Ysidora Restaurant and Lounge (@ the Inn at the Mission San Juan Capistrano)

We love Ysidora! Great food, excellent service.

I'll start with the good: Ambiance is great. The courtyard is beautiful, the tables were nicely separated and we thoroughly enjoyed the live music. Unfortunately, despite a 7:15pm reservation, we had to wait 40 minutes for a table. It seemed that once the music started up again, patrons were (understandably) unwilling to leave. In order to get us sat somewhere, they offered us an eight person table for a party of two. Not ideal but we didn't want to wait any longer. The management was very apologetic and once we were sat, they went out of their way to make us feel welcome.

Unfortunately, we found the food to be rather mediocre. The appetizers we tried were surprisingly bland- the Ysidora Guacamole (chips & guac) needed a touch of salt or something and my husband compared the Croquetas de Jamon to Red Lobster Hush Puppies. Really not good. Our entrees (Roasted Half Chicken and Roasted Local Swordfish) were just so so. Even the churro recommendation from our waitress was not great. We are not particularly picky eaters or foodies by any means and we still found the food to be terribly disappointing. Go for the ambiance and drinks but I would not waste your money on the food.

Side note-if you self park, don't forget to get validated! They offer valet for $12 or self-parking free with validation. We were told that they had just started implementing this system so it wasn't fully explained to us when we arrived and there was a bit of confusion, even among the staff, when we tried to leave and were faced with a $36 parking balance. Ultimately it was cleared up by showing the (slightly annoyed) valet our dinner receipt and a lecture by him to remember to validate "if" we come back.

Had so much fun! Food, service, and ambiance were great. Very much enjoyed the live music.

This is a new restaurant so they seemed to be ironing out the kinks in their service. However, the food was good, table service was good and ambiance was great.

We came for a birthday dinner fun. The service was great, the food was great, and the outside patio was quaint. It was a bit cold but they everything possible to keep us warm (heaters and blankets). We will go back again.

The menu has a Spanish slant but falls short of delivering a Spanish experience. Appetizers were okay, minus the Pan Con Tomate, which of you've been to Spain, can be amazing. Here, it was underwhelming. Their highlighted chicken entree was recommended but arrived dry and disappointing. The Eye of Ribeye was cooked perfectly, but for such a nice presentation, lacked flavor. I am Dad that it was not more of an experience, but one should manage expectations when dining in a hotel restaurant.

Great setup on the patio for distance and appreciate the consistent safety procedures from the staff with masks and distance. So nice to get back to eating somewhere outside for a change as the infection numbers recede! :)

Lovely surroundings
Excellent service
Fair food for the price

Valentines prix fix dinner

Beautiful facility although outdoor dining with heaters can be a little chilly. Wonderful meal, great service . Looking forward to our next visit.

We were sooo excited to finally eat at Yisadora! We were a party of 4 on Saturaday2/ 13. The concept of tapas and the beautiful location and ambiance was so inviting. We ordered paella, patatas bravas, house salad w/ steak chicharones and the chicken plate. First off, I loved the froze drink...it was fabulous! I was so excited to have Paella which I have been craving for so long. I have had paella numerous times, in South America, Spain and some authentic restaurants here. in Southern California. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. This was by no means an authentic or typical paella. There was pieces of fried chicken cut up and very small square bites of sausages, very strange and not very flavorful. Typically paella has dark meat chicken thighs, nice chunky pieces of sausage and often seafood like calamari, scallops, shrimp, mussels & clams etc. I know this was not a seafood paella but nevertheless is was not good. The rice was mushy and lacked flavor and very over priced for the dish. My husband had the house salad with caesar dressing. He requested it with steak medium rare, it came well done and cold. The patatas bravas were ok. The chicharrones were very light and not the authentic version of what we have had before which is typically has pork fat that contributes to the flavor. I believe our guest enjoyed his chicken which he said was ok, nothing spectacular. I will give it another try but definitely order something different hoping that I will enjoy it more. The chef needs to tweak and do more research as to how to prepare a truly, flavorful, authentic paella with more ingredients typical of the dish. I wish them luck and hope that they look at all the comments as constructive criticism so that they will succeed. Best of luck.

First night out in months was a pleasant experience with delicious fare. Drinks a bit slow on being delivered (more than 15 mins), but after this all went well. We will be back

It would be nice if they stayed open past 8:00 p.m.

The food & drink were amazing! Beautiful patio dining but they need more heaters! Service was a little slow but maybe because they have just re-opened from covid closure? Looking forward to returning and enjoying again!

Ambiance and service at Ysidora was great. I was with a party of 4 and we all enjoyed our meals, drinks and appetizers. We sat outside due to COVID and they had a great live guitar player/singer and a beautiful courtyard for us to enjoy. We cant wait to go back.

I want so bad to be leaving a better review. This restaurant has so much potential. The ambience is fabulous. A beautiful courtyard with music playing. It is a happening place really busy and yet somehow private and quiet. Absolutely loved the look and was so comfortable to sit a few hours. Everything else needs to change. Service was incredibly slow. I don’t think it was the fault of our server so much as they looked to be very understaffed for the amount of tables on a Friday night. Our server was extremely friendly and very apologetic but it was clear there was a lack in organization from management. The food was so disappointing and I so wanted to like it. We ordered the potato croquettes as an appetizer and they were very bland. The sauce had no flavor and the potato needed at the very least a pinch of salt. We also ordered the guacamole a chips. Again no flavor to the guacamole a little spice or a pinch of salt would have gone a long way. For an entree we split the Tomahawk steak. I regret not taking a picture of it. Pretty sure the Tomahawk was cooked in a crockpot and again incredibly bland. Owners and management need to get on top of this fast. People are going to want to live this restaurant but if things don’t change the flow of people will slowly go down. I will go back one more to time in a few weeks hoping things have changed. It’s the perfect ambience for a date, business meeting or dinner out with friends.

Perfect and wonderful music (Lauren) except too cold and not enough heaters. We asked multiple times for one but servers kept forgetting to get us one. We love the restaurant though so will be going back!

Excellent menu

This restaurant is in the new Marriott which is so lovely. The service was excellent. Unique flavors and lots of tapas. I look forward to going back.

We were very excited to try it since it is new, in a very nice hotel and also because there are a lot of good restaurants in SJC. The place is gorgeous, the ambience was very nice with live music but the service was slow and the food was not what we were expecting for the price (lack of flavor).

The paella was disappointing.
Wet rice, lack of flavor/spice.

Our reservation was for 6 people. When we arrived all of the tables for 6 were still occupied. So they took 2 round tables and butted them together, which was not conducive for a Thanksgiving family dinner. Picture it. Fortunately, one of our guests could not make it so we were able to sit at one of the round tables. Had our 6th arrived, we would not have taken 2 round tables.

There was a larger group who took up all of the rectangular tables. I took us a long time to get our entree because our waiter had to take care of them. He apologized and it wasn't his fault, but should have had more servers on a holiday when people had to have a reservation.

The Ysidora restaurant was a pleasant surprise and went beyond our expectations. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in a gorgeous setting with excellent service (Joey).
It will be our new Thanksgiving go to!!! Highly recommend this little gem in the heart of SJC and look forward to returning soon!

Second time here. Love the atmosphere in outside dining. Food and service again was exceptional, as agreed by our party of six. Slight technicality...for $90 per person prix fixe, would have been nice to have soup spoons rather than teaspoons for soup, and to have gotten fresh forks for entree rather than being asked to hold on to forks used for salad. Still, experience exceeded expectations.

Beautiful location for wine and tapas with friends. Wait staff was excellent and we all felt very "safe" in the outdoor location. We will be returning!

The food was very good, however service was slow. The outdoor seating was spacious and the decor is wonderful.

Beautiful bar and plenty of cool different areas to sit and have a conversation, unfortunately we had to be outside, patio was very nice with heaters. The food was average, nothing special or different. The drinks were way over priced.

Fabulous experience
Briana was our server , super nice and professional
Food and drinks Aplus!
Beautiful atmosphere
Definitely will be back😀

Our party of five thought the cuisine, presentation and service were excellent and delivered in beautiful surroundings. The only drawback was the sound level. While the music selection was good, combined with the fountain and other diner's echoing conversations, it was too loud to carry on a normal conversation at our table.

We will be back!

We ordered several tapas including the croquetas de jamon, patatas bravas, beef sliders, pan con tomate and jamon serrano. We were very hungry but all the tapas were enough to fill us up without needing to order entrees (portions were enough for two people to share).
All were good but the standout was the sliders. The beef was juicy and the chorizo jam gave it a unique and tasty flavor.
For dessert we had the churro cake and the cheese tart. Neither were exciting, although they weren't bad either. As someone who normally could eat everything on the dessert menu, I could skip ordering it here next time.
Service was excellent and overall we'll be coming back again.
Downside is parking. It is valet only, which I didn't appreciate because of covid.

Ysidora was great except it took the hostess more than 20 minutes for us to be seated. The restaurant was not full capacity at all and it was for outdoor dinning. That was a disappointment.

The food and cocktails at Ysidora is really fabulous. It is quite pricey considering the amount of food you are served. We dinned here before for brunch and we seem to to like the menu and the atmosphere during Sunday brunch.

We had a great time celebrating my wife's birthday celebration. The food was excellent, the live music was good and the ambieance was superb. All the drinks and food were excellent. My only recommendation is to try to make the Paella by using Fideua,short toasted noodles called fideus, Catalan Style. We had a great time.
Thank you,
Keith

Great beautiful atmosphere. Live music and excellent service. Food we love the appetizer (guacamole and ceviche). The steak was a bit dry for us. Overall love the ambiance ...definitely will go back soon. Thank you

Nice area unfortunately food not so good. Over priced small portions

Service very slow but gracious.
Had to ask 3x for Splenda for my cappuccino
My flatbread( 1st on the menu...garden ...? Was yesterday’s food. Mache & greens were spoiled& soggy. Tho artichoke was listed in the ingredients there could not have been 1/4 of scanned heart spread on it in separate pieces. You ‘ll have to do something about the “peas” We had to ask what the cilantro pesto was. Flavorless& Soaked completely into yesterday’s reheated flatbread. My advice: Take this off your menu.

We chose the cheesecake for the birthday dessert. How old was the cheesecake? It had shrunk 1/4” away from the hardened crust.

If things are this slow, you need 2-3 fabulous things on each part of the menu & skip the “ yesterday’s food”

Beautiful ambiance, food was ok I excepted more from this restaurant. Menu variety was not much.
I will go back only for a drink next time restaurant needs upgrade their menu!

The bar area is absolutely full of atmosphere and great selections. Enjoyed my Old Fashioned. Because of temps we then moved to a table at the inside dining room of restaurant. Ambiance in the dining room is nill....very stark, cafeteria feel. Maybe the outdoor dining is better as we saw how beautiful the hotel’s courtyards were with plush seating and fire pits. The service was good but food just so-so. The Red Mojo ceviche was drenched in an orange colored mayo. Fish smelled fishy and without the acid of a normal ceviche all brightness of fresh flavors was missing. The Garden flatbread was limp and cold, flavors bland. Only highlight was Grilled Peach and Tomato Salad.

Delish beautiful room

Not Ready! We enter on the side street and push the button on the parking gate no one answered the phone. Had to park on the side street and walk all the way around the hotel. They sat us at a table that wobbled all night. Service was slow. Food was just Ok. Talked to the manager and she didn’t do anything to assure a great experience. Very noisy inside. We won’t go back until they raise their courtesy and become more customer friendly.

Very eclectic food. Not for those who are non-adventurous!