The Forge in the Forest

This place has a wonderful outdoor evening abeyance. My girlfriends and I just love to stop and have lunch or in the evening seat at the fireplace and have drinks... Quite, cozy and they even have a dining room for Dogs. more

The outdoor setting of this restaurant is wonderful. And now, they even have soft live music playing on the weekends. I have seen a guitar player and a flutist. I also love their French onion soup. Pros: Setting, Live music, French Onion Soup Cons: most other meals have just been so so more

i worked at the forge. its not the best place to work at. unemployed people always come in and ask if we have any openings and we give them applications. then our assistant manager keeps hiring and hiring new people. they keep hiring people that is unnecessary!!! i come in on my one shift that i get every week (because we are over staffed), looked at the schedule and then i have no shifts! this place treats their employees like dirt. seniority means nothing to this place. everybody there has a 2nd job. sometimes a 3rd because this place doesn't give you enough shifts to live on. to all the people who say it has bad service, I can explain Why: it actually depends on the time, day you come in. because when a server gets slammed (has all there tables filled up, a server can have up to 7 tables to serve, maybe more) it gets pretty hectic, and stressful. they want to do everything right and not mess up an order etc. they are sometimes rushed because the hostess/host sits 5 tables (ex: 5 different families at 5 different tables) in their area at a time, so people have to wait a while and think the serves is bad, sometimes. thats not the case in some situations, sometimes the server is having a bad day or they get so busy they forget to smile. but all in all the place does treat their employees like dirt. i put in my 2 weeks once i found another job that had more hours and don't over staff. Pros: dog menu, the cookie, the setting, Cons: treat employees like dirt, the wait for a table is long sometimes more

The Forge is worth going to just for the atmosphere, the garden patio seating is beautiful and warm with heaters and fireplaces, I loved it. We started out with the calamari which wasn't so good, a little over done, but the entrees were excellent. I tried a pizza which was enough for 2 people, my husband had a pork dish with a mango jalape?o sauce that was delicious, and the other couple had the special for the night which was steak and were quite pleased. We finished our meal off with the tiramisu...it was sooo heavenly. We'll definitely be going there again and recommending it to our friends. more

My husband and I are service industry people. We have both worked in both the front and back of the house extensively. Our expectations tend to be high, however, we know this industry and are extremely forgiving when things don't go right. The experience we shared at this restaurant included both poorly prepared food as well as bad, borderline rude, service. We were both looking for a great place to spend our last night of vacation in the Monterey area and felt the positive reviews on City Search, normally very helpful, made our decision for us. In no way does this restaurant deserve a rating of 9.4. The calamari appetizer had the distinct resemblance of a freezer bag item and the ""Bucket of Steamers"" included mussels and clams which had hardly been cleaned and were then overcooked. Upon receiving our >$30 steaks the hostess asked us how our food was and we said they were much too overcooked for the rare temperatures we had requested. Good service would have more than made up for the bad steaks and accompaniments, but this was not the case. We were not only told that our opinions on the steak temps were wrong, but made to feel as though they could care less because we were out-of-towners. I have never been made to feel so uncomfortable and unwelcome. Every aspect of our experience was sub-par and we can't understand how this place could possibly warrant the high rating it has recieved. Pros: Cute setting, easy parking Cons: terrible food, rude service more

Quite possibly the best dessert EVER! If you go, your experience is not complete without having the cookie for dessert. Great bar and outside eating area with fireplaces and heaters. A great place for locals, very low key. Good service and food! more

If service is a sign of success of a restaurant, the future of the Forge in the Forest is doomed to failure. As part of a party of 3 who were seated in the patio last Saturday evening, 9/17/05, we were not acknowledged by any of the wait staff nor the roving manager/supervisor who was oblivious to any of the patrons. Our total stay was for 50 minutes. We departed with apologies from the hostess, NEVER TO RETURN. Pros: Patio Cons: Service more

Our extremely flighty waitress could not ruin our experience at this restaurant. A great beer hall style environment inside and plenty of seating outside make this a great place to eat in Carmel. The food was great with a wide swing in prices. No matter what your budget, they had a few selections on the menu for you. I did find it odd that a place with such a beer hall feeling to it only had two beers on tap, though. Pros: Good Food, Great Atmosphere, Fair Prices Cons: Poor Service more

You definitly NEED to sit outside at this place. It was very charming. Neither my fiance or I really loved our meals, but the French onion soup was good. The best however, is their Giant Cookie. They serve it hot in a skillet with Vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. You can eat half of it with 2 people. It's heaven! more