Ted's Montana Grill — Restaurant in Aurora

[I'd give a zero if I could] First, I would like to preface my review by saying that we have enjoyed the last two Thanksgiving feasts at this particular Ted's tremendously. I would also like to say that I have waited tables for Thanksgiving myself, so I understand that most of the food is prepared ahead of time and kept hot. The menu is limited, and therefore it is actually easier to wait. Portion: compared to the two previous years, the portions were less than half; enough for a senior citizen but not nearly enough for a 6-foot-plus 20-something man (and not nearly $26.00 worth). We had so much food the last times that we were not able to finish our meals. This year one of my sons ordered the crab cakes and he said most of the plate was covered with tomato slices, and the crab cakes were eaten in two bites. Taste: Last year I ordered a steak instead of having the turkey meal. I tasted some of the squash casserole and was sorely disappointed that I didn't get any with my meal. This time I ordered the Turkey "Feast", and could not tell what was on my plate. I thought is was a variety of stuffing that had slices of cooked apples in it; the texture and size was of a cooked apple slice, but there was no taste. It was a soggy mess that had no real defining flavor at all. I actually had to ask one of my sons what it was. When he said it was the squash casserole I was really taken aback. The actual stuffing did not have any distinct flavors either. The turkey was okay. Last year I remember savoring every bite. I believe I had grilled asparagus with my meal and I had never tasted anything so good. Temperature: The meals were barely warm. On top of that, the restaurant itself was cold; we were all bundled up in our coats. We have been cold on the two previous times we were there, so this is not new, but it does make for an uncomfortable meal. Service: Bad, just plain bad. neither water nor sodas were attended to. My father, who even said he would never do such a thing before, got up and asked the hostess to find our waitress to get some hot coffee. This was the only time the cups were refilled. It was impossible to get her attention because she was either not present or was talking to a table of a couple of elderly women....for 10 minutes! After the waitress took the bill holder with $340.00 in it I asked my husband if he had kept a copy of the bill. When he said, "no", I asked the hostess to please get me a copy of our bill. She thought I said, "coffee" when I had said, "copy". She then said I could ask my waitress when she was free, and I pointed and said that she had been talking to that table for a long time. I said not to worry about the coffee either, as we were DONE waiting. When the hostess came back with the copy (which she practically threw at me) the waitress was still talking to the table with the ladies. This meal was not a celebration of family time together, which it should have been. It was an exercise in frustration and disappointment; and an expensive one at that. We will not be going back for any reason. My sons had to eat when we got home. I'd like very much to get a refund from this...

My wife and I have been together for 38 years. We care for a disabled daughter so our last date night had been 2 years ago. When we went in on Friday night we waited in line to put my name in. The hostess seemed peeved that I hadn't made a reservation. She told me it would be about 20 minutes and wrote our name down and said we could wait in the corner where there was some seating. Instead 2 spots at the bar opened and we sat there to wait for a table. I went back to the hostess to let her know where we were sitting to wait for the table. After about 30 minutes I went to check. The hostess wasn't there but my name was still written down. After another 5 minutes she was there and I went to check. With an attitude she said that she had called us twice. Not sure then why my name was still written down. But they found us a booth within the next 5 minutes.

While at the bar my wife ordered a specialty Margarita. It was really sour. The bartender that made it saw the look my wife made when she tried it. She took it back saying the pump may have been stuck. Evidently the Aguave pump was not working.

When we did sit we sat on the same side. Our server sat across from us and was very friendly. We discussed date night and how we had been looking forward to this for a very long time. I ordered the Bison filet, my wife ordered the Bison Ribeye both medium rare. She also ordered a kale salad with dressing on the side. The salad came out first. It had what looked to be canned corn on top. No dressing on the salad nor the side. The kale looked terrible it was dry and wilted. She sent it back asking for a house salad with ranch on the side.

Both of our meals came out along with the salad. Both steaks were cold. I cut mine which did look medium rare but it was just warm. My wife had a hard time cutting hers because it was raw. The server saw it and told her she would get the manager to recook it and took it away. She had a house salad she ate most of, but it was also dry. I ate most of my warm steak, and a loaded baked potato which was also cold, the stuff inside would not even melt at that temp.

My wife after sitting for 15 minutes waiting went outside to get a breath of air. She came back in after 5 minutes. Her food still hadn't come out. At least 5 minutes later some woman came around the corner of the table with a plate. My wife had by now lost her appetite and said "I don't want it now". The woman quickly turned around without a word. It had taken them longer to recook the steak than it took for them to make both meals the first time. We asked to speak with a manager. Turns out the woman was the manager. She said that she had taken all of the food off of our bill. But we can't talk to her like that because she is a human being. My wife said "I am too". We gave the server $20 and left but was very unhappy with such terrible service and food on our rare date night.

As requested I emailed jsmith on 7-17. ...

Update: My previous review was a 1 star. Ted’s management reached out and invited us back, tonight we came for Valentines Day - they have rebound their service and food and I can happily rank them 4 stars. Great meal and great value!

Ok - so it’s Sat Dec 23. We knew it would be busy. Made reservations and showed up on time - there were tons of people but we were promptly seated, great start.

So we order at 6:50 - we go there as my wife likes their baked potato with her filet. This is were the wheels fall off.

7:52 we are told it will be soon, then at 7:55 waiter comes back to say - sorry we don’t have baked potatoes (ordered over an hour earlier).

So 8:05 roles and we finally get delivered our food.

Mine was not correct but good - Bison burger One daughter’s was correct and good-cheese burger - beef. Wife ordered Filet well done with baked potato and broccoli - arrived Filet medium/well, mashed potatoes, asparagus. So all three items wrong. The steak was relatively close to temperature so she just kept it. Mashed potatoes had no seasoning- no garlic.

Youngest ordered a fillet med/well with carrots (nope also out of carrots) so she ordered a baked potatoes and a side salad. Arrived - steak rare/med at best. Mashed potatoes.

Sent steak back - took another 15 min and when they delivered the next steak it was so nuked it was like chewing gum.

Listen we expected slow service on a holiday weekend - but really your cooks can’t get the temperature of three steaks correct. And although my bison burger was good I ordered it med/rare and it came well done.

So to recap I paid $114 to wait after ordering for an hour and half just to have three of the temperatures wrong, zero of two baked potatoes, asparagus instead of broccoli, and one of the four of us not having eaten at all - (chick fil a on way home) we just paid the bill at that point and left - to their credit they didnt charge us for her steak that she didn’t eat but that experience was so terrible I don’t feel like I should have paid anything. - it was torture

Just a terrible 1 of 10 experience- you are a steak place selling $40+ filets you might want to have some decent chiefs that know how to cook meat to temperature and the ability to count how many potatoes you have versus number ordered…….I mean wow - if that was Hell’s Kitchen he would have shut that...