Chart House

Love this place! Chart House has the best prime rib, lobster bisque And of course Lave Cake in Dana Point... not to mention their epic ocean view seating.

We did not have a very good experience. They were out of salmon and filet and the music in the dining room was extremely loud. I'm not sure if it was because it was later in the evening or not, but it was not even pleasant dining music playing and it was very loud. Then, when we went to get our car from valet he basically handed us the keys to go and get our own car. Even though the car was close by, that is not something a valet should do to a customer.

Each member of our family gets to pick the restaurant for their birthday dinner. I picked Chart House. We've eaten at the restaurant several times and had very good experiences which was behind my selection. Unfortunately, this visit let me down. We arrived at 5, beginning of service and the restaurant was empty. So no excuse they were overwhelmed in the kitchen. And many tables around us were served first. We had party of 11 with 5 kids. We had calamari for appetizers. Delicious and fairly quick. It took an hour and ten minutes to be served dinner and the first dinner arrived FORTY MINUTES before the last dinner. No one was happy about this – just not acceptable to sit and stare at the dinner you're served for forty minutes before everyone is served and you can start eating!! The kids' fish and chips was awful – dry, flat, tasteless with poor breading on the fish. My shrimp, avocado and mango stack had NO mango – they filled it with corn. The salmon was overcooked and dry. The seared ahi was overcooked. The Chef's feature cod was wonderful. The desserts took twenty minutes to arrive with birthday mud pies a bit later and partially melted. In all it was 3 hours from start to finish. An unfortunate side note – there was a medical emergency, and paramedics had to come in and remove someone on a gurney at the table right next to us. We had to move around for them to get by. With 5 kids, it was traumatic. It would have been nice to have been told they were coming so we could scoot the kids outside or prepare them. The person was unconscious! Even just to acknowledge the disruption to our celebration, fully recognizing it wasn't their fault, would have been basic customer service.

Beautiful setting and delicious food... extremely unfortunate level of service. Despite having a reservation, had to wait 30+ minutes before being seated. Our waiter was obviously stretched too thin... It was another 30 minutes before we got our cocktails, food another 30 minutes, no recognition that we were celebrating a birthday.

Service was excellent, food was good. My husband had the Salmon and I had the Crispy Shrimp with mango sticky rice. My husband said the salmon was really good, but the shrimp was just okay for me. We had the J Lohr and Austin Hope Cab wines and the mini Lava Cake as well. Only thing missing was no acknowledgement of my husband's Birthday. It was marked on the reservation. But our waiter took some good photos, so at least we had that.

Beautiful views, exceptional meal, excellent service, memorable evening Chocolate Bourbon cocktail⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ordered prime rib which was extremely fatty. Have been here numerous times and I would have to say that it was probably the worst piece of meat that I have had at the chart house!

Food was great but on this day service was mediocre. Server was great but maybe he had too many tables to wait on. Still overall a fun and delicious place to dine!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 3

Heinous Food, didn’t think you could make a lava cake unenjoyable but Chart House proved me wrong. Waiter assured me the lobster risotto was the best risotto he’s ever had, i really hope he was being dishonest, because I can’t think of a restaurant doing a worse risotto.

But hey, if you like the wine list, the views and the property are fantastic

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 1

Service: 4

This was my first time at Chart House so I will start by saying maybe this was an off night. I had a reservation for two at 7 and we were not sat until 7:35 after being told they were running about 10 minutes behind. Everyone around us also had reservations and they were all waiting for their reserved table as well, not a good sign. We finally get to our table and it took at least 10 minutes for a server to come by. At this point it’s almost 8 pm and I am starving! We ordered drinks and put in our food right away as we were worried about long wait times. We were given bread and found a bug in it. We told the server and he apologized. We finally got our food and it was good but not great. The experience we had did not match the price tag of the bill. I wish they would have explained all the delays or done something to make guests feel seen. Communication goes a long way.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2

Reserved a table for Christmas dinner for 5:15. Arrived on time and checked in. Was informed by hostess that outdoor seating was immediately available or inside would be 20-25 minute wait. I told her we needed inside as we were not dressed for outdoors as I had requested indoor on reservation. There were probably 25-30 diners waiting for tables near hostess stand. 10-15 guests arrived and were seated immediately for outside dining. We waited 45 minutes and were told table was ready. Host led us to an outside table. I informed him we had waited for indoor table. He led us back to host stand and I pointed out a cleared, vacant small booth inside, exactly as we had asked for, he said he would check on it.
He asked hostess about the booth and she said to him another couple really wanted that booth (unbelievable) we were told there were still 3 groups ahead of us. I told them either seat us or we would leave, they refused, i told them they had massively overbooked the restaurant. I am sure most of their diners waited over one hour for tables, there were 30-40 people waiting then.
I understand it was Christmas, but an hour long wait past reservation time is inexcusable. They overbooked the restaurant for profit, obviously. Sadly, I have dined here many times and had great experience, I am even a Landrys select member which includes preferred seating, it was not honored.
Sadly with not restaurants available on Christmas night we had zero options other than fast food. So thank you Chart house for ruining our Christmas dinner.

Service: 1

Great atmosphere, amazing food and service for our large family party/ anniversary/ holiday get together last night. Special thanks to Zamora, manager who went out of his way to assist my wife with temporarily fixing her glasses with some clever twine and ingenuity. We'll be sending him a thank you as well soon. Happy New Year

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The smell of the place was very off from the beginning so we chose to be seated outside.
It’s was a course set menu for 81$ per person so we thought how hard can it be and that it’s not likely anything could go wrong.

The time of serving between plates took around 20-30 min so by the time we actually got to have our main course we were full and bored.

Food came cold. Ahi tuna was tasteless. And instead of getting a well done fillet steak we got a pink medium steak.

After sharing our feedback with the manager nothing was actually offered to compensate and we paid full price.

Waiters and managers were nice but wouldn’t go back there.

I was sooooo disappointed with my order of prime rib. That’s my go to order and expected it to exceed. It was tough so I told the waiter Jay who proceeded with no questions to get me another cut. Unfortunately the second order was just the same. I love this restaurant so was really bummed. I won’t stop coming here but will definitely not order the prime rib!!!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 4

Save yourself time, money and stress by avoiding this place . The hosts are the rudest. This was not our first time dining there. Each time we make a reservation and arrive early. In our reservation we request for a table in the dining room and preferably window booth. One would think that maybe one time among the nearly 10 times our request would be met, noooooo. Instead we are told we can’t guarantee and each time we are seated anywhere but where we requested, I mean a one time accommodation would mean honesty but they are liers. I ordered a salad with basil balsamic dressing as listed on the menu, yet the server asked me for the dressing and I pointed to the menu and she said the menu is wrong. Salad arrived without any dressing. When the check arrived I gave my credit card and my rewards card, the check came back for signature with only the rewards card, thankfully I noticed the credit card was missing. If you want ices dinning with quality food and service go elsewhere avoid this place. Hosts are RuDE. Servers want to upsell you for the tip. Parking is crazy

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 4

Service: 1