The Riviera Supper Club & Turquoise Room

Meh, I’ve had much better. I ordered the Cowboy Ribeye and the meat was not tender. I cooked my steak «medium» and it was chewy. In addition, it lacked flavor that i needed the house steak sauce and salt.
I tasted a few dishes of my friends. The ceasar salad was refreshing, the bacon wrapped shrimp was flavorful and yummy and the mushroom was the best!
Leilani was our server and she was nice and kind.
I cooked my Ribeye on the large grill where you can hangout and talk story with others. I got upset with another patron because she grabbed my steak (still raw and cooking and I’m trying to leave it alone so the outside can have a little char) and was going to flip it. I stopped her and said don’t touch my steak.
Overall, I’ve had a lot of good ribeye steak but unfortunately this cut was not up to par.
I’ll return to try another steak hoping it’ll be a better experience.

Took my sister and boyfriend to dinner here today as she was craving a steak post just landing in San Diego from Illinois. Tonight’s dinner was probably the worst meal I have ever had at a restuarant. My boyfriend ribs were charred to a crispy black. So we’re my shrimp kabobs. Sadly I would not recommend this place to anyone.

The service here is great! They have an excellent variety of craft beers on draft. Grilling your steak along with your family and friends makes it so much fun to do and the sides you order show up right when you bring your steak to the table. They were even nice enough to put a couple of candles on my husbands birthday cake that I brought with me. I have tried the tater tots (not too greasy), the mushrooms (not canned!), Mac and cheese (creamy) and beans (great flavor and slight sweetness). They also have nights where a band plays and it is not too loud at all.

We celebrated my husbands b-​day with champagne, great friends, food, drinks and service! It’s always the place to go for live music for that weekday celebration without the fuss of the downtown traffic! We traveled in from the South Bay area with pleasure, knowing we would have a fun time!

My husband and I love this place! Wednesday night is wing night. $ 0.75 wings with a drink, best wings we’ve had in a long time! Cool atmosphere, and Wednesday nights they have a great band playing jazz music. I feel like I’ve been transported to the 1950s. Great music and great food? What else can you ask for?!

Great place

Love this place for it’s hearty menu and chill atmosphere (even though there is a hot grill, it’s still chill). The place totally reminds us of the places they hang out in the movie Swingers.
Don’t miss the wine bar tucked outside!

I have only gone here for late night snacking and karaōke. I think their late night apps are great. I was impressed the first time I went as I wasn’t expecting much. Their drinks were good too. The vibe was dead, but my friend and I had fun as we liked chill places.
We decided to return for Karaōke. We arrived at 9. The karaōke there was a lot of an older crowd. My fiancé commented you could smell the desperation and regrets. I still had fun and liked the atmosphere. The problem is that karaōke ends at 11PM. What?! The bar didn’t close till midnight. Super disappointing.
I still like the food and their drinks, but their late night crowd is 40 and up. Apparently, they go to bed early.

Very clever idea. You can order your meat and you grill it yourself. I ordered the drunken chuck and cooked it for myself medium rare (as I am a grill master). It tasted delicious with one issue. The meat was not that tender. But seasoned well.
The sides are bomb! I could eat those by themselves. We had Mac ‘n cheese, baked beans, and horseradish mashed potatoes. Yum.
My lady friend ordered the stuffed burger. That came prepared. Was pretty darn tasty.
I would totally go back but get a different piece of meat or get the burger.

Woohoo – as good as it gets is right. I love the divey décor. Something out of the 60s. That’s right. Don’t wear your tux to the Riviera. Charming and unpretentious, this is THE place for a steak. Now a lot of people think of a steakhouse as a place to go if you want a mediocre piece-​a-​meat, with a snobby waiter, and a bunch of lah-​di-​dahs talking about how because the market pulled they won’t be sending their child to Hahvahd. (Harvard for all you non-​phonetians) but this is a simple neighborhood lounge with some friggin excellent and inexpensive steak.
I had the rib-​eye and never looked back. They give you the steak marinated and raw. Now get your but out of that chair, bring your beer, go to the grill at the center of the room, and you cook it exactly how you like it. Perfect every time. Don’t like that idea? For $ 5 the steak cooks itself. Well, not really but they will cook it for you. Add some half-​sides (the sides are huge and half is plenty for one person), a beer or two and boom baby. I go back every time I visit my daughters at UCSD – nope. they didn’t get into Hahvahd. Well, they did but the market pulled back. With a couple of drinks, dinner of the best steak I have had in a restaurant in my life, and a couple ½ sides, count on spending ~$ 50. Drink water and you’ll be in the $ 30’s. But really – there’s a water shortage. Drink beer. Not too shabby!

I absolutely LOVE this place! Grill your own steaks how much better could it get. The atmosphere is amazing and the food is phenomenal. I’ve been coming here for years, its an east county favorite for me. Very hip place, almost like a north park/​south park feel to me. I would recommend getting the baked potato! Huge! As all sides are and they are shareable. The steaks are served to you raw and they are sold separately, hence the shareable sides. There is an option to have them grilled for you, but that is the point of coming here. They have bands as well that play in here, the only down fall I’d say is parking but hey where doesn’t parking suck! Definitely an all time favorite.

The Riviera Supper Club has a new addition and it is a «home run.» It is the New Proprietor’s Reserve Wine Bar. This new wine bar in La Mesa is offering over 86 types of wine and of that selection, 27 of them can be purchased by the glass. This fabulous wine bar offers cheese plates and tapas for your pleasure and if that isn’t enough, you may order from the adjoining Riviera Supper Club menu. Remember, you can cook your own steak on the grill or you can ask the kitchen to cook your steak for you. A special note: if you love baked potatoes, you MUST order one — the outside is rubbed with seasoning that is out of this world that you can’t get anywhere else! Visit the team at The Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Avenue in La Mesa and enjoy a great selection of wine and great food!
Mary England
President & CEO — La Mesa Chamber of Commerce

I have been coming to this awesome spot since they opened 6 years ago. It’s my favorite place to eat and drink. I love the atmosphere and the people. We always get great service here and feel welcomed. I recommend this spot to everyone. Whenever relatives come to visit from our of town this is one of the places I like to bring them to.
If you haven’t tried this place you are missing out. My favorite sides are the sauteed mushrooms, baked beans with bacon and the 4 cheese Mac n cheese.
Drinks are always great my favorite is the Art Snob. If you intend on having a few drinks make sure to have a DD because they are all tasty and strong.

This review is for dinner service.
Hot day and the beers were on point, but was disappointed by the food we ordered.
My brother had the tacos (Thursday special $ 2.50) don’t get unless you want a sour cream taco because that is all you taste-​over loaded in sour cream. Got the house tots they were nice a crunchy. Now let’s talk about the fish and chips, I left the chips alone because they were so soggy and oily it was plain gross.
The lesson here: maybe not a good idea for tacos on taco thursday, and skip the fish and chips :-(

Neat place. Food was good, and you can grill your own steak. What a GREAT idea, but one of the reasons to go out is not to cook, and they charge an additional $ 5 if you want them to cook your steak. Little pricey in my opinion, because the dinners don’t come with sides. It only comes with garlic bread, you have to pay additional for a side, which makes the dinner a lot higher. Granted the sides are large enough for 2 people.
Our original reason for going was to sing karaōke, and decided to try out the food, then the bar.
I don’t really care for the booths in the bar. I like to watch the people as they sing karaōke. They have the «C» shaped booth seating which caused 1 to 2 of us to have their backs to the singer. Yes, they do have a bar, with stools, but we had a party if 6.
Not sure I will be a return customer, didn’t have the wow factor.
Thanks for reading!

4.5 stars
Where can you find a non Korean BBQ or non Gyugaku restaurant where you grill your own meat?!
Here.
Walked in without a reservation around 7 on a weekend for a party of 2. The house was already pretty filled! Got bar seats and ordered porcine popcorn, ribeye, and chicken bordelaise.
Note: the bar seats table top has a cushion edge, I found it very helpful to lean forward due to the backless stools that we have to sit on. Very cool!
Clearly walking in, my party of 2 were the only Asian looking people in the steakhouse. Don’t worry, we sure know how to grill our meat! :D
Service: the staff @ the bar were quite attentive, asked to serve the appetizer first with the steak while we grill it, and to send the chicken dish out about 10 minutes later when we’d be done grilling.
The porcine popcorn: kernels are unfortunately not fully popped so I had to spit some out. However, the pork flavors with garlic and scallions — my oh my.
Chicken bordelaise comes with green beans and horseradish garlic mash potatoes. The sides were delicious! The chicken was just a tad bit over done. The brown bordelaise sauce… it’s my first experience with bordelaise sauce, so I can’t say if it is legit or not, but it reminds me very much of gravy.
Grill: we approached the grill with our ribeye and garlic bread plate. Tools like tongs and spatulas were by the grill. A side countertop has 4 kinds of house bottled sauces (not sure what they are, but maybe at least barbecue), hot sauces, S&P, and clean plates for your cooked food. Great ventilation, no cooking smoke escaped.
Good to know when grilling: Make sure you time your steaks (on your phones)! the rib eye was a bit more than 1inch thick and it was cooked medium well in 10 minutes, about 1.5 minute each side! We wanted ours medium rare… This grill was for sure hot like fiyaaa. Very. I added extra black pepper on the steak as it cooked some more. The garlic bread, just slightly toasted on both sides, it may not brown, but it delivers a perfect crunch.
Ribeye: from the herbs, garlic and salt and pepper rub, that’s all this steak really needs! A delicious, flavorful and tender piece of steak, despite that it was accidentally cooked medium well.
The garlic bread was drizzled with garlic-​infused oil, no garlic pieces. Still, a good piece of bread if you toasted it just right. It is the only side dish to the steak so you may want to order some extra sides to increase variety.
My party of 2 were really full and satisfied with our dishes. Didn’t order any alcohol but maybe another day. Prices are very reasonable. There’s no reason why I should not return!

Excellent steak house where you can elect to order your meat rare and then cook it yourself on their open grill. All kinds of cooking sauce and spice options to cook with too. Or order it already cooked. Side dishes are huge and easy to share.
Good old fashioned ambiance and décor.
Incredible jalapeño margaritas! They make kick ass drinks here… well made and strong, just like they should be.
Great servers. Friendly and quick.
Great blues band the night we were there. Not much room to dance but we made due.

What a fun little place in la mesa. We weren’t completely sure if this is an old standing institution of whether it was just designed in the style, but when you drive up, you first get that feeling of nostalgia.
An old neon sign with some of the letters not working points you to this free standing building. As you walk in, the room is dark. Neon signs point you to restrooms (and probably telephones too if those were still around). To your left is the restaurant. The glowing room towards the back must be the turquoise room (DUH). Filled with mid century finds, this place doesn’t even try to add the modern to it… This is mid century retro at its best. They even have a quartet performing every week!
So, I do have a problem with restaurants that have you cook your own food and charge extra to have them do it. If I wanted to do that, I would have just gone home and fired up the grill. However, I was aware of this when I came and accepted it as a first time experience. The rub had quite a bit of pepper on it, but it was still delicious. I wasn’t sure if the garlic fries used garlic powder or not, but it wasn’t the normal chopped garlic you see on fries. The surf and turf included shrimp. I usually expect lobster, but the shrimp was a fun add to the steak. The food was obviously what you make of it, since you cook the steak, shrimp, and bread. Luckily I didn’t screw it up, so I enjoyed every bite. I would pass on the garlic fries next time.
Next time I come (yes there will be a next time), I will be sitting in their new wine bar next door eating that bacon chocolate cake… yup… look for the fattie outside haha.

Out of all my years living here, I’ve never once been to The Riviera Supper Club & Turquoise Room. With that said, it’s actually pretty cool.
Look, you can cook your own steak or you can order a burger or you can select from a bunch of other items like salads, sides and appetizers. Overall, the menu is pretty solid. Their beer menu ain’t too shabby either. They have craft beers and I’m down with that.
The place was pretty dark but it definitely has that old school lounge type feel to it and that’s alright with me. The layout is nice and there is plenty of seating with several large tables and booths.
Since I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to cook my own steak, I ordered their RammelsBurger with sweet potato fries. The burger was good but the sweet potato fries were excellent. They were cooked to a perfectly to a crispy, vibrant gold color and tasted great. Pair the burger and fries with a Coronado Orange Avenue Wit and you have yourself a solid meal. The beer cost a little more than I think it should have been but this wasn’t happy hour so I guess I’ll have to live with that. Anyway, not a deal breaker. I was still pleased.
The server was nice and attentive to our group but then again it was during La Mesa Oktoberfest on a Sunday afternoon and we were pretty much the only ones in there at the time so maybe that had something to do with it. Either way, it was definitely a good experience. I have nothing to complain about.
Anyway, this place is a pretty solid and unique offering in La Mesa. Like I’ve said before, there aren’t (or so I thought) a whole bunch of solid food joints in La Mesa, but I keep happening to stumble upon more. So I guess I can add another one to the list. It’s good to go in my book.

Best steak I’ve ever had!
Granted, I’m not a steak connoisseur and have been known to say all beef tastes the same to me, but this steak was legit delicious. Our friends recommended this place (after they’d already been once that same week) and we decided it was the perfect place to celebrate a birthday.
We got a table right away on a Friday evening and placed our orders quickly. Decent beer selection, but don’t hold your breath for rotating taps because apparently that doesn’t really happen here.
I ordered the sirloin and my friend took me up to the grill and held my hand through the cooking process. Inside at first and then outside until you get your desired cook! We followed that with the garlic bread until it was toasty and then made our way back to the table to devour. There was a nice community kind of feel at the grill, but mostly it was hot and made me a little sweaty. But I’m a cranky whiner so please consider that.
The steak was huge and I ate every bite. It didn’t need steak sauce or anything. The flavor was amazing and stood well on its own. I had like one tater tot and can’t remember it so I won’t even comment on those.
Because we had a birthday at the table and the birthday boy has a weird affection for anything that arrives to the table on fire, they brought him out an order of bananas foster for dessert. We all dug in and probably got a little drunk from all the rum on the thing, but it was so good. That was my first experience with bananas foster and hopefully it wasn’t my last.
It was a little unnerving having a giant raw slab of beef on a plate set down in front of you, but the cooking it yourself aspect turned out to be very fun and my goodness do I cook an excellent steak.