The Cellar

Recommends

bournetowin

Joined 6 years ago

Incredible service and wine selections. My girlfriend, parents and I had a incredle dinner for my birthday. We had incredible waiter who explained the specials and the menu in detail. He had a accent so he was a little hard to understand but he was very proffesional. The owner can by and helped us pick out a bottle of wine. He let us decide on our entrees then he chose a wine that paired with our selections. The lobster bisque is amazing and three of us ordered the lamb. We finished with a chocolate soufle. During the corse of the evening we had waiters cleaning crumbs from our table and attending to our every need. The prices are up there but it is no more expensive then Mr. Stox or The Summit House. The restaurant is a little old but the owner told us that he is installing new carpet this year along with new lighting and paint. All in all this was an amazing experience and we can not wait to return.

Doesn't Recommend

kld2246

Joined 6 years ago

Slow and unfriendly service. Just moved to the OC and took my wife to the Cellar for her birthday. We arrived and were led to our table after a short period of time. We were seated and then waited for 15 minutes to even get the chance to order something to drink. My wife ordered wine from the menu. I ordered water. After 10 minutes, I seen our waiter walk up with my wifes wine on his tray. He was stopped by someone who works at the place and instead of coming by and droping off my wifes wine, he follows this person to the cash register and they go over a bill for 5 min. By now I am steaming. In the meantime, the people at the table next to us were seated and they had already received at least a water bottle. Finally our snob of a waiter came by with the wine and water. The menu's are very hard to read due to small lettering plus not a lot of light. We asked him if he had anything that he thought was great on that menu. His reply was, of course, everything on the menu is great, what can I get you. In the end, it took two hours to get drinks, the soup, the main course and the dessert, which was the best dish of the night. I find it over rated.

Recommends

mluciente

Joined 6 years ago

Bad service trumps decent food and romantic setting.. The undergroud setting creates great expectations, as does the menu. However, the service borders on contempt and the food fails to live up to the check. I am always amazed at how this place stays open.

Doesn't Recommend

cosmiccat

Joined 6 years ago

Worse Customer Service, Ever!. *** I posted this under "Cellar" as well, I'm guessing it's a duplicate***

My husband and I decided to dine at the Cellar for our anniversary. We will never go there again. The food was decent but I was a bit disappointed, as I had expected better food. I've dined in several excellent restaurants (Citrus, Ivy, Diagalev, Patina, etc.) and was expecting great food, considering the reputation I had heard The Cellar having. I was a bit disappointed but that wasn't the worst of it. We were seated and proceeded with our meal. Our server struck up a conversation with the couple at the next table (the server, a middle-aged man, had attended CSUF where the gentleman at the other table attended or had taught there) and would come back to refill their wine glasses while completely ignoring us. The whole meal continued this way, including dessert. We had taken a cab there, figuring that we would celebrate a little and didn't want to drive home. We told our server to please call us a cab. After waiting a while, they told us that the taxi must've left and shoo'ed us out the door and told us they would call another cab for us. For those that don't know, they call it "The Cellar" because it's actually underground. They told us to go "wait in the parking lot". This is supposed to be from a five-star restaurant with supposed "good" service and clientele. Needless to say, we ended the night with having to call a cab on our own (they never seemed to have called one) and getting another drink at the bar on the ground floor of the same building while waiting for it. I also saw one a previous commentor wrote... it was cold in there.

Recommends

mranaheim

Joined 6 years ago

Did they forget about us? Is this dish served cold?. I took my girlfriend here for a nice romantic Valentine's dinner. It took them about 15 minutes to seat us; understandable for Valentine's day. This was my first venture at what some would call a "nice" or "fancy" restaurant. Positives: The staff was friendly, nice atmosphere, nice tableware, food was tasty. Souffle was awesome. Negatives: the service is absolutely slow. I cut them some slack because they were busy, but please... things should actually be better on special nights like Valentine's, especially for $85 a person. You pay them to perform. It took them a good 10 minutes to bring us water and another 10 to take our order. it took another 15-20 minutes for the first course to arrive another 15-20 minutes for the second course, at least 25 minutes for the third and main course and another 25 minutes or more to wait for our dessert - the souffle. Honestly my food could have been hotter (except the souffle it was steaming hot!). I wouldn't have minded asking for new dishes, but as slow as they were I knew it would only aggravate the problem of their snail-like service. I was happy that I spent the night with my love and she really enjoyed it, but the service and temperature (or lack) of the food was not up to my expectations. It was also very cold inside. I have had more attentive servers and hotter food at significantly less expensive restaurants. Perhaps they're better on a regular day, but I was not impressed. I chose this restaurant because of all the accolades and hype from other people and online reviews. However, it looked like all the hype turned out to be just that - hype. Give it a try - just don't be surprised if you're there for 2 hours or so, your waiter is in slow motion, and your food flirting with being cold....

Recommends

playingaloan

Joined 7 years ago

Vastly overrated, snobby. Small portions, not particularly well cooked. Quite expensive. Romantic environment. They should stop cooking and rent out rooms.

Recommends

luv2dineinsocal

Joined 7 years ago

An outstanding evening!. Once a month a friend and I get together to go to "nice" restaurants. A chance for two single women to have a nice evening out without having to be on "date" behavior! This month it was the Cellar and were were absolutely thrilled. From the moment we arrived and were taken to our seats we were treated like special guests. The owner, Mr. Dudley, came by and spoke with us, taking our drink orders and suggesting a wine. The service throughout the meal was perfect and at no point were we made to feel like we had to hurry up and vacate the seats or treated any differently than "couples" throughout the restaurant (as some places are wont to do with single women). The food... ahhhh the food! There aren't many places you can go and order escargot, so when its on the menu we take advantage of it and we weren't disappointed. The lobster bisque was the best I have EVER had. My friend had lamb and I had duck... neither of us was disappointed. I wish I had ordered the souffle, but the chocolate mousse and the chocolate terine satisfied that "I need a little something sweet" desire. Do I recommend the Cellar? Oh yes.. for their service, food and surroundings, this was one of the best French restaurants I have ever been to!

Doesn't Recommend

VastElectron

Joined 7 years ago

Bad customer service. Unfriendly hostess. Small portions of food and very pricey. Our salmon was overcooked. Bad and slow service. And we were overcharged on our credit card.

Recommends

kpny2k

Joined 7 years ago

Best French food I never had!. I wasn't sure about French food before, but I will never doubt it again. My husband and I came on a Saturday night for our wedding anniversary. From the moment we walked in, we had the biggest smiles on our faces. From the bottle of wine to the appetizer, to the lobster bisque, to the salad, to the main course, and then dessert, we were in heaven! The service was spectacular, everyone was very friendly and answered all hundred questions we had. My husband had the venisson for dinner, and I had veal scallopini. Unbelievable! Never had venisson before, and surprisingly enjoyed it. But, the lobster bisque, OUT OF THIS WORLD! We want to go back just for that. So, I guess you can say we liked it.

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

This romantic, cave-like, underground dining room in historic downtown Fullerton serves top-notch French fare.. In Short
A 1,400-label wine list, haute French cuisine and an elegantly dressed underground dining room, complete with crystal chandeliers, plush velvet seats, crisp white linens and Old World charm, make this Cellar one of north Orange County's premier fine-dining favorites. Tucked into the basement of the historic 1922 Hotel California building, it boasts a small, but mighty menu. Old-school favorites include veal Oscar and tournedo with truffled goose liver and Perigueux sauce.