Vic Stewart’s

Took my wife here last night. Food was great! Coconut prawns were off the hook! Can’t forget to mention the tasty 12oz Filet Mignon.
I recommend it to anyone looking for a romantic spot with great steaks.

Nice atmosphere and the train is neat. Had a great New York strip and the waitress was very good.

Terrible experience on Sunday night. Hardly anyone in the restaurant, so can’t blame the ‘busy’ kitchen or waiter.
The waiter took the men’s orders at the table before the women’s. Filled the men’s water glasses first.
When they ran out of fresh baked bread, he brought Columbo French rolls that were cut up and slightly toasted. Didn’t mention that they ran out-​just served them that way.
My filet skewers were cooked well, but came with TWO kinds of broccoli. (The menu states Asparagus and Rice Pilaf will accompany this dish)
My side dish was the kicker though. The microwaveable pouch of brown rice and quinoa from Costco. Seriously. I have eaten it a thousand times. It has a very distinct flavor. And here it was on my plate at a restaurant. May as well have served me Top Ramen. It is NOT a substitute for rice pilaf.
My son ordered a bacon cheeseburger. Of course it came without bacon or cheese. The waiter took it back and added the bacon and cheese to the now cold burger and served it back to him. Mmmmm. Cold onion rings are always a hit.
We had a decent sized group and it seems everyone had at least one thing wrong with their order. When the $ 150 meat platter came and was overlooked, the waiter stopped coming to ask if everything was ok.
The manager was upset that we weren’t interested in the mandatory 18% tip. We didn’t even ask them to take a discount off the foods that were brought out sloppily AND incorrectly. Let alone microwaved pre-​prepared. Ugh.
One star given only because you can’t give less than that.

Was not going to write a review but after what’s happened, here goes…
Been wanting to go to Vic for a long time and picked my 60^th birthday to celebrate
with 8 other people. 4 of us ordered the ribeye and 3 were sent back because
they were tough as shoe leather. The 4^th should have sent his back because his also
was like shoe leather, but ate it anyway.
So bill comes and we’re not comp’d a thing, barely got an apology. I spoke with the waitress
and told her of my complaints and said she should tell her supervisor my displeasure.
I call the next day and spoke with the supervisor WHO DID NOT EVEN APOLOGIZE, had
the audacity to ask if I had ever had a ribeye and said that due to the holidays (we ate there ¹²⁄₂₃) that she would get back to me after the holiday. NEVER CALLED ME BACK!!!
I then called the general manager who was very apologetic and said he wanted to make things right if I agreed. He was going to send me a gift certificate for X dollar amount and hoped that
he could show us the correct way things are done at Vic Stewarts.
THIS WAS AT LEAST 3 WEEKS AGO AND I HAVE NOT HEARD A WORD FROM HIM.
I’M TOTALLY DIGUSTED WITH THEM AS NIGHT WAS RUINED AND MADE WORSE BY
2 PEOPLE WHO COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
AND IF YOU BEEN THEIR YOU KNOW IT WAS NOT A CHEAP DINNER!!!

Interesting décor, friendly and helpful staff. But gotta shave off a little due to the mediocre steaks and other fare in comparison to the price paid. Look its a good spot for that special event, but just doesn’t wow me enough to give them that fifth star.

This place is so cute! From the outside, it looks like an inn or bed and breakfast. They have a parking lot in front of the restaurant but there is plenty of metered parking spots nearby (meters run until 8pm in this area). Once inside, I was kindly greeted by the host and the quaint atmosphere made me feel right at home.
My entrée: Vic’s Ribeye Steak — With Vic’s signature barbecue, caramelized Bermuda onions and Roasted garlic buttermilk mashed potatoes. The portions were huge and — OH MY GAWD! — you know it’s a good steak when you microwave your leftovers the next day and it’s still tender and juicy. YUM! For appetizers, we tried the calamari, the bruschetta, and the prosciutto — all very tasty as well!
I noticed they also have happy hour at the bar so I will definitely be coming back to check that out.

WHAAAT happened to this place? Went for dinner last night, having coming for years to experience very good and reliable food/​service. It was a ghost town, only two other tables seated in main room, granted it was the Sunday after New Years, just expected a few more customers. At any rate –porterhouse steaks ordered med rare were raw at center, filet of sole was dry, flavorless and buerre blanc sauce had been forgotten then added at last minute. Buerre blanc was minimal and also flavorless — white fish on white rice on white plate. One of my guests who had the sole has had stomach issues since we got home from dinner — boo! Our server tried hard but to fix the rare meat issue (however unorthodox the approach) — he stood over my daughters shoulder grabbed her fork and knife and proceeded to carve up her meat in front of her. Then he took the most rare part back to the kitchen. We were sitting at far end of room near kitchen — at one point it looked and smelled like smoke was seeping into dining room. New chef? New management? New staff? Idk — nothing about the experience was consistent with the past.

This is a story about good decisions, written by a woman who really has little to stand on when penning such a piece, as someone who so often makes incredibly questionable decisions herself. But, luckily for moi, the first good decision came on the part of my boss when she selected Vic Stewart’s as the restaurant for our office holiday party. We were told to expect a comfy steakhouse vibe and I was assured there would still be flavors aplenty in whatever vegetarian entrée I chose.
What we were not told was that our party would take place in the most adorable train car compartment ever (second good decision) or that Don would be the best server extraordinaire imaginable. So we just couldn’t have been prepared for the amazing customer service and attention that we would receive, but from the moment that we got there, we were totally tended to. Don was a gem, a glittering little constellation illuminating our sky – or just a healthy number of motion sensing LED path lights leading up to the door when you’re too drunk to see. Either way, the gratitude is real.
The décor is like an elderly, ornery relative you still have to care for: a little kitschy and overwhelming at times (hello, pink gingham!) but you still have to just take them as they are. Interestingly enough, I saw a lot of elderly, ornery relatives in there.
My coworkers ranted and raved about their entrees, although I can only speak for the pasta primavera I chose. Everyone had a choice of steak, shrimp scampi, salmon over wild rice or a vegetarian selection but since I’m the only vegetarian, I was the only one who got anything other than the aforementioned delights. The pasta primavera was alright, nothing special and nothing to complain about. I ate all of the broccoli out of it and at that point was already pretty well-​filled with wine, coffee, bruschetta, the love and joy of the holiday spirit, asparagus, roasted garlic, etc. so there was nothing to complain about. Plus, I knew that in about 2.2 seconds, that «New York style» cheesecake with strawberry compote or something of that nature would be arriving and I wanted to be ready. (Every once in a while my decision making skills are absolutely impeccable!)
P. S. Don’t rely upon that humble little dabble of a parking lot they boast; parking was a true chore! I will say that it was the height of holiday shopping season in Dub Creek, which is always a bad time to find a parking spot.

Nice atmosphere, my porterhouse was little salty but otherwise everything else was great.

Better than expected! The service was great, I had a steak and it was perfect! The wine selection was pretty generous as well. I will totally return and try the pork chop since our waiter recommended it to us.

Once a year everyone should try to make reservation for a special dinner here, and if your money grows on trees in your backyard more frequently so.
Summary:
Food quality: * * * *
Service: * * * * *
Ambiance: * * * * *
Bar/​cocktail: * * * * *
Price$: $$$$$
Location: * * * * *
Parking: *
Overall: * * * *
Now the detailed review:
The biggest draw for me is the décor & ambiance, old world feel which is kind’a rare for this suburban area. The best thing about it is you can get the stake dinner experience in nice restaurant close to home, not having to drive across the bridge and deal with the city.
The piano bar is very nice and nice selection of top shelf items and good choices on draft.
We were celebrating our 24^th anniversary, so I reserved one of the private cabins for us.
A private cabin is what first class travelers would get on trains back in late 1800’s. A wall to wall mahogany covered cabin with table for only 2 takes you to another time and place, kind’a like a time warp, its very romantic and can quickly set the mood for a special evening. I HIGHLY recommend it. For larger groups, there are tables in the dining car but of course, you’ll be sharing the room with other diners/​travelers. Should the train be fully booked, you’ll sit in the main house, still quite nice, just like a typical brick & mortar restaurant.
Tip#1, call and reserve ahead.
Tip#2, don’t go for the dinner «specials» there’s nothing special about it, except it costs 25% more, pick what you want off the main menu and add the sides you want to make it your own.
The quality of beef is well above average, and better than anything you can buy off the shelf at your local meat market. But here comes
Tip #3,
if you’re «old-​school» like me (I was a grill cook for better of my tees and college years and I know all about cooking stakes. The guy who taught me always said, if you need to add any kind of sauce to the stake, then you need a better piece of meat), so I prefer to season your stake as you eat it with pepper or horseradish, then be sure to tell your waiter you DON’T WANT YOUR STAKE SEASONED! Because, they will drown the meat in so much seasoning that you won’t be able to tell what you’re biting into!
Dessert selection is not up to par with the dinner menu, its a very short list and kinda leaves you wanting more.

Beth and I went to Vic Stewart’s for our Anniversary dinner and we were highly impressed. With two kids, nights out with just the two of us are few and far between so a great meal with great service were what we needed. The server (Murry) had perfect timing and even provided the chocolate mouse for dessert, a very nice gesture. I had the prime rib with scallop potatoes while Beth had the fillet and prawns on skewers. I will say their definitions of well, medium well and such tend to run a little more towards the done, just keep that in mind. All in all, it was a very memorable meal, best in a very long time.

Wow. All I can say. What a horrible experience. We sat in the bar dining area on a Tuesday night. The place was dead and the service was gawd awful. Once our food, once finally delivered, looked and tasted like dog food. The worst part is that I took my boss there so luckily I didn’t have to pay for it and we expensed it. I would have been livid if I paid for that out of my own pocket. I always visit Flemings and Ruth’s Chris and decided to finally give this place a try. Bad idea! One star is even pushing it here!

Ordered the jumbo prawn app and it arrived after our meal. To add insult to injury the cocktail sauce tasted like ketchup. Baked potato missing the sour cream. Green beans missing salt or flavor of any kind. Filet was excellent. Prime rib was only ok. Not worth the money. I reached out to the Manager to tell him about our experience, and received no response. It appears that the restaurant has a generally good perception in the community, therefore they have repeat customers whether the food is good or not. Too bad.

The food was good, but the service was superb. Our server was Don. We had dinner here last night. When Tam made reservations for the four of us to celebrate Kevin’s birthday she specified that Alan needed a low sodium diet. We have found serving staff to be extremely helpful in addressing this, but Don took it to a whole new level. He was knowledgeable, nuanced and fully engaged, assessing w/​Alan the acceptable level of sodium and translating it to the kitchen. He also had a great sense of humor.
This space used to house Victoria Station, which was a favorite steakhouse of ours in the late 70s to mid 80s, although I don’t remember coming to this location. We used to go to the one in Larkspur and maybe Oakland. Here’s the background from wikipedia, for those who are interested:
You can still see evidence of the railroad cars in the interior.
We were given menus. We decided to share an order of calamari and one of onion rings, both w/​o added salt. We didn’t miss it. Alan was a little disappointed in the calamari, which he found a little chewy and expensive at $ 15. I liked it better than he did. The onion rings were a hit. Even Tam, who doesn’t care for beer battered onion rings, liked them a lot. Tam and I shared a Caesar salad, which was well balanced, not overdressed and had tiny, tasty croutons. It was delivered split. Kevin had his own salad. Alan and I both had ribeye steaks, Tam had a T-​bone and Kevin had a Porterhouse. The steaks came w/​a choice of mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, rice pilaf or broccoli. Everyone else had baked potatoes while I had broccoli. We ordered creamed corn to share, although the bacon made it unavailable to Alan. We also ordered mushrooms to share w/​no salt added. A basket of sourdough bread w/​butter was delivered to the table and later, when Alan requested some ends, Don brought him a basket w/​ends which he shared w/​Tam. The bread was fresh, warm and delicious.
The mains came, along w/​the sides. The steaks were huge. Don served us vegetables. Alan found his steak much too rare (it would have been fine for Kevin or me) and Don took it back to the kitchen to remedy. The corn was tasty, as were the mushrooms. My broccoli was a generous portion, perfectly cooked and topped w/​a couple of slices of tomato. I finished all my vegetables and about half the steak. Alan couldn’t finish his steak either so we look both leftovers and he took the leftover mushrooms. Tam and Kevin took their leftovers as well, along w/​fat for the dogs. We looked at the dessert menu, but no one was hungry. At the end of dinner Don brought a dish of chocolate mousse w/​a candle on the rim of the bowl in honor of Kevin’s birthday. Kevin took a spoonful or two and was too full for me. Tam took a raspberry w/​some mousse, but it was too rich for her. It was perfect for me and I treated myself to a few spoonsful, but didn’t finish it, though I was tempted. When we left, Don walked us out, protective preceding me as I descended the stairs w/​my crutch. Tonight Alan made paninis for dinner w/​the leftover steaks and the mushrooms and they were wonderful.

I was so disappointing at my dinging experience at Vic Stewart’s last night I had to write about it. We had one of the private dining cars, which was supposed to be romantic, but was really dirty. My guess is that nobody cleans these things. Our car had a really disgusting spider web against the window with a whole bunch of caught flies (many days worth) and there was a fly flying around our car as well. I went to swat it and hit the curtain up against the window and a ton of white dust shot out of the curtain and went everywhere. Before the end of the night I did kill the fly but not the gnat that also shared the car with us. My wife’s salmon was overcooked and the free desert they gave us for our anniversary, which had been advertised by the hostess, as something special from the chef was a chocolate mousse that must have been scraped off the side of something and had a gummy mouth feel. We did not eat it.
I have rated this restaurant highly in the past, which made it an even bigger disappointment, but feel this will be our last visit. (See Cobweb picture I will post as well.)

I really liked this place my first visit but the second not so much. When I ordered my drink I told him exactly what I wanted. Very simple — only 2 ingredients!
The bartender made her own version, which is not at all what I wanted. She noticed I wasn’t drinking it and then scolded me across the room in front of all the other patrons on the proper way (her way) to make the drink & offered to remake it… I hate soda water & that was the main ingredient. I probably won’t be back.

This place is very good. I had the 12 oz Filet. It was absolutely fantatsic. The calamari was some of the best I have tasted in awhile. If you are Big Scotch drinker they have a selective but good assortment. Annnd the chessecake is BOMB! Highly recommend going to this place.

How have I not known about this happy hour?! My sis and I went last night after the gym and the bartender was great! She was super friendly and helpful and very engaging. We ordered mixed green salads, sautéed broccolini and sliders. Everything was delicious and decently priced. I think the thing that want to sever the most that was the sangria. We also got to taste the Bloody Mary mix and it was heavenly. We will be back!

Lets bring some history back to you all today. Yes, they are located at an old train depot. Yes, you can sit in an old train car and dine if you desire. And yes, this was the first place that I went to dinner the day I turned 21.
Unilocal’s Cocktail Girl was born at Vic Stewart’s all those years ago.
They have a five star cocktail menu for sure. It changes with the seasons. They really know their booze and combinations and I’ve loved every cocktail I’ve had here.
Recently we came in for our wedding anniversary. For cocktail starters we had the Canton Ginger Cosmo. It has Grey Goose, Canton Ginger Liqueur, fresh lime & cranberry juice. So refreshing and not to sweet not to bitter.
Their Caesar Salad was perfectly executed. One of my favorites anywhere. The Coconut Prawns were a little burned for our tastes and we should have passed but we couldn’t resist. But he Buckley Bay Oysters were fantastic.
My husband had the Filet Mignon. He wasn’t that impressed and he even said that Flemming’s is better. Sorry, I disagree. This was like Meat Silk, so delicious and smooth. I had a bite it was great and Ill order it next time we come in on date night. He also hated his scalloped potatoes. I didn’t try so Ill take his word for it.
Lets talk about Lamb Shank Baby! Yes baby sheep isn’t worth being silent about. The meat was juicy and succulent. I’ve cooked this at home and could only dream of achieving the flaky, succulence of this meat.
The presentation was quite fun as well. However, the mashed potatoes that came with mine were very bland. Even with the drippings from the Lamb Shank it didn’t save it.
Our final dessert cocktail was the Grasshopper cocktail. It was so smooth and good except that the color was a grotesque neon green. We had two of these. I do really love a minty cocktail.
Service was fantastical! Slow at moment but when serving us it was great. We also brought our baby in with us and it was very baby friendly. I would probably find a sitter for the toddler like we did but when making a reservation let the host know that you’re bringing a little baby with you. Little babies and maybe the 6 year old and older kid crowd are good dinner companions to bring. The toddler crowd, I wouldn’t dare.
I loved it here and need to come back more often. Why haven’t we? I’ve honestly never had a bad experience here. You’ll be seeing me here for my birthday coming up for sure.

I come here for CE dinners and I always get the filet mignon or the salmon. muy bien :)