Luigi's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Lethbridge

I’m definitely a fan of Luigi’s Steakhouse in Lethbridge. They’ve been in business for years, are family owned and have a lot of great options. The restaurant is a good size with a lounge, dining room and private dining section. The menu also has a lot of options: appetizers, soups, salads, pastas, pizza, burgers, sandwiches, mains and dessert. They’re also with the times and have a gluten-free menu. Overall the feel to the menu is similar to Boston Pizza but offers better quality dishes overall with a specialization in steak and pizza. They renovated a few years back and still feel like a modern establishment overall.

On my most recent visit I shared a couple different pizzas with my brother. If you like cheese you’ll love their pizzas, they’re very cheesy and delectable! One of my favorite pizza places for sure. There were also a couple salad orders at our table and a pasta dish. Everyone was quite content. Their draft beer selection is definitely a bit lacking, but Lethbridge has never been known as a big craft beer market like the bigger cities in all fairness. The bottled beer selection was average as well, but offered a bit more than the draft selection. However, their wine list is pretty decent as you’d expect from a place that identifies as a “fine dining restaurant”.

Service is always pretty good here anytime I’ve visited, this time the server assigned to our table was exceptionally good. She was very efficient, knew when to check-up, knew when to do refills and knew when to take additional drink orders; very on the ball overall! They used to be a bit better with having managers come around to see how tables are doing (this is always a nice touch for fine dining imo), but I haven’t had this happen here in my recent visits.

Really happy with this visit overall, food was great as was the service, prices are also quite fair but are definitely higher than pub prices, even where item offerings would be similar between the two. I tend to look past this given the atmosphere and quality though, I’d definitely be happy to come back and always consider Luigi’s for dinner outings on my visits...

It appears that based on reviews, experiences can be hit or miss- unfortunately we got a miss.

We thought we’d try this place after a sports competition. We were prepared to have to wait for a table walking in at dinner on a weekend but weren't prepared for the rude way the host greeted us.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that there was no line upon walking in and that it wasn’t that busy; not dead but not slammed by any means. We were greeted by a teenage host who asked us what we wanted when we walked in- I was pretty caught off guard and stated we’d like a table if we could, to which he rolled his eyes and asked for how many, we stated the four of us and he said he’d ask someone to see and then walked away. We contemplated turning around and going somewhere else based on how rude the employee was but decided to give it a try since we were tired and the kids were hungry. That was a mistake.

We got seated immediately without a problem the second the manager showed up and had drinks within minutes. That was the end of the positives. We were ready to order within ten minutes of walking in the door and specifically asked for a couple appies to start since the kids were hungry- the appies came out after our food and it was clear they had been sitting under the heat lamps the entire time and our waiter hadn’t bothered to bring them. The food itself took an hour and fifteen minutes to get to our table, with the waiter telling us every ten minutes that our appies would be right out. Again, we contemplated leaving but we honestly felt like we had committed so much time into getting dinner here we stayed.

The food was mediocre. Nothing terrible but not great. Mushy boiled vegetables like you’d expect from a cheap diner but on a $50 plate of mis-cooked steak, okay pasta, and an underwhelming burger. The appies may have been okay but they had clearly been sitting under heat for so long no one bothered to take a second bite. The waiter filled our drinks once and apologized for the wait, he was friendly enough but really didn’t seem like he could be bothered. Definitely not somewhere we’d...

Tonight I ordered the Luigi's Cobb Salad. The menu describes it as having avocado, chicken, crispy bacon, tomato, Bleu cheese, egg, and house ranch. What I received was a rotten salad. The salad dressing was so old, it had mold growing on it. The tomatoes were mushy. The chicken tasted and smelled like it had gone bad, as did the bacon and the cheese. I have eaten blue cheese for my entire life and I am familiar with fresh v. rotten blue cheese. This cheese was dried out, and greasy looking and did not have a pleasant smell.

I called the restaurant and explained. The lovely girl who answered the phone was very nice and offered her apologies and offered a credit at the restaurant. I told her I would like a refund because I did not wish to eat at that restaurant after being given rotten food. She clearly didn't have that authority, so she put the manager on who was extremely rude and confrontational before I had even managed to get a word out, and told me he wouldn't be giving my money back and that he would give me a credit only. It appeared he was angry before he had even picked up the phone. I informed him that I wanted my money back because I did not wish to eat food from there again, and if he didn't refund the money I paid for the salad, I would be letting a large number of people know about this (hence this review.) Generally business owners will take the approach of "If you aren't happy, tell us. If you are, tell everyone" I tried to tell him, but he apparently thinks it's acceptable to feed customers rotten food. His response was "Now I'm not giving you your money back OR a credit because that's extortion. You're blackmailing me." He then hung up on me while I was still in the middle of a sentence.

The attached photos show exactly what I received. The fuzzy mold in the second photo is very evident. Disgusting food, and a disgusting attitude from...