The Reserve Wine Bar & Shop

The ambiance sucked, the owner was a drunk who hit on his female employees even though he sounded gay.
This place was a shame in ladera

First and foremost, the owner knows wine. He is not cashing in on a fad, this is his life’s work and he is good at it. Tell him what you like and he will point you to a bottle to fit your taste — and your price range. They do not have a large selection but it is well-​balanced and there are plenty of wonderful surprises. This place cannot be beat for quality wine. It is worth noting that their beer selection is excellent also.
Food review to follow.

Stopped by last night to visit with an old friend and was seated at the bar. Two women started talking to me, both were waiting for their husbands, both regulars. As a long-​legged lady I complained about there being sufficient room for my gams at the barstools, but my companions noted that the bar is so small and a really social place. I guess the owner stands there chatting most nights — and since a lot of people recognize each other, they get to socializing. It’s a really cozy, quaint atmosphere up there.
Anyway, I was sipping away at my riesling, enjoying the pesto gnocchi (very simple, but flavorful). Both couples at the bar with us had the caprese salad and said it’s to die for — regulars usually speak the truth. And, it did look amazing so probably next time, but I was told the avocado burger is the best thing on the menu. There are maybe 5 tables in the restaurant and 10 seats at the bar, and there are just one or two people taking care of the restaurant. It’s pretty mellow service — food is delivered to the table when it’s ready, so you may have to wait a couple of minutes for your associate’s plate to come out. But after having worked in a large corporate restaurant atmosphere, at least you know your dish isn’t sitting under a heat lamp.
Overall a cozy little place. I heard Friday and sometimes Saturday nights can be outrageous (the waitress took 2 reservations for the night of while I was at the bar, which is easily explained by the few tables). It’s a little bit far out of my way, but who wouldn’t make the occasional trip to Ladera Ranch for a decent wine?

Excellent wine selection and the food is scrumptous! And to die for desserts… the warm cake and gelato… out of this world!

The food was excellent, the atmosphere was cozy and fun, and the wait staff was friendly. The only complaint I had was everyones food at our table came out at separate times making everyone wait a while to actually have their food. But the food was worth waiting for. (The artichokes appetizer was smaller than expected as well). The gnocci was delicious, the wedge salad was fantastic the flatbread was tasty and the filet was melt in your mouth to die for!

I’ve been there a few times and it’s become a favorite. My friends and I always meet up with someone there and it feels like we’re old friends by the time we leave.
The food is amazing and is constantly changing to bring in new dishes.

Not a fancy place and the service isn’t spectacular, but the food is fresh and good quality. It is a hidden gem.

The Reserve is as great as it ever was. I’ve eaten here every Friday for months and the atmosphere, servers, and food are awesome. You won’t be disappointed.

My husband and I ate here in March 2011. We called for reservations and were told they were booked, but we could sit at the bar. It is a tiny retsaurant. The first hour we were there only one table of two was filled. We could have had a table. yhm
Anyway, we sat at the bar where our knees were cramped and we had to listen to thwe two servers (girls in their early 20’s?) chit chat. Then when I asked for a glass of wine, we were told we could not order by the glass. Because it’s a wine bar, you can only order 2 oz. «tastes» or a «wine flight» of 3 2oz tastes of 3 wines, which are paired together by them on the menu. I liked only one and would have liked to just order a glass of that one. Oh well.
When we had dinner, I ordered the cider apple chicken, which was good, I thought at first. The lighting was low and I couldn’t see it well. I noticed there were a lot of tendons in the chicken when I cut it. Upon closer inspection and after I had eaten more than half, my husband and I noticed that the entire top half of the chicken (which had been covered with the sauce and apples) was raw! That pretty much did it for us. We won’t be returning to this place again

To be fair, let me first state that I tried to go the day before the Groupon expired.
However, I had tried calling multiple times and no one ever answered the phone so I could make a reservation.
That said, you can imagine how annoyed I was when I got there and they told me they were booked for the entire night. I was really not in the mood to let my Groupon go to waste and I could not drive back the next day due to prior engagements.
The servers were able to squeeze my cousin and I in at the bar. We ordered some food and wine/​beer. The food was okay, but nothing left me craving more. The ambiance is nice and quaint but this is a really far drive for me and I’d rather go to the Twisted Vine in downtown Fullerton.

I was pretty excited to find, what looked like a nice wine bar, close to home, especially finding this one on Groupon and getting $ 40 for only $ 20. The well-​chosen location, the pleasantly decorated interior, and the cozy lighting showed that the proprietor (s) of The Reserve have some sense of class. However, closer examination revealed this to be only partly true.
Upon entering, I was greeted by a charming young lady at the hostess’ station, who’s voice was overpowered by a loud, incongruent musical element consisting of Bush, Metalica, Def Leopard, and others of similar genre.
My party was seated promptly and had our drink orders taken. Shortly after ordering an Irish Stout, I was informed that they were out of the one I wanted, so an alternative was suggested. Her recommendation was a British beer, «Similar to the one you ordered». When my drink arrived, it was poured for me from an aluminum can, and was about the color of a Bud Lite. (For those of you who are not savvy in the ways of quality beer, a stout generally looks like molasses, not urine.) Apparently the poor girl had been left clueless concerning the products she served, so out of decency, I drank what was poured without complaint.
The food was good, but fairly pricey for what was presented.
Overall, for $ 20.00, plus a few buck in tip and tax, it wasn’t horrible but it did leave much to be desired. My return is not likely.

We ventured in pretty early on a Saturday evening (6pm) and was promptly given a frown face when we told them we didn’t have a reservation. So I recommend making one just to be sure. Luckily there were two seats at the bar which was fine except one thing, the bar is short so there is really not a lot of room for legs and knees. My husband is 6’3″ so he found it kinda uncomfortable as did I.
The waitress/​bartender was friendly enough. The wine choices were fine, we did like the flights. The sliders were amazing as well as the goat cheese app, both were delicious and larger than expected. The gnocchi was good, not the best though and a good portion, we shared.
The one thing that put us off was this: after I ordered a half glass of chardonnay I then ordered a pinot noir, the bartender poured the pinot right into my dirty glass! It even had a bit of white wine still in it! For a wine place, we thought this would be blasphemous. Overall, I think it’s great for a neighborhood spot, good menu and good wines by the glass. It’s pretty small and not great for kids. Not sure we’ll be back though. Oh, odd tipping procedure, but they explain it.

This is a small quaint place with excellent selection of wines and GREAT food to top it off!
They have various flights available for tasting and you can even order single glass tastings at a very reasonable price. The selection of wines to choose from are very classy. I have yet to be disappointed with a recommendation. I have even bought a few bottles of wine I tasted to enjoy at home.
They now serve a delectable variety of food. I’ve tried the sliders with apple confit, jack cheese served with pomme frites. I see many others order the cheese plate. The food has a very wine country feel. They also keep changing the menu so something new and exciting is offered… variety is the spice of life no?
The service is fantastic and they are very personable. I come here on a regular basis and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this place to others.
It’s an ideal date spot for sure or to kick back and enjoy a few glasses of wine after a hard day of work!
Yes they have a weird tipping system but get over it… at least you know what your total bill costs when you submit for payment.
If you are going to be drinking more than a few glasses of wine I highly suggest getting a bottle instead of individual glasses.

When we were given our bill the waitress pointed out that to leave gratuity we would have to write it in ourselves as they don’t have a tip line on their receipts. However, this was explained to us poorly, my fiancé did this AFTER the card was charged, and apparently he needed to do this BEFORE. Please take note of this as the waitresses WILL CHASE YOU DOWN. There were two waitresses working and as we were walking to our car BOTH came out and yelled to us that we didn’t leave the tip correctly. It was then explained that we would have to run our card again ‘unless you have cash’. Note to the waitresses: take this up with your boss. It is never appropriate to chase after your customers.
Otherwise, place is small, and not good for a group larger then 4 – 5. The wine selection was so-​so, but the bottles are reasonably priced if you do find something you like. The rum cake was excellent, but the cheese plate left little to be desired. I was totally prepared to give The Reserve a 3 – 4 (actually 3.5 if I could) star rating, our party of four even discussed it over our drinks, but that mix-​up at the end put such a damper on the whole experience, we will never go back again.

Ehn. Food was SUPER salty, fish hadn’t been deboned, the sauce on my fish special tasted exactly the same as the sauce on my bf’s shrimp entrée. The waitress was sweet and the wine was good, but I wouldn’t go again (at least not for the food).

We decided to try this place out because it was a GROUP ON feature one day and my hubby had been wanting to try them out, so we bought 3 of them and used our first one this last Sunday for brunch.
We got there right upon opening and sat outside, as we were told that kids are not allowed to sit at the tables inside — so know ahead of time that if you are taking kiddos — you will have to sit outside — which we were totally ok with.
We ordered our food and waited about 40 min for our food — which we weren’t super happy about, but the server was very nice and accomodating and brought out some tasty almonds and cranberries to munch on so that my kiddos didn’t truly melt down from hunger :-)
I will say though that the wait was soooo worth it as the food was SPECTACULAR!!! We ordered the Eggs Benedict, the Mediteraanean Scramble, French toast, and the FABULOUS corned beef and eggs — which in my opinion was the BEST!!! It is homemade corned beef with some sort of sauce — and it was seriously OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! My family and I LOVE good food, and are kind of picky and I will say that all of my boys (hubby and 5 year old and 2 year old) could not stop commenting on how «this was the best brunch ever!!!»… So needless to say, the food was AWESOME, and we will most DEF be back, except this time for dinner without the kiddos!!!
I would say though, that this might not be the best place for children, expecially being that you must sit outside with them… My kiddos are pretty well behaved, so we did ok, but if your munchkins are tired or hungry, they may not fair well while waiting for their food —
I think this place is FAB for date nights or dinners with another couple or families with older kids :-)
They are one of our new fav places now :-)

I am going to review The Reserve in 2 parts: 1^st, as a wine shop, and 2^nd as a restaurant and wine bar.
Wine Shop: The Reserve has a decent, if not overly large selection of great wines at fair prices. It is a boutique shop, so you aren’t going to find BevMo prices, but you may be able to get some harder to find wines. My wife and I are members of their wine club, and have been impressed with the selections. They actually run their club in a few different ways, and we appreciate having choice.
Restaurant and wine bar: I have to admit, I used to love this place a lot more when they had Sunday happy hour where apps were half-​priced. Now Sundays are Hawaiian dinners — which are not my cup of tea (or glass of wine). As a wine bar, this place is a cool spot to sip some wine at the bar. The wine flights are a great way ti explore wine, and their pours are generous.
I wish there were more comfy chairs or couches instead of tables, but that is understandable since they are also trying to run a restaurant. That brings me to my next point: The Reserve has recently decided to expand as a restaurant, and frankly the meals can be hit or miss. The problem really is that each night has a limited menu, so if you don’t like what is being served that particular evening, you are out of luck. My pesonal fave is rib night. Check out their site and see what the menu will be before you go. If the food sounds good to you that night, then you will not be disappointed.

So I got an email last Thursday that The Reserve was having a Saturday-​only special — $ 5 rib sandwiches and $ 2 beers. Uhh, score! We headed over for an early dinner and good thing — within 20 minutes of getting there the place got packed! People looove cheap foor and beer. Anyway, we weren’t in a hurry — ordered up several beers each and just enjoyed the company at the bar. This place has an amazing selection of bottled beers (no draft) — mostly imports but a few domestic, too. The rib sandwiches were killer! My bf is from South Africa, so he’s a meat-​addict (that sounds wrong). He says the rib meat on those sandwiches is the best he’s ever eaten. That’s saying something!
Love this place! I recommend getting on their email list if you want notification of specials. I’m not sure if the Saturday night specials are something they’re going to keep doing, but I will be back to find out!

omg, what happened here? No sooner had I discovered this place [even turned down a Sun afternoon gig for their Sun hh!] then all menu specials seem to have disappeared? [You can even scroll through last year’s event calendar to confirm!]
The menu specials were ootw!– prices and selection! And the rib sandwiches to die for!
Now there only seems to be the Baby Back Rib Thurs nite specials– don’t ya know I’m trying to cut back on the Pork???
Bring me back my 40% off Sun nite beer!!! Pretty Please?
Note: I stand corrected– in my sudden Sunday nite panic last night I stormed into the place and inquired regarding their specials– somehow their website calendar did not get updated?
I roundly spanked them– got my 40% off menu specials [this is a GREAT deal folks] and 20% off wine pours and urged them to take a moment to update the website!
If that happens I’ll add that last star!

Ed is indeed… The wine master. Not that I actually know a lot of wine masters or have any experience in qualifying wine masters. Never the less, I’m sure he’s the master of the wine.
Anyways, every time I visit the reserve, I walk out with something delicious at a VERY competitive price.
The reserve is unique in that, they select the wines that they like the most. Opposed to sticking with what their broker or however the wine bar biz regularly works.
The reserve offers all sorts of beverages so if you don’t like wine… or alcohol, you can still enjoy yourself. Plenty of cheese plates and goodies to pair with your wines. Lot’s of great restaurants within seconds walking distance to visit before or after you enjoy yourself at the Reserve.
There are often wine classes and special events to check out.