Had the lobster with sweet corn appetizer it was okay but not something I would order again. The filet mignon with peppercorn sauce was so delicious maybe one of the best steaks I have ever had and I have had a lot of steaks. Had the chocolate pie for dessert and that was wonderful too. Waitress was busy but very good and attentive. I would definitely recommend this restaurant. read more

If you want a Positive lift amid our current state of affairs around the world you simply MUST treat yourself to an Absolutely Amazing dinner To Go from Cafe Zack!! I had the signature peppercorn filet, and my husband ordered the rib eye...the mushroom appetizer was also delightful...Paired with a very nice Pinot Noir. Oh and don't forget about the decadent desserts. Hector the owner is so welcoming and accommodating and his cozy restaurant and Amazing fare are worth every penny, 5 Star Plus!!! So Escape and Indulge!!! Thank you Hector, see you soon!! Mike and Julie Durand Mid town Ventura read more

Excellent for a birthday lunch, a romantic dinner or really anytime your in the mood for really great food and service. read more

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We were passing through Ventura and yelped Italian food. Cafe Zacks came up so we took a chance. We were extremely pleased. The food and wine were excellent and the service and ambience were ideal for our taste. Highly recommended. I read more

Over the past year I've been eating here the service at Cafe Zack has always been on point. Tonight I ordered a ribeye medium rare and while my steak came out a little more done than I'd like it, they insisted on preparing me a new steak with sides and everything. The waiter watched me cut into the new steak making sure that everything was right before leaving to help others. What we ate: his: ribeye steak with bearnaise sauce paired with obsidian ridge cabernet sauvignon hers: roasted butternut squash soup and pasta a la checca with shrimp for dessert: chocolate pie with pecan crust, flourless chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, and coffee read more

Great food, great servers and servers, delightful ambience. We actually met Zack, the reclusive alien who built the business and the building in 1490. read more

This is the third time I've been to Cafe Zack and yet another FANTASTIC meal. Had reservations and were seated promptly and the place was full ! Our server was professional and courteous. We had a party of 4 and everyone got a different entree. Rib eye steak, Salmon, Halibut, and Chicken Pizziola. Of course we all had a taste of each other's food. One word sums it up. OUTSTANDING!!!. If you want an exceptional dining experience.. Cafe Zack in Ventura is your answer. read more

Just finished one of the best meals from Cafe Zack. As always they deliver a fantastic meal and the staff are worthy of the finest praise I just want to take a moment to thank them for being there during this turbulent time and to let them know that their service and dedication are greatly appreciated. Thank you to all the staff. read more

A cozy, friendly fine dining establishment in a converted home with a covered patio and tiny white lights, Café Zack features indulgent meat and pasta dishes. The café is close to the ocean (you can smell and feel it but you can't see it). The patio area seemed very noisy but maybe that's because the tables are close together or we just sat next to a really noisy group. If it weren't so noisy, the dimly lit area would be romantic. The bread basket was very disappointing - just some thin slices of cold bread and some butter. They could do a lot better, easily. * House salad: overdressed baby greens, feta, toasted pine nuts, tart vinaigrette, pretty basic, decent but pedestrian * Seafood curry ($25): Can't complain about the amount of seafood (mussels, Tiger shrimp, scallops) or pasta in the dish, the Thai inspired curry cream sauce was rich and filling but the spices just didn't go well together and the dish was very salty. The pasta noodles were thick and chewy. I encountered grit in the mussels. The coffee was nice and so too was the company. read more

Cafe Zack - Rack of lamb - Seafood Near Me - Ventura, California

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I am sad to say that I will no longer be dining at this restaurant. I came here on New Year's Eve with my boyfriend who has been going to this establishment for years now with his family. Even with a reservation, we received almost non-existent service and I have never walked out of a restaurant until a couple of nights ago. This is my second review out of almost 200 reviews with a 1-star rating. We arrived about 10 minutes early for our 8:30pm reservation and were sat immediately. Granted, if the host would have just told us that reservations were closed, I would have appreciated that more than being ignored on a night to ring in the new year. Instead, we got sat at a small table that wasn't meant to be squished between the walkway and a corner table. A diner's back was literally touching our tiny table. It took about 20 minutes to even get bread or water and no even assured us that the wait might be a while to even order drinks. We saw at least 3 parties who arrived after us get their orders taken and even get served food. I have never felt so insulted before. Most of the night, the staff would just look at us attended and walk away quickly. The only redeeming factor was the man who served us water and bread. It took about 40 minutes before we walked out and no one even said a word to us as we made our way to the door. I didn't even get a phone call in apologizing for the awful customer service. I am in disbelief that you would notice two customers gone from their table after 40 minutes of no service and you wouldn't even phone them. Very disappointing. read more

Quaint, unassuming eatery that represents Ventura splendidly! Cafe Zack sits some distance from the congestion & parking meters of downtown Ventura Main St. on Thompson Blvd. close to Sanjon Rd. Simple elegance here, but not offering much intimacy, as tables are close together with no separations in this converted corner dwelling. We made reservations and were seated promptly on a Friday evening. Place was full but no crowds to fight through outside. We found out that "Zack" is actually the previous owner's nephew, and the current owners just kept the name. Hector is one of the owners & was our server for this visit. Personable chap, this man, and attentive throughout our stay. The complimentary bread basket kinda leaves you somewhat apprehensive about your choice of food venues. We still managed to sample a few things from the menu... TUSCANY SALAD (half $7): Tasty mix of baby greens, fresh pears, Gorgonzola cheese, pecans, raspberry vinaigrette. I liked how the vinaigrette was only lightly drizzled on and not drowning the rest of the salad. LOBSTER & SWEET CORN ($16): Good flavor but not as amazing as I thought it was going to be, based on the reviews. Wifey liked it much more than me. FETTUCCINE SEAFOOD CURRY ($26): This was Delicious! More of a Thai based curry than an Indian curry. Didn't get any sense of saltiness that can accompany fruta de mare dishes, and I'm pretty sensitive to salty taste. The curry was creamy with just a little kick to it. Yummy! BLACK ANGUS 8 OZ. FILET MIGNON ($33): Opted for the encrusted tellicherry peppercorn version. It was too rare the first time it arrived, but the situation was corrected on its return. With the second arrival it was cooked medium with a perfect redness to the meat. There isn't really an encrusted part, but more of a cream sauce with peppercorns poured over the filet. Not the best I've had, but still had a great taste to it. A well prepared dish I could easily order again. PEACH DUMPLING: Seasonal dessert available on our visit. Very popular according to Hector. Its a whole peach, seed included, prepared in a top secret fashion and wrapped with a pastry dough. Baked and served warm, on a layer of caramel sauce. Oh, so good on its own! Yet, we still added a side of vanilla ice cream to turn it into a lil peaches & cream delight. Next time, I would prefer the caramel sauce on the side to maintain the flakiness of the pastry. ZACK'S PIE: Bittersweet chocolate cream with pecan crust & whipped cream. Had the prefect amount of sweetness to it and enjoyed the added nuttiness created with the pecan crust. I was misled by that uninspired bread basket at the beginning. There are wonderful morsels to be had here! Geared more for the adult crowd, so maybe best to leave younglings @ home. To avoid a possible wait time, it may be beneficial to place reservations, especially if you're coming big, since this is a small establishment. Closed on Sundays. read more

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It had been awhile since I've been here. What a lovely evening, their patio dining is festive. Our food was exceptional, nice wine list. I won't wait to come back and enjoy this restaurant again. read more

My favorite dinner place in Ventura. It's a little pricey but the food is cooked impeccably. Hector and his brother do everything, with a little help. Expansive wine list for those who drink. Lovely specials and you can always expect that everything will be just as good as it was last time. The place is in a converted bungalow on a corner in a residential neighborhood. It's just plain cute and delicious. Great desserts too. On weekends you have to make a reservation. read more

Wow!! It had been over 10 years since our last visit to Cafe Zack's and I am happy to say it was still as good as I remembered it. Our visit today was during lunch, yes, they serve lunch now!! And I couldn't have been more pleased with the whole experience. Where to even start, the water (a pet peeve of mine), the service, the atmosphere, the food, everything about our visit was amazing! Heck even the price was great! I'm not sure why it took us so long to re-visit this hidden Ventura gem but I can surely tell you it won't be that long until our next visit. Something I would recommend for people visiting Cafe Zack's for the first time is to try them for lunch first, the dinner prices are a lot higher and if you don't like it you are not stuck with a huge bill afterwards. But honestly what's not to like, give it a try and you won't be disappointed. Oh yeah, one last thing, this place serves my favorite Caesar Salad, not saying its the best but it is the best of what I've tried. read more

4 stars because the food was amazing. So delicious. I got a steak, my son ordered pork tenderloin. I tasted his tenderloin. I have never had pork cooked so tenderly before. The sauce was amazing. My husband's chicken dish was also amazing and tender. My son, who is 12, did not have many choices he wanted to eat, he would rather have gone across the street to Toppers, but we had a gift card so we made him get something. This is definitely not a kid-friendly restaurant. The service was decent. No one else was in the restaurant so it was easy for her. I think she was secretly laughing at us because we are not used to eating in a high-class restaurant, so when my husband asked for horseradish to eat with my steak, she said they don't serve that. When we received bread and butter, the butter was really cold so it was not spreadable. My husband asked if it could be warmed a little and the waitress looked at me in shock, like no one has ever asked her that. She said no. They don't have a microwave. Fine, we eat cold butter on cold bread. No big deal. In the end, we used our gift card and had $8 left. She wanted to know if we wanted another gift card for $8. I know I'm probably not going back there so I said no, could we give it to her as part of her tip? She said no. She couldn't give us the remaining balance so we just disregarded it. I told my husband after, although the food was amazing, it is not a place I would choose to eat at unless someone invited us or we received another gift card. He agree'd. read more

I have been going to Cafe Zack's for going on a decade. My ONLY regret is that my wife and I have, so many times, chosen elsewhere to go not considering CZ's, and then have gone home regretting that we did not think about going there in the first place. It is a quaint and romantic semi "out of the way" place to enjoy a very VERY special meal and social event which will keep you coming back. Guaranteed!! Guaranteed best resteraunt within 50 miles. read more

First time here at Cafe Zack.. omg I had the amazing Salmon w veggies and chipotle sauce.. so good. Prices are good. I heard you can have a private party here 100 people read more

Great food, great service. Super friendly staff. Filet with peppercorn sauce is my fave. My husband loves the duck. We will definitely go back! read more

Perfectly consistent visit after visit. Excellent service, quality presentation and superb food. Friendly, welcoming staff. A true Ventura gem. read more

The pork with apples was very good. Lovely staff. Great bread. Dog friendly patio. Would suggest some more plants on the patio to enhance the ambiance. Will definitely return. read more

Good food. Would give it another try. It could use a facelift but really I went for the food.

We have been looking forward for a long time to visit this restaurant. Many people consider it the best cuisine in Ventura County. So we selected it to celebrate our anniversary. Our waitress was a seasoned professional with great knowledge of wine selections. She offered wonderful recommendations, and this review is not on her. But we cannot review the food because to us, enjoying a meal is a choreographed balance between the ambiance and our palates, specially at $30 a plate. If we had wanted an establishment full of loud celebratory realtors with no restaurant management concern about our enjoyment, we would have selected the Cheesecake Factory or an alternate Pizza joint at The Collection. But after informing the host twice (while making a reservation and upon arrival) that we were celebrating our anniversary, and after having obvious available tables in the main room that were probably reserved for regular patrons, they placed us in the back, next to the loud group party, careless about our opinion or well being. Yes, we were tempted and we could have stood up and left, but you don't do that in the middle of an anniversary dinner when your wife tells you that she doesn't want to find another place this late at night, and the host already told upon arrival that they were packed on a busy night. It is not our fault for not leaving in the middle of a meal, it is the responsibility of the establishment to maintain their 5-star standards every night, all of the time, even during a very busy night, and to never overbook the place as if you were running an IHOP location for Sunday brunch. So today you get two stars, one for your fabulous waitress and one for the wine she recommended that was not even in your daily offerings. She was concerned about us. But we are not able to rate anything else you did not offer to us. I even sent my entree plate back with most of the pork medallions on it, because I couldn't really enjoy having a meal at your place. As for the rest of our anniversary night at our home, it was wonderful... You certainly could not ruin that. read more

This hidden gem in Ventura, CA is the best meal every time! They serve lunch and dinner and have very high quality food. Excellent service as well. My husband and I just had the filet mignon and steak dinners recently and we couldn't stop saying how amazing it was. Their desserts are also fantastic!! Thank you, Cafe Zack! read more

Came here for the first time for lunch today. It's a cute little place, quiet and quaint. Great service and the food was excellent, I had the chicken pesto sandwich with artichokes, so tasty! Would definitely come again and recommend to others. read more

We've been coming to Cafe Zack for years and years, but with 2020 shut downs, we haven't been here for a while. I thought it would be great to go back, now that we can eat on the patio, so I set a reservation for Feb 19th and last evening, we started our 100+ mile drive to Cafe Zack. When we came in, we noticed that the inside was changed, obviously due to no inside dining. What was really nice is the Hector greeted us with a warm smile and he remembered us by name! He seated us at a nice table on the patio - with warm heaters to take the chill off the air! We ordered a wonderful bottle of wine from a local winery in Santa Maria - a place we had been to before for wine tasting! Delicious!!! A great start to our evening! We ordered soup, potato leek. Then our entrees, Salmon for her and NY Steak for me. Cooked to perfection and served with vegetables and these incredible potatoes. Food was amazing as always! Everything perfect! We had a wonderful dessert, creme brulee, to finish a fantastic evening. For us, it's a trek to get to Cafe Zack and yes, there are some wonderful restaurants closer, but we enjoy the wine, service, food, ambiance - its an experience we treasure and after 220 miles or so round trip, we feel it's well worth the trip. If you haven't been, I highly recommend Cafe Zack. Hector and Sal have created a phenomenal restaurant! read more

Food was really bad. The meat was undercooked and bright pink. Ick. The prices were pretty expensive considering the quality and serving size. Service was average but nothing exceptional. Atmosphere was lame, boring, and the space was really small and tight. Would not recommend. read more

I got food poisoning!! I was so excited to come here because I've heard great things but it got me sick... I had to stay near a RR for like 3 days and my stomach was not happy. Idk what it was but maybe the mounds of mayo that was put in my sandwich or old cold chicken.. who knows.... Might give it another shot and hopefully can change this rating... read more

Eat dinner with some friends there the other night. Had a wonderful time. The outdoor patio is lovely and warm and the tables are nicely separated. Of course, the food was wonderful, I had the mahi-mahi over spinach and a wonderful glass of the Raeburn Pinot Noir. Hopefully, we will go back to pre-pandemic times and can really enjoy an evening there. read more

Disregard any other reviews. Either they are friends or don't understand food. Nice people, Food wasn't terrible, but also not remarkable, good or flavorful. The wine list was sad and with never heard of horrible wines that they must be getting a huge discount on with a 500% profit. Definitely not worth the visit. read more

Superior service and menu for the discerning diner. Whether lunch or dinner, Cafe Zack's in my opinion is one of the BEST restaurants in Ventura. read more

Unfortunately this cute little place has wonderful food but horrendous service. My husband and I were seated outside with another couple and proceeded to have extended wait times between offering a menu 30 minutes goes by, order 30 minutes goes by order an appetizer 30-40 minutes goes by getting our entrée and then no one! We waited and waited.? No one checked our drinks. Two servers neither one checked in on us at any time just delivered the food. We are waiting for at least 45 minutes when I got up to use restroom the and I saw the servers doing dishes drying them huddled in the back. We still didn't get our check so I had to ask for it. Completely abandoned by the wait staff. Poor management for sure. Too bad for such a cute place. Not cheap either! read more

We celebrated my 90th birthday with dinner at Cafe Zack on the patio. All in our family of 11 agreed that it was a perfect dinner. Excellent quality food served perfectly by friendly competent staff including Hector's personal touch. It was the best. Some family members flew down from San Francisco and said that Cafe Zack is a credit to Ventura. We give it 5++ stars. read more

Celebrated my husbands birthday tonight w a party of 5. The items we ordered were the beef short ribs, salmon and pasta & shrimp with salads and all were excellent. Matt was our server and service was excellent. Will definitely be back. read more

We only come here on special occasions because it is pricey but this Valentine's Day was a good reason to enjoy this special neighborhood restaurant. We had a delicious Chardonnay chosen by the staff. They had a "special" menu for Valentine's Day; I had delicious appetizer, salad and a lovely piece of Salmon as a main course. My hubby had roasted lamb shank that was amazingly tender and deeelicious; Our server Jacqui was fantastic; we can't think of a better restaurant to spend our Valentine's Day ...so worth it! read more

If you've never been to Europe take an evening to dine at Café Zack - after all we are considered the California Rivera! This dinning experience was taste of Europe (yes, I've been to Europe). Upon arriving we were greeted at the door with lots of smiles and immediately seated in the main room off the entrance, which is open & airy atmosphere, across from our table is a beautiful wall mural which sets the tone for that Euro vibe. The opposite side of our table is an open dinning patio with tasteful-framed art. For dinner I had the Lobster Ravioli with a light & velvety sauce which was delicious. My husband had the Mahi-Mahi (succulent & juicy, grilled to perfection), served over a bed of fresh spinach, & along side fresh-seasonal mixed vegetables. Our friends had the Rib-eye steak, cooked med-rare with a pepper sauce, silky & seasoned just right. The Nordic Salmon was almost to pretty to eat; topped with capers and served atop fresh shredded spinach ( it appeared that the juices from the salmon gave the spinach such great flavor and just the right amount of wilt, not soggy), along with fresh seasonal mixed vegetables, cooked perfectly. It was a beautiful dinning experience with our dear friends - making memories at Zack's! If you want to impress your date (romantic ambience) or guests take them to Café Zack's! Bravo to Head Chef - Salmone Cervantes & Pastry Chef! We will be returning to try their lunch menu. read more

Cafe Zack is simply superb. The food, the service, the ambience was all excellent. We had a wonderful evening and would highly recommend. My wife had veal, which was excellent. Salad and dessert was amazing. Strongly recommend. read more

Best restaurant in Ventura. Simple food done very very well. Solid wine list, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and nice ambience. Great for dates. Can't wait to be back! read more

Great food, good variety and very friendly staff. Thank you Matt for being so friendly and helpful. You made my birthday sprcy.

This is so ridiculous! We waited over one hour and twenty minutes beyond our reservation time! Their food is good but this excessive waiting really pisses us off and sours our appetites. read more

Great meal with fresh flavors and friendly staff. We were seated right on our reservation time and given time to enjoy our meal with jus the right amount of attention by the wait staff. We will be back. read more