Poway / Rancho Bernardo Restaurants

We have eaten at Veranda for more than 20 years. This visit, the food really impressed us very much. They have upped their game considerably. Try the striped bass and lobster mac and cheese (which is not mac and cheese at all). Very fine dishes, likely the best we ever had at Veranda. The service is always good.

We had a wonderful experience on the patio! Rodrigo was an excellent server! We loved the guacamole, combination fajitas & shrimp enchilada and carne asada taco. Delicious Mexican food at a reasonable price. Rodrigo was attentive, friendly, and thorough!

Avant is Rancho Bernardo Inn's fine dining restaurant and does not disappoint. Special attention is given to presentation, flavors and the experience. Julio provided excellent service along with the culinary team, Sommelier Daniel helped us select complimentary wines to enhance our dining pleasure and Chef Matt personally visited our table to introduce himself and ensure our evening was memorable.

We had only just recently discovered The Shop, and figured we'd check it out. After sharing a yummy bruschetta appetizer, we decided to design our own pizza. Admittedly, we made a minor error in ordering a large pizza (for two to share), but figured leftovers would be fine to take home. When the pizza came to our table, all of our toppings were huddled in the middle of the pizza. We were a little confused as to how none of the veggies had made it closer to the edge. With the pile of toppings in the middle, the center of the pizza was more than a little soggy. It was still tasty, but not all the way to the crust. It was a little weird. More, because we decided that the limited selection of specialty pizzas didn't strike our fancy (do people still say that?), we ordered our own combination of vegetables for our pizza. In the end, our pizza came out to $45-- steep even at San Diego prices. Aside from the pile of toppings in the middle, each topping ($3.50 for each topping?! Outrageous!) was far overpriced for the amount of toppings used. (Note: the price per topping is listed, but it's a bit of an afterthought on the menu and the server provided no reminder). It will be a long time before we decide to drop a pile of cash on an overpriced pizza that was rushed through the kitchen. Overall rating: Disappointing.

Excellent service and appropriate noise level on a Week night . Nice “sports bar” atmosphere. The fried food, while nicely presented, was quite greasy. The breading, while thick, was overdone. Each entree had about 3X the amount of French fries needed.