Kingston's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

My family and I came here for lunch, we wanted to support a local business in Cedar Rapids and unfortunately it backfired on us. We read the good reviews and thought it would be a good place to support! When I first walked in I thought it had a great atmosphere but the waiters weren’t very welcoming. Our waiter seemed like she was in a rush to take our orders and get us out the door. Now onto the food, the appetizers were pretty good, we had the volcano, tuna, and salmon bites. Pretty decent, until we got to our actual entrees. My mom’s burger was very dry, they had ran out of the vegan cheese, but we only knew that after they had already served our food and the waiter did not let her know beforehand or asked if she wanted a different type of cheese. She had to dip the burger into some sauce just to get it to be a little bit tasteful. My daughter had mac n cheese and apple sauce. And let’s just say that Kraft Mac N Cheese in a box is better than what they served, and that says something. I had the salmon with wild rice and lobster bisque. I’ve had lobster bisque before and it was the worst lobster bisque I ever had. Both me and my sister tasted it and we didn’t touch it at all after that. I ended up enjoying the oyster crackers more than the bisque. My other sister ordered a medium rare steak and it came back well done. The french onion soup was very salty as well, it seemed like half the soup was salt. Back to the steak, to have a restaurant called “Kingston steakhouse” you would think they would have some good, at-least decent steak, nope. Their steak seemed like it has been frozen, thawed out, and then cooked. It was very tough to eat, or even cut through… Overall we had a very bad experience and didn’t want to say anything to our waitress because we didn’t feel comfortable enough, we didn’t even feel welcomed in the first place. The prices vs the taste of the food is outrageous. I would rather go eat at taco bell instead of coming back here again. Hope this makes you guys review the taste of the food, review menu prices, and train your waitresses to feel guests welcome. I’m not making this review to bash, more to let you guys know there is things need to...

Disappointing If I could give this a zero-star review, I totally would. I’m not talking about the food here, but rather my experience booking the private venue. I want to share this so anyone thinking about booking knows what to expect.

I booked the private venue for a business dinner that included a presentation. Based on some good reviews, I thought it would be the best option in Cedar Rapids, IA. The process started off fine, but it got disappointing when I had to reschedule the dinner because our speaker canceled unexpectedly. We were scrambling to find a new speaker but just couldn't make it happen.

I hoped rescheduling would be possible and asked if they could waive any cancellation fees or at least reduce some of the costs. Unfortunately, my request was shot down, and I ended up having to pay for the food and beverages, the venue fee, and gratuity just like the contract said. I get that I signed the contract and agreed to all that, but it’s frustrating that they wouldn’t reconsider, especially since life happens. A little flexibility could go a long way in building customer loyalty, but their unwillingness to work with me left a bad taste in my mouth about this venue.

If you're thinking about booking here for a private event, just be aware that if you cancel within 30 days, you’ll still be charged. The only option they give is waiving the venue fee, which honestly feels...

The steak is tenderized beautifully, and if you order it medium rare, that is what you get.

I ordered Steak Diane. Normally, the sauce is poured over with some of the meat exposed, but here, it was drowning in it, and there was an overabundance of tiny mushroom pieces, not slices The meat was really heavily salted before the sauce and capers were poured over it. Capers are salty already.

It was so extremely salty that it made my mouth pucker. It is really unhealthy for anyone to have that much sodium. I get migraines, so I keep my sodium within recommend levels. I could not eat my $50 steak medallions.

To their credit, the waitress got the manager, and he came over to remedy the situation. Much appreciated.

They made 2 new medallions and put the sauce on the side sans capers. Unfortunately, there was zero seasoning.

Dinner for 2 with tip was about $168. WAAAYYYYYY overpriced. It's definitely not worth the cost. Everything is black. The table is high lacquer, so the light bulbs reflect in your face until you have a plate in front of you.

The atmosphere seems confused between casual bar and trying to be upscale. All black with crystal chandeliers does not make it upscale. A bar with people's f-bombs dropping every few words in the middle of the restaurant really de-classes the place.

Very...