Alex J.
Yelp
Maybe it's this location, maybe people overhype every Mendocino, whichever it is, my first Mendocino experience was sub par, at best.
We stopped by Friday afternoon and although the place wasn't busy, I've never seen such a lazy set of staff on a shift. They had at least 15 employees all standing around, wobbling around, literally looking stoned in place. There's no energy, no work ethic, nothing. Considering they have such an open concept to see half the back-of-house, they should at least tell their employees - most of whom look like kids - to not make it so obvious that they hate their jobs.
We ordered the chicken parmesan dip and Peruvian steak sandwich, plus a drink. All together for $35. For that price, we expected both a good size and tasty set of sandwiches. Well we sure hoped for too much. The subs at Jersey Mike's are cheaper, bigger, and taste 10x better. And believe me, we LOVE sandwiches - paninis, hoagies, subs, everything. We know a thing or two about sandwiches.
The chicken parm was tiny. I'm not a big eater but I still hungry after finishing this sandwich. There was hardly any chicken, cheese, or flavor, The chicken was dry and soggy, whatever cheese was on the sandwich was only put on one half. The sauce was bland and the sandwich wasn't hot. The only decent thing about this sandwich was the sesame bread but it would have been better toasted.
As for the Peruvian steak, this was much better than the chicken parm but still not worth a return visit or high praise. The aji amarillo had a decent kick and good flavor. The meat again was so minimal you couldn't even tell you're eating meat of any kind. They forgot the aioli and the veggies just became soggy. The potato bread again, was the only part worth it and at least they toasted this one.
I was excited to try the drinks but overall those were a let down. In total, we were in the restaurant for 45 minutes and the pomegranate lemonade remained empty the entire time. The green juice was full of pulp and so grainy. The rose lemonade was actually great and I enjoyed that, but it needs to be mixed since all the pulp sinks to the bottom.