Tough night for the model citizen crew. Food without silverware (had to ask 3 times :( ), unusually low wine pour, got appetizers without shared plates, they have a cucumber dish that is like a quarter of a cucumber on feta (cucumbers aren’t in season, and was way too salty) most of the food is either under seasoned or over seasoned, pasta featured cherry tomatoes (cherry tomatoes aren’t in season). Very misleading description, “Our restaurant emphasizes local and regional ingredients, with a focus on preservation”. As well, we got one of those silica freshness packets in our potato chips. Cool look to the place, but the service and food do not have a backbone. Really was sad to experience.
Elena Dills
Came in for happy hour and all I can say is wow! The service was absolutely incredible- we had Jeff and he was such a delight! He was attentive to our needs, knowledgable of the menu and just such a joy to speak with! He knows how to add a personal touch to the experience! 10/10 would recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Justin Rogers-Cooper
Fine dining with an accessible vibe at this lusciously modern bistro with bar. Small and large plates with an epic array of decadent appetizers. Fried chips with a novel take on onion dip? Check. Fresh oysters served cold with lemon and sauces? Check. Dill cucumber on a savory bed of whipped feta? Check. Baked squash, tasty halibut, and other hearty servings filled the table. Elegant cocktails and wine list. A very valuable happy hour too. Friendly service and entertaining people-watching. A necessary stop if you’re in Ventura.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Alicia Dillon
Great cocktails and veggie
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Chris Tuohino
Based on a few of the other reviews I was ready to potentially be underwhelmed, but this place was great! Food was amazing and drinks too: I had the Persimmon and Eggnog cocktails, and Tagliatelle, Salmon, and Broccolini - all excellent!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ruby H.
Loved having dinner here! Cozy, modern, and chic. Food was delicious and everyone was incredibly kind. Looking forward to stopping by again in the future!
Turkey B.
Oh my gosh, we came here for New Year's Eve. Lifetime resident Ventura. I am horrified at this place. Worst service ever. The man and the woman behind the bar were so rude to everyone. The woman just complained about how long she's been working and how she hated her job. The gentleman complained that everyone was patronizing him. They seem more concerned about themselves than the customers. This is what's wrong with modern culture. It's not about the customers anymore. It's all about the employees and how they feel. I don't care how you feel you provided the horrible service And you embarrassed me in front of my family. Shame Including us. I didn't even want to pay the mandatory 18% gratuity but then they yelled at me. Horrible. I don't have time to contact the management, but if the management would like to contact me. Send me a direct message on Yelp and I will tell you what happened. Horrible service from the bar staff. Spoiled brat. I would terminate them immediately. Happy new year.
Cindie Sassons (girlbikelife.com)
Food was excellent. Absolutely fantastic - unusual and tasty. If my rating was for food alone, this is definitely a 5/5. Sea Bass, Chicken schnitzel, cucumber salad, roast carrots were great.Unfortunately there were a few minor issues with service and atmosphere: we had a booking however had to wait quite a while for a table. When we were seated, it took a long time for our waitress to take our order. The wine we ordered was unable to be found - by the time we were informed of that, we were finished with our first starter. By the time our backup wine was brought to the table we were finished with the second starter.We asked for dessert menus but after receiving them our waitress failed to return for our orders for 20+ minutes. Unfortunately in the meantime the dessert my husband was looking forward to sold out.The atmosphere was both good and bad. A very large loud group showed up and the whole place is fairly sparse in terms of furnishings so there's not much to dampen or absorb the sound. Could definitely benefit from some sound minimizing panels.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Steve W.
Model Citizen is a fantastic place to eat in Ventura. Just a half block off the Main Street but worlds different than anything else this town has to offer. A super chic modern vibe sets the decor - minimal an cool with a great color scheme. The menu is small plates meant for sharing, and for 4 of us at dinner, we probably tried 8-9 different dishes. Great presentation and really fun flavor combinations. We had the delicata squash with salsa macha (amazing), zucchini fritters, French onion toast, endive salad, olives, fries, cucumbers .. probably forgetting a few things. Cocktails were good, service was friendly, and the overall feel of the restaurant was great. The regular restaurants in Ventura are loud, filled with tourists, and just overall kind of messy. Model Citizen was sleek and straightforward with great energy. We'll definitely be back.
elizabeth laperriere
I’ve been twice so far once for dinner and then for happy hour. Food is delicious! Happy hour drinks and food are awesome! Had the loaded fries and they were perfectly crispy and full of the good stuff on top. Will definitely be back!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Maple Glazed Carrots with Whipped Feta and Mint Oil, Loaded Fries
Loved the food and vibe! Great happy hour on Mondays!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
James Klein
Can't recommend this place enough. The cocktails are super inventive without being over the top, the wine list is full of off-the-beaten-path gems, the food is thoughtfully composed & very well executed, and the vibes are immaculate.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
A A
This place is very "meh". I wanted to like it, but it just didn't hit the mark for me. I waited over 30 minutes for my glass of wine after I ordered it, and we had to ask if something happened to our appetizer because that also took so long to come out. The service is very mediocre here and the atmosphere is just very bland and sterile. Looking at the full menu, I believe the food is pretty overpriced from what I hear about it. A lot of the wait staff just seemed to stand around and talk to each other. Which is probably why it takes over 30 minutes to get a simple glass of wine. They have a happy hour menu and their smashburger that was on it is quite good, I will say. They said that they have happy hour glasses of both red and white wine, however there was only one single red wine available for happy hour and it was 'ok'. The glasses they use for water glasses just seem really pretentious and do not make sense at all. They remind me more of tea light candle holders. The biggest drawback for me is the fact that they charge you an automatic 18% for a "staff charge". So I can only assume this is for the tip? Therefore what I left for a tip I left accordingly to the 18% addition. I can't speak for everybody else but I am a very generous tipper because I am in the industry as well, and having an automatic 18% bill to you for a staff charge just makes that tip go down for me. Not a good look, and as slow as our service was and as talkative as your staff is amongst each other, that 18% is not warranted. I do not like businesses that do that and I likely will not be back because of it.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
Catalina G.
The drinks here are pretty good. It's a nice resturant don't get me wrong. The ambiance is light, dim lights, nice seating, good service. The food on the other hand is just okay. The chicken lacked flavor. The appetizer wasn't that great. For the price, the food is okay. I wish it would've blown me away but it didn't.
Tough night for the model citizen crew. Food without silverware (had to ask 3 times :( ), unusually low wine pour, got appetizers without shared plates, they have a cucumber dish that is like a quarter of a cucumber on feta (cucumbers aren’t in season, and was way too salty) most of the food is either under seasoned or over seasoned, pasta featured cherry tomatoes (cherry tomatoes aren’t in season). Very misleading description, “Our restaurant emphasizes local and regional ingredients, with a focus on preservation”. As well, we got one of those silica freshness packets in our potato chips. Cool look to the place, but the service and food do not have a backbone. Really was sad to experience.
Came in for happy hour and all I can say is wow! The service was absolutely incredible- we had Jeff and he was such a delight! He was attentive to our needs, knowledgable of the menu and just such a joy to speak with! He knows how to add a personal touch to the experience! 10/10 would recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Fine dining with an accessible vibe at this lusciously modern bistro with bar. Small and large plates with an epic array of decadent appetizers. Fried chips with a novel take on onion dip? Check. Fresh oysters served cold with lemon and sauces? Check. Dill cucumber on a savory bed of whipped feta? Check. Baked squash, tasty halibut, and other hearty servings filled the table. Elegant cocktails and wine list. A very valuable happy hour too. Friendly service and entertaining people-watching. A necessary stop if you’re in Ventura.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Great cocktails and veggie
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Based on a few of the other reviews I was ready to potentially be underwhelmed, but this place was great! Food was amazing and drinks too: I had the Persimmon and Eggnog cocktails, and Tagliatelle, Salmon, and Broccolini - all excellent!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Loved having dinner here! Cozy, modern, and chic. Food was delicious and everyone was incredibly kind. Looking forward to stopping by again in the future!
Oh my gosh, we came here for New Year's Eve. Lifetime resident Ventura. I am horrified at this place. Worst service ever. The man and the woman behind the bar were so rude to everyone. The woman just complained about how long she's been working and how she hated her job. The gentleman complained that everyone was patronizing him. They seem more concerned about themselves than the customers. This is what's wrong with modern culture. It's not about the customers anymore. It's all about the employees and how they feel. I don't care how you feel you provided the horrible service And you embarrassed me in front of my family. Shame Including us. I didn't even want to pay the mandatory 18% gratuity but then they yelled at me. Horrible. I don't have time to contact the management, but if the management would like to contact me. Send me a direct message on Yelp and I will tell you what happened. Horrible service from the bar staff. Spoiled brat. I would terminate them immediately. Happy new year.
Food was excellent. Absolutely fantastic - unusual and tasty. If my rating was for food alone, this is definitely a 5/5. Sea Bass, Chicken schnitzel, cucumber salad, roast carrots were great.Unfortunately there were a few minor issues with service and atmosphere: we had a booking however had to wait quite a while for a table. When we were seated, it took a long time for our waitress to take our order. The wine we ordered was unable to be found - by the time we were informed of that, we were finished with our first starter. By the time our backup wine was brought to the table we were finished with the second starter.We asked for dessert menus but after receiving them our waitress failed to return for our orders for 20+ minutes. Unfortunately in the meantime the dessert my husband was looking forward to sold out.The atmosphere was both good and bad. A very large loud group showed up and the whole place is fairly sparse in terms of furnishings so there's not much to dampen or absorb the sound. Could definitely benefit from some sound minimizing panels.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Model Citizen is a fantastic place to eat in Ventura. Just a half block off the Main Street but worlds different than anything else this town has to offer. A super chic modern vibe sets the decor - minimal an cool with a great color scheme. The menu is small plates meant for sharing, and for 4 of us at dinner, we probably tried 8-9 different dishes. Great presentation and really fun flavor combinations. We had the delicata squash with salsa macha (amazing), zucchini fritters, French onion toast, endive salad, olives, fries, cucumbers .. probably forgetting a few things. Cocktails were good, service was friendly, and the overall feel of the restaurant was great. The regular restaurants in Ventura are loud, filled with tourists, and just overall kind of messy. Model Citizen was sleek and straightforward with great energy. We'll definitely be back.
I’ve been twice so far once for dinner and then for happy hour. Food is delicious! Happy hour drinks and food are awesome! Had the loaded fries and they were perfectly crispy and full of the good stuff on top. Will definitely be back!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Maple Glazed Carrots with Whipped Feta and Mint Oil, Loaded Fries
Restaurantji Recommends
Loved the food and vibe! Great happy hour on Mondays!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Can't recommend this place enough. The cocktails are super inventive without being over the top, the wine list is full of off-the-beaten-path gems, the food is thoughtfully composed & very well executed, and the vibes are immaculate.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This place is very "meh". I wanted to like it, but it just didn't hit the mark for me. I waited over 30 minutes for my glass of wine after I ordered it, and we had to ask if something happened to our appetizer because that also took so long to come out. The service is very mediocre here and the atmosphere is just very bland and sterile. Looking at the full menu, I believe the food is pretty overpriced from what I hear about it. A lot of the wait staff just seemed to stand around and talk to each other. Which is probably why it takes over 30 minutes to get a simple glass of wine. They have a happy hour menu and their smashburger that was on it is quite good, I will say. They said that they have happy hour glasses of both red and white wine, however there was only one single red wine available for happy hour and it was 'ok'. The glasses they use for water glasses just seem really pretentious and do not make sense at all. They remind me more of tea light candle holders. The biggest drawback for me is the fact that they charge you an automatic 18% for a "staff charge". So I can only assume this is for the tip? Therefore what I left for a tip I left accordingly to the 18% addition. I can't speak for everybody else but I am a very generous tipper because I am in the industry as well, and having an automatic 18% bill to you for a staff charge just makes that tip go down for me. Not a good look, and as slow as our service was and as talkative as your staff is amongst each other, that 18% is not warranted. I do not like businesses that do that and I likely will not be back because of it.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
The drinks here are pretty good. It's a nice resturant don't get me wrong. The ambiance is light, dim lights, nice seating, good service. The food on the other hand is just okay. The chicken lacked flavor. The appetizer wasn't that great. For the price, the food is okay. I wish it would've blown me away but it didn't.
Great spot for good fun and great vibe.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5