Del Frisco's Grille — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

They said they seat ppl until 10pm. I get there for my reservation @9:30. Get seated, order. I asked for a bottle of Dom Perignon. I got brought a bottle of water (ok cool, I don’t mind Aqua Panna). Then told her I wanted a bottle of champagne. She brings me the menu and says it’s not on there. I’ve been to multiple Del Frisco’s around the country, I know for a fact you have Dom P. But I’m polite and search the menu, I find it, point it to her she brings it I say thank you. Perfect. Until she pours up our glasses and then sets the bottle on the table. Ok cool maybe she’s gotta bring the bucket soon. Nope, forgets so I politely reminded her bc the drink started getting warm 😅 ok still, all mistakes at this point. I’m a restaurant veteran it’s fine, I understand I don’t like complaining if someone is trying.

Here comes my problems lol she never refills our glasses not once. Alr whatever not gonna let it ruin my night so me and bestie refilled the glasses for each other. By this point we’ve ordered and been feeling pretty rushed since we sat down. I don’t mind rushing especially close to closing time so we place an order for appetizers and entrees at the same time. They come out in the correct order and good timing spaced apart. The Filet Mignons and Mac and cheese I would die for. It was 15/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I mean AMAZING!!!! But when she brought it we asked for Mac and cheese and mashed potato’s. Server drops off the food and says the kitchen just informed her there was no mashed potato’s but they can bring French fries. We disappointedly agree. We already have our food but good news is they brought the fries within 2 mins so they must have made it already. I end up asking for another bottle of Dom Perignon while enjoying the food and she says she can’t bring me one bc the bartender left. Thought that was weird bc usually the manager grabs the bottle anyways since it’s expensive. I also usually order dessert and an espresso martini at the end of the night but I didn’t bother asking bc I got the hint. Plus she told me they close at 10pm. Mind you, there was still one more couple in the restaurant the whole time with us too. As we’re walking out they turned on all the lights since the other couple left 5 mins prior to us and I wanted to leave around the same time they did so we didn’t bother anyone bc they seemed visibly bothered (except our server). We left, no dessert. She didn’t even ask and I wasn’t gonna press it lol

Anyways, I just might never step in another Del Frisco’s but if I ever do, I will never walk into the Ft Lauderdale location for at least a decade. There’s plenty other 5 star restaurants in that area. I should have went to Morton’s or Mastro’s. I promise I don’t ever complain, I grew up broke I like to take care of my servers but I had to leave her only $70 on my $700 bill bc I was just pretty unhappy with the experience. I still feel bad bc I’m a great tipper as $70 on 700 is not good 😬 I also have all the proof, down to receipts, manager turning the lights on as I was still walking out at the main entrance, and pouring our own drinks. We recorded to be silly, we didn’t think the staff would...

My first experience with Del Frisco restaurant was back in July of 1998 in Dallas, TX. It was the most amazing, unforgettable adventure in service, food, cellar and cigar room. So, this month, as my birthday was approaching, I was asked to choose a restaurant for dinner. Because of the memories from 1998 I decided to have it at the Del Frisco Grill on Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale. The restaurant's design and layout is pretty impressive and comfortable. It was not busy and most tables were not occupied. Our server was very friendly, addressing us by words like "love" and "honey". Kind of unusual for what I thought was an upscale restaurant and the fact that it was the very first time we have met. While she was getting our drinks a man approached our table. I believe that he introduced himself as a manager. And then an astounding sentence came out of his mouth: "if you don't like your server I can get her fired" We were very perplexed to say the least. We brought a bottle of an amazing wine with us. The corkage fee was very reasonable. My daughter, the wine connoisseur, asked the server to have the wine chilled for a while and then pour it into a decanter. We were going to order cocktails be fore dinner. There was no problem with getting the decanter, however the server just poured most of the wine into our glasses and the rest went into the decanter. Ughhh. And then there was the disappointing food. The $55, 16 oz ribeye steak was almost cold, gristly and impossible to be cut with the dull knife that I was given to use. Loaded, baked potato, $15, looked like it sat somewhere for days. It was lukewarm, almost grey in color and really not edible. At the end of dinner I told the server not to recommend it to anyone. It was taken of the check. No one at the table enjoyed their meal. The "oscar" finish on one of the other steaks looked miserably burnt and the chimichurri sauce on the other was almost non existent. We had to ask for extra serving of it. All steaks were barely lukewarm to the touch and they were placed on cold plates. As friendly and talkative as the server was when we first sat down she was nowhere to be found when our food arrived. Never once checked on us. No interest or concern from her or her manager. There was five of us for for dinner. Between the cocktails, appetizers, dinners and deserts it was a very sizable check. It will not happen again at Del Frisco Grill! If it was not for the great enjoyment of being with my family this evening would count as a very disappointing and expensive...

First, the service wasn’t great but we let this slide because the server had a lot of tables and in this environment you take anyone with a pulse willing to work. (I will note there was one guy that cleared our table that we thought was awesome, sorry didn't get his name but he chatted with us about gold flakes, shout out to that guy… he restored some hope)

Secondly, the steaks were all overcooked and they kept bringing the wrong stuff. For the price of the food you expect at least the food to be great, it is good steakhouse pricing but not good steakhouse food. But also fine, overlooked because we were having a good time with good company.

BUT the last straw was the waiter asked every person who ordered a steak if they wanted a salad or soup with their meal, this usually implies it’s included in the meal, there was zero indication that it was a small extra charge (nothing)… bill came and we were charged for all of the salads and soups. So what i expressed to the waiter was that I thought that was a deceptive practice but fine we’ll play for it no problem. The waiter then felt the need to justify why ‘good waiters do this’’. Again, I can’t stress enough that I agreed to pay it but didn’t like the practice but this guy (LARRY) felt the need to explain to me rudely why i was wrong and why he was a good waiter following good waiter practices even condescending to say ‘listen sweetie’. Completely unnecessary and insanely rude to argue like that when I already agreed to pay and had no intention to argue the bill. Take a trip into 2021 where you don’t call women sweetie in a condescending fashion, whether they’re your customer or not. In the same way I’ve accepted that in this age poor service is just a part of life now but you still pay 20%+ or you don’t eat out period.

I get the market is short labor and I get you need to lower your expectations for customer service.. I still make the choice to eat out and I WILL NEVER go back to this del Friscos .. even in a short labor market, there are options especially at this...