Salt Creek Steakhouse — Restaurant in Breckenridge

I dined here earlier this month on a Friday night as part of a group of 8 guys and had a very disappointing experience. Things started off well: We had a reservation and arrived about 20 minutes early, expecting to wait a grab a drink at the bar until our table was ready. While the restaurant was extremely busy, the host was extremely accommodating and was able to seat us early, which was nice.

Our waitress was pleasant and friendly , explained the specials and the menu and immediately took our drink order. Things started to go downhill immediately thereafter: Five of us ordered cocktails from the bar, which did not show up for almost 25 minutes after placing the drink order. When they did arrive, the bar drinks were absolutely TERRIBLE. Three ordered an Old Fashioned, which the restaurant lists as a "signature drink" on the menu and costs $16 each. Thats a fair price for an exceptional cocktail, but this was nothing even approaching what an Old Fashioned should be. It was the worst version of that classic drink I have ever had in my life. It looked and tasted more like a Sex on the Beach (which the guys who ordered beers mocked us for). It came with a large square single ice cube (encouraging), but the drink itself was pink, cloyingly sweet, had no bitters, tasted like it was half filled with orange juice, and had no garnish other than a cheap, neon red cherry like you get on an ice cream sundae rather than the Italian cherry listed in the description in the menu. Could not taste the bourbon AT ALL. I drank it, but didn't order another one because it was sooooo bad. This is what I would expect if I ordered an Old Fashioned served in a plastic cup at a college bar, NOT at steakhouse charging $35+ for an entree. After taking our dinner order, our waitress disappeared for a LONG time, so when the the bourbon drinks finally arrived, sending them back was a lost cause.

Two guys ordered extra dry martinis, which came out the opposite of that. The drinks that were delivered were super "dirty" with so much olive juice as to be so salty that they were undrinkable. Those two did ask the server to send their drinks back when she finally arrived a long time afterwards, and while she was very pleasant and apologetic about it, the replacements didn't arrive until we had almost finished the entire meal and were still not great.

Bread did not come to the table for almost 45 minutes from the time we were seated, but was hot and delicious with nice soft, high quality butter when it finally did arrive. The bread was the best part of the meal, to be honest. Salads and appetizers (we got the Burrata) were solid, but nothing exceptional.

The entrees took FOREVER to arrive, but when they did, all were cooked to the correct temperature. Unfortunately, no one ever came to clear our used bread, salad, or appetizer plates, or our empty bar glasses, so our table was super cluttered for the meal. Two guys ordered the filet mignon, which they both described as "fine, but nothing special". Two guys ordered the lamb rack, which they both described as "fantastic".

I ordered the ribeye with a baked potato as my entree. Steak was good, but desperately needed salt. The baked potato was dry and overcooked and not enough toppings came with it. I got a thimble full of sour cream and butter, a tiny amount of cheese that looked like it came from a bag of pre-shredded from the grocery store, and the bacon appeared to be pre-made from a jar as well. No one came to check on us until long after the food arrived, so rather than wait to get additional toppings, we just ate it as is and left immediately. Had our experience been better, we would have easily doubled the amount we ultimately spent on our dinner and bar tab.

It's clear that at one time this was a fantastic restaurant, but the service and food quality we experienced was so wildly inconsistent that I would not go back. While everyone was nice and pleasant, both the service and the food were totally unacceptable at restaurant at the price point this place...

Beware the cancellation policy!!

We made online reservations for 5 for a busy night right after Christmas. Salt Creek was the only steakhouse in Breck that had an open reservation. Their harsh cancellation policy was probably why: “Your reservation can be rescheduled or canceled up to 2 days before the time of the reservation. In the event of a no-show or late cancellation, you will be subject to a fee of $25.00 per person charged to the payment method used to secure this reservation.” I’ve never seen such a harsh policy. Most are something like, “Please contact us within 24 hours of your reservation to cancel or make changes,” and the highest fee I have ever seen is a total of $50.

The day before our reservation, I found out that half of our party had COVID, so we needed to cancel our reservation. The app wouldn’t let me because it was within the 2-day window, so I called early the day before (more than 24 hours before the reservation) and left a message saying that we had to cancel due to illness. That evening I received an email confirmation that the reservation had been cancelled. No one called me back.

The day after the reservation, I received an email from the reservation system saying that I had been charged a $125 cancellation fee. I called the restaurant and explained the issue to the woman there. I couldn’t have cancelled before the 2-day window because no one showed signs of illness then. The woman just said, “That’s our policy” and practically hung up on me. I called again over the next few days and left messages asking someone to call me back, but no one did. I sent an email to them explaining the situation and requesting a refund of the fee but received no response.

I’m aware that cancellation policies are to help prevent the restaurant from losing money on the table, but there’s no way that table would have gone empty on one of the busiest nights of the holiday season. This rigid policy resulted in the restaurant making $125 off me once instead of the ~$600 we usually spend per dinner on repeat business that they have now lost. We are locals who frequently dine in restaurants like this in Breckenridge throughout the year, especially in the off-season. You would think that a restaurant would want to do something to retain our business. Like other reviews have noted on various occasions, it seems that the staff at this restaurant don’t care about their customers.

UPDATE: Within minutes of posting this review (coincidentally), the owner called me to say that I shouldn't have been charged the cancellation fee. He did refund the fee but didn't apologize for the major inconvenience (calling and leaving multiple voicemails and an email that all went unreturned over the course of nine days, having their staff hang up on me, and having to file a claim with the credit card company). Other than refunding the fee, there was no attempt to make up for the time and frustration of dealing with the issue and to earn my business (offering to comp a meal would have made a big difference). The little things (positive and negative) make a big difference in this business. It seems that the owner has...

We had so many issues with this restaurant that I couldn’t figure out where to start with this review. First off they tried seating us with two small children in the bar at a bar top table. (8:45pm) They offered to change tables and got us set up at our new table about 15 mins later. (9pm) After we were seated we ordered our drinks, appetizers, and food at the same time (9:05pm). The appetizers were small for what was expected. We received the two kids meals 30 minutes later and had to immediately send one back to be corrected. Both the kids meal steaks were cooked well done even though we ordered them medium. By the time we cut into the steaks (with our butter knives because steak knives had not been brought out) it was too late to send them back. When we received the kids meals we ordered an additional 8 ounce filet to go(9:35pm). 15-20 minutes later I asked for the manager who was rather busy sitting down having dinner and drinks with his friend (where he had been since shortly after we were seated) and at the same time we received our to-go meal(9:57pm). After the hostess talked to him he went into the kitchen and returned a few moments later. When I expressed my concerns with the manager he told me I was wrong and that he wouldn’t argue with me. Almost immediately our food came out(10pm). A few minutes into the meal the manager asked how our food was before immediately returning to his bench with his friend. We were offered a free desert for the troubles. For a $344 meal (BEFORE TIP) for 6 you would expect far better service experience and food. Included are pics of the “medium” kids steaks and “rare plus” filet. Also the manager sitting on his butt enjoying wine with a friend for the entirety of the night.

TLDR: Took 55+ min to get our food after ordering. Waitress talked to us a total of 4 times (including dropping off food). Manager was too busy drinking in a corner to be bothered - he “didn’t want to argue” about everything they...