Best American Restaurants in Poway / Rancho Bernardo

Waiter/service was horrible, even made worse by fact this was a buffet.

We have been to Carvers many times. Outstanding service and food. Prices a little heavy on certain items but not a deal breaker. The restaurant has a great ambiance...not too big and not too small. Very comfortable decor and surroundings. One complaint this time around. I had a beautiful looking Peppercorn topped NY Steak but it had major area of tough chewing. I didn't complain because what I DID eat, was very tasty and tender. Plus, it was Christmas Eve and I didn't want to bring up any negatives. We'll definitely be back...but I just won't have the steak. Sometimes there are stumbling blocks to complete satisfaction. They have other superior items on the menu from A to Z. Until next time.... D. L. Busch

We came in this evening for the Fall trio, which was a steak and two kinds of shrimp. It was excellent and plenty of food. The steak was tasty and tender this evening, as the sirloin is sometimes grainy and tough. It was more like the tender sirloin at TX roadhouse. The au gratin potato were cheesy and the salad fresh. Food was excellent and good value. The restaurant itself was quite busy in the 6 o'clock hour on a Saturday evening, but that is to be expected. With our reservation, we were seated immediately. A nice evening.

thanks for seating us where you did near Christmas tree and being ready with table prepared for 6 of us!

We had only just recently discovered The Shop, and figured we'd check it out. After sharing a yummy bruschetta appetizer, we decided to design our own pizza. Admittedly, we made a minor error in ordering a large pizza (for two to share), but figured leftovers would be fine to take home. When the pizza came to our table, all of our toppings were huddled in the middle of the pizza. We were a little confused as to how none of the veggies had made it closer to the edge. With the pile of toppings in the middle, the center of the pizza was more than a little soggy. It was still tasty, but not all the way to the crust. It was a little weird. More, because we decided that the limited selection of specialty pizzas didn't strike our fancy (do people still say that?), we ordered our own combination of vegetables for our pizza. In the end, our pizza came out to $45-- steep even at San Diego prices. Aside from the pile of toppings in the middle, each topping ($3.50 for each topping?! Outrageous!) was far overpriced for the amount of toppings used. (Note: the price per topping is listed, but it's a bit of an afterthought on the menu and the server provided no reminder). It will be a long time before we decide to drop a pile of cash on an overpriced pizza that was rushed through the kitchen. Overall rating: Disappointing.