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The Iron Gate - Steakhouse in San Mateo, California

The Iron Gate

4.5 (626 reviews)

1360 El Camino Real, Belmont, CA 94002

Fine dining restaurant
French restaurant

About The Iron Gate - steak house in San Mateo, California

Formal white-linen restaurant serving traditional French & Italian dishes such as rack of lamb.

Customer Review Summary

The Iron Gate offers a welcoming atmosphere with immediate seating and attentive service, particularly from waiter Ignacio. The menu features elegant and high-quality dishes such as Oysters Rockefeller and a delicious Dungeness crab sandwich. Patrons highly recommend the lobster, fried zucchini blossoms with crab, and tableside bananas foster for dessert. Celebrating special occasions, like a 90th birthday, is common, with the restaurant providing excellent customer service and flexibility. The ambiance is described as old school, making it a nostalgic dining experience. While the restaurant is on the pricier side, the overall dining experience, including the live music on Saturday nights, is deemed exceptional and worth the cost. Some diners mention that portion sizes can be small, but the quality of the food and service makes it a 'must experience'.

Key Features

Service options

  • Outdoor seating
  • Delivery
  • Takeout
  • Dine-in

Highlights

  • Fireplace
  • Great beer selection
  • Great cocktails
  • Great coffee
  • Great dessert
  • Great wine list
  • Live music

Popular for

  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Solo dining

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair accessible entrance
  • Wheelchair accessible parking lot
  • Wheelchair accessible restroom
  • Wheelchair accessible seating

Offerings

  • Alcohol
  • Beer
  • Cocktails
  • Coffee
  • Comfort food
  • Happy hour drinks
  • Hard liquor
  • Wine

Dining options

  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Dessert

Amenities

  • Bar onsite
  • Restroom

Atmosphere

  • Cozy
  • Historic
  • Romantic
  • Upscale

Crowd

  • Family-friendly
  • Groups

Planning

  • Lunch reservations recommended
  • Dinner reservations recommended
  • Accepts reservations

Payments

  • Credit cards
  • Debit cards
  • NFC mobile payments

Children

  • Good for kids
  • High chairs

Parking

  • Free parking lot
  • Free street parking

Customer Reviews

Rating Distribution

4.5 out of 5
5
432
4
116
3
36
2
25
1
17
Based on 626 reviews

Levi Fontaine

1 month ago

The Lunch Hour: Seated immediately with a choice of seats. Warm bread/butter and water followed. Ignacio our waiter was on the spot on! Wine and Oysters Rockefeller! The elegance and simplicity of the fixed price (prix-fixe)menu belied the quality and presentation of dishes. Portobello mushroom, bacon set on a light pastry tart drizzled with an absolutely scrumptious sauce set the tone for my salmon entree. Yum I’ll stop here as space and time is limiting but you get the idea. Old school is the new school. Manners, service and decorum still matter.

Kristie Stafford

2 months ago

Celebrated dad’s 90th birthday at the Iron Gate. Been celebrating life’s moments here for 40 years…only seems right to be here for this one. Thank you for your flexibility and kindness with our date change and thank you, Joe, for making this evening so amazing! It was Perfect!!! Great people, great food, and great customer service - they thought of everything and did it all!

Lorenzo Yanez

6 months ago

This place never disappoints. Everything we had was delicious and packed with flavor. Highly recommend the Lobster. Will definitely keep going back. The service was excellent as always. They make you feel right at home.

Bruce S.

12 months ago

We've been to this restaurant several times for dinner or to the bar to listen to live music on Saturday nights. The restaurant has an old school setting, which was nice. The restaurant in general is pricey. This was the first time that we went for lunch. Everything for lunch was delicious, and the service from Ignacio excellent. We started with a glass of Moet champagne, which was very good. For an appetizer, we had fried zucchini blossoms that also had crab inside. This was so good, we wanted to lick the plate. For lunch we had a Dungeness crab sandwich and fish & chips and both were on the daily lunch specials. For lunch they also offer a 3 course prixe fixe menu for$37, which I would have tried except that I wanted their bananas foster for dessert, which they make tableside and is sooo good. You can see live musical performers on Saturday nights in the bar for a fee.

Bill Bosley

1 year ago

This is one of the rare occasions I wish I could give more than 5 stars. Not just a good meal but a truly fabulous dining experience. The table service was phenomenal, both from the level of professionalism and personality along with a high level of attentiveness. Of course the food was sensational. It was fine cuisine presented well but also in satisfying amounts (not 3 peas around 1 slice). I can't say enough about the deliciousness combined with top-tier service and ambience. A 'must experience' at least once in a lifetime!

keith duncan

Great retro (ready old school) restaurant. Half expect the Rat pack to show up. Long time attentive wait staff always make you feel welcome. All courses and sauces were superb from stuffed zucchini blossoms to veal and calamari steak entree and excellent desserts like souffle. Definitely a special occasion place!

Joel Davis

3 months ago

Pawns and scallops were amazing, but 3 is each was not enough for this man. French onion soup was delicious, as was the souffle for dessert. Portion size is an issue.

Janet K

9 months ago

Steak Diane is so cool and delicious 😋 very juicy and tender! I love the New Zealand rack of lamb too!

Location

Contact Information

Hours of Operation

Friday 11:30 AM–2:30 PM, 5–9 PM
Monday Closed
Saturday 5–9 PM
Sunday 5–9 PM
Thursday 11:30 AM–2:30 PM, 5–9 PM
Tuesday 11:30 AM–2:30 PM, 5–9 PM
Wednesday 11:30 AM–2:30 PM, 5–9 PM

Price Range

$50–100