Friend and I visited for the first time a few days ago. Impressed with the menu choices. Our food selections were great, well prepared and tasty. Not necessarily a negative but the employees are allowed casual wear which is fine, They need a name tag or a Dropout lanyard so that we can distinguish between employees and customers. read more

Loved it! Ambiance is cool--didn't eat but sat at bar enjoying the vibe while sipping my drink. Shout out for bartender Tony for a welcoming experience and great drink suggestions. read more

Yo Corey killed it tonight took care of my homie for his bday!!! Everyone was so happy even CJ came by to take pics of us. We will be back!!!!! read more

So my wife dined here yesterday afternoon with a friend and loved the food. I was anxious to try it out so we enjoyed dinner there last night. It was an amazing dining experience. The hostess greeted us kindly, and the wait was 20-30 minutes, not bad. We were sat at a booth and the decor is pretty cool. Our server Anthony was friendly and knowledgeable about the drinks and food menu. We both had a drink, shared a bowl of Chicken Pot Pie soup, an Asian salad, then the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccolini. The food tasted soooo good and we took Mud Pie to go, super delicious! This is our new weekly dining spot, love it. read more

I came here Friday night for the first time as I've heard lots of good things about this new restaurant and was so excited to try it! It did not disappoint! The food was yummy I loved the ambience and to top it off the service was top notch. Our server Alex was very attentive and friendly and made the experience a 10/10. Will surely be coming back thanks for the great service Alex! read more

Went here for the first time on a busy Saturday night! Our server Alex was one of the best servers we've ever had! Can't wait to come back and visit again soon! Food was also phenomenal we loved the whipped feta. read more

Trenton was a delightful treat of a young man to serve us. Excellent food and also the energy was great from the staff in general. Way to go, bringing some perfectly executed big city cuisine swag to the OC! read more

My boyfriend and I love Culinary Dropout in PHX and were super excited to try it in my home town. Everything was great, the food & drinks were great and our server was great & gave great recommendations. The only other feedback I have is to not have the staff circling the restaurant like sharks every 2 minutes, it makes for an uncomfortable dining experience feeling like you're being watched the entire time you're eating. read more

Excellent food drink service ambiance. Was there for soft opening. Will most definitely be back. Great addition to OTO.

Went for the soft opening today for lunch! It was fabulous! Food, service and staff were all top notch! Looking forward to making this a staple in Old Town! read more

Visited Culinary Dropout last Tues 3/17. First time there, my wife and I were meeting a friend, this was her reccomendation. Made a reservation for a high top table in the bar area. When we walked in there was a beehive of activity. A lot of hustle and bustle, but in a positive way. We were seated promptly, and was met by our server Cathryn, she was friendly, with a very postitive attitude. She took our drink orders and let us peruse the menu. I had ordered an arnold palmer, and let her know I drink a lot, so she said she'd be on top of the refills. So it was approaching 6pm, I noticed the happy hour food specials ended at 6pm, I let her know I wanted to order the happy hour specials but was concerned about not going past the 6pm threshold. She said no worries, she attended to other tables and came back promply, refilling my drink. So I ordered the Bbq pork belly nachos, and the house salad, my wife ordered chopped chicken salad, and our friend ordered the crispy chicken katsu sandwhich, we also ordered the house made potato chips with the onion dip. Every thing was amazing, my nachos had a generous amount of the pork belly ample amount of cheese sauce, guac, pico de gallo, and sour cream. The house salad was on point good size crisp lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrots, and a delicious buttermilk ranch, my wife enjoyed her chopped chicken salad, and the chicken sandwhich was delicious as well. And during the whole meal my refils on my drink were always delivered in a very timely manner. We shared desert mississippi mud pie, and a banana peanut butter bar, very decadent. We were there probably 2 hrs and the whole time Cathryn was very attentive, not just our table but all her tables. I also noticed every server was just as efficient. So to management, you are doing something right. A business is a business but your staff is awesome, we'll definety be back. I work in the hotel industry in Anaheim and will suggest to all the guests that are looking for a great dining experience, as well as my co-workers to visit Culinary Dropout. once again Cathryn is definetly a rock star and should be commended for being a very efficient server. Dave read more

WOW! Who is doing the cooking at this establishment?! This was our first time at this location and everything we had was 10/10. We began with a glass of sangria and the mango vodka cocktail. Our appetizers were the housemade chips with onion dip and housemade pretzels with warm, cheese fondue. The hubby had the French Dip Beef sandwich and he said it was the best he ever had (and he eats them alot!) I had the Crispy Chicken Katsu sandwich...light, crispy coating over juicy chicken served on some type of fantastic, toasted bread. EVERYTHING was fabulous! Do make a reservation as it gets quite busy. The decor is lovely as well and the noise level is not so loud that you're unable to hear the person across the table from you..a very good thing! Oh, and our server, a nice young man, provided outstanding service to us. We live 30 minutes away and will be back...often! Thank you, Culinary Dropout!! read more

Once you get past the fact that you can't tell if someone works there or if it's a guest who is randomly approaching your table, it is a notable dining experience! We had an 8:00 reservation for 6, but with the rain, delayed a little due to their outside tables not being able to be used. Once we were finally seated at a high top (not the best for a party with kids, but our kids adjusted well) the server, no idea her name because the music was a little too loud and couldn't really hear her) was really attentive. The drinks all had cheeky names and were delicious (I had the non alcoholic vida verdita, mom had an alcoholic beverage I couldn't hear her order). The food was what I was most excited about and it did not disappoint. The cheese sauce on the nachos is top notch! Even my mom, who normally doesn't eat nachos was obsessed. The Mongolian short rib was delicious! It will definitely be a meal I will send my partner to pick up whenever I'm in the need for a warm hug in a bowl. Their attention to table maintenance throughout our dining experience was also notable (Prebussing between courses and only glasses on the table when our check was presented was (chefs kiss from a service standard perspective)). read more

SUPER great open-air ambience and nice diverse menu. HOWEVER, execution and staff not so great. Highly touted pretzel bites with cheese fondue were HUGE, both in quantity and "bite" size. When we exclaimed at the quantity, the waiter informed us we could have requested a half order and said "next time you'll know." Besides being HUGE, the pretzel bites were dry and the cheese fondue barely warm and coagulated. Sushi roll was mediocre and grocery-chain caliber at best. Worst was the attitude of the waiter. Despite being barely busy at all during this lunchtime, we had to ask to order, ask for refills of water, ask for ice to be refreshed, ask for serve-ware for the shared plates, ask for our plates to be removed after having been finished for a very good amount of time, etc. I might add that the server's attitude was questionable from the get go... long before we started with the necessary asks. She was condescending, peevish, smile-less and overall behaved like she was put out by our presence. To end on a positive, the salad was great! read more

WOW nothing but good things to say about this place! Came here for the first time with group of 8 for dinner to celebrate a birthday. The food and drinks were amazing. As a group of mostly Asians, we are typically a bit skeptical of any Asian-American fusion menu items, but the flavors not only worked well but tasted really authentic and delicious. The entire team that served us made the experience that much better, service 100/10. I screwed up and mistakenly booked a reservation for 6 but the host team was on it and kindly accommodated us for 8 last minute. Many of us were sharing dishes and they automatically split our orders into 2 plates without us requesting. Our servers (Corey and CJ?) were constantly checking on us and overall just amazing. Plus complimentary valet?! I would have never guessed this was their 15th(?) location in the US because I could really feel the thought and care that was put into the food and customer experience. There are several similar restaurants in the Downtown Orange area, but we will definitely be back! read more

I really want to say wow!!! drove up to complimentary valet parking. Went up to reception and was greeted by 3 lovely young ladies.told them we had reservations and they asked if we wanted inside or out. We chose out with shade. Our waiter Justin showed up soon introduced himself and asked if we would like drinks.we ordered drinks and he talked about the menus. Asked if we had any bdays and we did so he said we would get a free desert. He suggested a monkey bread if we liked brioche and apples but we had to order ahead because it takes 15 min. Which we did. We ordered a pretzel bread and cheese fondue for appetizer which was amazing. The four of us all ordered something different banana bread French toast,breakfast burrito,chicken salad, and fresh salmon. All of which were delicious. Two of us had ice tea and we never ran out when we got low they were immediately refilled and they even brought fresh ones with more ice. When they cleared the table they brought our desert it was pipeing hot fresh out of the oven and a scoop of ice cream . It was worth the wait it was spectacular. Paid our bill which was about the average these days they brought our car and finished off and amazing experience . read more

This has been bothering me since my friend and I tried this restaurant on November 10th. We thought this would be a great "girls' night out" as we'd both heard about it. It was 5:45 on a Monday evening, what looked like no wait with many open tables, and several people in the bar...but it wasn't full. Outside of the bar had, I think, one party. As we walked up, we were asked, "how many?" There were only two of us and we were told "it'll be an hour and a half wait." What??? Our car had already been taken. Why wouldn't the valet ask if we had reservations?? We then saw that the bar outside had tons of open tables. Nope, we couldn't sit there. We asked if we could sit inside the bar. Nope, all of those open tables are "not available." We saw two open seats at the bar, so decided to stay since it would be a hassle to get our car. One server nicely said that it was Happy Hour that was ending soon. She then went to the other end of the bar and proceeded to chat, never coming back to take our order. We finally flagged someone else down who kindly helped us. She was great! I agree with the other poster that the pretzels were not soft. Not my favorite. The short ribs we got were good. But this experience left a bad taste in my mouth and I have no desire to return. I feel like I'm not welcome as a walk-in. And I'd also like to note there were STILL tons of tables available when we left. I was excited about this cute restaurant in my area, but I will not be returning. read more

Why we wasted our time on this place will teach me a lesson to not support local business and hype. The WORST SLOW service we've ever experienced. We had a 2p performance to attend to at Chapman University. We made 12:15 reservations thinking we had lots of time. Wrong. Not only did we wait for 15 minutes before being acknowledged by a server, who then took our drink order, and then took our food order after delivering the drinks 10 minutes later, the food didn't get served until 10 minutes after finally seeing our server again (never returned to see if we needed drink refills) and complaining we had ordered an hour ago. I walked out before food came out (apparently the kitchen was too busy we were told when we asked where our food was) and left hubby there so i could get to will-call before our show. Had such high hopes for this place. Never again! NEVER! I made a living on consulting for companies on customer retention. This place failed miserably. read more

The vibe was great, the location is great, the service is great. The food was disappointing. I have been waiting for this place to open for a while, and I was super excited when they finally opened. The wait was about 45 minutes, no problem, I get it. Finally got seated and sure the place was not completely packed, probably to not flood the kitchen with tickets, and to not overwelmed staff, I get it. We ordered easy staples: A burger, pork nachos, and buffalo wings. The beef I feel was good quality, but had no flavor (zero seasoning). The whole burger together was just ok. The pork nacho were very bland and simple, just regular tortilla chips, pieces of underwelming pork, cheese sauce, pico, sour cream, and guac. (no fun twist, or anything that would draw me back) For the buffalo wings. Big meaty wings except they were Soggy, soggy, soggy (I am not a fan of breaded wings, but I like my wings air dried then deep fried to create a crispy wing then tossed in the sauce). These felt like they were braised in the sauce. A fun flavor twist was tried, which I give them credit for, but in my opinion it was a swing and a complete miss of flavor fusions, I believe it was a honey mustard and bufflalo sauce mixture. I tried to adapt to this mixture and I just couldn't. I want this place to do well and to bring in lots of customers and make lots of money. The beverage menu looks great. Super colorful, bright and tasty for the most part. 4 stars because the vibe is super cool,and the people are great and professional. I just hope the food catches up with the drinks. read more

I didn't know how to properly review this place because everything was really great but to end the meal we got the crispy tuna and it didn't taste right at all so we let them know extremely nicely and did not even want a comp but they gave it to us anyways which was very nice and we appreciated that a lot and still gave a very generous tip for the sweet gesture. Shortly after doing an errand then heading home the three of us got very sick and had to even stop at a Kohl's to be sick. Just to let the restaurant know we called a few hours later after we've been taking nausea meds and pepto to let them know the batch must have been bad and to be considerate for other customers who possibly order it that night and I was told by the manager that it was our preference to not like the item and they've been serving the batch and plan to continue serving the batch. I was not trying to ask for anything over the phone, just letting them know as nicely as possible because I work in food service and he basically called us dramatic in a somewhat polite way and couldn't wait to get me off the line. We will not be eating there again even though everything else was great. The manager cannot call us liars while we are laying in bed trying to feel better, having canceled plans because of how sick we all feel. He could have at least lied on the phone and let us know that they're not serving that batch but instead tried to make it seem like we're the problem? Not okay. read more