Paines Restaurant

I have to say I’m very disappointed with the service at Paines. It’s seems like the staff isn’t what it used to be. First off we waited a long time before anyone even greeted us or even looked in our direction to be seated for a table. Once seated we waited around 10 mins and no one has took our drink order or even said that they would be with us soon. I don’t even know who was suppose to be our waiter or waitress. Since we weren’t acknowledged and extremely hungry we decided to get up and leave. And of course no one seemed to notice that either. Oh well off to The Inn we go…

We just recently moved to Hollister from Sunnyvale and we are extremely happy about the slower pace and even happier about the friendly people. Paine’s was recommended to my husband by a golf buddy. We have already visited this great place twice. Great service and even greater food. Adrean was waiter and he took good care of us. We will surely go back!

Excellent wine selection for a small town Bar. Have you tried the Saganaki !! Yummy’…go there you be the judge.

I don’t usually do reviews on Unilocal but I can’t pass this opportunity by. I had a goodbye luncheon today there for a dear friend of mine. I can’t say enough for the help of the staff. Thank you, Kim, for making the planning so easy! Thank you to both Kim and Mary for serving us and for everything you did today to make this pain free and seem so easy. You
both worked so hard to make things nice for every lady in attendance.
The service was great, the food was wonderful as it always is. So many ladies came up to me afterwards to let me know just how much they enjoyed it and would come back. Many had not
been to Paine’s for years and I know they will be back.
Thank you for letting us use the banquet room for our luncheon. It was set up so nice.
This is definitely the place to come to in Hollister. You can really count on them to make
it nice for you.

The service was good. The atmosphere was relaxing. But the food is mediocre at best. I had the Calamari which was flavorless much like the claim chowder. The best thing on my plate was my baked potato.

Wow… I was actually impressed with how bad this place was. They almost had to try to be that bad.
Christmas eve… When we first got to the restaurant we saw a sign that had three specials listed: lobster, lamb, and a filet.
They seated our party of 10 in the banquet room away from the restaurant seating. That was fine since we had three kids. The waitress arrived and handed us the limited menu for the evening. Prices were reasonable. They brought out two orders of bruchetta. They did not provide any plates for the appetizer. Kind of odd, but we managed.
The waitress came to take our order. I asked about the specials. She told me they only had what was on the one page menu. I told her I saw a board with several specials listed when we walked in. She insisted they did not have anything but that she would ask.
She returned and finally recited the three specials and thier prices to us. We all ordered our food and drinks. Everything arrived promptly. The salmon my wife ordered was great. I ordered a steak along with three other people in our party. The steak was subpar… somewhere in between a Dennys and an Applebees.
I could have dealt with all the above but where I got really frustrated was with the bill. I just happened to glance at it and noticed my uncles 19 dollar sirloin was charged at 27 bucks. He ordered a side of ravioli which was 2.50. My 25 dollar new York was 28 bucks. Each of the salmon orders was charged at a dollar higher than the menu as well as the one filet of sole… 19 instead of 18 dollars.
I could deal with one or two over charges but how someone manages to overcharge almost all of our meals was unbelievable. I brought it to the attention to the owners wife. She apologized and said she would fix it right away. The bill returned mostly fixed. The filet of sole was still a dollar higher. My uncles plate was still 28 dollars but the ravioli charge was gone. I thought they realized thier mistake and decided to comp the 2.50 side. I pointed out to them the sirloin was still 27 and sole was a dollar over. She explained they charged the 8 dollars for the side of ravioli instead of the 2.50.
Not sure how many other people got scammed that night that didn’t bother to look at thier bill but I hope it wasn’t many. None of the people in our party will be returning.

Great food and service with a nice local vibe. Try their locally produced wine selections!

The new Paines is great. Best food in Hollister. There’s a true chef behind Paines food. Even the simplest items on the menu will exceed expectations. The bar area is rehabilitated making it very comfortable not seedy like other bars. They continued lunch lunch for us late into the afternoon.

Don’t let the table cloths fool you this restaurant is not fine dinning. The pounding of dice cups coming from the bar gives you the feeling of construction work in progress. Every ten seconds or so the slamming of the cups as if someone is trying to put them thru the counter. When we complained we were told this goes on all night and they moved us to the back of the restaurant, this didn’t help, you would think management would put the dice cups away at 5 when dinner starts.
The food was terrible, the mash potatoes were watery, the chicken parmesan was hot but placed on a bed of cold spaghetti and the soup was Luke warm at best.
The next day I got deathly ill after eating that chicken so management should inspect their kitchen.

Our first time here was about a month ago. My cugino brought my wife and I here to get some dinner after moving to Hollister. We all ordered the Prime Rib and it was good but my only gripe would be that the so called salted crust, wasn’t very salty? They have a very good menu with many great looking dishes. We will be back for sure to try some others out! I have to add one more thing, they have a great bar and they have some of my favorite Gin! As we left I said to my cugino, this is place is like Original Joe’s and we like that!

Everything is perfect & delicious! The atmosphere is friendly and amazing as soon as you walk in. The bartenders and servers are right on que and always have a smile. The sagonaki is exciting and tasty. I crave their homemade ranch! I’ve had everything on the menu and have Never been disappointed. Whenever I come home to visit my parents, Paine’s is Always my first stop!

This place is absolutely great!!! Service is on point! The people there are excellent and the food is always good. I have been going there my whole life and always loved there food

We had reservations for 6 pm and the restaurant was full we got seated as soon as we walked on the door. I then asked our waitress Mary what she would recommend as per a drink she suggested a lemon drop yum It was perfect For dinner I had the prime rib it was melt in your mouth terrific then the banana foster for dessert omg I couldn’t have picked a better dessert I just wanted to say Thank You Paines for a great night.

We had a delightful meal last night.
Arrived and was promptly seated, waitress arrived right away and got our drink order back in no time. She took us through the specials and left us to sort through all the yummy choices.
Noise, light ambience was just right– comfortable and we were able to converse with each other (and friends stopping by) without having to shout– even though the place was quickly full.
Our orders were taken and arrived quickly; a couple pasta dishes and prime rib rare and another medium rare. The food was hot, generous portions (yea!) and our server knew exactly who ordered what. The rare prime was actually, yah know; rare– a sadly too often surprise at other places that think all meat should be cooked like McDonalds does or something. Very flavorful and filling– yummy!
One of our group had a delicious cremated brûlée (the rest is were too full) and prompt coffee. We were doing a lot of talking and were there about two hours– never rushed a bit.
I recommend this place– you won’t be disappointed.

Came in for lunch and this place looks awesome! New floors, tables, and no more «old» feel. Had the club sandwich which was very tasty. Our server Barb was very friendly and attentive. Will be back!

We just got back from a lovely meal here. We were reluctant to go at first because i read some bad reviews but we were very pleasantly surprised. The décor snd ambiance were lovely, service was great and the food faultless. We will definitely be going back… Stop by and try it out you won’t be disapointed

So we’ve been to this place twice. Both times were underwhelming. Ordered the chicken picatta the first time. It was OK but I didn’t like the sauce it was in at all… Very not like the typical Italian version of this dish. Second visit was about a month ago. Ordered the rib eye medium and my girlfriend ordered the new York medium rare. The rib eye came medium rare and the new York came medium well and was tough. Too late to send back to the kitchen… Can’t uncook a steak and we have a 16 month old that doesn’t want to wait another 20 minutes for a cooked steak to come out. Sadly neither of us enjoyed the steaks. Paid the bill and left unhappy. Just another place in town we won’t be coming back to and unfortunately that list is growing.

We were there for dinner on May 5. Great calamari steak also known as Dave’s Special. Greatly recommended by our server. So tender only needed a fork to cut into it. It was preceeded by a delicious Caesar Salad.
We’ll be back.

I came for lunch and the dining room was very attractive, and updated. I had crispy chicken sandwich with tomato bisque soup. It was moist and tasty. It was a good size and there was a choice of breads for the sandwich. My friend had a BLT on sourdough. Very good. Clam chowder was their choice and it was very good. Wonderful service. This restaurant is worth another look soon.

A group of friends and I went to this place last Saturday, 2^nd time. It was Karaōke night and it was clear everyone there only comes to sing their same darn song every Sat. I feel so sorry for the bartenders. This is pretty close to life in hell for them.
My 1^st visit to this place was the night before and I specifically wanted to go because there was a great local band which I hadn’t seen for a while.
The music was good, drinks were well made and there were very few moments where I felt unsafe or wanting to leave. A few times during the night, some questionable types came in, but they quickly left out the side door since the crowd was not in their age range.
We made nice with the bartenders and stuck around for about 2 hours. I would go again, but it would need to be on a Friday to catch a live band.
I am also not surprised about the comments many are posting about the food or atmosphere. If you want fine dining, Hollister is not your town, get over it. So, get in your car and drive 20 – 40 miles because that’s the price you paid to live in a small quaint family town.