The Stone House - Nevada City

This is our second time eating here. It has been worth it both times!

Service was indifferent at best, food was OK. Waitress tried to oversell menu, suggesting a minimum of 3 small plates per person. We ordered 3 plates for the 2 of us and it was fine. If we had followed her suggestion the cost would have been $50-60/person just for the food.
The outdoor patio dining has potential but my chair, table and even the plates were dusty and had tree droppings on them.
Waitress forgot our wine. Forgot to bring us our main course and we were late for an event even though we had told her prior to ordering when we had to be finished. As we were rushing out the door, she asked "aren't you going to order dessert?"
Patio area needs a general spiffing up, my view was mainly of empty kegs, this could have been put behind a screen.
I will wait another year and try again, only because the building is so beautiful.

The food is absolutely amazing. The service on the other hand is not. A bit slow but that's not what I minded since it was a chill Sunday brunch. When I ask for coffee and it's brought to me and then I have to ask for sweetener and it's brought to me and then I realize I never even got a spoon, I gave up and used my fork. Coffee refill had to be asked for. My friends $5 mini tea cup was never refilled. So, great food, friendly service, but they need a lot more training or just hire wait staff who knows what they're doing. As a former waitress for over 5 years, I expect more.

Menu selection was a bit sparse. Food was fairly good, although many of our grilled veggies were burned/not edible, and the French press coffee at the end of the meal was undrinkably bitter. Service fell quite short. I had specified in the invitation to have a birthday note for my wife on the table when we arrived, but they sat us at a different table, and I walked around and found the birthday note, bringing it over to our table. Waitress mis-delivered out main entrée to another table, I signaled to her that it was ours, and then, once we were eating, another waitress brought out the same dish a second time -- poor internal coordination. The restaurant has good potential: nice ambiance. But both staff and chef/kitchen need some training/fine tuning.

I love the brunch menu. Very simple but exquisite. Service is amazing cocktails delicious. Sunday they have music on the patio for brunch. You can make reservations on open table and it’s super easy .

This place was Fantastic! 5/5 Stars We went for my birthday. Fresh ingredients and delicious food. Servicer was very knowledgeable and attentive but not to much.

First-time diner. Arrived on time for 5:30p reservation. The place was dead w/no one greeting us, so left to find our table on our own. Very few menu choices for large plate offerings. Food was OK, but not enough; even w/some of their large plate offerings. Waiter was OK.

Excellent brunc, Sunday brunch includes entertainment. The morel mushroom omelette is the best omelette I’ve ever had. I’ve returned for brunch 3 weekends in a row.

The food was spectacular. The service was outstanding and the Ambiance was fantastic. I can't wait to go back again! Farm-to-table dining with a creative chef!

We really enjoyed the downstairs bar and the food looked good. Dining room had good service and good food. Liked the idea of small plates. We thought everything was reasonably priced. Wine corkage was $15. We will be back.

First, an absolutely spectacular old building. Indoor seating has a contemporary "pub" feeling. Outdoor seating on a warm night is spectacular. Service was excellent. And the food? Superb. Fresh, locally sourced ingredients; creative menu items; and well presented.

I live in Nevada City. We needed a great new restaurant. I want to love The Stone House; but, despite going there six times by now, I don't because it doesn't get better. The food is good, solid, inventive, and presented well. They outsource locally which is a bonus and what we all want in our local fine eateries. The problem is the environment (the upstairs dining area and entrance) and the wait staff. I was recently there with distinguished company for the Poetry Festival featuring two Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners; and, when we arrived it was if we weren't there. The wait staff continued to joke and carry on with the bartender; the music blared so loudly that we had to ask for it to be turned down three times; the entrance is beyond odd and unwelcoming. When you enter there is a red roped stanchion for the "live music" area (late night venue); and, there is some sort of sad signage that points upstairs. The stairwell is very dark and when you arrive at the dining level there may or may not be anyone to greet you. We stood around and finally, someone showed up as if surprised that it was 5:40 and that customers had arrived. From Day One they simply haven't trained the personnel or gotten the fact that if you're spending $60 + p/p you may want the room to feel better and for the staff to be present. Sigh.

The food and the place were great. The service was bad. It took 25 minutes to get our drinks 50 to get the food... the waitress was spacing out.

We live locally and heard very good reviews of the food and setting but everyone warned us about the marginal service.
And in fact that’s exactly what we found. It is not a problem of any individual wait person, it’s a poorly managed system.
-There is not enough wait staff for the tables being served.
- The servers seemed overwhelmed trying to attend to each tables orders and needs.
- Important items like serving utensils were missing or forgotten in the hurried pace to help too many customers.
- Overall the place needs a new well organized manager to properly train the wait staff and keep the flow going smoothly.
- For the great location and high quality of food, the service is notably lacking.

The lamb was undercooked and the broccoli burnt. Where the lamb was rare/raw it was not tender. The "belly pork" small plate was all fat so it was returned. The second plate of belly pork still had 75% fat for 25% meat. I find $14 for a small plate of few greens and pieces of very inferior cut of "meat" (i.e. belly pork) is outrageously expensive. Furthermore, I do not consider belly pork meat suitable for human consumption let alone in a restaurant that pretends to be fancy. The service was fair until our waiter realized that the appetizer of fried vegetables we had been finger snacking on had been delivered to us by error (we thought it was complementary). So he picked it up and served it as is to the table next to us. We were appalled. The price tag is steep and the menu is nothing but dishes of random ingredients put together with no sense of culinary taste and execution. The worst restaurant I ever ate at and I am not a young person. It is a shame because the setting and the ambiance were very inviting.

We’ve visited the Stonehouse 3 times over the past year. Each time the food has been outstanding, while the service was not. However, this time the food and service were both outstanding. It’s a unique restaurant, with a beautiful interior and very nice outdoor dining area. Nevada City is lucky to have this restaurant. It’s still finding it’s niche, so more people should check it out before you can’t get a reservation!

Magical. Food was unique and delicious. Everyone was kind and welcoming. Service was top notch

Cannot wait to go back

We are new to the area, hoping to relocate from San Diego. We found the restaurant to be a perfect place for a special dinner. The ambiance is exceptional and in character for the area. The menu was very creative, and the fresh dishes, made with local ingredients, are exceptionally creative. All-in-all all this will be one of our favorites.

Service was a tiny bit inattentive, though not terrible. Food was trying a little too hard to be interesting and different, but was pretty good. The outdoor patio is a terrific setting.

Mothers day

I had booked well ahead for a nice Mother’s Day lunch but unfortunately ended up regretting it. The Stonehouse took too many reservations at noon that day, more than their waitstaff or kitchen could handle. It was more than an hour and half before we were served, which cut into our other afternoon plans. The staff said that several order tickets including ours didn’t print. That doesn’t explain why it took so long to even take first our drink order and finally our food order. We sat for nearly an hour before we even got something to drink! I gave two stars instead of one because although we didn’t ask for any discount, they decided not to charge us for our meal. I wouldn’t return on a busy holiday though.

The patio is open for summer. (And it is wheelchair accessible!) Chef Jesse is creative and prepares very imaginative dishes. The baby beet salad was beyond great. Most tender ribs and the pork belly from the other side of the table got raves. Rhubarb cobbler....all dishes just about licked clean.

The food was absolutely wonderful, I highly recommend the smoked mushrooms and aged ribeye steak, fantastic, the smoked pork ribs & short ribs so tender and excellent flavor.

Food was good although they were out of two things we wanted to order

It's great to finally have a new upscale restaurant in town where the food is inventive and worthy of the higher prices. We've dined here for dinner a few times since it opened and it just gets better each time. Had an amazing brunch on Sunday to celebrate our relative's anniversary. The food, service and ambiance were wonderful. Everyone was impressed! Will definitely be back.

The food is better and better with each visit. Standouts in April 2018 were deviled eggs with smoked scallops and a fine cheese plate. Service still needs a lot of polishing. We were not even seated when the waitress began handing out menus, pointing out which were for drinks and which were for food. Front door leads to roped-off area and dimly lit stairs; terrible "welcome" moment. Really inelegant!

This is the best upscale dining in this area. The food is superbly prepared and very imaginative. The pickle plate is a must. We enjoy the small plates as we get to sample lots of different dishes. Often hard to decide what was the best one!! Yum 😀 Great service and we never feel rushed. Highly recommend.

The food was very creative with different and tasty spices. The service was great. It was a little difficult to make our way downstairs and to the bar because it was dark, there are stairs, and a chair blockade didn't help. Assume you will correct this situation....a light would help!

This is my new favorite restaurant, we went to the Stonehouse for our friends wedding anniversary. Our server Trevor was awesome, very attentive and was an expert on explaining the menu. We had the opportunity to meet the chef Kevin, great guy, loved his recommendations. Will be returning very soon.

Our dinner was comprised of some wonderfully layered flavors that included some ingredients or combinations we were not familiar with. The avocado Caesar salad was extraordinary especially when you had a bite of salad combined with the root chips on top. We had one dish that didn't hit the spot for either of us so we just didn't eat it. Our waitress was super classy and simply took it off the bill at the end - no questions asked other than if we could provide the chef with some feedback. Super impressive that she had the freedom to do the right thing and that they wanted input. We would definitely go back for another unique experience and delicious food again.

The menu is adventurous and creative. Being that the restaurant is still relatively new, the menu and wine list are a little abbreviated. But, the food is perfection. Plated beautifully (on really nice plates) and perfectly prepared. This outing we had a cheese plate (cheeses from local Wheyward Girl), avocado Caesar, and the most tender ever flat iron. Looking forward to good weather for the patio dining.

We had a memorable time being treated to delicious unique dishes that surprised our plallet. The rib roast md the sauce was divine. All the plates we’re worlds of art! Our waiter Kody was friendly and kind and very informative yet not intrusive. The atmosphere is so beautiful like in an old castle. I’d definitely return.

Wonderful flavors and textures
Great service
Will return soon

Drinks took over 15 minutes to arrive; waitress forgot them! Then reported they did not have the spirits that we had ordered. Meal was overly salty. Friendly ambience but Stone House still needs some serious tweaking.

This us the second time I’ve visited the Stone House. Each time the food was exceptional but the service was spotty. Inedible steak dish, which had to be returned and extremely late dessert, maybe they forgot🤔

Be advised that the type of dining they offer takes a long time, so don’t be in a hurry.

unique food items on the menu. Lovely ambiance in a restotred histrical landmark

The food was absolutely delish! We had the ceviche which was such a unique mixture. The two cocktails (Gold Rush & Smoky Jalepeño) we ordered were perfect, not too sweet! The pork and chicken dishes were so flavorful- we could have ordered more!

Look forward to visiting again soon!

Great food, but a bit pricey for us. Several items missing from drink and menu.

I surprised my new Love with a Valentine’s Day dinner! We rarely eat beef and decided to try the filet minion. It was melt in your mouth delicious. Our favorite was the beet salad with shaved chocolate and Cara Cara oranges. Wow! You definitely need to try this restaurant. Delicious!

The food was amazing. Dishes you would not cook at home. A little confusing to order dishes because some are Tappas size and some are not. Our server was helpful in explaining the dishes. The Pork Belly, The Ravioli, and the Lasagne dishes were so delicious. All dishes were beautifully presented. Big compliments to the Chef!
The Stonehouse building is beautiful and in the heart of lovely Nevada City.