The Hideout

I was born and raised in Aptos, and have seen so many restaurants come and go. I was so happy after my first experience here. Now the Hideout is my go to place. It is a awesome environment and the food is always fresh and delicious. I was so happy that a restaurant and bar open like this in Aptos. Aptos was in need of such a great spot. The staff is always efficient and very friendly. I’ve tried 90% of the food on the menu and all of it has been delicious. When you walk in the door, everyone says hello and makes you feel very welcome. I look forward to every time I get to go to the Hideout. Please try this place, you will not be disappointed!

Good Ahi tower appetizer and nice local owners. I’d eat there more often if the menu was more to my taste. I like the patio seating and seating by the fire. It has a new clean feel but wish the bar had a bit more belly-​up space. Parking and last minute dining can be a challenge but worth it once you’re seated.

I see this place as a the intersection of high-​end fine dining and a modern millennial setting.

Outstanding cuisine. I had the meatloaf and because of my diabetes the waitress and the kitchen crew went the extra mile to make sure I had no bad carbs. My daughter had short ribs and her boyfriend pistachio crusted chicken. All was prepared to the highest expectations and presented beautifully. Crissy, our waitperson, was attentive, friendly and professional. I will be a frequent diner here.

Very enjoyable dinner. Wonderful and attentive wait staff. We went on a Friday night a little after 5. The bar was hopping for happy hour. We sat in the dining room and when we left there was a line out the door. Will definitely be back again.

Came here with the BF’s fam — they are local and wanted to try this place for a while. Luckily, Unilocal did not steer me wrong and we had a great meal with excellent service (thanks Leilani!). We got bruschetta for the table (with extra crostini as there were 5 of us and the bruschetta was 4 pieces, but the toppings were so generous it could have been for 6!). I had the mushroom pasta — lots of mushrooms, lots of pasta, not too heavy at all; my bf had the braised short ribs which were falling-​off-​the-​bone deliciousness, the other adults had the sole which they said was delicious; and the teen cleaned his plate of his sandwich. That, with two mud pies between 5 of us, and we rolled out of there happy campers!

I’m soooo behind on Unilocaling, and it’s a shame, because I really need to give this place a shoutout. I’ve been in several times now, and they’ve been super welcoming to this southern girl. Austin is fantastic at welcoming everyone, and Brian not only keeps me laughing, me makes a freakin awesome Bloody Mary (and we all know that’s my drink…). The food is spectacular as well, although I’ll say, if you come in with the expectations of small portions because this is California, just be prepared to take some food home. I’ve had a couple meals here and not even been able to finish half each time.
If you’re a beer drinker, ask for the Hideout’s IPA, made by Hermitage Brewing Co.

I really enjoyed this place. It has an upscale vibe you’d find in a more urban setting but nestled in the woods.
The food was quite good, too. A bit pricey but comparable to dining in places like San Francisco or LA. I would come back for sure!

What a cool place! Had our holiday party last night with 17 people total. We had the room in the back to ourselves which was cozy and has 4 TV’s. The food was amazing and the service was on point! Each year we try a different place and lots of times its because the prior year wasn’t good enough to go back. I really hope we go back next year. We have some picky eaters and someone always has a complaint. Not this time. The portions are large and flavorful. SERVED HOT! 17 separate dishes served hot is something prior places could never do. I will go back again. Service was amazing as well and never once had to find someone for something. If you have a office party, birthday party, baby shower, super bowl party or anything else, his is the place… The only thing I’m mad at myself is I wanted you purchase a t-​shirt…

Definitely a place I would recommend to others. Sometimes the service is hit or miss yet it’s a spot I love to go regardless as it’s lack of care has never been horribly overbearing.
Remind the your waiter/​ess how you’d like your burger cooked unless you like it cooked really well.
Their wedge salad is great and comes with one piece of their excellently seasoned bacon.
I love the seating by the fire in the side room indoors, the outdoor patio isn’t too bad either. It’s a nice date night place to go with my boyfriend.

This place was great… service, food, atmosphere, etc. Can’t wait to return!
Yo Yo

Finally found a place in Aptos that is amazing! Tried many other places and was very disappointed. Will be my go to in the area.

I’ve eaten at the hideout five times now. Three times for lunch and twice for dinner. I have not yet been disappointed. Great service. Excellent food. And great energy. It’s nice to have a place where there’s a full bar and a great variety of menu selections. Every time I’ve been the service has been excellent they give you enough space to enjoy your meal but check in just in case you need something. I strongly recommend you go check out this new gem. My favorite lunch I’d the summer salad! Organic greens, summer berries and amazing dressing.

This place is really good! Every time I’ve gone here the employees are nice and helpful. On my most recent visit we ordered the wings as an appetizer (my favorite) and I got the Hideout bacon burger with blue cheese. The wings were hot, and with just theorist amount of spice. My burger was cooked a little more than medium, but still very tasty. The bacon in the party really adds so much more flavor and the crumbly blue cheese was such a great combination with the salty bacon. I’ll definitely order that again. I also asked for the pink lemonade, wand I asked to vodka and it was a fantastic adult treat. Their service is great and the place is itself is nice and clean. I enjoy sitting in the nice outdoor area or in the bar area. I definitely recommend this place!

Great food, selection and service. Just had the Hideout burger which includes bacon inside the burger and topped with blue cheese. It was fantastic. My wife had the special which was a seared halibut and my daughter had the spare ribs which were excellent.
I can’t wait to come back to try something else from their menu… maybe the cuban pork sandwich!

My fiancé and I have eaten here four times since April 2015 (it’s now July). Our first experience here in April for lunch was by far the best, which is one of the reasons we’ve been coming back.
The high level summary from my perspective is that The Hideout has some really good things going for it, but it’s lacking in three areas: 1) Some things are made from scratch while others are not, and this is just puzzling to me. Either restaurant owners are into from scratch food, or they aren’t. When it’s hit or miss it’s confusing to the patron and sends a mixed message — like serving Heinz condiments with crafted sandwiches. 2) The same dish ordered multiple times has come out inconsistently. 3) They don’t offer discounts on their specialty drinks during happy hour ($ 4 well drinks, or house beer or wine), and have NO happy hour food items at all (WTF?).
The first time we came here with another couple in April it was for a late lunch on a Monday. Three of us ordered sandwiches, and my fiancé ordered the wedge salad. I had the cuban, which was decent, but it wasn’t served on the proper bread for a Cubano (Haven’t these folks seen Favreau’s Chef ???). Anyway, it was tasty, and the bread it was served on was nicely grilled. One of my friends had the veggie sandwhich, which looked delicious, and I can not recall what her partner had, but I recall he liked it. Now, back to the wedge salad — I wouldn’t typically never order a simple dish like this, but it was GOOD. It comes with a wonderful blue cheese dressing, and home made bacon with crushed red pepper. The bacon is amazing. The problem I had with this dish when we went ordered it the next time, is that the bacon was not crispy, the second time around it was a huge chewy hunk of bacon that was nearly impossible to cut much less eat.
The 2^nd visit was just my fiancé and I, and we had appetizers and drinks. The crafted drinks are good, but $ 9 a pop, and as stated above — no happy hour discount (I just don’t get this at all). She likes to start with the Effin Mule, and then go for a Mojito (the Mojito seems like a better value overall, served in a pint glass).
The 3^rd and 4^th visits were with fiancé and my two boys, age 11 and 6.5 (both are little foodies who are used to eating high quality, locally sourced ingredients at home).
For the 3^rd visit I had the veggie sandwich… meh. My fiancé and my 11 year old both had the special salmon sandwhich and they LOVED it. My 6.5 year old had the smoked gouda mac & cheese (which is a side dish, but a good large serving for a kid) and he LOVED it. He said it was the best mac & cheese ever. I had a bite, and have to say it’s way up there on the list of top mac & cheese dishes. The three of them then ordered the chocolate cake dessert, and they enjoyed it (though as best I can tell, they don’t make all their desserts from scratch, only some of them and this wasn’t one of them).
The 4^th visit was yesterday. I got home a little earlier than usual, and we went down there for happy hour/​early supper. We arrived around 4:45 (main entrée’s aren’t served until 5) and were simply blown away to find out they really don’t do happy hour, as stated above. They serve beer, wine, and $ 4 well drinks, but no discounts on specials, and NO HAPPY HOUR FOOD at all. We ordered the Thai Spring Rolls, which were just ok (2 stars). They had large chunks of tofu, and didn’t appear to be fresh made; they were cold and my guess is they just came out of the fridge.
My fiancé and I split the meatloaf and the wedge salad (this was the second go-​round on the salad where the bacon was too large and chewy to be enjoyed). The meatloaf is outstanding, and was served with a nice side of squash and delicious mashed potatoes. My 11 year old had the St. Louis style ribs, which we both agreed were just ‘ok’. It was kind of weird in that they were drenched in sauce, but the meat was dry, and then there were pockets of spicy heat, but it wasn’t consistent from bite to bite. My 6 year old again had the mac & cheese, and he was quite happy. The three of them shared the homemade cheesecake, and all agreed it was quite good. The bill for this plus six drinks was over $ 150 and I left feeling like it simply wasn’t worth the price.
Service has been decent at every visit, and certainly no complaints there. My issues with The Hidout are really more around overall design of the menu and experience. If you’re going to make food «from scratch» then it needs to be end to end. For example, making homemade mustard & ketchup is simple (Jamie Oliver has an amazing ketchup recipe posted on the net that always is a winner at my house), and there is no comparison to the flavor from scratch made, also the Heinz crap has high fructose corn syrup, which no respectable food lover is going to eat if they can help it.
The Hideout has promise, but I can’t see us going back there again anytime soon.

I would enjoy sitting down with the owners to offer some suggestions on how they could make this place outstanding rather than simply passable. I think I can see their vision — casual-​chic neighborhood gathering place with fresh California cuisine — but with the inconsistent support staff and lackluster menu (it’s almost there!) I’m giving it 2 stars.
I’ve been there on various days of the week and at different times of the day. I’ve been there for a business lunch, a couple of dinners with family, one happy hour with a group of friends, and a couple of times with my young son for lunch. I’ve seen the spectrum of service times and staff shifts.
There are a couple of servers I’d give 5 stars to, one of the hostesses is, in my opinion, a 5 star as well. There are quite a few unprofessional bus persons, servers and hostesses though. I can’t tell if there’s a regular turn-​over in staff or if I’m just witnessing different work-​shifts of support staff.
I want to like this place, I really do.

By far one of the oddest experiences, I’ve had at a restaurant– not to mention, it was rude.
Myself and two others went in to try it out for lunch, I should preface that it was a slow lunch hour/​they were not busy, and as we walked in were greeted by the bartender. After a normal eloquent intro, he pointed over to the hostess and told us that she would seat us.
As we’re turning to her, she makes this clearly upset, almost angry, face and shakes her head no. We turn back to the bartender and say, «It looks like she doesn’t really want to seat us. She’s shaking her head.» and are at a loss on how to proceed but kind of take it humorously.
(Hey, maybe she’s just having a really bad day– who knows?)
He replies with, «She’s nodding. Go ahead.»
(I guess I skipped the lesson in school were horizontal head shakes and vertical ones are the same thing. Silly me.)
In any case… just an odd/​bad customer service experience thus far.
But then, when we turn back to her, she actually bickers «I don’t get why he can’t seat you.» and just stares and makes a face.
At this point, it’s so odd and we’re just standing there like, «Okay, cool. Sooo… you don’t want us to eat here?» that we, in a very perplexed state, decided to go to Bittersweet– which, by the way, not only had great service but was delicious.
Mind you, as we’re leaving The Hideout, the hostess said absolutely nothing anymore. Just «I don’t get why he can’t seat you.» with an upset stare. I’m still taken back by it.
I don’t want to fully judge them by one of their staff members, though that was so weirdly unacceptable and they are part of the entire dining experience, that I will go back to hopefully try their food at some point and will update this rating accordingly– hopefully for the better!
(Just trying to be fair… but seriously, I have never experienced anything like that before and worked in the service industry/​as a waitress in college.)

I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about this fairly new place. So, we decided to eat here for my daughter’s birthday on a Thursday night.
From the moment we got there, parking was tight. Both the front and back lots were full. Despite the lot for the office building next door being completely empty, it’s private property and you can’t park there. We finally ended up finding a spot along the street.
They had a nice front deck area with tables, but it was full upon arrival. Inside, the décor looks completely remodeled, fresh and attractive. The bar was hopping. It must have been the end of happy hour, as everyone seemed really happy. ;)
Because of how it looked when we walked-​in, I was worried they wouldn’t have a table for us, but they were able to seat us right away in a room that looks like it used to be a living room if the building was a house in a previous life. It had a pretty fireplace with a cool log holding cute plants on the mantel.
Service was super-​friendly. The drink menu was short but had some sweet-​looking drinks. We ordered something reminiscent of a Mai Tai, Hawaiian-​made rum with POG (pineapple-​orange-​guava, a Hawaiian staple) and a floater of the same brand dark rum on top. Yummy! There were a couple other cocktails on the (not too overwhelming) menu, as well as a few local beers, wine on tap and bottled wine.
The menu had some intriguing items, but was pretty simple. Appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pastas and a few entrees. We split the grilled artichoke and turkey meatball appetizers, which were good. Unfortunately, for me being her allergic to dairy and not usually eating gluten, there were very little options (except for a salad, which I bore of easily). I decided to take a chance with the gluten and get the sole sandwich. It came with some beautifully crunchy house made, waffle-​cut potato chips and a meh cole slaw, which only lasted two bites. My daughter got the kids Mac and cheese, which for $ 6 wasn’t a bad deal. Overall, good but not excellent. At least they were cool with bringing out an ice cream for the birthday gal!
Would I go back again? Likely if someone invited me, but not planning a follow-​up trip any time soon. Now that they’re up and running and it looks like they’ve worked out the kinks, I would love to see management do a couple more tweaks to the menu to step it up a notch more. Come on, you can do it!

Sometimes it is just as easy as asking your adult children where to eat. These queries lead eight of us to The Hideout and a great experience all the way around.
We happened to be in the area around noon and had no idea we would need a reservation; but, felt compelled to drop in and visit with the hostess. Apparently the Hideout is fairly new and she felt the owner needed to be consulted before she committed to a party of that size. The owner came out with a smile and friendly greeting. He suggested a window table where we could see the garden seating and the fireplace. As he gave me a tour there were chances to see food being served for lunch and every dish looked pretty darn good with balance of color and presentation. The reservation was made and it was back to the beach cottage.
On arrival that evening there was a line at the door that did not have reservations. The hostess seated us immediately and the table was set, menus out and the owner approached to say hello as if we had been long time friends. The server appeared quickly and took beverage orders.
The menu is well organized and covered a range of items from appetizers’, burgers, sandwiches, entrees and desserts. The Sand Dab Sandwich with coleslaw and homemade potato chips was tasty. The presentation was appetizing. The Chef needs to make sure the coleslaw is properly drained as it bled over into the sandwich and chips enough to be a little annoying. The Brisket Salad was equally as delicious, both matching up well with the local beer menu.
From time-​to-​time the owner would drop by to make sure the service and meals were up to expectation. My wife had an issue with her beverage and he immediately replaced it with one that met her expectations.
Do not miss the Root Beer Float made with a local RB from Pacific Grove, California.
Others in our group had hamburgers and a Short Rib entrée. The comments on both were consistent with our experience from the North end of the table.
Service, food, beverages and atmosphere were beyond expectation for a new establishment.
One last point; it is called The Hideout for a reason, the place is off the beaten path a little and drive slow or you will pass their sign.
Enjoy