Best American Restaurants in San Marcos

First of all, the Christmas decor is outstanding making you feel festive from the moment you enter the restaurant. Despite the crowd, service was excellent thanks to Vlad who brought drinks promptly (the Rose was delicious) The food came out hot and it was an amazing brunch of smoked salmon, the Benny (Eggs Benedict their way!), and an Egg Sandwich. Followed all this up with a double espresso and you have an amazing brunch. I highly recommend!

We adore the Pony Room. Chris, our server, and his team do a tremendous job making us feel welcome, helping us with menu selections, and anticipating our every need. The food last night was outstanding and we enjoyed the seasonal drinks as well. The live music is a special touch, though we sit outside where the music is a bit muted and easier for us to carry on conversation. Rancho Valencia is especially beautiful this time of year with the holiday declarations and lights. Worth the splurge!

Wonderful ambience, great food. It was my wife’s birthday and our waiter (Luca) was super nice and attentive to her. Very pleasurable experience!

Probably my favorite Campfire experience yet. We we treating our son’s favorite teacher and his wife to a holiday meal, and we were able to sit at a quiet table out front which was SO nice! I’m hard of hearing and the entire dinner, I was able to hear what everyone was saying! That is rare for me and I loved it. We tried a few different things tonight, and some of the same things we love. We ordered the cornbread which was new for us and it was 10/10. We also ordered the porridge bread as usual. So good, and my son became obsessed with it this time around. It’s a 9/10 for me but if they brought back the gravy drippings to dip it in that they had a couple years ago, it would be an 11/10. We also ordered the broccoli which was a 10/10 per usual. One of our group has food allergies so they were able to make the broccoli without the fish oil which was so great! We also ordered a side of the fried potatoes, which came in a cast iron skillet. Omg they were amazing. 10/10. For entrees we decided to share the pork and also the pasta. The pork was incredibly tender and wonderful flavors. I’d say 9/10 because I wanted more of the sauce or pear flavor. The pasta was amazing. Really unique with the meyer lemon. The texture was so creamy that it almost felt like a gnocchi on the palette. We ordered a few mocktails: The east end 10/10 in taste. You don’t get much of the drink for what you pay so for that I’d say 7.5/10 overall. The other drink was another mocktail and I didn’t taste it but my husband said it was good and my son said it was “tingly.” The s’more’s are always fun. We got five of those. I’m a s’mores purist so I always just like plain old graham and chocolate, but this is fun for a nice change. I’d give them an 8/10 because the cinnamon on the cookie throws me off a bit. The highlight was the waitstaff. So so good. Attentive, knowledgeable, kind, and efficient. 15/10!!!

Attended on 12/17/2024. Attention to detail and Incredible service made this a great night. On Open Table, I listed what package I wanted and asked for a table near a window in the notes field and when I checked in they stated my requests and was working on them. Service was spectacular, The wait staff took their time ensuring our party had an understand of each item on the menu. The only bummer is when the Manager or someone like that stopped a busser right in our view and began to go over some issue with him. In my mind you do that in the kitchen and not in view of customers. Overall, the date night menu is a great value, oh, Avoid the Au Gratin potatoes. They made it into a loaf and it was cool. Au Gratin should have a sauce and a crispy top layer. Someone took a twist on it and no one wanted to tell them it was not a good idea. You now know.