! There are tons of gluten free options and nice big patio at the Carlsbad location. Would recommend, especially if you have a gluten allergy!

Dietary restrictions: Great gluten free bread!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Sweet Potato Fries GF Ve, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, California Burger, Caesar Salad, Chicken Bowl, Sweet Potato Fries, Vegetarian, Grass-Fed Tri-Tip Bowl GF, Millionaire's B L T

Consistently good food

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Fav happy hour ever! Stellar service

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I absolutely love the strawberry spinach salad with poppyseed dressing.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Brisket, Caesar Salad, Sweet Potato Fries, Hamburger

Always great healthy food. I don't feel guilty for not cooking when I order pick up from Bushfire. Tri tip and burgers are insane!! Really excellent.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Brisket, California Burger, Grass-Fed Tri-Tip Bowl GF, Hamburger

So many options in their menu, it made it hard to choose. We all loved the burgers! I didn’t see a difference between Medium Rare and Medium but it still tasted good. The only issue was timing. I think we waited for an unreasonably long time until our meal was served but they must have been busy. I would go again!

Kid-friendliness: Kids loved the meal. The quesadilla looked like something I would want to order!

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Hamburger

Food here is pretty good and it's a great option that's both reasonably healthy and quick. I love the tri tip and mac n cheese.

However the service experience here, specifically with takeout orders, is consistently frustrating. As others have mentioned the layout of the restaurant is weird where you need to stand in line with everyone else to grab to go orders. Even when the restaurant is dead im often ignored when trying to flag someone down to just grab my order.

On top of that, orders are frequently wrong (as others have also mentioned) and they have run out of tri tip and just let the order go instead of proactively calling me to notify that it would be MULTIPLE HOURS before it would be available again so I could cancel or request a substitute item.

Normally I give places the benefit of the doubt when there are one off mistakes. But it is an obvious pattern at Bushfire that is worth bringing up.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 2

Recommended dishes: Chimichurri Tri-Tip Plate GF

The food is dry and does not taste fresh. Like a Bushfire.
Tables feel like they haven’t been cleaned in weeks.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 2

Food is ALWAYS amazing

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Brisket, Garlic Mashed Potatoes