Ocotillo Restaurant Reviews

Reviews

• Talyah S. Sent on 11/14/2022
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Perfect wedding venue for an off-the-beaten-path wedding

  My partner and I wanted to get married in fall 2022... like many other couples. Venue options were limited given this was the busiest wedding year on record, so we had to get creative. This was a blessing in disguise since it led us to Ocotillo! We were looking for a space that was laid back, fun, yet with an elevated elegance and great food/drinks (a non-negotiable). Ocotillo delivered above and beyond on each of those fronts. Steve on the events team was amazing to work with - super responsive and helpful. We heard from multiple guests the food was the they've ever had at a wedding. The venue also made a beautiful backdrop for photos. We took family portraits before/after the ceremony and the previews came out amazing. The green trees in the outdoor space make for an incredible frame in the photos! Bonus: because the space already has a lot of ambiance, we didn't need to add much decor - just some florals and a couple other pieces to bring it all together, but very minimal compared to other venues.

  My partner and I wanted to get married in fall 2022... like many other couples. Venue options were limited given this was the busiest wedding year on record, so we had to get creative. This was a blessing in disguise since it led us to Ocotillo! We were looking for a space that was laid back, fun, yet with an elevated elegance and great food/drinks (a non-negotiable). Ocotillo delivered above and beyond on each of those fronts. Steve on the events team was amazing to work with - super responsive and helpful. We heard from multiple guests the food was the they've ever had at a wedding. The venue also made a beautiful backdrop for photos. We took family portraits before/after the ceremony and the previews came out amazing. The green trees in the outdoor space make for an incredible frame in the photos! Bonus: because the space already has a lot of ambiance, we didn't need to add much decor - just some florals and a couple other pieces to bring it all together, but very minimal compared to other venues.
• David Sent on 01/31/2018
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  I went to a wedding here around the Holidays, and I was completely mesmerized. The lighting and atmosphere of this place was incredible. The welcoming staff was so friendly, hospitable, and helpful. They made me feel like they really cared about the experience of the wedding party. The events manager was top notch at executing all the transactions from ceremony through the lavish dinner. The food was the best I have ever had a wedding. No resort does food quite so deliciously. Their service was flawless, as well. The bartenders made fantastic drinks, and I everyone had such a great time it was hard to believe a restaurant could execute such a spectacular event.

  I went to a wedding here around the Holidays, and I was completely mesmerized. The lighting and atmosphere of this place was incredible. The welcoming staff was so friendly, hospitable, and helpful. They made me feel like they really cared about the experience of the wedding party. The events manager was top notch at executing all the transactions from ceremony through the lavish dinner. The food was the best I have ever had a wedding. No resort does food quite so deliciously. Their service was flawless, as well. The bartenders made fantastic drinks, and I everyone had such a great time it was hard to believe a restaurant could execute such a spectacular event.
• Katie Sent on 02/28/2018
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  I can't possibly write a review to express how perfect my wedding at Ocotillo was. Steve and his team made us feel like family and gave attention to every detail. Two things that are a testament to their efforts: 1. Our guests are still talking about the food and the service. Every time we see friends and family it comes up not just that the wedding was fun but either "That space was so beautiful" or "My steak was delicious and perfectly cooked, how did they do that with so many people?!" or "The servers were so friendly and they knew my drink and even brought me one on the dance floor!" 2. Since our wedding several guests have gone back for dinners, drinks and celebrations of their own. Pretty cool to know that Ocotillo will become a place our friends go to and think about our wedding every time!
  
  Steve helped us create a great menu and was so flexible with our requests. He really shared in our vision of the night and he and his team executed every detail with professional grace and attentiveness. I never once looked at something and thought 'that's wrong, it should be..." If anything, things were even better than I had imagined.
  
  Huge thank you to the entire team at Ocotillo- its clichéd but it truly was the best night of my life, in part to all of your efforts and talents!

  I can't possibly write a review to express how perfect my wedding at Ocotillo was. Steve and his team made us feel like family and gave attention to every detail. Two things that are a testament to their efforts: 1. Our guests are still talking about the food and the service. Every time we see friends and family it comes up not just that the wedding was fun but either "That space was so beautiful" or "My steak was delicious and perfectly cooked, how did they do that with so many people?!" or "The servers were so friendly and they knew my drink and even brought me one on the dance floor!" 2. Since our wedding several guests have gone back for dinners, drinks and celebrations of their own. Pretty cool to know that Ocotillo will become a place our friends go to and think about our wedding every time!
  
  Steve helped us create a great menu and was so flexible with our requests. He really shared in our vision of the night and he and his team executed every detail with professional grace and attentiveness. I never once looked at something and thought 'that's wrong, it should be..." If anything, things were even better than I had imagined.
  
  Huge thank you to the entire team at Ocotillo- its clichéd but it truly was the best night of my life, in part to all of your efforts and talents!
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• Julie M. Sent on 04/29/2024
  4 out of 5 rating

  4.0
  • Quality of service
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Average response time
    3.0 out of 5 rating
    3.0
  • Professionalism
    3.0 out of 5 rating
    3.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Beautiful venue but hard to deal with management

  We got married at Ocotillo in 2023. I’ll preface this by saying that the venue is absolutely phenomenal and the food that everyone did get was great. There were some issues that happened a few months before our wedding that we had to deal with that were out of the restaurant’s control, but we understood that. They were not allowed to use outdoor amplified sound due to previous noise complaints, so they gave us the entire restaurant at no extra charge. Our actual wedding day was great for us, but dealing with the venue coordinator and bar manager added endless stress before and after the wedding. Steve, the event coordinator for the venue seemed great at first, but that quickly changed. He was very disorganized and took all of his notes on the inside of file folders that already had notes for other events on them. We made it clear from the first time we met that we were interested in family style service (which was an option they offered), and we met with him close to 10 times in person before the wedding, and still somehow at the last meeting he told us that he didn’t have in his notes that we were interested in family style service. During our meetings we would always ask him to summarize everything in an email so we had it in writing, and he would say that he would send it to us by a certain date. Every time that date would come with no email sent to us, and we had to send a reminder. We would finally get the email back about a week later. Another headache was when we scheduled a meeting with the bar manager Casey to taste cocktails, and he did not show up to the meeting because he was sick but did not let us know until three hours after our agreed upon meeting time that he was not coming. Instead we met with the general manager Brendan and the main bartenders, Spencer and Zach. The three of them were amazing, helped us come up with our drinks on the fly and taste everything. Brendan sent us a succinct email with exact specs for the cocktails at the end of dinner service that night. Brendan even answered the questions that we emailed to Steve two weeks previously and had never got an answer on.
  
  During our food tasting with Steve, I asked why there were two different prices for the salmon dishes they had. He told us that the more expensive was wild caught salmon and the cheaper option was farm raised salmon. I asked if we could substitute the farm raised into the more expensive dish and he said yes and that would drop the price down. We sent him our final menu choices about a week before the deadline for that, and I specified the substitution in the salmon dish. He waited until after the deadline to email us back the final price per person. I thought it was too high, so I asked for an itemized price breakdown. He still charged us for the more expensive fish dish, and I asked why that was since we discussed it two months earlier. His response was, “I never said that you could upgrade to premium sides at no cost,” and we wouldn’t be able to change the menu at this point. A couple of days later he told us that we could no longer come in early to take pictures, and we had to find another location for that. The day of the wedding he was teaching the staff how to do family style service. The next day we found out that about 70% of the tables didn’t get our pasta entree at all. We emailed him about this, and he admitted that he had noticed full plates going back to the kitchen but stated it was because the staff didn’t know how to do family style service and that there wasn’t enough room on the table because of our extensive centerpieces. Our centerpieces for the long tables were the size of a wine glass, and they were spaced out between the tables, so we knew that wasn’t true. We responded saying that we paid for everyone to get the pasta and that something needed to be done about this, and he never even responded after that.
  
  Overall, it’s a beautiful space with great food. As long as Steve is there, I would strongly discourage anybody from having a wedding there. If we could have dealt with Brendan and Spencer the entire time, the event would have been perfect.
  

  We got married at Ocotillo in 2023. I’ll preface this by saying that the venue is absolutely phenomenal and the food that everyone did get was great. There were some issues that happened a few months before our wedding that we had to deal with that were out of the restaurant’s control, but we understood that. They were not allowed to use outdoor amplified sound due to previous noise complaints, so they gave us the entire restaurant at no extra charge. Our actual wedding day was great for us, but dealing with the venue coordinator and bar manager added endless stress before and after the wedding. Steve, the event coordinator for the venue seemed great at first, but that quickly changed. He was very disorganized and took all of his notes on the inside of file folders that already had notes for other events on them. We made it clear from the first time we met that we were interested in family style service (which was an option they offered), and we met with him close to 10 times in person before the wedding, and still somehow at the last meeting he told us that he didn’t have in his notes that we were interested in family style service. During our meetings we would always ask him to summarize everything in an email so we had it in writing, and he would say that he would send it to us by a certain date. Every time that date would come with no email sent to us, and we had to send a reminder. We would finally get the email back about a week later. Another headache was when we scheduled a meeting with the bar manager Casey to taste cocktails, and he did not show up to the meeting because he was sick but did not let us know until three hours after our agreed upon meeting time that he was not coming. Instead we met with the general manager Brendan and the main bartenders, Spencer and Zach. The three of them were amazing, helped us come up with our drinks on the fly and taste everything. Brendan sent us a succinct email with exact specs for the cocktails at the end of dinner service that night. Brendan even answered the questions that we emailed to Steve two weeks previously and had never got an answer on.
  
  During our food tasting with Steve, I asked why there were two different prices for the salmon dishes they had. He told us that the more expensive was wild caught salmon and the cheaper option was farm raised salmon. I asked if we could substitute the farm raised into the more expensive dish and he said yes and that would drop the price down. We sent him our final menu choices about a week before the deadline for that, and I specified the substitution in the salmon dish. He waited until after the deadline to email us back the final price per person. I thought it was too high, so I asked for an itemized price breakdown. He still charged us for the more expensive fish dish, and I asked why that was since we discussed it two months earlier. His response was, “I never said that you could upgrade to premium sides at no cost,” and we wouldn’t be able to change the menu at this point. A couple of days later he told us that we could no longer come in early to take pictures, and we had to find another location for that. The day of the wedding he was teaching the staff how to do family style service. The next day we found out that about 70% of the tables didn’t get our pasta entree at all. We emailed him about this, and he admitted that he had noticed full plates going back to the kitchen but stated it was because the staff didn’t know how to do family style service and that there wasn’t enough room on the table because of our extensive centerpieces. Our centerpieces for the long tables were the size of a wine glass, and they were spaced out between the tables, so we knew that wasn’t true. We responded saying that we paid for everyone to get the pasta and that something needed to be done about this, and he never even responded after that.
  
  Overall, it’s a beautiful space with great food. As long as Steve is there, I would strongly discourage anybody from having a wedding there. If we could have dealt with Brendan and Spencer the entire time, the event would have been perfect.