I have been hearing reading and seeing all the hype for years about Donovan's. Finally a friend told me he read it was #2 in the nation in an in flight magazine.
We arrived and immediately found the service to be pretentious and overbearing. Pushing drinks and appetizers very aggressively. After that it was one of those deals where you drink a sip of water and someone comes over to refill. Not soo bad but when the bottle of "Donovan's" water is on the table it gets annoying when the staff is reaching over and around you every 60 seconds.
Ordered with no problems but the food took at least 75 mins to arrive after ordering. Again not the worst but we noticed tables around us who were sat after us were halfway through their meals. Oh by the way after 45 mins of waiting for the meal the staff conveniently disappeared and would not come over.
The food. We ordered a couple of surf and turf type specials. Two filet medallions and 3 "gigantic prawns". Sounds good right? We ordered the temp. medium but they came out rare. One of the steaks was awful and had sinew running all through it making it really tough and unappetizing. The "gigantic prawns" were not gigantic and tasted strange. Kind of a chemical taste. I don't send food back normally because I understand it can be tough to get ALL the meals right but when two were undercooked I figured it wouldn't be too much trouble to just place the steaks back on for a minute or two. Also for the price I wanted it done right. Well I guess the chef got pissed because the steaks came back out burnt to a crisp. The only good thing Donovan’s has going for it is free valet. There are just too many great steakhouses in San Diego to waste time on Donovan’s.
Try Lou & Mickey’s or Greystone in the Gaslamp. Flemings down the street from Donovan’s is a much better option for food service and décor in the UTC/Golden Triangle area. If you are reading this review then you might want other options.
Oceanaire in the Gaslamp is the best with fresh flown in seafood.
For Mexican go to Casa Guadalajara in Old Town, homemade doughy tortillas and killer margaritas along with great food and service.
Please don’t chalk this up to “oh well so one bad review doesn’t mean anything”. Well for the price and the amount of competition it had better be spot on every time.
I enjoy going out to eat and do it at least twice a week and Donovan’s was a huge disappointment!