The Grubsteak Restaurant — Restaurant in Estes Park

After a long day touring the Rocky Mountain National Park, we stopped here hoping to enjoy a nice family dinner. We sat on the patio and had a little wait before the server arrived. We ordered their special shrimp egg rolls as an app and then ordered a wide variety of entrées. Two of which were steaks. When the food arrived, my sweetie cut into his ribeye and it was obviously overcooked. He wasn't upset because he likes his steak rare to med rare. We let the server know, and he proceeded to pull out a flash light, even though it wasn't dark, to try to convince us that it wasn't med well to well. We insisted on having it recooked. Which the server asked for. While we were waiting, the "chef" decided to come back to our table to tell us the previous steak wasn't overcooked, that it was the lighting. We have dined at the finest steak houses in the US, we order our steaks the same way every time, and know how it should be prepared. The irony in this was that the time it took him to come out to us, was more time than the new steak should have been cooked. A few minutes later, the new steak arrived, and low and behold, it was also overcooked. My sweetie decided to cut his losses, eat what he could, and take the rest home for our dog. No harm, no foul. The manager did comp a bar drink to offset the trouble. We weren't looking for a discount or anything for free, just what we ordered. After we finished, while I was waiting with my older children at the restroom, I saw the manager (and I use this term loosely) behind the bar. I was very polite and simply let him know about the chef coming to the table because quite frankly, it was very tacky and resulted in another overcooked steak. I just thought that he would want to know. Again, we weren't mad, just giving feedback. After I spoke to him, he and the staff that were at the bar area decided to laugh and make fun of us. I have seen more professional staffing at McDonald's. I worked in the service industry for 25+ years. You may discuss customers after they leave, but never while they are still there. The service was sub par, with no execution of the proper steps of service. We aren't hard to please, but this experience was by far one of my worst at an establishment. The salmon, trout, and Alfredo were okay, but nothing that I would ever insist on...

We arrived at lunch time ready to try some delicious food after viewing the menu outside. After getting our drinks, we ordered the Wild Boar Sausage Scotch Eggs as an appetizer. We ordered the cheese steak sandwich, which said came with fries, slaw, or potato salad. I asked to add a side salad as well, even after seeing it was $6 😲

The scotch eggs arrived with barely any wild boar sausage. I was disappointed to pay $17 for two hard boiled eggs with no noticeable sausage and then fried, but looked forward to the rest of the food.

The cheese steak came on a plate by itself. No side of fries or anything. My $6 salad was a small handful of lettuce and some shaved carrots with dressing. I thought our waitress might have assumed I wanted the salad instead of the fries. OK, fine. Until the check came and we were charged full price for the al la carte sandwich and the additional salad.

We told the waitress we were not given fries with the sandwich, but instead received the salad. She said she could not adjust the bill but we could take fries to go. Since we had finished our meal, we did not want, or need, fries. The waitress said we never ordered fries and instead ordered the salad. I said the sandwich was supposed to come with fries and the salad was additional, as being charged. Since we did not receive what was supposed to be included, we asked that the salad be taken off. The waitress starts to get loud and keeps saying that the sandwich comes with fries that we never ordered. She walked away to grab a menu and pointed out the sides and said a salad was not one of them so we were charged for it. I told her, being charged for the salad wasn't the issue, it was the lack of fries given. She snatches the bill off the table and continued to yell at us that we needed to learn to read the menu and we never ordered the fries. She slams down the new bill and promptly received ZERO tip for her horrible customer service!

The atmosphere here was great! We even danced in the middle of the dining room since there were no other diners. The waitress was so awful when confronted with her mistake, that we would not go back. Had she of been even a little apologetic, instead of rude and confrontational, all would...

I hate to leave a bad review, because in the end we were taken care of. From a service perspective, given my experience and what I had to say, I definitely was happy! We were not happy with our meals and they were taken away and comped without fuss. Thank you for that!

But I also feel I have a duty to others and to the owners of the establishment to be honest. From the moment we stepped up to the hostess stand, I had a bad feeling. The place seemed dead. Albeit it was a Monday - but just down the street places were popping. The decor is rustic.. I love rustic, but I think it's a little old and they could do better. Not a big deal at all, the atmosphere and food are way more important. There were some people in the restaurant, but it was just so quiet.. it was honestly kinda depressing. Best way to describe it.

We moved out to the patio. That was a little better but not much. The food came out looking pretty decent, but it was just not good. The fettuccine Alfredo was strange tasting. The sauce was very running and didn't really taste like an Alfredo to me. It tasted maybe like something could have been bad? Not sure honestly. I didn't eat much of it. The $30 ribeye my sister ordered was overcooked and best I can say... Rubbery? I could have made a better steak at home. Once you hit the $30 point I expect a pretty good tasting steak. Maybe it's not Ruth's Chris but that's getting there. It was just very disappointing. I will say the bread was tasty.

I really think this place has a lot of potential! If they remodeled and maybe narrowed down and improved the menu this could be the place to be. But as it is, it's a hard pass. It's too expensive for the quality and...