Redwood Grille

Thank GOD this place closed. I have made terrible memories there, included with a rude waitress, terrible food, and a long wait.

Too bad this location was reportedly sold.
This was the ONLY restaurant in this complex that was worth anything. On the other hand what a terrible location.
My wife and I will definitely miss it.

I came here on a Saturday night with a party of 10 to celebrate my manager’s birthday. The restaurant was quite elegant and they seated us at a long table in the back.
For starters, we shared:
— Charred Octopus with Lemon Oregano, Cherry Tomatoes, Olives
— Lobster Poutine with Hollandaise Sauce
— Traditional Poutine with Peppercorn Sauce
— Artichoke Spinach Dip with Hot Crisp Tortillas
My dinner was the Lobster Grilled Cheese with Chef’s Soup (chicken noodle).
I was really excited to try poutine for the first time, as I had heard about it before but didn’t know it was available outside of Canada. Both dishes were a bit underwhelming though. The lobster one was a bit better than the traditional one because it had big chunks of lobster… but the cheese curds were kind of tasteless, and the traditional one was just like a pile of soggy fries under some brown gravy.
The artichoke spinach dip was okay – not bad, but nothing special, either.
The octopus, lobster grilled cheese, and chicken noodle soup were delicious though. I was so happy with my dinner choice, although I’m sure it wasn’t the healthiest thing to eat.
I had two glasses of Malbec wine, which I started drinking when I was in Switzerland but don’t think is that common here. It was very good, but they were really generous with the wine, and I couldn’t even finish my second glass… so luckily two girls in my group were able to help me polish it off. ;)
They brought out the CHOCOLATE FUDGE SIN (4 layers of moist chocolate cake filled with rich chocolate fudge icing) for the birthday girl, and we all shared the delicious slice of cake. Rich, sweet, and gooey – it was everything a chocolate cake should be.
I would say this was a great place to have a nice group dinner, except there was one vegan in our group, and there was NOTHING for him to eat. Our waitress explained that all the salads were premade with cheese mixed in, so they couldn’t prepare anything fresh for him. So that was kind of bad.

Best new brunch surprise of 2015! Crazee-​cozy and damn-​good food, plus unstuck-​up staff.

Very nice ambience and service.
Went there with my friend. We had a house salad as a started, which was standard. They didn’t have a variety of dressings to choose from, unfortunately!
I had Fresh Catch which was grilled halibut with a side of veggies. The dish tasted great; however, some traces of grease was in the dish, which I didn’t like to see.
My friend had Oregano Chicken with Lemon, which she like a lot. It was half chicken (with bones). It tasted like home food. It came with a side if garlic mashed potatoes that tasted very good, too.
I also had a side with quinoa, which I didn’t like (didn’t taste delicious to me).
The place is pricey. Our bill came at ~$ 76 with tax for just the salad, 2 entrees, one side, and 2 soft drinks.

We took over their roof deck for our company Holiday Party last week. It was very nice up there and the view was beautiful.
The staff was excellent except for one girl who appeared to be new. The bar had apparently duplicated the drinks for my wife and I and when she brought us round two I said, «we’ll take it anyway.» It was an open bar, yet the young woman said, «no, I’ll take them to the bar.» Two sips later, I had to go to the bar and order a new wine. #thatwasweird
Anyway, we had a pre-​selected menu, but it was excellent and a great time was had by all. If you’re looking for a private event space circa 50 people, this is a cool option.
Oh parking, I did not want to deal with trying to navigate a parking garage or drive drunk, so we took an Über. Super convenient. If you do drive, you would park in the Main Place Mall’s parking structure. It is directly next to the restaurant.

I am a little surprised at the overall rating of the restaurant… it should at least be in the 3.5 range. I came here for happy hour with some friends and we all had a very good experience. We told our waitress we were on a bit of a time crunch and we got everything promptly with great service.
THE ORDER
Cajun Calamari — 4 out of 5 — Calimari was very tasty with a nice full cajun flavor. It had a nice batter which held up well when you grabbed them with a fold Adobo aioli was a nice touch.
Tequila Lime Mussels — 4 out of 5 — Mussels were perfectly prepared. Juice and delicious without a hint of ruberiness. The broth was great and we ended up asking for extra bread, which our waitress was happy to grab for us.
South of the Border Poutine — 3 out of 5 — I was really excited for this item. It comes with aged cheddar, smoked bacon and jalapeños. The resulting dish was kinda meh. The fries were nice but there just wasn’t enough poutine. The bacon was nice but it felt like it was lacking in kick.
Artichoke Spinace Dip — 3.5 out of 5 — Cheesy and artichoke-y…its hard to do bad. The dish was nice, but not remarkable. It’s a great filler dish
Pork Sliders — 3.5 out of 5 — Pretty good sliders. The pork was moist and flavorful and well balanced. The bbq sauce added a really nice flavor kick without being overly sweet or tangy.
OVERALL
Had a great experience and would definitely hit the place up again for happy hour next time I’m in the area.

I spent a great morning time here on a super hot day.
Redwood Grille is located on the top floor of the shopping mall. It was around 12p and I haven’t eaten anything yet. I came to the door and looked at the menu, brunch. Great! The restaurant looked like a lounge to me. The waitresses and waiters were dressed up. They placed our party along the windows (more like fully opened curtain doors). What’s nice about this? We could feel the breeze in a super hot day!
I ordered a plate of lobster Egg Benedict from the brunch menu. It tasted amazing! The combination of real lobster meat, vegetables, poached eggs and English muffin can send you to heaven. :) The side was baked potato pieces fried with bell peppers. Great taste too.
Service was really friendly. The waiter who served us kept refilling water for us.
Park in the shopping mall parking structure because it seems to be the best parking around this area.

Redwood Grille was rated 3 stars, so I hesitated to order food here. Bf was adventurous and ordered the octopus. It was amazing!
Octopus is difficult to cook. I expected it to be rubbery and bland. Surprisingly, it was tender, moist and flavorful. I would definitely return for this dish.

This restaurant is huge! It’s directly opposite Zengo, and has a large outdoor patio that overlooks the 3^rd Street Promenade. Gorgeous.
In terms of food, I tried the meatloaf sandwich, which I really enjoyed! The sandwich bread is buttered and grilled. My friend got the Redwood Burger, which was delicious! Perfectly cooked beef patty with bacon and lots of other little goodies. My friend is Canadian, so we also tried Poutine (pulled pork). It was OK. Too BBQ-​y for my taste, but if you love BBQ sauce, you will probably enjoy it more.
Prices are moderate range for this area.

Absolute worst meal I’ve had in a LONG time, and I eat out a lot. My sister got their priciest dish, the filet mignon. She only managed to eat it with A-​1 steak sauce. I got a $ 14 buffalo chicken sandwich. For that price, I expect a real fried chicken breast, not a reconstituted chicken patty that resembles something you get off the dollar menu at Wendy’s. I ate half of it and when the manager came by to ask how it was, I told her honestly that it wasn’t very good. She offered to get me something else, but I was already full and told her thank you, but I just wanted to let you know. She seemed surprised and said it was their most popular sandwich. I guess when you compare it to a $ 37 filet that you have to eat with A1…
To conclude, I told the manager that a dessert might be nice since she really wanted to make it up to me. She responded that they would take care of me. I thought it was odd when the waiter came by and said they were bringing me my dessert since no one brought me a dessert menu or asked what I wanted. They ended up bringing me something off menu: a pathetic scoop of vanilla ice cream literally drowned in chocolate sauce and whip cream, something that an 8-​year old might get excited about at Chuck E. Cheese. :-\ I suppose that’s a fitting close to reconstituted chicken patty. No class at all. If you’re not going to give me a choice of dessert, then at least make it a good one. Maybe that’s their most popular dessert?? (Insert sarcasm)
The promenade was packed, but Redwood Grille was empty. No wonder!

I’ve been here twice, the first time was for dinner on a weeknight when I was in town for work. The place is huge and was oddly empty for a weeknight around 7pm, The service was friendly and the burger was enjoyable and garden variety pretty good for a restaurant burger. Fries were extra which can make things a little pricey but you do get a large serving of fries. I assume they’re the regular frozen kind from what I tried and not some unique hand cut variety, but they aren’t bad.
Second visit was for a drink and an appetizer. They have a decent wine/​beer selection but what fascinated me was the poutine. I didn’t even realize at the time we ordered this, instead the idea of fries with peppercorn sauce just sounded pretty good. You really can’t go wrong with fries topped with a peppercorn flavored gravy. It’s worth checking this place out for this alone. I’m not sure what time they close during the week but they seemed to be well into the shutting down process by around 10:30 on a weeknight. Once again the place seemed very empty for its size.
I’m not sure how well this place does but I’d come back here for some poutine assuming it’s still open next time I’m in town. Based on the number of customers when I was there, that might be an iffy proposition.

If you are headed here, bring a salt and pepper shaker with you… because one on the table won’t be enough. Everything is so badly under seasoned here, for a second I thought it must be a new trend. We had a group of 12 that night and every single dish I tried had no flavour. Chicken, tuna, salads, steak, even french fries! — its like someone forgot salt exists.
One extra star for a friendly service. But this place is exactly what it is — a bit upscale shopping mall restaurant variety.

Decided to stop here for lunch on the weekend. They were only offering brunch items, which was a bit unfortunate since we were ogling sandwich options, but decided to go anyways. This place is huge, and had seating for days, and looked very nice. We got a nice big booth for four people.
I opted for the chicken and waffles, while others ordered the south of the border poutine and the sunrise burger. The poutine really shouldn’t be advertised as poutine, since there was no gravy of any sort, and very little cheese. The chicken and waffles were mediocre — I didn’t think they were that great. The honey was a bit too sweet, and the chicken tenders were not very crispy. The one thing that stole the show from everything was their fries. I really liked the fries that came with the burger, and could probably have a whole meal of that.
Service was relatively attentive, although it took a bit of our time to get the bill taken care of (both to get it and to get it back).

My friend and I decided to have dinner here while we wait for our taxi. The view from the outdoors is gorgeous with all the lights!
As for the food, I ordered the grilled salmon with baked potato. The salmon was pretty good, nothing special for the $ 27. Also the potato was a little tough, I was expecting for the price I paid for it to be nice and soft.
I also tried my friend’s Redwood Burger and it was pretty good. Like I said, we mainly came here for the view.

My boyfriend and I decided to come here for happy hour.
We were four minutes early, so we seated ourselves at the bar, in front of Mauro.
We planned on just having a drink and then moving to a table, but Mauro was so charming that we stayed.
Mauro showed us the happy hour menu and explained it to us.
My boyfriend had the happy hour Manhattan, and I had the St. Germaine Spritz (not on the HH menu, but well worth ordering).
I oogled a few drinks on the menu due to them being handcrafted — you don’t see that much nowadays.
The ambiance here is pretty lounge-​like and has potential for that great brunch or dinner spot.
It was pretty windy while we dined, but I enjoyed the open air setup.
Mauro was attentive and took our Happy Hour 25% off appetizer orders.
My boyfriend ordered the grilled octopus, I ordered the poutine (original, not the south of the border one), and we both ordered the tiger prawn cocktail to share.
Our food arrived within 15 minutes.
Mauro gave us each a glass of water in preparation for our food.
The octopus was cooked perfectly.
It did lack that citrus bite that goes well with it, but it was great otherwise.
You get a lot for the price compared to other places.
The tiger prawn cocktail was clean and chilled to perfection.
The cocktail sauce was even balanced with the right amount of horseradish.
The poutine was an absolute dream.
The cheese curds and the peppercorn gravy made me want to curl up in bed with it.
Mauro left to interview a potential new employee before we finished our food.
Then Joann appeared to baby talk us.
«What’s up y’all?!»
«Oh you ate all your food! Even the gravy
Wasn’t it yummy?!»
Then she disappeared to chat with Mikey about their favorite alcoholic drinks as they stood around.
She also ate some of the bar’s kettle chips that were for the patrons.
She brought us our check, but was so into chatting with Mikey that it sat for 20 minutes.
Our great service had disappeared.
I would gladly return and pay the typical Santa Monica Promenade prices for this place, and the quality of the food, if service were better by the rest of staff.

Great event space!
They weren’t as stuffy as nearby options.
I had 2 events here and the food and service were both pretty good. Some of my out of town guests were sufficiently pleased to come back in their own. This space does seem under utilized. You’re paying a little bit for location, but the patio has an awesome view of 3^rd street promenade. Santa Monicans are spoiled for choice I suppose. Otherwise I think this place should be more full!

I came here for brunch not to long ago with some friends who were visiting me for a few days. It’s located on the top floor of the Santa Monica mall, so a pretty convenient place to go if you are in the area and don’t want to settle for the normal food court food that’s also nearby. It makes for a good choice as well because my friends wanted to try something that they wouldn’t be able to find just anywhere.
My experience here overall was just okay, nothing great but nothing too awful either. I ordered the crab cakes that were topped with a poached egg and then a hollandaise sauce. It was served with a side of stirred fries potatoes too. I thought that it was decently tasty, but the portions were a bit small for the price that you pay. I think my dish was around $ 16-​$ 19.
The service was good though, and the staff was friendly so no complaints there. However, I felt that the seating was a little awkward because the chairs that they had gave more of a lounge feel as opposed to a restaurant feel, so it made eating at the table rather weird. I think the seats were too low or the table too high.
All in all, not an awful place to go but probably won’t be returning anytime soon to this particular restaurant. It is an interesting place to check out if you’re in the area and if you’re looking for a light brunch or meal.

We walked in without looking first at the Unilocal ratings…
…so with an unbiased view (now surprised this place only has 2.5 stars), we sat down at the outdoor patio and took in the freakishly-​summer-​heated Nov night with some great grub:
* GET — Spinach & avocado fettucine = creamy al-​dente pasta and delish sauce.
* GET — Spicy chicken sandwich = some good SPICY chicken, chunks of avocado + crispy fries.
* MEH — Rum raisin bread pudding a la mode = not bad bread pudding with cinnamon-​dusting.
* YES — Great unobstructed view of 3^rd St. hubbub, given glass sidings.
* YES — Attentive service by our waitress (didn’t hear her name though).
* YES — Nice modern décor inside & out.
* WOA:
— Top dining floor of SM Place, mall parking.
— No ressies needed, walk-​in dining. Very few patrons when we visited.

Dear Redwood Grille,
I now know why you are always empty and the surrounding restaurants in Santa Monica Place are packed.
Expensive, Food lacked flavor, Poor service.
We ordered the following:
Tiger Shrimp Martini: I was a bit hesitant because the shrimp smelled a bit fishy, but in any case I ate it and it was okay. The Redwood Cocktail Sauce is just them mixing the horseradish and tartar sauce, nothing unique.
Avocado Ahi Tuna Tartar: This too was okay and pretty though I don’t know why they would serve it with the hard buttered crostini.
Lobster Tacos: This was delicious. Over priced for the size but delicious.
Poutine: The fries were soggy even the ones that didn’t touch the gravy.
Grilled Octopus: Lacked seasoning, we ate only a few bites.
Bone in Rib Eye & Prime New York Steak: Both lacked seasoning so we had to ask for salt & pepper and one had to be sent back because it came out rare instead of medium rare.
As for the service, the place was empty and we had to ask the hostess, the bartender and another server to please find our server. He was however friendly.
So overall if you are going to charge steak house prices, please make sure your chefs know what medium is to medium rare, how to season and your service should be top notch.
Cheers!