Louis' Chop House — Restaurant in Chesterfield Township

11/29/24

Came for dinner around 4:30pm.

Our party of two was seated at a table for four. The chairs were not entirely stable. My wife had to quickly trade her plate for another one set at the the table, because her plate she sat at wasn't clean. The tablecloth had unidentified crumbs on it. Still, we decided to not pass judgement, and be fair.

We kept our order light, because we couldn't decide on appetizers, and my wife isn't much of a wine drinker, and I had to drive.

I think something about this annoyed the waiter, because after we shared our first loaf of bread and oil (bread was warm and went well with the oil and herbs quite literally the only good thing about this experience), and requested more bread, they gave us half of a smashed loaf that was cold, and not fully sliced. Good times.

Had to ask for refills of water and soft drinks, which is fine, but whats not OK is that our waiter came to our table a total of three times over the hour we were there.

I ordered the 12oz dry aged ribeye, medium-rare, my wife ordered the 7oz wet aged filet mignon, medium. We ordered au gratin potatoes to share.

It took over 40 minutes to get our food. Between the time we got seated and we got our food, another table in our area was seated, ordered, and got their food before us.

By the time we did get our food, it was all lukewarm. Nothing was served hot. We figured the food was sitting for a moment or two, because the Au gratin potatoes had all the signs that at one point, the cheese was bubbling hot. However, by the time they had gotten it out to us, the cheese skin on the top of the dish was thick and congealed, covering lukewarm potatoes in a cream sauce. We both took one bit and decided to pass.

Later when the waitstaff came to take our plates, nobody commented on the fact that the potatoes were barely touched. Nobody offered to trade one side for another, or strike it from our bill. I'm not expecting a free meal, but I am expecting the staff to notice when the food wasn't eaten. They didn't really seem to care.

Oh, the steaks themselves. I ordered a medium-rare cut, and it came out medium. Also, for something that is allegedly dry-aged in a room lined with salt blocks, the meat had no flavor. The herb butter had no flavor. The steak was lukewarm.

My wife's filet came out medium-rare when she asked for medium. It was swimming in an unidentified juice. We noticed the button mushrooms that came with the meal were canned and not fresh. We weren't entirely sure they just dumped the mushrooms and juice in the can on the plate and called it a day., The "zip sauce" that is supposed to come with the dish was nowhere to be found. Her steak was also served lukewarm.

Normally I'd give benefit of the doubt, if the establishment is busy, but there was maybe a grand total of 7 tables seated. We won't be returning. Texas Roadhouse is right up the road, and offers a better steakhouse experience on a better budget. More expensive doesn't always mean better. In this case, our first impressions left a lot to be desired. Don't waste your...

I don't even know where to begin...keep in mind I've come here on 4 other occasions in the past and had nothing but great experiences prior to this recent visit. It seems like with last night's visit and recent reviews, the place is going downhill and the "40 years" of business is drying up.

Starting with arrival...it took 45 minutes for bread baskets to come out and for food orders to be taken, and the bread was undercooked and cold.

The entire table ordered the Caesar tableside experience....finally 1.5 hours in we start seeing a light that we'll get to eat something of substance. To our disappointment, we basically were served a bowl of cold overly wet lettuce, rookie mistake that the leaflets weren't pressed dried like a true tableside experience. The dressing was oddly clear and heavy on the garlic. We all basically skimmed the toppings and croutons off and set our bowls aside. 8 people all doing the same thing and we weren't even asked if there was a problem...bowls were just collected to make room for entree. Also my appetizer didn't come out until after salads, felt like an after thought that someone remembered in the back that it hadn't been served yet.

Entrees (2 hours post arrival) - 6 of us ordered steaks and 5 of the steaks were either cooked wrong, or came out cold with the majority having cold steak issues. Sides also had issues and some sides again came out later as though an after thought, mine didn't come out at all and when brought up I said just don't worry about it and take it off our order.

Finally someone in our party decided to seek out the manager after we had to send so many plates back, we found the owner and kindly told them our experience wasn't going so well and instead of maybe just taking something off the bill or covering a round of drinks OR even just apologizing, he called us liars on all the issues and when pressed on the issue continued to defend his "40 years of business". When told this isn't good for reviews he just said "it's fine, I don't read reviews"...so essentially the owner is an egotistic a-hole and thinks there's never an issue with how the business is running.

We decided not to even consider dessert since we were there after all to celebrate a birthday milestone. On our way out another table was also expressing the exact same issues we had just experienced. But hey, we're liars. If I could give zero stars I would, but never returning to this place and publicly sharing our poor experience is justice in itself. I think after "40 years" it's time to hang up your hat and call it quits before you're ran down in operational cost for a gradual decrease to zero popularity. You're father having started this business 50 years ago would be rolling in his grave for how we were treated last night...not that you read reviews or anything. Makes me nearly vomit thinking we gave $1000+ worth of business to this place last...

Let me preface by saying I have NEVER posted a bad review of a small business on this platform because I believe in small business and like to support it. However, after the experience we had, along with treatment from the owner to myself and my party, I feel as though others should be warned and take their business elsewhere.

Not only was the service poor, as it took over two hours to receive our food, multiple requests for drink refills that were rarely fulfilled and the quality of the bread and salad portion of the meal both not edible but it kept getting worse and worse. The service was poor, but the food was worse. The bread was so doughy and undercooked, also took multiple requests and about 30 minutes to receive. The table side salad service was disgusting. The lettuce was sopping wet and the dressing was inedible. The server even asked us to taste it to let him know what was missing. We are not the chefs and have no idea what ingredient was missing to make the salad even edible, much less enjoyable.

After two hours when our food finally arrived, every single piece of steak was cold and/or cooked wrong. And not just “a little too pink” - medium well was coming rare or vice versa. A filet was cold to the touch. A baked potato was so burned it was brown on the inside. We tried very hard to be polite and not high maintenance, but the basics of the meal were just not acceptable.

The manager/owner never once came to see our table after multiple issues, so we sought him out in the main dining room. He dismissed any concerns we had, accused us of lying and pointed to a picture on the wall stating the years of service they had under their belt. I have never encountered such poor customer service and hostility towards its patrons. He was nothing less than dismissive of any of our concerns and rude towards myself and my friends at our celebration dinner. He said “I don’t read reviews so I don’t care what you post” but I truly hope that he does get word on this review because he not only ruined a restaurant that I have frequented for years, had my own baby shower at 13 years ago and have always had a pleasant experience at, but he also has made me want to voice my dissatisfaction of this restaurant to anyone who will listen. There are so many great family owned restaurants in our area that care about the experience of their customers and the quality of their food, and unfortunately Louis Chophouse is not one of those any longer. You can not live on reputation alone if the quality is no longer there. He had the opportunity to turn our experience to a positive one in just an apology and acknowledgment that things were not up the level of their “40 years experience” should warrant. Instead he has turned me...