Cheryl Yeoh
Google
I don’t remember the last time I walked out of a restaurant feeling so underwhelmed and disappointed. But true to all the other recent bad reviews on Yelp, this place had no redeeming quality about it. Clearly, the owner and chefs either didn’t care about its customers’ feedback or didn’t bother to read them.
When we arrived, we were greeted coldly by (I think) the bartender, who then just asked us to wait for the hostess. After maybe 3-5 confusing minutes, the hostess arrived and took her time to lead us to our table.
While waiting for our friends to arrive, we walked by the open kitchen and was impressed with ambiance created by the open fire grill and seemingly creative way of using really fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Our friends arrived shortly after and we proceeded to order some appetizers from the really limited menu. For some odd reason, while cordial, our waiter had a somewhat nonchalant tone and manner about her. It just didn’t feel like she was happy to be there.
We pretty much had everything on the menu for 4 of us, because every dish that came out were tiny and not what we expected, so we had to order more. The tiny salads were weird (one had some crackers with grapefruit and orange bits, and another was a duck confit salad that didn’t look or taste it). The grilled oysters while tasty, were $4 each!
Our water jug was empty 3/4 of the time at the table, and our cocktails took over 30 mins to arrive, after some nudging at our waiter. When drinks finally got served, they came in half-sized cocktail glasses.
The entrees were terribly mediocre. You’d expect way more from a $44 steak; it wasn’t memorable, had very little flavor and wasn’t even cooked medium rare, as we were promised. It came with one boiled potato, maybe? We ordered 1.5 portions of grilled crab that cost $50; it tasted like it was boiled (bland), and that was it. Nothing more to this dish. The 3rd and only other entree on the menu was a $34 squash and mushroom dish, which probably tasted better than the steak and crab, but was an appetizer-sized portion. I barely got 2 bites out of it.
We have paid way more for good quality food with great service, but not only was Camino neither of those, it left us feeling insulted. For $80 per person and still feeling hungry and unsatisfied after, we totally regret coming here. It feels very unpleasant to say this, but if the owners don’t do anything to improve on Camino’s overall service, food and portions, I don’t think they’ll last very much longer. I’ve never been so compelled to write a negative review than I have tonight!
