La Vaquera

I visited this restaurant today with my family and we each got the salads. The chicken was awfully rubbery And the dressing was very refrigerated also very overpriced for such a small salad, which the server implied that it was a good size The cafeteria salad I get from my school is 10 times better they need to up the portion for a 27 dollar salad very disappointed with my overall experience.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

So why would I give 5 stars when we waited for 20 min for a seat (with reservation) AND still hadn’t gotten even waters or a visit from wait staff 10 min after we were seated? Because it’s not about the crisis, it’s how you respond to the crisis, as they say. Once my wife found the manager and explained our situation, he apologized profusely, said they got slammed an hour prior and were short staffed. He said he would work to make things better immediately. Well, we soon had our waiter (Andres, who was great) and the food was delivered quickly (and was the quality we expect from this restaurant). We were comped the (amazing) cornbread and had a free cocktail coupon from NYE. The crowd had died down and while we relaxed finally, Andres brought out the tab and said the entire meal had been taken care of and he hoped to see us again soon. WHAT!?! We spent $160 and they covered it? At most I could see maybe a single order but that was ridiculous. I found the manager, and now I thanked HIM for a response to our situation that was beyond expectation. Of course we “forced” Andres to ring up our order in such a way that we could leave him a tip. Suffice to say, when a restaurant takes a very bad experience and magically turns it into a completely delightful one, we will be back many times.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great atmosphere love the food and staff was awesome.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Absolutely one of the best restaurants in Orange County . The managers were extremely knowledgeable and attentive. Avery our server knows the menu inside and out and has an amazing positive attitude that delivers a great service.

The cornbread is a must as well as the roster chicken and mushroom cavatelli. The smores for desert are the cherry on top!

Extremely impressed!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Very nice restaurant, both inside and out. We went for lunch and it wasn’t very busy, yet it still took quite a while to order drinks, even though the server initially came over quickly. The food arrived about 40 minutes after ordering.
The pizza dough was good, but I didn’t care much for the toppings, not terrible just not to my taste. The chicken sandwich was flavorful, however the chicken portion was extremely small and mostly crust, which was disappointing. The fries were served completely cold.
It was also difficult to get service. We spent around 15 minutes trying to find our server, asked three different servers for a to-go box, and after about 20 minutes it arrived together with the bill.
Overall, the setup and atmosphere are nice, but we spent most of our time trying to get service, which made the experience frustrating.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 3

It was our first time going to River Street marketplace and it did not disappoint. La Vaquera was nothing short of a stellar experience
From start to finish. We showed up on a Friday night without a reservation and they still managed to accommodate us (party of 8 plus a service animal). The general manager personally came to our table to give our kids “letters to Santa” to celebrate the holidays. Our waiter Andres was top-notch. Kind, helpful, gracious, and more. And don’t even get me started on the food. This has to be some of the best food I have had in South Orange County. Farm to table concepts are always a hit, but this one took it to another level. We are going to be regulars here and cannot wait to come back!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Terrible cold food. I know several people who ate here and reviewed only to get a robotic AI answer - they don’t ever “make it right” as you can see in the reviews.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 2

We’ve dined here a few times before and always enjoyed the great food and cute location, so we came the other night to celebrate our daughter’s birthday. We appreciated the thoughtful birthday card signed by the team and chef, such a sweet personal touch.

In my initial review, I mentioned that we were surprised to see the birthday sorbet added to the bill after it had been presented as a treat. I want to update this because the general manager immediately reached out, responded with genuine care, and quickly corrected the mistake.

Thank you Milan for taking immediate action, this kind of service is exactly why we’ll continue coming back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

A great experience and helpful service. The food is great as well but for foodies like us we always judge based on the value/money ratio so we expected the extra mile.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

We had an amazing outing!! Every time we come here we have such a wonderful experience. Great drinks, great food, and great service. Thank you again!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Good. I would probably go back. Cocktails were solid. Beautiful place too

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 4

Diana was fantastic and the food was excellent as always! The cornbread is exceptional!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Excellent experience! Great vibe, great food, great atmosphere. I had the chance to meet the GM Milan and made sure that everything was good. Highly recommend it!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Gigi was amazing! Food was great! Thank you!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We loved our dinner here. Ordered Octopus and the Meatballs with pita bread for appetizers delicious. Had the pork chop New York steak for dinner everything was excellent quality and flavorful.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5