Old California Mining Co

Been here twice and have had great experiences both times. The service and atmosphere make this place! Great salad bar too! Shout out to the guy manager on a saturday afternoon for working and helping his employees, that is hard to come by these days!

They have the best French dip I have ever had. It always comes hot from the kitchen. The roll has garlic on it and the meat is always tender. The sandwich is big enough to make another meal out of it. I prefer their ribs over any other restaurant. We try to get Kevin as our waiter if he is available. He is attentive and not only knows what we like to drink but knows our food preferences as well. You will see Nick, the owner helping out and he always takes time to stop by and say hi. This is one of our go to places for dinner or lunch.

My husband and I LOVE this place. If you want a fantastic burger, I mean really note worthy, you must eat here. I have tried most things on their menu, but they do switch it up from time to time so you have to stop back by and see what’s new.
I personally am a huge fan of the coconut crusted Calamari. They cook a Calamari steak and then slice it into strips, served with a delicious dipping sauce. Usually you can’t find whole Calamari like that, it usually just the little rings, not a steak. And it is always cooked to perfection. The Calamari is actually an appetizer, but sometimes I order it as my main because it is SO yummy.
They have a lovely outdoor seating area, and a huge smoker/​rotisserie that they cook their beef, pork and chicken in. Fall off the bone tender.
If you are near Restaurant Row in San Marcos (or even if you aren’t) put this place on your list.
Staff is friendly and efficient, and the owner is on site and cares about his customers

What a find! Was looking for something new and thought of the San Marcos restaurant row. Didn’t mind driving the 30 mimutes to get there, but then had to choose which restaurant to eat lunch at. We chose the Old California Mining Company because we love a saloon atmosphere. Let me tell you, this is a place «where everybody knows your name.» It was full of friendly locals! From experience we know that if the locals like it, we’ll LOVE it! And we did! They have daily specials and happy hour 11:00 to 8:00 Monday thru Saturday and 11:00 to close on Sunday with well drinks $ 4.25. My hubs had the best reuben sandwich he’s ever had with battered fries. My open faced turkey sandwich with dressing and gravy tasted like I’d made it myself. Colleen, the bartender, was right on with our drinks. Will definitely be back to see you all again!

Surprised by the quality of the food. We had a burger a the tri tip. Both were great, plus the French fries were perfect!

Great food and friendly atmosphere! Waiters are polite and food comes out fast. My fiancé and I ate here before our movie at Regal Cinemas and were presently surprised for our first time! There’s a steak house directly next door and it doesn’t even compare and is more expensive! My man’s main food is steak and he eats it about five times a week… So when he finds a great steakhouse he sticks with it! The only complaint we had was the Mac and cheese noodles we’re over cooked making it hard to eat soggy pasta. But other than that everything was great and we will still return! Maybe just not order the Mac n cheese!

This place is so trash that I couldn’t even order food here. The service was incredibly slow and the waitress brought her bad attitude to work.
With all the great restaurants in the area, this is not a place I’d recommend coming to.

I’ll be back! :)
Plus, I overheard the people next to us saying that they never ordered something they didn’t like!
There were 3 of us today.
We all ordered different things.
AND everything was wonderful and cooked as we asked.
Excited to try more, plus it reminded me of back home.

Have been coming here for years! Best salad bar in North County. Always consistent, clean and friendly.
Keep it up Nick!!!

Used to love coming to this place when i originally lived here in SD five years ago. Not too much has changed. Still has the old western charm and the food is yummy. My only gripe is that took out the real bacon from the salad bar. I used to order the baked potato with my steak and grab a little dressing cup full of bacon for my potato. Not no more. They kept the chopped ham at least. Still tasty steaks and wonderful service. If ever in the San Marcos area and craving a flavorful steak, check this place out.

We had a delicious lunch! The BBQ tri-​tip sandwich & Miner’s Club Sandwich were both served piping hot. :-) And we had the bonus of Entertainment BOGO coupon & the Synergy Restaurant card we bought at Costco! What a fantastic bargain!

Very small bar area and not suitable for parties of more than four without taking chairs away from other tables.
Carne Asada taco appetizer was very bland and meat without flavor.
Choice of TV station shown on two largest TV’s in bar area clearly indicate a certain political affiliation is desired. If owner (s) desire is to appease a certain segment of the political base they are succeeding.

Kinda charming cowboy country décor. Friendly staff. My husband and I came her on a Tuesday night around 5:30pm. We were seated promptly. I ordered the garlic artichoke and mushroom chicken with rice. There was a lot of sauce which helped because the rice wasn’t seasoned. I couldn’t finish it, the portion was hefty.
My husband order the country fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. The gravy was good but the portion was small for a big guy like him. He and I both got the side salad which helped fill him up before his food came out.
If you like American comfort food this is a good place. It might be hard to stick to your diet but they do have a good salad bar.

You gotta get there Friday and Saturday prime rib special. It’s delicious! it’s to die for! Great family and family environment. Awesome customer service!

My parents recommended we try this place back in October so when my husband and I came out to stay at our timeshare, we decided to do just that.
Parking in the area is a bit of a pain, especially after you just got done spending 10 hrs at the SD Zoo doing absolutely nothing but walking… and walking even more to get to the restaurant. No biggy though, I got a hell of a step count that day.
The place is cute walking in, very true to the name so kudos for achieving that.
I got the baseball steak (medium rare) and my husband got the ribs and steak combo. Both dishes were perfect though I would have preferred more veggies on my plate. The dinner salad was really good and very fresh.
We’ll be back

My boyfriend and I came here for dinner Saturday night around 6. It was very packed, I’ve never seen it so crowded. We were still seated right away. My boyfriend ordered the OCMC burger but with NO sauce, and I ordered the fish and chips. We both also got dinner salads before our meal they were great! My boyfriend asked our waitress for more dressing, but she never brought any which was disappointing.
About 15 minutes later our food arrived and my boyfriend noticed there was sauce on his burger, we were waiting on our waitress to come back but she was taking a very long time. About 10 minutes later my boyfriend decides to get up to find her, but then at that moment she finally came by. She apologized and took the plate away. A couple minutes later his food comes back, as he’s putting together his burger he noticed there’s still sauce on the bottom bun! Which means they only replaced the top bun. Furious at this point we wait for our waitress again, another 10 minutes goes by and she finally comes back. She apologized again and took the plate away for the second time.
I slowly started eating and these fish and chips were amazing, without a doubt the best fish and chips I’ve ever had. They are perfectly crunchy the skin stays on the fish. Wow there just excellent. My boyfriend finally got his burger back about 4 minutes later. Finally it was perfect and he could finally eat, we also noticed he got a brand new burger and new fries. Which was great since it had been getting cold. He loved his burger and thought it was delicious.
Overall, the food was excellent. Although what happened was unacceptable the chefs obviously know they put sauce on both buns of the burger. So bringing it back they should of known to replace both buns. We also got offered a free desert, which we declined. We always end up coming here when we can’t decide on what type of food were in the mood for, since this place has such a huge variety. After this were not sure if we will return… but maybe for those perfect fish and chips!

Just ate here for lunch. Got the chicken artichoke Fettucini in white wine sauce. It was DELICIOUS! Service was great and fast. It came with a side salad and I just got water. It ended up being under $ 12 and I have leftovers for later! Will definitely be back. Can’t wait to try more things!
Oh, and they have the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had. Fresh, crisp lettuce, not pre-​made so it’s not drowning in dressing. The dressing was light and tasty. And they don’t skimp on croutons.

I don’t know why I have waited this long to leave a review. This place I frequent once a week for a late lunch or happy hour. I always sit in the bar, because the bartender JOSH is the best! The food is good, and lunch prices are about 8 a plate BUT you can either A. go on a Monday/​Tuesday and get a hamburger and fries for five bucks, or B. clip a coupon for a bogo lunch. Lots of ways to save at this place and enjoy an afternoon with Josh and the other locals at the bar. PS Free AC and Popcorn too… ;) and in the winter time a HUGE brickstone fireplace to keep it cozy.

We came for dinner. It took 10 minutes for someone to notice we were there and finally get seated. When we got seated, we waited 15 minutes and no one came. We got up and left.
On the way out, we realized there was a mogl deal that basically allowed us to have dessert for free, so we thought we would order dessert on the way out.
The two blonde girls in the front who took our dessert order were so annoyed that we ordered dessert. One girl made fun of the other because apparently she really hates having to pack desserts to go. The other girl kept saying that she didn’t understand why people didn’t just go to baskin robbins instead.
After trying the dessert, we agreed with the girl. The ice cream was generic and the «brownie» was stale chocolate cake. I have no reason to try anything else.

Came here on a Saturday evening. The restaurant is rustic (like a log cabin) and is very comfortable. It’s a casual environment for sure.
We had coconut crusted calamari to start and it was good! Everyone at the table enjoyed it. I had never eaten calamari before so as a first timer, I can say it was delicious.
I had the one time trip to the salad bar as my meal. I was pleased that they had spinach! They had a decent selection of toppings and dressings and everything was fresh. While I don’t eat bread, it would be nice if they offered it with the salad.
My dining companions had steak, chicken, and a cabo salad. All said their meals were good. And I could see they had big portions.
The service was average.
I would return in the future if I’m looking for a casual sit down place to eat that isn’t terribly expensive.