Dakota Grill Restaurant Info and Reservations

Outstanding!!  

We were at the Dakota Grill for the first time (we were in San Diego for the Holiday Bowl) and we were treated as if we were regular patrons! The staff, from the host to the waiters, were warm, very friendly, and made you feel they were there just for you. The young man who was our waiter (Cory) was outstanding and VERY helpful. Our meals were outstanding! When we return to San Diego, we will definitely be back to enjoy the Dakota Grill and it’s great staff and excellant meals! The Dakota Grill is one restaurant I will recommend to anyone visiting San Diego.

Must try  

I agree with the other reviews on the quality of this place, and some give better details than I could. The prices are quite reasonable, the service was very good, and the food was excellent for all 4 of us. I had the Grill Skirt Steak. The first surprise was the amount of steak, as there was plenty – all the meals looked well protioned. I savored every bite, as the flavor was …. “fabulous”, as our waiter said frequently.

Great food and service!  

We had the excellent pork prime rib which was done perfectly
and delicious with the apricot glaze. We also had the horseradish crusted salmon which is a must have if you like salmon! The best we’ve ever had. The servings are generous
and since we started with the very tasty grilled artichoke we
didn’t have room for any of the side dishes.
I’m sorry for Trey’s experience from earlier this year but
from every indication we saw if there was a problem it’s been
more than fixed. We walked in off the street with no reservations on a busy Friday evening and were greeted promptly and warmly. Our waiter, Joshua was friendly and very
knowledgable about the menu and the wine list. He courteously
answered every question that we had, was quick to make
recommendations and generally seemed eager to ensure that we
going to enjoy our visit.
During the course of the unhurried dinner we noticed lots
of little things such as the young waiter-in-training unobtrusively hanging in the background and watching the
process of presenting of the different courses etc. In general
the Dakota seems to be a tightly run “ship” that isn’t overlooking anything that might mar the enjoyment of an
outstanding menu. The restaurant itself is very attractive
and spacious and the piano player was a nice touch.
The service however could not have been better as were all
of Joshua’s recommendations including the great white cranberry
juice Cosmo! Perhaps we were just lucky or simply that
everything on the menu is outstanding but the next time that
we’re in San Diego we’re definitely coming back to find out!

Very nice  

Good restaurant, great food, and great service. Only negative I have is that our waiter looked over worked. I think the place could have done with at least one more waiter. He did do very well though, for being the only one I saw. Oh, and I also ordered a desert. About 8 min. later the server came back and said they were out of it! :(. He then offered me a desert of my choice on the house =D

Great food, service and prices  

I just had a birthday dinner and I am so glad I chose this restaurant. The current menu (revised from when our family of six last ate here during the Christmas season two years ago) is wonderful especially for meat lovers. We also enjoyed the half priced bottle of wine. All for a reasonable charge. And service was great. Thanks to Kim.

Another Great One!  

Very nice dining! Love the atmosphere and the food is excellent.

Energetic  

This restaurant is full of positive energy! I enjoy this classy/lively piano bar atmosphere, it keeps me coming back. The food is well prepared -not over the top, and the service is excellent.

very pleasant  

The mixed grill dish I ordered was amazing. It came with steak and scallops with baked potatoes and green beans on the side. The restaurant also had a wide range of wines to choose from. There was a pianist who was playing all through the dinner, which made my dining experience here more enjoyable.

Excellent  

Great service.

Excellent halibut with Mash potatoes and spinach.

Very helpful server. very patient with us.

Its best to park at the mall and get your ticket validated there, to get 3 hours free.

Very nice place  

Good food and pleasant service.

Just Average  

I had the surf and turf- skirt steak was juicy and cooked as ordered (medium) & the scallops were perfect! The entree’s weakness were the sides- overcooked mushrooms and less-than-fresh salsa fresca. Also, they charge extra for substituting your sides (pretty asinine for a “grill”). Thank goodness the twice baked potatoe shined, along with the gouda scalloped potatoes. My boyfriend had the unimpressive pine nut linguini, which he found a bit dry. Fortunately, the service was exceptional! Due to that, I may give them another try- would like to taste their rotissiere chicken.

Friendly Staff  

While touring the Gaslamp District during the jazz Fest. on May 23, 2009,we chose Dakota’s Grill based on the variety of secletions on the menu. Once inside, we discovered a warm and friendly atmosphere. My friend chose a salad topped with the Blackend Salmon. She was very pleased. I chose the 1/2 herb Chicken, served with the best mashed potatoes I’ve had in years. The chicken was slightly undercooked but was good. The waiter, Robert was attentive & personable. I’m still a bit puzzled by the Men’ room location in another building, accessible thru the kitchen, thru a lobby door & down the stairs. WOW! Overall..a good experience.

good food, lacking in service  

We came here on a Saturday night around 8:00 and there were only 3 other tables in the restaurant. Our server was a girl who was obviously inexperienced, as she chatted up some single guy several tables away and neglected to attend to our table in a timely manner. She also talked way too much! As for the food, the chicken penne was delicious, but the poor service and dull atmosphere was extremely disappointing! We love Kemo Sabe and thought since Dakota Grill was in the same family, we’d enjoy it, but don’t think we’d return!

good food, lacking in service  

We came here on a Saturday night around 8:00 and there were only 3 other tables in the restaurant. Our server was a girl who was obviously inexperienced, as she chatted up some single guy several tables away and neglected to attend to our table in a timely manner. She also talked way too much! As for the food, the chicken penne was delicious, but the poor service and dull atmosphere was extremely disappointing! We love Kemo Sabe and thought since Dakota Grill was in the same family, we’d enjoy it, but don’t think we’d return!

Great food, average service  

The highlight was the wine tasting- 3 3oz glasses for $10. The filet was awesome. It took 10 minutes for a server to greet us, who stopped by our table only once to check in- which was frustrating because we were without silverware for about 5 minutes after the food arrived. We ended up stealing silverware from the table next to us.

My girlfiend’s thoughts…  

The atmosphere was terrific and very nice for a romantic setting. The restaurant was full by 7:30pm so we had made a good choice reserving our table for 6:30pm on the upper level. Our server was pleasant, polite and certainly above average. The “flatbread” was actually a mini pizza topped with a very vague sprinkling of gorgonzola and roasted garlic. The best part of the “mixed rotisserie for two” was the flavorful chicken. I would like to go back to sample more of what seemed to be a nice variety of appetizers, and to enjoy the atmosphere with a cocktail. –Patricia

So-so  

The atmosphere is great and is nicely located in the heart of gaslamp. Service was so-so and so was the meal. For those prices, I expected a lot more. Let’s put it this way, if we didn’t have a coupon, we would have been very upset with the price. There are other places to go to…

Not worth the money!!  

Looking for a nice bite to eat before heading to a club for the evening my fiance and I headed to Dakota’s for dinner on Friday night. Although we were seated quickly, our waiter took about 15 minutes to even come to our table. After placing our order another party of about 6 was seated at the table next to us in such close proximity that we were uncomfortable. Our rather surly waiter never refilled our beverages, and when we asked for refills, he grabbed our glasses and walked away without one word. Not even a “sure no problem.” The food was mediocre at best and a medium piece of steak to them was pretty well done to the rest of the general population. In addition, we had ordered a couple of glasses of wine to be delivered with our meals that we did not receive until halfway through our meal. As I was contemplating whether or not to give them the opportunity to redeem themselves with desert, the baby at the next table started screaming. We waited about 15 minutes hoping that our waiter would come by and we could get our check so we could leave. After not having seen him since our meal was delivered, we gave up hope and I walked up to who I assumed was the manager and asked him to please bring us our bill as the child at the next table was not allowing us to enjoy our meal. He looked at me crosseyed and did nothing. Bottom line…pay a little more and go to one of the nicer steakhouses downtown. The management offered no apologies.

Normally probably a nice restaurant, but….  

The service we received was without exaggeration the worst service I have ever received in a restaurant of any caliber.

We left notes on our www.sandiegorestaurants.com reservation request that we were celebrating our fifth anniversary and requested a balcony table; both requests were ignored. The waiter was slow and unfriendly. Instead of getting Rotisserie Chicken, the waiter wrote down Beef Tips for my entrée in error. The food runner did not notify our waiter of the problem until he finished delivering another table’s food! The waiter took finally away the wrong entrée that was left at the table after of sitting in front of me for six minutes (yes, I timed it; it was getting ridiculous by this point.). At that point I told my wife to go ahead and eat her entrée. Fifteen minutes later my wife was finished with her meal and my correct entrée arrived. The waiter briefly and nonchalantly apologized for the error.

At the conclusion of our meal, the waiter never cleared the plates from our table. He asked if we were interested in dessert, and we said no. After another extended wait, the waiter dropped off our check, saying nothing. It pained me to leave less than a 15% tip – my first time ever to do so – but I don’t think our waiter even cared. I never raised a fuss or complained; I guess I was too upset with the situation to do so. I couldn’t wait to get out of the place. Gracious, what a horrible experience.

Honestly, you could tell that normally this was a good place to have a nice meal; we just happened to have a terrible experience on what we were hoping to be a wonderful 5th anniversary meal. For each subsequent meal we got suggestions from the hotel concierge staff, all of which were much better.

It has gone downhill  

We live in the San Diego area and have eaten at the Dakota Grill several times. We ate there last month after not having been there for 5 years. It has definitely changed. The food was mediocre and the prices are outrageous. It is such a shame because it was one of our favorites in the Gaslamp area.

Miserable Experience  

I ordered the rotisserie BBQ chicken, but was served dry chicken without any sauce. When I asked, my waiter (Louie according to the check) told me he thought I ordered honey-mustard. Which was a wacko comment, I can assure you there was no honey or mustard in, on, or whatever with this so-called chicken. The waiter brought me some “BBQ” sauce, but it was actually salsa?!

Not sure if my waiter was playing games or what. At any rate, this is probably not a place to go if your serious about impressing someone. Spend your hard-earned dollars somewhere else.