This weekend I was up in Ojai for the
Music Festival. Now, I know Ojai isn't really a part of LA at all (but either is Simi Valley and nobody said anything) but I went there and it was in CA and it's possible that someone from LA might venture up to Ojai and think, where should I eat? So, I'm reviewing it anyway.
Feast has prime piece of real estate in downtown Ojai. It is right on the Ojai Avenue strip of small-town America. During the music festival, it has even better real estate as it is the first restaurant you see upon exiting Libby Park from the right where all the concerts are held.
Despite the warning signs and the music festival being in Ojai for over 40 years, the restuarants in general didn't seem to take in the amount of customers upcoming and did not appear to be prepared for the massive amounts of people in any capacity. Feast was no exception.
We made the reservation over a week in advance. We talked to the owner while making the call and she seemed rather annoyed that were were making a reservation for 6 for such a prime time. Perhaps the owner was thinking they would have enough walkins and therefore shouldn't allow reservations, but if that was the case she could have said that nicely instead of begrudgingly citing the warnings of the 6 or more gratuity and then the annoyance that the last name was too long to fit on her ledger and the demand of the first name instead.
With the reservation made and the experience of making it behind me, I realized during the concert that we were going to be late as the concert would not end before 1pm. I rushed to the restuarant after and waited at my table for 2o minutes before the rest of my party was able to join me, however, they didn't threaten to give away my table. Actually, after I was seated they didn't do anything for me. Menus were placed, however, they were promptly removed when the hostess announced they were completely out of menus. I took it upon myself to give 2 of our menus to one table that had none for at least 10 minutes after they were seated.
As I waited, several other groups were seated but a couple tables for 2 were empty. The restaurant was not full during that brunch period. While I was waiting, one of the chefs came out and told the hostess that they were out of the pulled pork sandwiches - this is before the concert crowd could even have ordered! The
menu only had 10 items on it so being out of one so early seemed unplanned.
When my party arrived we received waters but never more menus and we had to share. I shared that they were out of the pork sandwich and two people from my party were immediately disapointed. As I said, the menu was small. The waitresses seemed to be downright running around even though the restaurant was still not full.
After about 15 minutes our waitress came by to take our orders and ask about drinks. She then told us about the pork sandwich, luckily I had already heard. Not everyone ordered something different (my pet peeve) but there was some variety at the table. Everyone stuck with water and they brought a small carafe for self-refills but it wasn't nearly enough for all six of us. We had to flag the waitress down one more time with a late order from our last party member who arrived over 30 minutes after everyone was there.
When our food arrived they expected it to be only a few minutes until the other guest got her food, and it did come a few minutes later. The food, was their saving grace. I had the breakfast pizza--a thin crust cracker style personal pizza with spinach, tomatoes, jalepenos, cheddar and mozzerella cheese topped with scrambled eggs. There was a TON of cheese and the pizza was not greasy at all which I liked. I didn't notice the jalepenos and there was hardly any spinach (so that I couldn't even taste it). I ended up smothering the eggs with hot sauce for extra flavor and even then the dish wasn't spicy. It was good, but not amazing. Some might say the cheese was overpowering the other delicate flavors. 3 others at my table had the Chef's fritatta they all seemed to like it and it wasn't too spicy. It came with wheat or rye toast--jam available by request only. One diner didn't receive her toast until she had half finished her dish. One other person got the smolked salmon with a potato pancake. It looked good and the pating was nice but it didn't really appear to be anything special.
We didn't order dessert but the table next to us ordered the cookie plate. It has no presentation and was just a plate piled with 6 cookies, 2 of each of the day's flavors. The cookies looked ok. The other desserts were mentioned but the cookie plate was most encouraged (likely because it takes little work).
Also, I forgot to mention that although the concert ended at 1:10 and there was a lot to see in the park, the restaurant kept it's regular hours--closing at 2:00-2:30 and turning around at least 6 different groups while we were eating.
In the end if you were in Ojai and there was nothing else to eat, I'd go to Feast. However, there are a lot of other restaurants there that could provide you a better more relaxed atmosphere to go along with your gourmet food.
Feast
254 E. Ojai Ave.
Ojai, CA 93023
Map
