Rusty's Bar And Grill Livermore

My lady, Christy, and I went to Rusty's, which in known as a Bar and Grill now, instead of a Chop House for my birthday on 9.25.2019 We had reserved a table for 7pm.. We arrived around 6:45pm and they had seating available - both inside and out on the patio. Because of the loud crowd inside, we opted to eat out on the patio. I don't know if that was the Happy Hour Crowd that made it seem loud inside, but definitely too loud for a nice quiet dinner. Maybe that is why the venue is switching from a Chop House to a Bar and Grill? It sounded more like a Bar and Grill :-) Anyways, we were seated out on the patio and our server, Anna, greeted us with menus for food and a cocktail menu. They brought out glasses of water for us immediately which was nice . After about 15 minutes, my girl and I decided what we wanted for cocktails, appetizers and our main course. Anna came back and took our order. We ordered our cocktails which included an "Aviation" and I ordered a new cocktail on the menu called "Life is a Peach". We then ordered the Crispy Asparagus for our appetizer. CRISPY ASPARAGUS - $10 Beer battered asparagus, saffron curry aioli Christy ordered the Scallop Dish and I ordered the Ribeye. SEARED DIVER SCALLOP - $34 Bacon fennel risotto, pickled leeks, saffron curry aioli, cilantro DRY AGED RIBEYE - $59 18oz Bone in, 40 day dry aged Angus, whipped potato, seasonal vegetables, garlic, bleu cheese butter, house steak sauce I asked if I could replaced the whipped potatoes that came with the ribeye for the 3 Cheese Mac. Anna said, "No problem" - AWESOME! Our cocktails arrived about 5 minutes later. Our appetizer followed after a couple of minutes :-) About 15 minutes later, Anna, came to let us know that they were out of Scallops. :-( Christy opted for the Smoked Salmon Picatta. SMOKED SALMON PICATTA - $24 Smoked salmon, fettuccini, béchamel, broccolini, capers, red onion, arugula About 1/2 hour later, our meals arrived. My ribeye steak looked delicious! Christy's Smoked Salmon Picatta looked like just a bowl of Fettucini. We were like, where's the salmon?! Anna came back a few minutes later and we asked if they had forgotten the salmon on the dish. It was kind of dark out on the patio, so I turned the light on from my cell phone. Anna agreed that the bowl looked like it had no salmon. She took the bowl back, but asked if Christy wanted shrimp in the dish, because they were out of salmon and scallops. About 5 minutes later, Anna returned with the same bowl, but it had 5 pieces of delicious shrimp. Rusty was right behind her to turn on the patio lamps/heaters on. :-) So, we were thinking there would be salmon on top of the Fettucini. Apparently that was not the case. See description for the Smoked Salmon Picatta above. There were "slivers" of salmon mixed into the fettucini. I feel the description should have stated that the smoked salmon was in minute pieces. I am sure the restaurant gets questions about the salmon quite a bit! They need to modify the description of the Smoked Salmon Picatta to lessen expectations ;-) Once we received the bowl of pasta and shrimp, we proceeded to enjoy our dinner :-) Anna came by at opportune moments to see how things were. Just the right amount :-) Once we finished our dinner, we asked for the dessert menu, but I knew I wanted the Creme Brulee and the Bread pudding. They mostly had rave reviews. Anna served our desserts about 5 minutes later. They looked delicious!!! The creme brulee was on point. The bread pudding, though it looked and tasted AWESOME, we felt the bread itself could have been hotter. The bread pudding came with a sea salt chocolate gelato. All in all, we enjoyed our dinner and service. All the little problems, we encountered, were taken care of. We did hear from tables around us making comments about the whereabouts of their cocktails, or, "we ordered this with no onions, but it came with onions". Ooops! We do recommend Rusty's for the food and service personnel, but if you have questions about the items you order, make sure you understand what you are getting ;-)

Rusty's is one of my favorite spots in Downtown Livermore. They have some of the best cocktails around (Thanks to Liz and Jory) and some amazing food. Their happy hour is awesome and a great way to try out their food without breaking the bank. I recommend the bacon wrapped dates, and they make a killer Old Fashioned!