The Back Room Steakhouse — Restaurant in Apopka

This will be a long review... A group of us went last night 7/25 for my birthday. We have been to the Back Room several times before and have had varied experiences. I know every place can have an off night and this was it for us. 7pm reservations Party of 6 and a 2 year old. Our server was terrible, I mean really terrible. We ordered a couple bottles of wine and I ordered a Back Room old fashioned. We were brought water and bread, thank goodness as it would be a loooong time before we would see anything else. The server came over and let us know the bar was backed up. It took what seemed like an eternity to get our drinks, Meanwhile the table beside us, which was seated after us already had wine and an appetizer. My old fashioned was very good, but about half way through the drink my lip was burning and I realized the glass was chipped and had cut my lip. I asked for a replacement drink which also took a good while to get, no apology. It was probably 45 minutes before the server was ready to take our order. He ghosted us for probably 20 of those minutes. I will say, we ordered sweet potato fries for the baby when we ordered drinks and they came out right away. Thank you for that, he was hangry. After ordering, our salads took a bit to get but everyone seemed pretty happy with them. I had a Caesar, it was properly dressed and fresh. It could have benefited from some shaved Parmesan but overall it was good. We were all finished with our salads for a long time and had zero drinks left in any glass before the server showed back up. By this time the table beside us (only 2 people) was finishing up with their meal which seemed to come in a very timely manner. The Tomahawk rib eye that gentleman had looked fun. We started getting food at about the 1 hour and 30 minute mark... 3 people got their meals followed up in a few minutes by another 2 people. the last meal came close to 10 minutes behind the first meals. I think this was a server issue and in a second I will detail why. 5 of us ordered steaks. 4 were med rare and one med. Only 2 were even close to temperature. The 10oz strip ordered med was pretty close and the 14oz Strip was to temp. The remaining 3 were all ordered med rare and were all over cooked. The last meal to arrive at the table was med well. I believe it was left sitting before being brought to the table. A place with the word Steakhouse in the name really should be able to cook a steak to temperature. My strip was VERY salty. The asparagus was perfect but the risotto was lacking. My wife ordered mushrooms on the side, they were on the plate, not a huge deal but displays a lack of attention to detail. Again, no one at the table had an ounce of liquid in any glass and the table beside us was long gone before we even got our food. We were now finished, the server asked if we wanted desert, my kids had brought a birthday cake they reminded the server and it took quite a bit to get this brought to the table. Thank you for singing :-) We were now passing the 2 hour mark... The server asked how we would like the bill broken up, we explained it to him it was pretty simple 2/2/2+baby but then the real confusion started... 2 couples had purchased the groupon deals. $75 for $55 or something like that. The server told us we could only use one per table... The owner came over and allowed us to use both of them. After this the server still took several attempts and 20 minutes to get the bill divided and get us cashed out. It still wasn't right. We spent 2.5 hours having dinner, most of it waiting and wishing we had something to drink. I want to point out again this wasn't our first visit and we will try again but this visit was a...

I'm giving this place 3 stars because it was okay...? We went here for magical dining because it was a good option for my boyfriends chrones disorder. I would not recommend going here, overall not worth the $40 they charge for this menu. First off the place started as a bar in a Publix shopping center then expanded because people enjoyed it. Must have been great before. The place looks like a bar they added more tables to. The decor was supposed to be gangster speakeasy retro but this mess just comes off old. The epicenter is the bar and it looks nice but then your not there for a drink and you get a table. The poorly framed printed out black and white "photos" on the wall were askew and sported a layer of dust. The wood paneling that was stained a darker color to match the bar gives the place a 'people smoked in this house vibe'. The waitstaff was nice and you could tell they were hustling. Really the service was the only redeemable quality to this place and the reason it scored so high for me. I can not remember our waiters name but he was polite, friendly, and on top of his game. In the time of corona shortage I did not expect such quick service. They made sure we had plenty of water and cleared out plates when they started to crowd. The food however was the most disappointing. For magical dining their menu is set so everyone gets an appetizer, an entre, and a dessert for $40 a person. This is an advantage for busy resturants who have to deal with an influx of people. First thing that bothered me was on the menu the management let's you know an automatic 20% gratuity is added to any magical dining bill. At first I blamed the magical diners and considered that people are going out and just paying for the food and skipping the tip, if you do just go ahead and Google how much the average waitstaff makes WITHOUT tips in Orlando, OK start tipping. But after our meal I decided it might not be entirely the magical diners fault. Appetizers, we got the egg rolls and the artichoke dip. You can tell they make these in mass then throw them on a plate to pop in a microwave when someone orders them. I decided to get the salmon option because its an easy fish and a steakhouse should be able to throw that on the grill no problem. This is the description of their dish:

Sautéed Norwegian Salmon Filet served over sautéed rock shrimp, baby french beans julienne gold potato, onions & tomato, draped with a horseradish lemon beurre blanc sauce - served with two of our sides - choose from mushrooms, sautéed vegetables, steak fries, baked potato, smashed yukon gold potatoes, house or caesar salad.

I ordered this dish and the waiter informed me that it comes medium. I think he meant the entire plate is mildly warm since they are made ahead of time and kept under a hot lamp. The salmon was cooked to death, dry and flaky. The sautéed rock shrimp, I could not tell you there weren't any on my plate. Under the salmon was some nice green beans and sliced onions but zero shrimp or potatoes. The horseradish lemon beurre blanc was just a regular lemon beurre blanc and there was so little of it. The dish does redeem itself because there was a larger portion of dry fish and the mushrooms are great, but it's hard to mess up mushrooms. My boyfriend got the steak and it was pretty decent, but we could have gotten that anywhere. The place did start out as a bar so I ordered a classic whiskey sour. Not a lot of whiskey to the sour but it's to be expected at a place that wants you to keep ordering drinks. Fancy presentation, pretty good taste. Overall I would say don't waste your time on this place. We went out of our way on a date night and I really wish we hadn't. Great staff, blah food,...

We had a 6:30pm reservation, which we received a confirmation call for earlier in the day. Once we arrived at the restaurant, 15 minutes early, we were told that someone was sitting at our table but as soon as they got up we would be seated. We were asked to wait outside where we saw a few others waiting. Our reservation time came and went as we watched everyone who was waiting before us, and even those parties that arrived after us, be seated. At no point did anyone come outside to give us an update or even apologize for the wait. I checked my watch at 6:45pm and then again at 7:10pm, and still nothing. We were only a party of 2, but we sat on the bench and watched as parties of 2, 4, and even a family of 5, that arrived after us, were welcomed in and seated. As my frustration rose, seeing what seemed to be “restaurant regulars” get seated ahead of us, my husband and I decided that if they were not interested in us, we were not interested in giving them our patronage either. We went in and spoke to a different hostess, a young female this time, who was super rude. She asked if we had a reservation. I responded, yes it was for 6:30pm. She asked for the reservation name, and before even pulling it up, asked if it was for 7:30pm. Clearly she was not listening, since I had already told her 6:30pm and why would we be sitting outside frustrated if our reservation time wasn’t for another 1/2 hour? I told her again 6:30pm, and said we’d like to cancel since they couldn’t seem to seat us even though several others had been seated. She didn’t apologize, or look for a solution, she simply said ok great, it’s cancelled. Really? Is this regular practice to the point that no one is even shocked when a reservation cannot be seated? If that was the service before even sitting, I’m glad we didn’t get to eat there because I can only imagine how the night would have gone. As a foodie and a graduate in hospitality management, I was disgusted by the “service” and look forward to sharing our experience with my blog community, friends in the Orlando community, who I share our magical dining experiences with, and with the Visit Orlando folks who advertise magical dining. I can say that making a trip from Orlando to Apopka for this “affluent” restaurant nestled between a Little Caesar’s pizza and a Beef O’ Brady’s is definitely not worth the trip or the waste of gas. We ended up at Bonefish Grill after this debacle, which was actually amazing, the best part of the evening, and I look forward to writing a glowing review for them & their team because they really made us feel like we...