Mission Inn Restaurant

So lovely! I had the huge salad. Ambiance was wonderful, food OK, It took a long time to get our food but we were drinking lots of champagne so it didn’t matter.

The ambiance here is what you pay for – I absolutely adore the old world glamour and antique décor that gives Mission Inn its timeless character. We took my family here for a celebratory dinner last night, and the food selection included a wide array of all-​American and Italian favorites. Among us, we ordered one seafood buffet, filet mignon, mushroom and Swiss burger, and short rib penne with spicy cream sauce.
For desert, I topped it off with the hazelnut cake! It comes with a crunchy, flaky center, topped with chocolate crème brûlée and chocolate mousse. The center was soft, creamy, and melty all at once, I definitely felt guilty afterward.
I also frequent the Mission Inn for their afternoon tea. The portions are quite large, and high tea includes dainty tea sandwiches with smoked salmon, cucumber and cheese, and others that I can’t quite remember but that I devoured quickly and happily! The dessert selection includes lemon meringue, eclairs, macarons, and chocolate ganache cake. My favorite teas include the herbal teas, and the Tuscan Garden is my go-​to. It has floral, light, soothing undertones.
Lovely place for something special. It is pricey, but the beautiful, vibrant Bougainville florals plus the live music make it so worth it – feels like a vintage dreamland.

My Family had planned out a nice birthday celebration for my 29 and 31 year old niece and nephew and decided that The Mission Inn in Riverside would be a beautiful place to spend our time together.
Our reservations were made over 2 weeks in advance for a party of 15 and we were required to provide a $ 100 deposit.
We were seated at 9:30 and at approximately 11:15 the waiter began to ask us how much longer we would be there. We said we were unsure as people were still eating and we were opening gifts.
The service was good, the restaurant beautiful and clean and the food was very good as well.
We were again asked at 11:30 when we would be leaving as we were all getting our funds together to pay $ 650.00 Plus bill, chatting and opening gifts.
At 11:45 the hostess came over and told us that we would need to leave as we had been there over 2 hours and that they needed the table. My family is quiet and respectful and no one was drinking in excess although bottomless champagne and Mimosas were available. We have never been treated that way nor have I EVER dined in a restaurant that had a 2 hour time limit (no mention of this at reservation time or when we were seated)
It was very rude and uncomfortable for my family as people drove in from all over to meet here and enjoy eachothers company along with a nice meal.
We asked for additional time and were told we needed to leave.
At $ 42.00 per person and a TIME LIMIT I would never consider dining here again. The Mission Inn has lost 15 Patrons in my family and I will be sure to let as many people know as possible. We were treated very disrespectfully. Large party and large bill. This restaurant is not recommended.

**Review Update **
Came back to celebrate their Sunday brunch as a late Valentine’s.. And must say the experience was a tad bit better.
So why the 3 star still…? Honestly it’s about poor setup and food safety. Which I mentioned in my last review & to my disappointment saw it was not taken into consideration. Guess they got a good liability policy .
Ceviche by 10:25am was not cold anymore.
Desserts 2 folds :
Any cakes that contained mousse or cream was a warm mess by 10am. Bleh.
not labeled. Had a few people ask the token fat person (me) if I knew whether or not this or that contained nuts. Umm. Last time I checked, I left my baker’s apron at home. But all in all, I can definitely see the danger it may pose.
— Please please please, if you are going to prepare eggs Benedict in a pre made assembly. Make sure the hollandaise isn’t broken and the egg muffin toasted properly. Love the eye roll I got when I asked if BEFORE assembling my EB, to toast the egg muffin. Sue me if I like my EB at least warm. I already know from past experience, it’s cold and tasteless by time I make my way to my table all of 7ft away.
Lastly… The wait staff. Esp Chelsea & Javier. Your attention and friendliness was very much appreciated. Oh and the meat carver. Your generous slices with a smile, bravo!
So all in all, was the experience like what it was 10 even 15 years ago. Nope. But a girl knows, things change. Yea quality may not be for the better, but least service is still quite impeccable. Yeah I know folks — one cannot get full on just good service alone. So my quick suggestion? Come early to eat the cold seafood bar stuff. But by 10am — stay the F away unless you like your date for the rest of the day be hovering over the porcelain bowl. Oh and nut allergy /​egg /​whatever else allergy you may have … Ask a legit employee the ingredients to the desserts. All 20 or so of them. Sheesh, you may just want to stick with the cut fruits.

Well I was really looking forward to surprising my wife for Valentines dinner. I made the reservation for the Saturday evening before Valentines because I wanted it to be a surprise and not too crowded. We have never eaten at this restaurant and was a little concerned with some of the reviews I read.
I thought I would make this dinner a little more special and even ordered the flowers to be delivered to the table option they offer in their site via flower petals .com, I even followed the suggestion of calling ahead which I did «CONTACT THE RESTAURANT (TEL: 951−784−0300) IN ADVANCE AND INFORM THEM YOU ARE EXPECTING FLOWERS TO BE DELIVERED.»
When we arrived I reminded the concierge about the delivery which she said was noted and would be brought out to us. The place is nice looking and we were seated outside by the fountain and it was romantic. We both have the cheese appetizer plate which consisted of two types of cheese and some fruit. The cheese was just ok and we did not finish because it did not taste fresh and was too hard even for a soft cheese. I ordered the Sea Bass and my wife ordered the pasta without meat. The Sea Bass was tough and rubbery with little flavor and my wife’s pasta looked like something from a can. She did not complain but I could tell she was not impressed but by this point we were hungry and finished it. The waiter came around exactly two times (this was at 5:45 and there were many empty tables outside) to fill our drinks and a final time to bring us the bill. Well now that the dinner was over, still no flowers that I made sure to be delivered. By this time I was not happy at all and apologized to my wife and told her of the surprise. I walked up after paying our bill to the concierge and asked if they had every had flowers delivered? She said oh hold on let me go look in the back. She then brought out the flowers from the back room and handed them to me. No apology nothing. I apologized to my wife who smiled and said she had a nice evening which I know she was not pleased either but did not want to hurt my feelings.
The dinner was a bit north of $ 100, the flowers I paid extra to have delivered to our table was north of $ 70. The valet (minus the tip) was $ 10 and all in all, I could not have been more disappointed. You would think for around $ 200 for two people it would have been a nice evening, unfortunately it was not and I will not recommend this place nor their flower service to anyone! In case anyone from Mission In Restaurant reads this, my Confirmation #: 1 170 361 549 to know I am not fabricating anything.

Went for dinner
Ambience absolutely amazing, this is a gorgeous place to dine and stay at.
Appetizers — we had the calamari and this apple with goat cheese crustini which was marvelous. I forget the name of it but both were fantastic
Dinner — I had the NY strip great size but the presentation was a bit strange. I didn’t like the steak sitting on top if Yukon potatoes… I felt the potatoes took the flavor out of my steak. I also had mushroom dish as my side which was excellent. I did order my steak medium rare but when it came out a bit over cooked.
Guest I was with had the red snapper… They felt it was to grainy, they were not too happy with it.
Another guest the the sea bass they enjoyed it.
Dessert we had the brûlée and sherbet which was fantastic

It’s valentine’s weekend. We stopped in for a cocktail at the Presidential lounge first. Service was friendly but very slow. Extremely slow. The waitresses was complaining that they were slammed.
Then we had dinner in the The Mission. When we ask for Duane’s we were pointed to what turned out to be The Mission. We sat, unattended for about 20 mins. Finally Jon came over, and introduce himself. We ordered wine, and after waiting again for a long time, the drinks arrived. The white wine was not chilled, and served warm.
About 45 mins. Later the wedge salad arrived, with ¼ of a grape tomato. Bread was delivered without butter. We had to ask a few times for water. More than an hour later food was delivered. (Yes we talked about walking out and no one would even know).
I understand valentine’s is not a holiday, I really do. But this is the service industry and this place was poorly managed.

My boyfriend brought me here around 6 p.m. this past Saturday for a surprise romantic dinner. We were sat promptly on the patio adjacent to the large fountain in the center. They had the patio heaters lit, so it was warm and comfortable. The inn is an historic landmark, so it is a very charming, rustic and elegant. It definitely takes you back in time…
I ordered the blue cheese wedge salad. The dressing was amazing and the sautéed pancetta was delicious. It was the perfect size as a first course. They also brought a nice basket of freshly made breads to the table… For my entrée, I ordered the Filet Mignon. It was one of the best I’ve ever had. It was cooked and seasoned perfectly. It was served on top of roasted fingerling potatoes with asparagus and a wild mushroom demi-​glaze. It was truly an amazing meal. The bottle of champagne, served on ice, made our dinner extra special.
Needless to say… We will be back.

Ahhhh The Mission Inn Restaurant. 3 stars for food and 5 stars for ambiance (especially during Christmas time!!)
I have dined at The Mission Restaurant twice and both during the holidays. Once for Sunday brunch after spending a night at this magical hotel and the second time for dinner. The Sunday brunch is about $ 42 for adults and $ 20 for children. There are various food stations and endless mimosas ;) Dinner here is a variety of dishes from pasta, sea to land.
The ambiance is just stunning! The décor is grand with colorful tiles throughout and there is even an outdoor Spanish style patio which is so romantic! It is situated in the dead center of the hotel and surrounded by a fountain and mission bells.
For dinner, I opted for the Chilean sea bass. The fish was nicely cooked and moist set on top was wild mushroom risotto and a tasty soy sauce. Be sure to make reservations during the holidays! Because then you can visit the holiday lights without waiting in line ;)

Very poor, unskilled service. Greatly lacking for the environment & price. Unprofessional.
I brought my 70+ y.o. parents & another 50+ y.o. couple here on a Monday 2 weeks before Christmas to enjoy a nice meal on the beautifully decorated courtyard after seeing the Festival of the Lights. I live in the area, not a tourist. I made an 8pm reservation days ahead, the restaurant serves food until 10pm. We were seated promptly, the dinner rush was over, lots of empty tables. The waiter was far to lax & informal from the start greeting us with, «hi guys, what do you guys want to drink», at what should of been an upscale dining experience we would be spending $ 300+ on. There were lots of busboys standing around talking, in the area we were seated in, behind the fountain. It took the waiter a long time to return with the drinks. One cocktail still was not ready. I eventually picked it up myself for my friend from the staff that is out in the open as you enter the restaurant. I complained to the manager who was standing at the host stand with 3 others employees. Letting the manager know our waiter & service was terrible so far. He apologized stating the obvious, the waiter was new. Having worked in the restaurant industry for years I knew this waiter had not been trained for fine dining. In fact, a server at Denny’s is far more professional, delivering better service. 2 of us had the prime rib buffet. It was fair, decent ingredients, all were cold, not much selection. The buffet definitely could of been improved by making sure the selections were hot. The entrees were good. I let the girl expediter who delivered the entrees know that the service from the waiter was horrible. She smiled & nodded implying this was typical. She was running her butt off while the busboys, hostesses, & waitstaff stood around talking to each other. This majorly Distracted from the ambience & dining experience. In addition to adding to the frustration over the poor service (the services was horrible yet lots of employees are not busy & can stand around & talk in front of the customers?) The manager & entire staff of The Mission Inn Restaurant need a major overhaul & retraining in formal dining & etiquette. If any of them would like to contact me, I’d be more than happy to offer several tips. This isn’t a McDonald’s atmosphere or prices, so please don’t act like it. The only thing the manager did in response to my complaints was present me with his business card at the very end. Too little too late. He should of had a better, more experienced server take over our table & comped a portion of the bill. Not sure what he wants me to do with his business card other than post a pic of it & review on Unilocal

Buffet = All you can eat = Mediocre food quality.
Good service.
The Mission is beautiful, but the restaurant is pricey ($ 42+tax+tip per person) for the quality you get: concentrate orange juice, boring entrées (steamed veggies, tasteless rice, chicken with pasta, salmon…; NOTHING SPECIAL) and low quality desserts (all the cakes and pastries look and taste like the ones you can buy in a grocery store. I would recommend to visit the Mission and go have brunch/​lunch somewhere else.
By the way, if you are a vegetarian, that’s definitely not your place to eat.

Came here for brunch with my family on New Years.
Service: great service, all of the employees are very kind and helpful. They refill drinks constantly and always ask if we needed anything.
Food: the prime rib and lamb was very tender. Really wish I would have taken a picture of it. I really enjoyed the breakfast. The Belgium waffle was moist, soft and fluffy. Probably the best waffle I’ve had in Awhile.
Area: we sat In the patio/​courtyard area. Great ambiance and scenery. Very live and vivid. Beautiful hotel.
I highly recommend coming her for brunch. The price is about 42 dollars per person. You’ll definitely get your money’s worth.
This place deserves 4 ½ stars, only thing I didn’t really like about the place was the parking, as well as the food area was a bit dark. I had trouble seeing what food it was because of how dim the lights were.

Came here tonight and was very delighted at the service and food that was brought to the table. We had an amazing server who was very knowledgeable with wine pairings and quite a friendly man.
I ordered the Pesto Pasta. It was full of flavors and enjoyed a great white wine along with it.

**SUNDAY BRUNCH REVIEW**
Beautiful set up and hotel ! Five star service at it’s best. I called to inquire about arriving an hour early and was told there were no seats available. We ended up arriving early anyway and figured we’d just wait around until something opened up. We took our time walking in and checked in and whadda ya know? We were seated right away. The same time we were told, nothing was available, oh well, we’re starved so it worked out great.
As soon as we sat, we were approached for our drink orders & within seconds, OJ, water & mimosa’s were filled and ready to go.
I mentioned to one of the waiters that it was our first time and he gave us info on how the buffet was set up. Glad he did since the fresh to order omelette station was in a side room (to the left if your facing the restaurant exit). They also had belgian waffles & eggs benedict in this area.
There wasn’t much assortment comparable to Castaway, Taps or Orange Hill but with what they do serve was unique and absolutely delicious. Short Ribs w/​Pita and Hummus, Salmon w/​Orzo just to name a few. Carving station w/​2 diff meats, assortment of breads & pastries, cakes and bars. Fresh fruit, meats and cheeses. Cold Salads & standard breakfast items. They even had a cute set up for kids that were displayed at a lower level and had an assortment of mini donuts & cereal boxes.
Valet parking offered at $ 10 under 2 hours and $ 15 for 2+ but we wandered the streets since we had time and there was plenty of street parking.
Can’t wait to be back during the holidays when lights are turned on.

Came here for my sisters birthday for brunch. I have never been here before and been anticipating the holidays to see how pretty it is at night.
Its a pretty small hotel and restaurant. Walking into the restaurant, we were seated immediately. There wasnt one waiter but, at least 3 or 4 constantly checking up on us, clearing our table, filling our drinks and they were very polite and welcoming.
The food was very good. It was different and was able to try some new foods but, it wasn’t too over whelming as some buffets are. Its pretty small but, there is a good amount to choose from. They also have a breakfast bar where they make freshly hot food and the service there was great as well.
Overall i really liked it and hope to go back soon.

I have grown up with the Mission Inn, including my grandparents whom have a strong connection with the Mission Inn. For years I have enjoyed all that the Mission Inn has to offer from rooms and special events to bars and dinners. Like most vintage establishments, they tend to stay with their roots in customer satisfaction while others change with the times to provide something slightly new or improved. With the Mission Inn Restaurant, I feel that it hasn’t quite made up it’s mind on which direction to take it’s food and service.
Our entire family was available and on time for seating but unfortunately the table was not ready yet. Ok, no worries. Once we sat down, we were presented with fairly welcoming service. It kind of bounced a lot because several servers recognized my grandmother who is a long time volunteer of the Mission Inn. Half the servers would turn to the table to introduce themselves while the other half stuck to hunching over my grandma only.
The food will definitely be a bit more pricey compared to other restaurants, and especially for Riverside standards but this should mean we are in for a real treat.
NOTE: See here’s the thing, as a foodie, you come from trying food trucks, fusion diners, hip restaurants, asian towns full of korean bbq which leads to food pallet expansion to other far away cities, states, and even countries.
With that being said, the price you pay for the quality of food you receive at the Mission Inn Restaurant does not quite match. For example, the white fish sandwich. It’s a HUGE deep deep fried fish where almost a quarter of the inside of the fish was empty space between the fish itself and the fried outer layering. The $ 13 and up flatbread dishes for lunch, the garlic Parmesan chicken one SCREAMS for a kick, like hot sauce or peppercorn flakes. The cheese quesadilla, looks like your basic quesadilla. The winner, however, was the italian sausage pasta. Reasonably priced and actually very tasty.
This is not to discourage the food at the other restaurants under the Mission Inn’s wing, believe me. I was once a chef intern in the Mission Inn kitchen and I’ve seen from AMAZING dishes leave the kitchen. But who’s to say the Mission Inn Restaurant does not cook up great meals? They are still good, just not great. It’s definitely a 10 out of 10 in terms of ambiance and atmosphere so if you’re in to where there is food and a terrific setting, this is the place to go. Don’t be surprised, however, if the quality does not match with the costs.

We found this cute little hidden gem in downtown riverside accidentally, I had never been to this area, had no idea how beautiful the historical Mission inn is!
Made a last minute reservation, had a slow but very pleasant outdoor dining at the Spanish patio on a Sunday night. Started off with bottle of chardonnay, it was a nice one, crisp and fruity, just what I preferred.
They had labor day prime rib buffet and regular dinner menu, I can’t do prime rib so I ordered off the regular menu, good choices of seafood though. Hubby had prime rib buffet.
I had dungeness crab toast as app, it was an excellent starter, very generous amount of dungeness crab and veggies on top of a perfectly textured toast, it was light with enough flavors, loved it. Had swordfish with risotto as entrée, the risotto was one of the best I have ever tasted, So soft and amazingly flavorful. Swordfish was fresh and fairly tender, I have to remind myself that I don’t really like swordfish too much, I need to stop ordering it.
Hubby’s prime rib buffet was awesome. Very good quality of prime rib and ribs, they had some tasty veggies side dishes, also salmon and risotto, I should have just had the buffet too!
We took time to enjoy a lovely evening, hubby surprised me with bottle of Perrier and birthday desesert again, it was not my actual birthday but he did it again anyways, it was fun though.
I think I am in love with this little cute restaurant, especially the Spanish patio, it’s absolutely gorgeous! We have to come back to take a tour of this Mission inn, our waitress said there are so many things to check out on each floor, we might just stay here next time, I really like the vintage looking of this entire place!

I’m not very familiar with Riverside, other than the many soccer fields, but this was an incredible find while staying in the area. In town with my husband & daughter, we were staying down the street and taking a stroll through the cute downtown area on a Saturday night and decided to have dinner here. We did not have reservations, so we had a bit of a wait, but not too long (meaning a cocktail was drank while waiting).
We were lead to our table and I was awestruck by the Spanish Patio. Its GORGEOUS. We dined outside, in the middle of the inn, surrounded by Anton’s Clock & Glockenspiel, fountain, flowers, lighted trees, etc. Plus, they had patio heaters as the temperature dropped in the evening.
The patrons were all dates & families. Very romantic date spot.
We ordered a bottle of red wine and all ordered the Prime Rib Buffet (served from 5pm-​10pm on Saturday night at $ 35 per person).
I’m not a fan of Buffets and at this place you have to meander through the patio to go inside to get your food, but who cares when you have scenery like this. The Prime Rib was good (a bit on the dry side, but that’s expected at a buffet, sitting out), but if my daughter is happy, I’m happy. She was happy. Plus, she loved the dessert layout.
A surprising find and great evening.

Unilocal needs to be able to give .5 stars, because the service was definitely a 5, but the food was only a 4. After my negative experience, Chris Doherty from their restaurant wrote me and let me know that he talked to his staff about the night we were there to assure nothing like that would happen again. He also invited me back to join them for brunch. I chose Father’s Day because it was my fathers birthday that night we had the horrible experience.
Here is my review for today. Service wise, everything was impeccable. We were sat in Duane’s and had Melody as our waitress with Jacob helping her. If you go in I highly suggest asking for them personally, as both of them were wonderful! The champagne they had was delicious, the orange juice wasn’t as great, it tasted like boxed orange juice and with how expensive brunch is it would be nice if the Orange juice tasted fresh.
Onto the food:
The meats: I don’t eat much meat but my father raved about the chicken and ham.
The omelettes: The man making me omelette put someone else’s omelette on my plate (that I had already filled with other food), so it ended up taking about 15 minutes longer to get my omelette because he had to remake hers and by the time he did that my actual omelette hadn’t been made with egg white so he had to remake mine. He felt bad about it, and was very nice but I lost my whole plate of food that I had made and my family ended up waited the whole time to say grace with me so their food for cold and I felt bad. The omelette was standard brunch omelette but the guacamole they had with it was really good. The Belgian waffles up there were quite good as well.
The ceviche and other seafood was good, a wide variety of things to choose from, I loved that there were two kinds of ceviche to try. They also had bagels and lox, which I would have loved if I could fit anything in. Speaking of seafood, if you go to brunch and they have the salmon with brussels sprouts, GET IT. It was probably the best thing I had.
The house potatoes were pretty dry unfortunately, which was a bummer because I love potatoes cooked like that.
The fruit was fresh, but the grapes should have been cut so you didn’t have to take as many. I ended up with a giant section that I didn’t want all of but didn’t want to touch them.
I loved how they had a kids section – that many adults were taking from! :)
The salad bar was good, hearts of palm salad was best and the candied nuts were on point.
The desserts were good, there was so much to choose from it was crazy! The best was the chocolate covered strawberries! They were fresh, a lot of the other cakes kind of tasted like the store bought cakes that look really pretty but aren’t incredible. The bread pudding was ok, the apple crisp was great (and normally I don’t like green apples). The fruit pastries were amazing!
The coffee was great, and Jacob brought me soy milk :).
Overall, brunch for four is $ 205 without tip. It was really good, but for that price I probably wouldn’t be back too often because I’ve had similar brunch spreads for a lot cheaper. But you have to think about where you are dining as well– the Mission Inn is gorgeous and you are partly paying for location and service, which as I said was incredible.
I have to thank Chris for having me come back, the experience really did make up for the bad one we had. They went above and beyond for every costumer. It wasn’t like a typical brunch where you never see your waiter. We saw Melody and Jacob more than we saw our waitress when we went there for dinner. And both of them were so much nicer and eager to make our day enjoyable! Everyone stopped my dad and shook his hand to say happy Father’s Day. It was a great experience!

Great ambiance!
Came here with wifey and baby for a mother’s day brunch. Wife said she’s been here before with her mom and it was super awesome. I found it just okay.
Recap:
1. Parking — The Inn is located in downtown, so there’s meter parking and valet parking. Luckily, we found an open meter nearby, but I can see parking being a pain.
2. Décor/​Atmosphere — Fancy. We sat outside in the private courtyard and admired the spanish-​gothic architecture.
3. Food — Meh. It’s just okay. Standard hotel style breakfast. Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Fruit, Pastries, etc. Nothing special. I had a breakfast burrito, which was disappointing. The salmon benedict was also okay.
4. Service — It was okay. The server was hard to flag down and didn’t check on us too much. A fly landed in my ketchup (perks from sitting outside), so it took a while for me to request a new one.
5. Bathroom — There’s a bathroom in the hotel lobby that is nice. They provide soft towels to wipe your hands, but beware of super low ceilings.
6. Price — Considering the quality of food, I would say this place was slightly overpriced. But considering the ambiance, I think it’s fair. I value food taste/​quality over décor though, so I’m a little bias here.
7. Baby Friendly — Yup. They’ll give you kids menu with cool triangular crayons. Since my toddler can’t read, write or talk yet, I took it upon myself to do the connect-​the-​dots and word search from his menu.
Overall, this was an okay experience for me. I like the grounds, but the food taste and price just wasn’t up to expectations. Parking would probably be tough on the weekends, unless you don’t mind paying for it.