The Conservatory - The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay

The food was excellent. Our waiter was extremely nice and thoughtful re. our special occasion. The setting was beautiful.

Wife’s 65th birthday. The Conservatory is the casual dining room. Nice but noisy. The hamburger was by far the best I’ve ever had. Not cheap, but worth the experience. The scallops were perfectly cooked, the waitstaff were on it without being intrusive.

We had a horrible experience here. After dropping almost $1,000 on a round of golf next door on the ocean course entertaining clients, my wife met me for dinner to celebrate her birthday. Another couple was seated at the table next to us and almost immediately we’re acting very inappropriately. They were clearly intoxicated and were discussing inappropriate topics loudly. They engaged in a FaceTime call with one of the males friends while sitting at the table, and when we asked a manager to address the situation and ask them to stop the couple became very confrontational and kept trying to cause problems with us. The female kept saying I was staring at her and trying to intimidate her, said that her brother was a “hitman” and that she was going to call him and that one of us wouldn’t be leaving the restaurant alive, accused us of not being able to “afford our dinner,” etc. The staff offered to move them to another table and they refused. It was absolutely bizarre. The restaurant manager called security and we left. I did leave without paying, the restaurant and hotel staff apologized profusely, and told us they would be addressing the situation with the other couple and that they would be calling me the next day to explain how they would make this up to us, but Maurice (the head manager of the property) never called. This is not what I expect for an establishment of this type. It is unacceptable, I don’t feel the staff handled it appropriately, and they didn’t follow through on their promise to call me the following day to follow up. Needless to say, I don’t think we will be coming back.

$147 got us a hamburger w/fries, cod sandwich w/fries, and one dessert. The carpet was old, dirty, and matted—I’ve seen similar lining a dog house. We were not initially greeted upon our arrival at lunch reservation time, then finally were deferred to another employee (assumedly the hostess), who seated us. Another brought water, then we waited for the server/waitress in our “zone” to show up. We ordered quickly and the food was brought in reasonable time. Five interactions to this point were conducted with five different people. The waitress eventually checked back on us, but I had to flag her down to order a dessert, then again to get the check. Food was...a burger and fish, w/fries—no better or worse than fast food, just a different atmosphere. “Aioli” and a couple field greens don’t magically turn average food into above average. In fact, it detracted from the already over-salted cod. The burger (ordered well done) was actually charred and so dry that it could hardly be cut with the table knife. I actually took a piece into my hand and crumbled it. The taste was otherwise ok. Was this the Ritz Carlton? Anyone pretentious enough to give a socially acceptable response that the food or service was good is either delusional or...well delusional. The entire experience pretty much sucked. As this was a birthday lunch, the only positive was that a generic “Happy Birthday” was swirled onto the side of the dessert plate. Else, this review would merit a zero rating.

We spent a lovely afternoon having a Birthday lunch for my wife’s birthday! Our server , Payton was wonderful. The table over looking the ocean view was stunning. We went to the gift store on level 2; great attendants products. We spent some time strolling the grounds and even watched some live golf on 14th hole. The biggest surprise was $40 valet fee that we were not informed when I made reservation on Open Table