The Fort Steakhouse — Restaurant in Fort Pierce

We wanted to dine at this establishment for a long time. For my wife’s birthday this year, we finally got the kids together with us and went. The atmosphere was great. Our food server was French and lovely. We ordered an appetizer after we were told that the steaks would take 45 minutes since we had ordered them medium-rare and medium and they had to rest. That seemed a little odd. We ordered a steak fondue so we could eat something sooner. It was salty and good. The kids had sodas and we had sparkling water. No alcohol. All of us ordered steaks of course. When the steaks arrived they were extremely rare. The medium-rare steaks that we ordered were pretty much still alive. The steaks were all blackened/burned on the outside, but not in a spicy delicious way. It tasted more like gasoline had been put on them and then lit to charbroil them. Or maybe a propane torch was used. Also, all the steaks had rosemary on them, which is not something I would normally expect on a steak, more like on poultry, and it had a strange flavor to it. My wife’s steak was literally still cold in the middle. Nothing that anyone would expect as medium. We decided to have the steaks cooked more and when we did, we were told that the restaurant cooks their steaks French style, which is more rare than you would get in America. That’s baloney. The only way you can get a steak, more rare than the three they brought us was if the cow walked in by itself and you stabbed it and sliced a piece off. When the steaks came back they were even more burned in the outside but the middles were still undercooked. To top it off, I’ve had better quality meat from franchised steakhouses like Outback. Better flavor and texture. The asparagus sides were also uncooked. The asparagus was extremely crunchy and had little burn marks. The sauce it came with was not very good. The mac & cheese had almost no flavor, and was not very good either. It was my wife’s birthday so they gave us a free dessert. But it was added to the check. It was OK except it was a strawberry shortcake and the strawberries were canned. Maybe in France they prefer canned strawberries over the ripe fresh ones we have here in Florida at this time of year from Plant City outside Tampa. The biggest insult was that the check after tip was $500 for four people. No alcohol. For that kind of money you must provide good atmosphere, great service and a phenomenal meal. We did not get a phenomenal meal at all. We go to the Okeechobee Steakhouse regularly so I know what a good steak is and for the four of us there it’s about $350, the steaks are superb and the sides and desserts are to die for. We were extremely disappointed by our experience at the Fort. We will not return. I hate to give the place a bad review because maybe they had an off night or the cook was ill, but the fact is that I feel like I have to because for the money it was an absolute rip off. Our meal was poor quality, overpriced and...

First off I would like to say that I’m extremely picky and a world-class food blogger!

Had reservations at 7:30 but for some reason, we were ahead of schedule and got there early. When we arrived, the very beautiful hostess Florencia greeted us with a great big smile and treated us like royalty. Our table was already set for the three of us. The manager, Walter, immediately greeted us and asked us if there’s anything we needed right away. We didn’t need anything at the moment as we were settling in. Shortly, after that, our excellent server, Mary Elizabeth, greeted us with water and asked us if we wanted any drinks. We eventually ordered a bottle of wine, it was a Cabernet called “Three Finger Jack”. Only two of us were drinking, so it paired well with our entrées. Mary explained all the specials and navigated us through the menu with ease. One of my guest ordered the Short Ribs Sauerbraten. These were delicious. A generous portion of perfectly cooked short ribs, along side of sweet potato, mashed potatoes with a row of Red cabbage that would typically be served with this dish. I myself ordered their version of surf and turf called “Land and Sea” Which featured a delicious lima bean purée smeared on the bottom of the plate. Over that were three silver dollar sized polenta cakes. Stacked on top of that were three delicious fillet medallion cooked perfectly. And finally, three of the biggest grilled shrimp I’ve ever seen. My other guest ordered the catch of the day, which was almond crusted yellowtail snapper, Along with sautéed spinach, I think, and a saffron quinoa. The dish was topped with a Bernaise sauce. All of these dishes were exquisitely prepared by Chef Tim and his very talented kitchen staff. Keith,(not Kevin), Zane, Akemi(expediter) ,and Samson (Tom Cruise) Our table was visited by various members of the wait staff. One of the servers, Julianne, stopped by to say hello, she must have recognized me from one of my world class food blogging articles. I always dress impeccable, but apparently my collar was a little crooked, so Aaron, Another member of the weight staff, came by and straightened it up for me. Thanks, Aaron. Cynthia, also a server, stopped by for a little chat and brought me dessert at the end. An S/A (server assistant) Sophia, with her contagious smile and ultimate rizz never let our water glasses run dry. Chris, the bartender, an expert in Morse code, Was sending me encrypted messages in Morse code. Both of us being prior military. In closing my guests and I had a wonderful time and will be returning soon.

Thank you staff of the Fort...

I really wanted to love this place, but sadly I won’t be going back. The worst part about that is I don’t think they did anything wrong… I just don’t think this place is good.

The positive was the service! It was fine dinning service for sure! We were sat at a table that was probably the most awkwardly placed table I’ve ever seen! But it was raining and our outdoor reservation had to be squeezed inside, so I wasn’t going to complain. However, they moved us to a much nicer table without us even asking or complaining. I was very impressed by that move from the management at front of house!

Our waitress name was Andrea and she was also amazing. Our drinks were never empty, everything was attended to perfectly. Again, zero issues with the staff or the service.

The low star count comes from the food sadly. When you go out for a nice dinner, spend $245 for two (no alcohol was purchased) and you can make better at home? It’s a disappointment.

We started with the smoked Gouda and tomato bisque and it was amazing, the highlight of the meal really. My wife ordered the filet tip Gorgonzola gnocchi… sounded AMAZING on the menu but was so overloaded with Gorgonzola, that was all you could taste, and after 4 bites the Gorgonzola flavor was so strong that it was almost unpalatable.

I ordered the 90 dollar KC dry aged strip, ordered medium rare. It came medium to medium well, and lacked ALL seasoning. No salt was used in cooking this meal at all. The steak tasted like I was licking the grill grates. The spicey house steak sauce saved the steak, but when I’m paying $90 for just a steak, it better not need a sauce and be cooked right.

Since my $90 steak didn’t come with sides I ordered the smothered potatoes and fig Brussels as my sides. The Brussels were good, but again, the potatoes lacked any and all seasoning, and whatever sauce was on them tasted off or sour. We ate three bites and didn’t touch them the rest of the dinner.

We finished with the bread pudding which wasn’t a bread pudding at all. It was an apple cobbler/apple pie. Now, it tasted great, and the meal ended on a high note because of it…. But it wasn’t a bread pudding.

2 out of 5 is all that’s deserved here considering the price and quality of food are so far off from each other. The only reason it’s not a 1 is because of the amazing staff that helped us and...