Ca' Marco - OJAI

IMO The best restaurant in town. I love to dine here.

Went here with family on a night when they had live music. Service and food were great. Everyone was happy and stuffed! Highly recommend!

We love this place. Went again last night for my father's and sister's birthday (yes, they're the exact same day). We always bring our own wine because we make it, but I overheard another group saying their friends had recommended they bring a bottle, so I'm pretty sure their corkage fee is super reasonable. Anyway, we know the owner, she always comes around, always gives us the best few minutes she's got. This place is about three blocks past the end of the main strip in town. If you don't go to the golf course, you might never know it was there, but it's consistently got the best high-end menu and shorter waits than any place in town. There's multiple must-try items on the regular menu and the specials always double that. We always go as a family, five or more and we often can't try everything on the menu that looks good.

So incredibly disappointed with this restaurant and the treatment we received! Both my friend and I ordered the crab lobster ravioli special with the expectation of being wow 'd, only to find sharp shell remnants in the raviolis first in my friends serving, which they replaced, but then also in my raviolis as well. This of course caused great concern, and sent my plate back as well, ordering something completely different, as my friends 2nd plate ALSO had shell remnants. We 're not talking small grainy pieces, but large slivers if shell. Clearly a chocking hazard! Our server brought the owner of the establishment to our table who began counting the number of raviolis that we tried to eat before presenting a menu so that I could choose a different dish. We made it through our meal and even decided to order dessert. When the check arrived we were absolutely floored to see that we were being charged for both ravioli dishes AND my replacement meal! When confronting the owner about the charges, her reply was that because each of us ate 3 of the 7 raviolis on our first dishes before returning them (which all contained the shell shards) and they replaced my friends dish, they would be charging for both! Of course this absolutely infuriated me expressing that I would have at the very least expected her to only charge half for my plate considering we both could very well have choked or been injured by the shell slivers. (being a Medic, I have seen such things happen frequently) But she continued to argue the fact that the raviolis were expensive to make so she has to charge. Finally she agreed to a discount because she needed the table and would bring the check to our us. Our discount offered.....15% off my returned plate! I was livid, and made my feelings known right in front of the rest of her packed dining room! This prompted her to grab the check and tell us to not pay for anything if we wanted, just leave. Feeling incredibly bad for the only gracious person there, our server, we left her a very healthy tip and left. Needless to say, this establishment will NEVER see a penny of neither my, nor my friend 's, our any of our collective friend 's money. To have such disregard for your customer 's safety is absolutely disgusting!

Love this place! We try to come for lunch when it's not crowded, and it is just wonderful! The house-made ravioli are amazing especially.