Saltgrass Steak House — Restaurant in Bee Cave

Disclaimers:

///Some things went wrong on our end, so I'm adding one star to balance out my bias.

Pros:

+Our server was attentive, polite, and helpful. So too was an assistant manager who came out to check on us now and again.

+They offer free bread to start with!

+The Molasses bread is rather good. A little matting in the center, but not a lot of matting. Definitely quite good for free bread.

+The food made it out to us in fairly good time after ordering.

+The potatoes in the "Cheese Fries" order had great presentation- I like the way the wedges were arranged, the color was inviting, and I like the crown of sour cream and chives on the top. The potatoes were thoroughly steamed.

+The restrooms have motion-activated faucets.

+The restrooms were stocked with paper towels.

+The toilets worked.

+I strongly like the pictures of the women in the men's restroom. Hey, I'm fading, not married.

Cons:

-Front reception service was cold and clearly eager to get rid of us. Great qualities to have for an accountant, and a conditionally tolerable quality for a chef, but not a hostess.

-Food quality is inconsistent. We ordered three identical steaks, medium. Mine was mostly blue-rare, my parents got an average of medium and medium-rare each. Cooking levels varied within individual steaks as well; I for example had a bold bulk of blue-rare with a few off medium spots. Likewise, the steaks had varying salt and pepper, with some patches on the outside seeming to hint at a strong flavor, and other spots bland.

-The "cheesy fries" are not very cheesy. There is some, yes, but in a very thin layer.

-The potatoes' flavoring only is evident on the surface. Underneath, each wedge is just a potato-flavored steamed potato.

-The Asparagus was dry and very flexible. This would be nice as a basic complimentary side, but we were upcharged for the asparagus, and not a paltry amount either. We paid Salt Grass extra, to get actual salt grass with our steaks.

-That aforementioned good molasses bread? Well that's intended to be a starter, and it was offered as such, but we had to remind after we'd gotten our main courses before the bread at last came to our table.

--They have a picture of a naked baby's backside right outside the restrooms. At all. Let alone in an eatery.

-The paper towel dispensers have wide openings on the top, over which one reaches to pull a towel. This opens the question of how much liquid- and matter within- from the last guy dripped down onto the towel you're grabbing.

-Everything is absurdly expensive. All these mistakes offer a sort of down-in-the-grit feel, somewhere near the level of a honkey-tonk; they would justify a very small bill. However, we paid more than $100 for this. Two full tanks of gas in this economy, for a meal I'd get a C at best for turning in at my recent CHEF 1301 class in ACC Highland.

Neutral:

=The decorations, to put it bluntly, are hokey. However, they're definitely cleaner and more neatly arranged than your average honky-tonk.

For folks who go for this aesthetic, there's plenty to get lost in here; framed pictures of Anglo-Western-ish stuff occupy more wall space than the visible wall paper. However, for those of us in Tejas who have had enough of it and want something new, I would recommend looking elsewhere for interesting or likable motifs and decorations.

For us personally, not our kind of place. In and of itself, not irredeemable by any means, just obviously amid a downturn in morale and quality assurance.

This in and of itself would merit two stars out of five, but the price is exorbitant. Four steaks of inconsistent cooking status, underwhelming flavor, and a plate of potatoes whose spices only ran skin deep ran us more than $100. Overpricing is a big negative, and brings my rating down to one star.

Which is lifted to two stars, again, by the bias-countering extra star...

The absolute worst dining experience from beginning to end. The staff was rude from the moment we arrived. Once sat, our server lied right to our faces about the restaurant being sold out of their advertised thanksgiving meal (at 1:30pm). This led to confusion and disappointment from my 93 year old grandmother who was looking forward to a meal away from her retirement home. Once all of the servers told their tables the lie was at the behest of management, the worst manager maybe in the history of the service industry (Nate) started yelling in the back dining room that they found some of the ingredients for the meal. I kindly asked him to stop yelling his announcement right next to us as we were trying to avoid further upsetting my grandmother. Nate responded “this is just how I talk”. I was shocked and appalled that a manager would be so rude and disrespectful to a guest. Everyone in the back dining room was appalled as well. Nate implied that he was in charge and was clearly trying to hide this debacle from his boss. The GM offered for us to come back and visit again during our trip, vaguely alluding that she would do something to make it right. On the way out Nate made a snide remark, obviously knowing there would be no repercussions from his GM. They also forgot my wife’s drink and told her 20 minutes later that they were still working on it. I would honestly rather starve than ever walk foot in that restaurant again. I cannot believe this is a...

I had a very disappointing experience at Saltgrass Bee Cave, which I feel compelled to share. I called ahead to place an order for my birthday dinner, planning to pick it up during my lunch break from work. I even allowed 40 minutes before arriving to ensure the food would be ready. Upon arrival, the bartender had me pay (I also tipped generously), only to come back moments later and inform me that the manager who took my order had forgotten to send the ticket to the kitchen.

This was incredibly frustrating, as I work at a nearby hotel and had chosen Saltgrass for what I hoped would be a quick, enjoyable meal during my break. Instead, I ended up wasting my entire lunch waiting for food that wasn’t even prepared. By the time it was ready, I didn’t have time to eat it while it was warm, completely defeating the purpose of ordering ahead.

The experience was further marred by poor communication. When the manager came to talk to me, I was on the phone with a colleague explaining the delay, yet he started talking without waiting for me to finish. I couldn’t even understand what he said, adding to the overall frustration.

This was supposed to be my birthday dinner, and I expected better. As someone who works locally and often recommends restaurants to hotel guests, this experience was incredibly disappointing. I hope Saltgrass takes this feedback seriously and improves their service to avoid similar situations for...