The Steakhouse At Equus

I can only write about the Yellow Fin Ahi Tuna and the Ceasar Salad which I had both. The salad was HUGE! Enough for 2 people to share. Loved it. The ahi was perfectly cooked and combined with the noodles and mushrooms… extremely well done. Nick was my server and he did a great job. Not sure about the other negative reviews but I definitely will come back.

I’m always disappointed to write a bad review, but poor customer service in the service industry makes me crazy! (Probably because after years of working in it myself, I have unyielding, but very reasonable expectations).
My boyfriend and I wanted to celebrate a new job offer and wanted to try someplace new; this was the restaurant he picked so I didn’t give it much thought or research. That was a mistake. We started in the bar/​lounge area for happy hour, and while that experience on that side wasn’t stellar-it’s essentially a bar so I tried to overlook our server consistently attending to tables seated after us prior to helping us, lengthy ticket times on our drinks and food, and the condiments for our fries and sliders never showing up despite her saying twice she’d «bring it right over». But we finish in the bar and moved to the main dining room for dinner.
The service was atrocious– rude and inattentive– the worst combination. We are seated and the first thing out of the servers mouth is «do you have any questions about the menu». No greeting/​welcome, no introduction/​name, no asking if it’s our first time dining there, just what questions do you have. There are 3 Caesar salads on the menu– 2 with clear descriptions and a third «table side Caesar salad for 2 at 15/​pp» no other verbiage. So I ask– «what’s the difference between the classic Caesar and the table side Caesar?» His reply «One is made in the kitchen and one in made at your table» Really?!? You don’t say, Sherlock?!! How helpful. For a salad you want me to pay $ 3/​pp more than the one made in the kitchen, you should make your table side preparation sound a little more intriguing than that! Needless to say we didn’t get the table side Caesar– and the one from the kitchen was bland and poorly dressed. I ended up going with a wedge and was probably the highlight of the evening for me.
Our (average but satisfactory) surf and turf entrée comes out around 5 mins after we received our salads along with a few sides– mac and cheese– bland and boring, «glazed spiced» carrots– they were neither; al dente, unseasoned and garnished with some lemon zest, and au gratin potatoes– fantastic!
At some point early in the meal, a regular customer is seated next to us and is receiving first class service– she is greeted, gets to the hear the specials and then some. She felt it was necessary to eavesdrop into our conversation about how every other table in the restaurant has bread and we don’t/it has never been offered to us/​it doesn’t say on the menu «bread on request» and volunteers «they make everything fresh». And I replied «that’s great, but as first time customers we have no way of knowing that/​it has nothing to do with why we didn’t get bread.» We didn’t get bread because of the poor standard of service.
By the end of the night we were helped more by the food runner/​Assistant sever whom also offered warmer and better service than our actual server and I was appalled at how unpleasant our entire $ 160+ experience had been, but there was nobody resembling management readily available to reach out to; and after two hours there, we were both ready to move on with the evening.
The service was around the standard of chain fast casual dining restaurants; and at Outback or the like, one can get comparable fare around ½ the price. The only time I will be returning will be to discuss my less than enjoyable experience with management.

Dinner last night at Equus was a disaster in terns of the lack of quality of the food and the horrendous wait we had, Nearly 2 hours after ordering our food arrived. I’m literally shocked that Equus could last as long as it has in Sonoma Co that has such fine restaurants.
Marianne

You’d think its just another restaurant attached to a hotel, but it’s so much more. The manager, Jessica, personally delivered our drinks at the bar before we made our way to the table. Then, Nick showed up, & he was a fantastic guide through the menu. Our appetizers were divine, the burrata & crab cakes… we could have ended the night there. But I was in the mood for the steak, a 14 oz. ribeye with a Red Wine Reduction, thanks Nick. My lady had the Mac & Cheese & I had the Au Gratin potatoes. From the sides to service, Equus hits a home run!

I don’t like leaving bad reviews… but this outing was nothing short of very disappointing. Went to dinner with my grandpa and we both got the same thing. We got a house salad with thousand island dressing and the roasted chicken. The salad dressing had a touch of fishy-​ness, but we just decided to eat that because we were so hungry. Then about 20 minutes later, our chicken came out. Right when we both cut into our chicken, there was a fishy smell, but we decided to give it a try. Both of our first bites tasted like fish. It was chicken. We were pretty disgusted, and called over the waiter, and told him of our problem with the food. He then persisted to argue with us about the taste of our chicken and told us that we were wrong and it shouldnt taste like fish. It was very unprofessional. And it took my grandpa raising his voice at the waiter to get him to take our food away… while rolling his eyes and mumbling under his breath. So we finally got the issue resolved and didn’t order anything else and we paid for our salads and drinks and left. Needless to say, we won’t be back. Really a bummer.

So peaceful… beautiful…romantic for us to share in my husbands 58^th birthday day dinner!
We shared the Porterhouse dinner… the flavor was awesome!
Server 13 was awesome. I did not get her name :/

Very nice lunch menu with moderate prices and lots of selection. I had the Caesar with steak, and it was vey good. The only problem is that the service sucks. They were only serving three tables for lunch and we waited 20 mins before placing our order, another 20 minutes for the food to arrive and another 20 minutes to pay the bill. So if you’re a working stiff like me, and don’t have all day for lunch, better go somewhere else.
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

1930 So as I’m about eating or better yet as I’m sitting here waiting to order my food I will review my visit from beginning to the end…
Let’s start with when I walked in the door, I’m looked at like I made the wrong get turn or something… I had to ask for a table for 1.
Once seated, the server. I’ll be nice and call her that instead of waitress. came by. she did not say her name just hi, she said what will you have to drink? I told her I had not looked at the drink menu and if she could bring me water…
Well, I’m still waiting on the water and she has been to 2 other tables and now a 3^rd table and still no water.
1945 I did get a chance to ask about wines and I asked about a sweet one but she only had one suggestion as for the next table besides me she has many suggestions for food and wine.
1950 my food arrives. pretty quick too. I ordered the ribeye, medium they cooked it right… I also ordered the crème fraîche mashed potatoes. Also ended up with a glass of pinot…
She allowed me to sample it first. It was good also.
2006. still no water
2031… been waiting on dessert for 10 minstrel now. 2036 dessert arrives.
I ordered the crème burlee… it was running I have had better…
So all in all the steak was delicious, the dessert was mediocre, the service absolutely SUCKED!!! Still no water!!!

I’ve been coming to Equus for over ten years, both for happy hour and for dinner. They’ve never disappointed me, and that’s a long time to have never been disappointed. The caesar salad, prepared tableside, is worth calling out especially: it’s the best that I know of anywhere; don’t miss it.

The first word to describe the food is, «delicious». I am in town for a funeral, and I am staying at the Fountain grove inn hotel. I decided to order room service (which is obviously prepared and delivered by Equus) as I was not in the mood to dine in the restaurant. I ordered the yellowfin ahi tuna steak and the bloody Mary shrimp cocktail. Wow. The shrimp cocktail contains four large prawns that are the perfect temperature. Some places serve them overly cold and sometimes even warmed, which I find unpalatable. The bloody Mary cocktail sauce is quite delicious also. It is spicy but not overly so. It is garnished with a green bean, cocktail onion, and a green olive all on a skewer. The tuna steak is quite large, and they cook it to your liking. I enjoy it rare, so it was seared on the outside and perfect in the middle. The flavor is wonderful, and it was garnished with a lemon cut for squeezing. I was surprised however that there were no sides served with the steak at all, especially with the 28.00 pricetag, but that is trivial. The shrimp cocktail was 15.00, and I ordered a pellegrino water for 6.00. Not bad pricing in my opinion for room service from a well renowned restaurant. Yum!

Showed up at 5:30 finally got bread and water an hour later. Ordered the crab cakes for 17 dollars and when they arrived were hardly the size of quarter dollar’s. Not worth it. Would rather have gone to… well anyware. Avoid the over priced hype of «napa» and go somewhere else.

Happy hour! This place is really great. It’s Clean, got a friendly staff, and delicious food. 4 tv’s in the bar area but quite lounge for drinks and conversation. Here is the break down on the food we tried
Sweet potato fries: Nice earthy and crisp. Outstanding lemon aioli
Garlic fries: shoe string, garlic, light truffle oil
Miyagi oyster: light and sweet add in the cucumber mignonette at watch them disappear.
Bloody Mary shrimp shooter:
What a great take on a classic drink, just subtract the booze and add in a jumbo shrimp!
BBQ duck slider: I ordered a second one!
The fresh brioche bun, light and crunchy slaw with a smoky BBQ sauce
Pineapple pork riblets:
Thick sweet sauce with almond slivers. So good!

Happy hour! This place is really great. It’s Clean, got a friendly staff, and delicious food. 4 tv’s in the bar area but quiet lounge for drinks and conversation. Here is the break down on the food we tried
Sweet potato fries: Nice earthy and crisp. Outstanding lemon aioli
Garlic fries: shoe string, garlic, light truffle oil
Miyagi oyster: light and sweet add in the cucumber mignonette at watch them disappear.
Bloody Mary shrimp shooter:
What a great take on a classic drink, just subtract the booze and add in a jumbo shrimp!
BBQ duck slider: I ordered a second one!
The fresh brioche bun, light and crunchy slaw with a smoky BBQ sauce
Pineapple pork riblets:
Thick sweet sauce with almond slivers. So good!

Ive been lucky to eat at many fine steak houses so I can’t honestly rank the rib eye here as more than ok since it lacked flavor but the scalloped potatoes were very yummy.
If you are staying at the Fountaingrove, and you are tired from traveling this is not a bad place to eat!
The ambience was chill and tasteful decorations were in abundance. Kudos to the staff though above everything, for being so pleasant and friendly!

We came here for Christmas dinner (We ate in the bar because we were told reservations were not needed.). The dinner itself was decent. Warm, not hot. Flavor was good. Service was slow.
Wine selection was good. The bartender is awesome. He had multiple tables and impressively kept up pretty well. The servers on the other hand were forgetful and slow.
The bartender made this dinner memorable. He is worth another visit.

TERRIBLE service, poor quality food and an apathetic manager– bad combination for $ 100+ meal! We just finished running a 200 mile relay race earlier that day. We stayed at the adjoining hotel — Fountaingrove Inn the previous night and the night of this review. After 24 hours of running, no sleep, no shower, no decent meals — we forced ourselves to shower to dine in this what-​looked-​to-​be elegant restaurant. We had reservations for 2 at 8:30pm, arriving at approximately 8:10pm. There were 3 other 2-​top tables seated at the time. A large table of 12 was paying as we sat (other runners from the race). We waited approximately 15 minutes before «Claire» approached us for our drink order. Wanting wine, Claire had to fetch the wine menu (not provided to us). We selected a $ 40 bottle of wine and Claire disappeared for another 15 minutes. We ordered a Wedge Salad, Asparagus, Baked Potato and a $ 40 bone-​in NY Steak (from the USDA Prime — premier section). 30 minutes after seating our bread arrived. About 15 minutes later our salad arrived. 45 minutes for food? 1 hour later the dinner arrived, Claire stacked our salad plates on the corner of the table as she served the dinner. She didn’t bring plates for sharing and obviously hadn’t checked on us in the 30 – 45 minutes we had our salad because those plates were not cleared. The asparagus and baked potato were warm to hot — of ok quality, not what you would expect of a 4 star restaurant — but not the subject of this review. The $ 40 steak from the prime menu which was ordered medium was cold. as in put your finger on it cold… the meat was of such poor quality that when you attempted to cut it — the entire table shook. Now keep in mind here — we were starving! We had eaten nothing but Goo, Pretzels and snacks for the last 24 hours. We were in search of some major protein here and really wouldn’t be that picky — but this steak was disgusting. When Claire finally checked on us and we told her the steak was poor she said «well it is medium-​rare it can’t be hot». SERIOUSLY? First of all — it was Medium, Claire, get your facts straight. Second of all — I hate to be THAT customer — But YES — I have ordered steaks from hundreds of fine establishments: Capital Grill, Houstons, Flemings, Maestros’ Restaurants — and Rare, Medium Rare — that’s the standard the meat is cooked to — but it always comes out hot — PIPING hot! I have never had anyone ever tell me that if I ordered a Medium steak I should expect it TarTar cold. Ridiculous. Claire said «we can throw it back on and heat it up». At this point we were the last remaining customers in the restaurant — we were exhausted — and Claire did not understand it was not only the temperature of the steak but the actual quality which was terrible. I asked Claire if the steak we ordered was off their prime cut of meat menu — and she affirmed — so I asked her if it should be as difficult to cut as it was (showing her). Claire took the steak and returned to offer «20% off the steak». By this time — needless to say I was seething with anger for her insult. I didn’t EAT the steak and then complain about it — and I was STARVING — I flagged her inattentive person down and showed her the cold uneaten steak. and she had the gall to offer me a 20% discount. No thank you Claire. Next option: Claire tosses a dessert menu on the table and says «here I’ll buy you dessert». No thank you Claire, just the check. The check arrives and Claire proudly announces that she has given us a 50% discount on the check. Claire — I need to speak with your manager. For the next 15 minutes we sit in silence but can hear obvious «whispering» around the corner where she and the manager spoke. First off — ANY GOOD restaurant sends the Manager at the first sign of a possible complaint. Second — why am I playing Price is Right discount game with Claire — I didn’t eat your terrible steak — I’m not paying for it — bottom line. Enter the Manager: Jessica. Jessica was young and friendly and professional appearing. Jessica placated me and was dismissive and reinforced Claire’s «it is Medium so it can’t be hot» story. SERIOUSLY!!! I reviewed the entire terrible experience with Jessica (which I hadn’t complained to Claire directly about) — to which she said «Claire was cranky with you because she was so upset that you had a bad experience». REALLY? And then tried to say the steak was cold because of the large 12 top — which of course I replied that they were leaving and paying when we were seated… bottom line — Jessica comped the steak and was «so so sorry [enter valley girl intonation] that we didn’t enjoy their restaurant]. This restaurant was a polar opposite of the experience at the fine hotel a 10 step walk across the parking lot. The food that was warm was OK quality — the steak was terrible and the service was deplorable. Oh — and they didn’t even offer to cork our wine — so I walked out with an open bottle of wine.

Drinks in the bar are great. The dining area however was a disappointment at best. The service and meal was less than expected for the price.

I write this hoping Equus learns from honest reviews. We needed a place to stay and eat after a fun afternoon at Safari West. What we experienced was nothing short of sad but almost funny in a sitcom sort of way (had we not dropped nearly $ 300 for 2 adults and 2 kids for a crappy meal). The server was very nice. But service was ridiculously slow. There were three things we ordered which were «sold out» (including the «sea salt sauce side» ??) The restaurant itself was barren and sad. When we did receive our food, we found two steaks with no flavor (perhaps frozen and re-​constituted) and the brick chicken was dried on my plate with a sad sprig of equally dried rosemary. Everything here is a la cart. OK, fine. We ordered the mac-​n-​cheese and a «fully loaded» baked potato on the side. Unfortunately, they were out of baked potatoes (seriously?) so provided a substitute of mashed potatoes (must’ve been boxed potato buds?) and the croc of mac and cheese was so tasteless we couldn’t discern what type of cheese was in the dish — our best guess was low-​fat Safeway brand cream cheese. I do hate to give such a negative review but the prices were so high that I don’t want others to fall trap to what appears on the outside to be a nice, modern fine dining experience.
Based on other reviews, best to grab happy hour in the room next door.

Was here a few days ago for happy hour and it wasn’t anything special but okay. The dude with the ponytail behind the bar seemed like he needed a happy hour for himself, though because I don’t think he smiled once. He also charged me for 3 beers when I only had 2 and when the woman next to me asked if she could order something from the menu & take it back to her room he said no we don’t allow that. She could take her drink with her, though. Whaaaat? At least the woman behind the bar seemed to have her stuff together, she was nice.

BIG EDIT: Hit or miss… I thought this was a 5 pkus star establisment… I am sitting with cold food, an angry date and it took 4 people and 20 minutes to get our food (not even the correct order) and 2 drinks correct. Still waiting and our food is now cold. Yeah… down to 3 stars. The girl who corrected me 4 times at equus, from my verbiage of seasonal (per my room service menu) to signature was beyond unnecessary. Im pretty much in shock… this was 10 stars in my book and now I am reluctant to give it 3. Is it because its friday? Regardless… get it together. Paying over $ 150 for a meal, should definitely be warm and correct… it also should not take this much effort or have any negative impact on date night. Ugh!
Previous experience: My room service came from here… sooooo YUMMY!!! Prompy and deliciously warm and yes… perfect!!From the friendly and professional phone conversations, I have ordered room service twice so far, to the quick and 5 star room service, I am extremely pleased! Everything has been fresh, fresh, fresh and I couldn’t possibly have a complaint about a single thing! Perfection! The lamb was cooked absolutely perfect last night and the fig compote mixed with baby carrots and mashed potatoes was deliciousness! This morning a very friendly staff person recommended the eggs benedict… oh yes… this is exactly what my taste buds were craving! Thank you! I am impressed with the level of effeciency, obviously how yummy the food is, their professionalism, how quick and fresh everything has been, how nice people have been. Really impressed. I haven’t had my morning coffee and it isn’t even 7am… but I had to write this before I forgot. I will definitely be checking out the new and nd improved restaurant… last time I stayed here it was under construction or getting updated. But from the other reviews it sounds like the ambiance is still phenomenal. Yes, please! Double stars for the people who work here! Especially Jeremy! What amazingly good service!!! You hired some awesome people and I appreciate it! I’m sure many people do! Thanks fountaingrove.

Excellent food, tapas-​like portions which is perfect for happy hour menus. We ordered several dishes including tri tip sliders, tempura shrimp with mango spicy mustard, bratwurst crostini, and garlic fries with lemon aioli. Our drinks were Moscow mules made with grey goose, perfectly strong and tasty. The tri tip was melt-​in-​your-​mouth tender, the slider buns tasted like the bread from basque bakery in Sonoma square which are heaven as is. The tempura batter was light and crispy with delicious, juicy shrimp. The garlic fries were one of the best I’ve had. Crispy, salty, prefect garlic mixed with parmigiano and Italian parsley. Garlic particularly mild and flavorful. One of the best Sonoma County happy hours yet. Go, now.

Just don’t go! Try Fast Food! The only plus that the place has is the staff. The food was disgusting we tried beacon wrapped dates, the bacon was all fat. The macaroni tasted of pure garlic and onions. We all so had shrimp carbonara the shrimp was fishy and not fresh, rubber, the pasta was also over cooked. Then let’s get to the gnocchi was hard and not soft. And to top it all of the fillet was to be the best and what they are known for it was the worst of all time! fast, chewy, and tasteless. Stringing and old tasting. I was referred to this spot by a good friend now I am going to beat him. All we wanted to do is to take our kids out for a nice dinner when we were in town to visit. Never again.

I’ve been here about 2 – 3 times due to work functions and it’s decent.
Fried calamari is standard, the potstickers are reasonable, and the potato gnocchi suffices.
Dinners aren’t bad but nothing special.
Overall reasonable place in a pinch.

Gosh, it was happy hour and we left «happy.»
Our small group sat in the couches in the area outside the bar and we never felt forgotten.
Tried a moscow mule for the first time so I have no comparison. It was fine.
Sweet potato fries were perfect (though I’ll get garlic fries next time.)
Shrimp dish was pretty tasty.
We lovvvvve Stark’s HH but this was a nice addition to our options.
I liked the ease of getting a table, too. :)

Ordered a moscow mule with gin instead of vodka, because I know that most bartenders do not know what a gingin is.
I have been ordering this drink for years. And every time I recieved a gin, muddled mint, lime juice, gingerbeer drink on ice.
The bar at equus gave me one sans mint. Pretty much a very important aspect. Otherwise its just booze and gingerbeer with a damn lime…
I brought the drink over to the bar because the server was NEVER AROUND. I ASKED POLITELY if she could fix my drink and make it correct and her response was «theres nothing wrong with it what would i fix» accompanied by a super rude face, which was caked in cheap frosting makeup and accentuated by her rediculously dark and unkempt ponytail. I told her a moscow mule always had mint, and never once have i recived one without mint, and she literally said «no they dont».
Also, I ordered hendricks and if you know gin you know exactly what it tastes like even in a moxed drink, and she must have used well gin because it was NOT hendricks.
We will never go back. They really need to get better servers and more competent bartenders.

My boyfriend and I ate here for dinner on a Friday night and breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Dinner was wonderful, however the only complaint we have is that we enjoyed out vegetables way more than our steaks. Don’t get me wrong, the steaks were still good, but when you are going to a restaurant for steak, you expect it to overpower the sides.
Also, if you get the breakfast buffet make sure to go on Saturday morning as I believe the buffet on Sunday is just leftover from Saturday morning.
The potatoes were amazing and they had a wonderful selection of fruit on Saturday.

I checked in at the Fountaingrove Inn and had pretty high expectations based on the delicious hors d’oeuvres served at check-​in.
But then.
I sat down in the restaurant and was given a paper menu for the meal, and an iPad for the drink and dessert menu. The first drink I ordered they didn’t have anymore. Isn’t one of the benefits of an iPad menu that you can immediately update it without having to spend the cost of reprinting a menu?
I ordered the bolognese with beef, veal, and pork. It was bland and tasted mostly of celery. The vegetable balance was way off. I’m pretty sure there was also no veal or pork in the sauce, just beef, which was tough and chewy.
Service was slow (despite there only being 2 or 3 other tables) and seemed to be confused by everything.
Based on other reviews, I see my experience is hardly unique.

Library style décor bar with a great happy hour
About a dozen signature cocktails for $ 7
Bud Coors. $ 2.50
Corona Stella and Blue Moon. $ 3
Featured wines $ 5
$ 3,4,5 plates that include Thai chicken lettuces cups, hot wings, steak tacos and tri tip sliders
Affordable happy hour in a touristy area

Breakfast review only — located in the Fountain Grove Hotel just off the 101.
Offered a choice of buffet or menu ordering. Nice buffet choices, with lots of fresh fruits and the usual eggs, meats and breads.
Coffee was good, service was very good and we ordered egg-​white omelets which hit the spot. Can’t beat the location if you are staying at the hotel.

My Fiancé and I stayed at the Fountain Grove Hotel for a 2 day stay for Memorial Day weekend and we went in the first night on Saturday and the waitress let me know they had Prime Rib for the special that night so I tried it and my fiancé had the New York steak. I am a Rib Eye steak kind of guy but I have to say. .One of the best Prime Rib portions I have had.
Tender. .cooked perfectly. .they also provided a horseradish sauce that was amazing!
We came back for dinner the next night and they said they have a Sea Bass special with a red wine butter sauce. Once again delicious! I’m shocked to see only 3 stars. .Really good atmosphere and great customer service and food is delicious!

small Happy Hour menu, but STRONG drinks
Sweet potato fries — very plain and not
Lettuce Cups — a nice attempt at asian food, the flavor is almost legitimate thai except for the absence of fish sauce.
the drinks are the star of the happy hour here. every drink on the happy hour menu is sweet and strong
service was friendly
i recommend this HH if you’ve had a long day at work or if you’ve had a stressful week, as this is one of the few HHs available on friday