The Kitchen @ Stonebrier

Perfectly acceptable if middling is okay for a pricey dinner. Reservations were made in advance, and a notation about it being a birthday. That was mentioned a few times. They completely missed that; will get back to that later. We showed up to the place being fairly empty for a Friday night, we had our choice of which room and table. The waiter came by immediately and started putting menus down for bottles, glasses of wine, etc. Then he says no rush. Take your time. Enjoy. THEN without missing a beat says, the kitchen is closing in 10 minutes. ??! There’s a more sincere way to go about that then telling us in three different ways there’s no rush, but the kitchen is closing. Clearly there’s a rush. Insincerity was part of the entire experience. We can only taste three red wines because “bottles weren’t open”, OK. That tells you more about the restaurant right there. Settled on the expensive Cabernet, and quickly order. We didn’t have a choice. The food was fine, nothing special Skimpy on the servings – the $15 salad was small. And the portions for the expensive sole that I ordered was disappointing. The side of mashed potatoes was literally half a serving. The “vegetable medley” consisted of two small pieces of broccoli and a carrot. While we were waiting for the first course, I ask the waiter if they served bread if one orders an entrée; the waiter: oh of course yes, you just need to ask for it! The bread came out; it was good- warm with a serving of butter. Bet you can guess where that’s leading... They completely forgot about the birthday, ask us if we’d like any dessert, and we both sort of stared at each other, knowing that clearly they’ve forgotten the important part about the birthday. But because it was on the later side, we opted to leave and get dessert elsewhere. We get the check, and, no surprise, the bread actually was a charge, but they hadn’t revealed that. Apparently it’s on the menu, but it wasn’t made mention when we had asked if they serve bread, which in nicer restaurants is still something that’s part of the meal. We address that with the manager, Angelina, who is polite. Got the check back and now I noticed that it hasn’t gone down the full price of the added bread, so something seems wrong, there’s an explanation about the surcharge and the credit card fee. Here’s where it definitely got odd. They charge people the merchant fee. So customers are taking on the cost of doing business for this restaurant. They’re not willing to pay their merchant fee. So now I, the birthday girl who never got her birthday candle from this restaurant, goes up and basically addresses this with Angelina. The explanation? Well, it’s right there on the sign when you walk in, also on your receipt … you “have a choice” how you want to pay! I ask, really, what choice do we have, 95% of folk who go to a sit down restaurant for dinner are likely paying by a credit card. Most of us aren’t walking around with rolls of cash. I said, if you’d mention this at the time of the reservation, THEN I have a choice- I can choose to go to an ATM ahead of time or bring a debit card, which apparently doesn’t have a fee, but we’re at the end of the meal at the end of the night and we’re from out of town working- so we’ve got a credit card. This went back-and-forth a few times - she insisted they were “transparent“ as there was a sign upfront and it’s on the receipt once they’ve already run your credit card!?? So your choice is to either ignore that they’ve charged a fee, accept it, or push back- which ALL of us should be doing because if the restaurant honestly can’t afford the cost of business and merchant fees for credit cards … that shouldn’t be passed on to the customer when their price is already high, and portions are not generous. It’s also hurting their staff - the more you nickel and dime a customer for fees and risk of annoying them, the more likely the customer is going to be less generous with a tip. The whole experience left a bad taste… (did I mention they ignored the birthday? ;) Wouldn’t recommend.

Great service and excellent staff 5/5 Beautiful interior 5/5 Food not so much. 2/5 Ribeye plate looks like something you get at Denny's. It was very thin, like 1/3 of an inch thick i know its 8oz but problem was after cooking it it was very dry even the medium rare was gritty and under seasoned and lacks fat. Vegetables taste like they were boiled, wish they roasted it and black pepper was just thrown on the broccolini where top half was well seasoned then the stem tasted like strong black pepper. Also, a single carrot? Its like $1 for 5, atleast give two carrots to compensate for the two pieces of broccolini. Cheesecake was delicious tho.

It was really great experience. On a very busy day, New Year's Eve, they accommodated my reservation modifications without fuss. All 7 people with me had a great time. Food was great. Dominic who served us was awesome. Happy New Year!

Elk and bison, surf and turf skewers, Mezcal cocktails. Say less, the aesthetics of this place is on point, excellent service, and the food was on point. Grateful for a special large gathering or date night definitely upscale, which is nice.

First off the food was amazing 10/10 they had live jazz music playing and everyone was very friendly. MY waiter was very knowledgeable and patient. Now this place isnt cheap however the over experience i left in good spirts and full perfect date. I spent 140 for two entire an appetizer and alcohol so it somewhat affordable for anyone who want to experience fine dinning. I googled best restaurant in Stockton the did not disappoint.