Marin Steak & Spirits Company

This is a review of dinner at Marin Steak & Spirits in San Rafael’s Four Points by Sheraton Hotel.
I will note that one star has been removed because they have been closed multiple times for hosting large functions for a convention group. This is a hotel restaurant. During its already limited hours, the restaurant should be available to all travelers staying at the hotel.
The ambiance is straight-​up what one expects from a basic hotel restaurant. This goes right down to the new ’70’s carpet. It is functional and relatively comfortable. There is far too much ceiling lighting though.
The service was extremely friendly and effective. This included everyone I had contact with during my meal; host, my server, and other servers.
I was seated quickly. Soon after my order was taken and, before I knew it, my food was being brought out. The staff always had a smile and consistently checked to see if my meal was going well.
Four Points Burger — This was a very average burger. It was decent sized burger served on a nice soft and flavourful bun. I enjoyed it but there were some flaws. It had the density that I associate with a burger that has been frozen. Before my scraping, there was too much mayonnaise. The caramelized onions had been cooked into oblivion and had little flavour remaining. Instead of the requested medium rare, the burger was cooked to medium. Still, as I said above, I did enjoy the burger. It was just far from perfect.
Fries — The burger was served with fries. These were light and crisp. However, they were also room temperature.
Receipt: $ 13.11
Overall — The restaurant provided an average burger meal with exceptional service. While a little stereotypical, the space is clean and relatively comfortable. If they had not been randomly closed at other times, Marin Steak & Spirits Company would have solidly rocked 3 stars. As base hotel restaurants go, this one sits right in the middle of the pack.

So first off I have to say I am from Northern California (state of Jefferson) where we raise our own cattle so I was a bit hesitant when ordering a steak in what I consider Southern California, (I’m from Jefferson) I will give then credit the service was great and fast and my steak was very tasty and I enjoyed it very much. The bartender also did a great job on my cocktail (salty dog with Grey Goose) I will return to this hotel and restaurant next time I work in the area

The menu here is very limited. That wasn’t a problem, Linda and I only wanted to have a cocktail and share an appetizer before we went to a travel photography lecture at the hotel. She had Margarita and I had a Manhattan. We ordered the chicken wings.
It took forever or more than 20 minutes, for the cocktails to arrive, longer for the chicken wings, and even longer for the dipping sauces to hit the table. When Kevin arrived it took so long for him to try and get a beer at the bar he gave up. The cocktails and chicken wings were good. The happy hour prices and the 10% coupon from the lecture made this a reasonable meal. The service was lackluster; I doubt it was the servers fault. The problem seemed to be in the kitchen and bar. I really worried that we were going to be late for the lecture. I ate more of the wings than I should and there were still some on the plate when we rushed off to.
Not quite 3 stars but close enought

Disappointed. Have eaten there several times before. Must have changed management. Limited menu, salad served on the steak plate so steak juices and salad dressing combine to make a mess. Suggest eating in Northgate, restaurants and selections better

I just spent an extended trip here visiting my parents who are in poor health. The bar has essentially two bartenders one who works Weds-​Sunday and one who works Monday and Tuesday.
I find the one who works Weds-​Sunday quite odd and based on previous trips I avoided the bar those days. I encountered several other guests who voiced the same opinion, particularly saying that she didn’t know how to make basic drinks like an Old Fashioned.
On the other hand the relief bartender (Hamooz?) is wonderful. She’s very friendly and on a particularly quiet night in the bar, after a depressing visit with my parents, she was a breath of fresh air.
So I’d say if you’re there W-​S and want a Bar go to BJs in the mall down the street. But Monday and Tuesday say hi to Homooz!

Had a nice time tonight here. Our waiter, Hunter, was friendly, thorough, and attentive. We also met the head chef who made sure our needs were met. Great Anchor Steam beers on tap at a reasonable price, $ 5. When the chef came out he explained that the restaurant/​kitchen were going to be redone in March, so we’re looking forward to coming back then!

Well it’s a hotel restaurant, so I didn’t expect a whole lot. It was worse than most though, with slow service even though there were only three tables in the place (total of seven people). We were never asked if we wanted drink refills, and the food took a very long time to arrive. Prices are typical inflated hotel prices, and not commensurate with the food quality.

Food is decent but this is not the atmosphere you’d want to eat your steak & seafood dinner in. Server was nice but overcharged us by $ 20 and the manager kept saying he’d credit my card and never did.

This used to be one of those places where the good food made up for the lackluster service. Now, it’s just bad on all counts.
I had dinner here with some friends before a show at the Civic Center Auditorium, which is about a half mile away. I didn’t think it necessary to tell our server that we had tickets for a show because the dining area was far from crowded and we had allowed more than an hour and a half for our meal.
The menu is not that big so I don’t know why we were given nearly twenty minutes to read it. We ordered sandwiches and salads. There is no sandwich or salad on this earth that would justify the additional thirty minutes we had to wait for them to be prepared. When the food finally arrived, it was a let-​down. The steak on my sandwich was gristly, cut up in weird pieces, and beyond well-​done (I requested medium rare). We had to ask for water and rationed it through the meal because the server never came back to refill it. I had to get up from the table to find the server so I could ask for the check. Good thing no one wanted dessert… we would have missed the show and grown old and gray while waiting for it to arrive.

It is very hard to make me hate a restaurant. However, Marin Steak and Spirits managed to succees. The food was awful, calcmarize was definitly frozen and tasted like rubber. By the time I got my burger, I already had two beers and were not hungry any more (that’s how long it took them to get Service was even worth than food. It was a very disappointing experience.

Two words: chicken chowder, you need to try that. Sooo good.
Husband and I also shared a bottle of the La Playa Merlot and it was pretty good. We had the crab cakes as well, but the chicken chowder with blue cheese was lip smacking good!!!
The place was pretty empty when we were there, maybe two or three other tables. We had our two kids with us a 3 year old (he had mac and cheese) and our little 6 month old; the staff there was so nice to them. I didn’t think we would be able to sit through dinner without getting dirty looks– but luckily for us everyone was really nice, so we were able to enjoy our bottle of wine and apps.

Okay, I bought a gift certificate to the place and the write-​up sounded good and a picture of the place looked okay. So I took some very good friends for what I thought was going to be a great dinner.
Whoa! We walked in the door and I found myself in a coffee shop. Yep, it looks like a coffee shop basically. This is supposed to be a steak house, but there aren’t even tablecloths on the tables. No, I’m not a food snob, but please. We were here so we gave it a shot.
One person ordered the caesar salad and for $ 6 it was great. Two of us ordered the crab cakes and they were pretty good at $ 10. While we were at a steakhouse, we all ordered the «Seared Salmon». I put that in quotation marks because I thought they’d be «seared», you know cooked 30 – 60 seconds per side, still raw in the middle, «Seared». The plates arrived and they were pan seared (whereas I was thinking because it was a «Steak House» they would have been seared on a grill), but that’s okay.
Well unfortunately they were not seared, they were fully cooked all the way through. Dry, on the tough side (for salmon) kind of like you’d expect in a coffee shop if a coffee shop served salmon. No we didn’t send them back as that would be wasting food.
We ordered dessert and I forget what they had, but I had the crème brûlée cheesecake. Again quite good.
Now for the bill. In all we had 1 salad, 2 crab cakes, 3 salmon dinners, three desserts, 2 cocktails each and their most expensive bottle of wine at $ 37. With an 18% gratuity included our bill came to $ 238. Fortunately I had purchased a $ 75 gift certificate from MasterCard Marketplace for $ 6 (thank goodness), so I only paid $ 163.
They may serve a good steak, but this coffee shop knows nothing about seafood.
Will I be back? NOPE!

Service and food were below average. Skip it!

The food is good, but the drinks are kind of pricey — $ 12 for a long island & $ 5.50 for beer. Service here is excellent. The 2 hot bartenders lauren & mike are really great!

I had the Four Points Club Sandwich, which was delicious. It had ham, bacon, turkey, lettuce and tomatoes and was more than I could eat, although admittedly I had been filling up on their fresh-​baked, still warm rosemary bread which was also very good. The fries were pretty good but we asked for garlic fries and got regular, but whatever.
My friend had some Ravioli dish with a fish sauce or something, the name of which I do not recall, and while the raviolis were very good he said the sauce was pretty tasteless.
As for the service, it wasn’t ideal. We got our food and everything, promptness is not a problem, but the waiter kind of made me feel like we were a chore he had to deal with, rather than a customer. It wasn’t great. But, the food was good, and that probably isn’t the only waiter, and maybe he was just having a long day. We went near closing, so that could have been it. Anyway, the food was great.
Also, we were one of only three groups of people there, so it’s pretty private of an atmosphere sometimes.

Okay, the 4 stars is solely based on the food. If I based the review on the service it would be more like 2 ½ stars. I’m taking into consideration that we were there while they had some sort of convention and we got there during break time but should I have to do that? I don’t think so.
I ordered the fish and chips and OMG the fries were perfect! Crunchy and soft at the same time. the fish was battered and fried to perfection. I just kept eating and eating even though I was full. I didn’t want the food to go to waste!

Morning breakfast team is the BEST!
Menu has quite a variety to choose from along with daily happy hour specials in the bar.
Good for a smaller hotel restaurant!

When I’m traveling for work, I like to stay at Four Point Sheraton in San Rafael because I love Marin Steak and Spirits.
Their steak and chops are very good. Much better than some of the chain restaurants like Outback, etc. I love their lamp chops and prime rib Fridays. They also have a very good salad bar for just a few bucks extra. An entrée, salad bar, and a glass of wine comes to about 40 bucks.
Since it’s in a hotel, I feel very comfortable dining alone and lingering over my food. Happy hour is usually pretty lively (bar is connected to the restaurant) but it slows down for dinner. At times, I’ve been the only person in the restaurant. Surprisingly, this hasn’t impacted the quality of the food or the freshness of the salad bar.

We came here for dinner last night and were pleasantly surprised. The steak dishes were quite good and presented very well. The burger – not so much. I had a seafood pasta dish and you could taste the shrimp and the pasta. The menu said a light cream sauce however I think it borders on medium/​heavy.