Santos Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Columbus

BEWARE! They are PREJUDICE! Extremely disappointed! I’ve been wanting to try this place so booked it in advance for my partner’s birthday party. I checked the website prior to arrival because most of the party was from out of town. No mention of dress code! May I add, one of the servers said they do NOT enforce a dress code. Upon arrival, we were told there was a $35 cake fee. Odd, but no red flag. I really wanted to like this place. We were early and only part of our party was present (3 out of 7) so we asked to sit at the bar. The female at the front said “yes but you have to pay your tab before going to your table”. No problem. She again mentioned it while we were looking for chairs at the bar. Now we kind of side eye each other at this point because as people of color it’s unfortunate that you kind of catch a vibe in places you’re not wanted. I dismissed it and was still optimistic. Once at the bar, the same female approaches to add that we must order for the absent members once we get seated. And continues to say we need to pay our tab. At this point, my man tells her it’s offensive to keep telling us to pay our tab. We aren’t going anywhere so why does she keep saying it. And we want our food hot so why order for members that aren’t there yet. We pay for our drinks and head to our table. Once 5 of us are seated, we notice our 6th person enter so a couple of us go to the desk to get him. He was stopped at the door by a manager that said he was not dressed “appropriately” for the “fine dining” experience. He had on a jersey. Now I’m looking around and people are wearing jeans, hats, graphic tees, flip flops ect. I have been to many fine establishments where we dressed up in gowns and tux and food is at market price (no prices on the menu). Those places have a clearly written dress code. This is not that! Upscale? Maybe? We ask for some kind of policy to see what is “acceptable”. He says HE decides and HE is the policy. 🚩 🚩 I explain I was not told of a dress code nor is one posted inside or on the website. Bottom line, the manager decides when he sees you if he wants you to come in so no need to post. In short, they are sugar coated racist. Columbus is a very welcoming cultural melting pot and lgbtq friendly and it’s sad to see places continue to use imaginary rules covered by prejudice. Our night was not ruined, we left and took our money to Lumin. Where we were welcomed and...

I am giving my review, and I hope to be of some help to those who read this.

Firstly I’d like to say that the Service and atmosphere was immaculate, the Hosts and waiters/waitresses were very nice and informative. Now let’s move on to the food.

My friends and I have planned on coming to eat here for about a month, and even made a reservation to eat here, we also don’t live anywhere near this restaurant, so we’ve come a ways to eat here. (Over 2 hours to be exact) anyway on to the food.

I went here with 4 other friends of mine, so there were 5 of us in total. We each got something slightly different, I’ll start with what I had. I ordered the Deviled Eggs as an appetizer, everyone raves about them, so it seemed like the right choice. Rating the Deviled eggs on a scale of 10, I’d rate it a 3. They were a little less than okay, and they didn’t really taste like deviled eggs, they were bland. For my entree I had the lobster Mac and cheese and the sides were not included so I paid about $12 for each of my sides. The lobster Mac and cheese was a solid 3. It was just okay, you could make better food at home honestly, and it was $28. It was also in a bowl full of oil, so it was not god at all in my opinion. The sides I got were Mashed potatoes and Asparagus, the asparagus was good, but the mashed potatoes tasted like they were boxed and they didn’t really have any flavor or anything that made it worth the price.

My friends ordered the following dishes and I will give you what they rated them based on their taste buds and not mines

Two of my friends had the Truffle Pasta, they both rated it a 4/10.

One ordered the lobster Mac along with me and rated it a 3/10.

And my last friend had the Salmon with no sides. 5/10.

The drinks were good, I had a mermaid lemonade and it was pretty tasty, another friend of mines had the mango drink (I forgot what it’s called.) She wasn’t a fan of it, but I liked it a lot!

In conclusion Santos/Chophouse614 is a good vibe place, it’s cute and all, but the food is not worth what it’s priced at, at all. I’d say save your money and go elsewhere. For reference on pricing, none of my friends including myself spent less than $50. And practically none of the entrees come with sides. Portions are decent, not the best, but...

Sad to say, but this place was a disaster. I live in the neighborhood and was really excited for this new addition to the food scene. We went opening night, so I am writing this with empathy...

We were seated and waited 20 minutes before we had to find a manager to let them know that no waiter had acknowledged us yet. Made eye-contact with several workers, not one stopped to see if we needed anything. Once we told the manager, they sent over another manager to ask us what drinks/apps we wanted. 5 min later, our waitress came by and asked the same thing, clearly no one had communicated with her. Anyways, we got wine and edamame for an app (tiny portion, $6, no side bowl for the discarded pods). The waitress came by asked us for our orders - we got the chicken & I subbed my potatoes for brussels sprouts (waitress came back 2 min later to ask what I had subbed and a reconfirmed) and the coach's pick + mushrooms. We got our meals shortly after, my potatoes were not subbed despite the second confirmation, and the mushrooms were VERY burnt. The chicken was small, dry, and underwhelming for $29. They came with a measly side of obviously frozen greasy brussels with bacon cubes (terrible). The coach's pick was ok, but def underwhelming and the 5 burnt mushrooms they charged us $9 (despite the $6 they say on the menu). We ate and wanted to get out of there, however, our waitress was nowhere to be found. When we finally got a visit from her, she brought us our bill and not only were we overcharged, we did not get any drink or app taken off, despite the managers knowing we sat there for awhile unacknowledged. To add insult to injury, the waitress brought back our credit card and did not leave a pen, so we had to wait another 10 min before we could even get out of there. Additionally, nearly every table around us had a similar experience and a lot of people were sending their meals back.

The whole experience was a joke. Dinner for 2 at $135 and it was Applebee's quality. This place needs to get a grip and redo their menu/prices and get their employees trained. There is no way this place will make it. We frequent The Pearl often, and despite a lower price point, the food and service is 3000x better. I give this...