The Pony Room

the pony room is much preferred over veladora. it might take a while for them to take your drink order but the outdoor seating and relaxing atmosphere are wonderful. i would definitely come back.

Awesome.....like belonging to a country club without having to pay annual dues and minus the attitude.

I like nice places--though in So. Cal, many nice places and people can be in your face (see Orange County, Del Mar) with people telling you how great they are and/or how great they think they are--but not here. Pony Room and the Rancho Valencia resort is like driving up to and hanging out in your own country club in plush yet quaint surroundings. More Marin County-ish than SoCal-ish.

As described by another poster or two, it's a lovely drive through RSF before you get to the front gate and then pull up into the valet area (no charge for parking--unlike Grande Del Mar resort) but don't forget to tip....you walk through the very cool Spanish-flair courtyard with lovely fireplace before you take a sharp right and enter the Pony Room. Great comfortable chairs, they use Frette (as in bed linens) napkins, and the food + service is fantastic. I usually sit at the bar and admire the good looking, predominantly female staff--dressed in polo outfits.

Great craft beers and wine list and the food is quite good as well as reasonably priced. Their carne asada tacos are out of this world (bet you can't eat just 1 serving), the flatbread pizza is good, the kobe sliders are OK (would like them better if they could get medium rare right more times than not--apparently, a common theme in SoCal), and don't forget to order their homemade potato chips. They even have complete meal nightly specials and will let you order off the adjoining Veladora menu if you are craving Italian food.

On Thursday-Sat nights there is live entertainment in the corner of the bar and they have a couple of large TV's for sporting events (I watched the NBA finals and Stanley Cup playoffs at this place and gladly drove 35 minutes from douchebag filled downtown to do so)....with racing season upon us, this is definitely going to be a great place to hang--including Opening Day. Too bad they don't permit cigar smoking here--if they did, I'd sleep in my humidor and be here every other day.

Tacos and beer post tennis are the bomb