5 Star Dining in a Small Town Setting
My wife and I have frequented 71 Palm for years now on all our special occasions. You have to drive to Santa Barbara or Los Angeles to get anything near the quality of food or service.    [09 Feb 2004 18:45:59]

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Recommended Dishes: Salmon with Potato Pancake, Beef Burgonion, Bread Pudding (Not on Menu)

     ­Anonymous   

Lovely French Country-California Cuisine
I visited a friend who recently moved to Ventura, and she treated us to a dinner at 71 Palm. What a treat it was! The intimate size and cozy atmosphere made me feel welcome immediately. All of our dishes -- abalone, rack of lamb, and the duck-goose combination, were excellent. Service was as good as you'd expect from a restaurant of this caliber, and the waiter knew which wines to recommend with each of our dishes.

This is a pricey ($25-$30 entrees as of 12/04), special-occasion restaurant for most of us, but the entire experience justifies the price tag.

P.S.: the chocolate créme brulee is heavenly.    [03 Jan 2005 13:28:05]

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Recommended Dishes: Not a bad dish on the menu.

     ­Anonymous   

Maybe Just a Bad Night?
There were five of us in our party on a fairly quiet weeknight. My dish--rosemary chicken--was dreadful: cheap cuts of chicken in a tasteless, gooey sauce. The seared ahi was over-powered by its sauce, which at least had a flavor! To be fair, the rib-eye special and the rack of lamb were very good. The service was nice enough, but the food simply did not justify the prices.    [22 Jun 2006 20:19:27]

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Recommended Dishes: house specials

     ­Anonymous   

Not going back
We've dined here each time we're in the area. This time there were 7 of us on Saturday 8/19/06. The food is not worth the price, and the service was mediocre.

My boyfriend had the seared Ahi Tuna w/ Wasabi sauce and it wasn't edible. At first he thought it was the sauce so asked the server for more. I didn't taste the Ahi but I tried the sauce she brought and it had no flavor at all, just creamy butter, no spice. He ended up eating only a portion of the ahi which was lucky as it was off (he got horribly sick that night). I had the Chilean Seabass and it was properly cooked - juicy and tender but it was sitting in a pool of oil and the vegetables it was sitting on top of were soaked in it. Another person had the lamb shank special and that was also tender but lacked flavor and enough sauce. The rack of lamb was good. The server never came back to see if my boyfriend's dish was okay.

The next day I called the restaurant to tell them about the ahi. And the response I got was shocking...turns out I was speaking to the owner, Didier and he didn't want to hear any of it. Said they're normally closed on Sundays and he wouldn't have answered. His curt response to me was to talk to the health dept. We spent over $500. It was a very big disappointment and we will no longer be going back.    [22 Aug 2006 17:35:00]

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     ­Anonymous