Walt's Hitching Post — Restaurant in Fort Wright

For some reason my wife was under the impression that this was upscale dining for the area(we're new). Showed up in dressy casual and had a real fish out of water sensation. Shorts and baseball caps indoors abound. Valet parking is probably the only nod to that kind of dining experience. The back lot parking spaces are narrow and the cars are mostly those who will not care about scratches and dents received. So choose your slot accordingly. If it was crowded you might be better off with valet. I think that's probably a hidden surcharge for dining late on a weekend. The whole place does not appear all that well kept in general. They ought to fix that shed off to the side or tear it down. And the overall ambiance, especially when viewing from the rear, is a little down in the heels.

One upside, very short wait, although the place wasn't that full on a Sunday night at 6. Decently placed table, although the group next to us was obviously consuming their fair share of alcohol and then some, getting louder as the evening progressed. We did not hear the guitarist in the next room until they left to give you and idea of their conversational volume. Maybe it's just early hearing loss though?

Another upside, mostly fast service. Mainly from the guy who filled your water and bussed the table. Wait staff is not assigned to a table - it appears they share the room. Which is good in that you can just flag down whoever. But the person who took the order and brought the salads we never saw again so not sure if there's some unwritten division of labor there. Food was quick overall, but dessert was slow. Getting and paying the check was fairly quick.

Food quality: meh. I judge a place overall by how close the cook or chef(and this place obviously has the former) gets it the first time on a medium steak. In this case, medium means half of it is medium rare, the other half rare. I have no idea how they achieved that split. Ribs were somewhat fatty. Chicken just OK. The baked potatoes were obviously just waved - hard and not all that even temperature-wise. I like rye. I just didn't care that much for the bread they serve. It's more like rye toast and the salt taste feels like they just sprinkled it or mixed in with the butter. I had to wonder if they do this so they can still use the bread if it's a little stale. Key lime pie wasn't very tart. There are a lot of menu choices but I'm not sure how confident I'd be with some of the less well traveled options.

Value: Depends on your priorities. If you want a non-chain, better than Applebee's kind of dining experience without having to clean up then it might fit the bill for you. You wouldn't feel out of place in jeans, t-shirts, or shorts. A filet at Ruby's is around 25% more and doesn't include sides. So the total bill is going to be significantly less. But the food quality and the experience will also reflect that. So in short, the leveled hand rotating back and forth. You might like it, but I don't know that we'd return unless someone we knew said, "Hey, how about The Hitching Post? We really like it." in that case,...

This was our second trip to Walt's. The first was okay. We sat at the bar and even though we were right there with the bartender and crew, service was extremely slow. The food was good though so we though we'd give it another shot.

On the second trip we made a reservation. We were seated promptly. Our server wasn't very friendly and hardly spoke to us. It was very loud that night and at times when the server did speak to us, we had to ask her to repeat what she had said. She seemed irritated when she had to repeat herself.

The real issue happened when the meal was over. We asked for a to go box and the server took away our food and brought it back in a black plastic trash bag. We looked around the restaurant and noticed everyone else's leftovers were packaged in a nice canvas bag with the Walt's logo. I know it's not really a big deal, my wife and I eat at nice restaurants like Jeff Ruby's and Ruth's Chris all the time and never do anything with those bags once we get our food home but thought it was weird that we were the only couple with the trash bag. We are a mixed couple. I am white and my wife is Hispanic. When my wife asked about the bag situation, the server said, "OH, we just ran out". She said she could run out to the storage barn and look for more if we had to had one but we said no, we were just curious.

We paid our bill. I did not leave a tip and left a note explaining why on the check. I felt the server was rude throughout the night and had disrespected my wife because of her race. My wife said this was the fist time in her 24 years in the country that she had felt disrespected like this. On the way out, another server was on his way to a table and guess what he was carrying? An empty Walt's bag! We stopped him and asked him if there were other bags and he said "yes, plenty of them, want me to grab you one?" We politely smiled and said no thank you.

On the way home, the General Manager from Walt's called me. I asked her how she had gotten my number and she explained from the reservation I had made. I kinda felt like that was a unethical thing to do but I let it go. She said she was following up on a situation that had happened earlier that night and asked me to explain what happened.

I told her the same story I detailed above. She gave a half hearted apology but talked more about how upset the server was and how I didn't leave a tip. She never offered anything like a gift card or to comp our meal. She basically wanted to let us know how good the server is and how upset she was.

I think we have made our last...

Second year in a row we have had a holiday party here and the reason is because the food is amazing as well as the service and atmosphere. They even have the smallest touches down to how the restroom is outfitted, decor, scented candles and even mouthwash if desired. Who does that? Walt's does.

Sharing our food orders, the items not pictured are bc we drank or ate them too quick to capture on film.

Rye bread: don't let the word Rye throw you off, the basket of starter bread is beyond amazing! They also use the toasted bread for bread crumbs on the salads. Buttery and Tasty.

Mocktail: Side Saddle/ cucumber, basil, ginger beer concoction, light and refreshing. A pleasant way to begin a meal.

5 cheese mac-n-cheese and creamed corn: baked in mini cast irons, highly recommend. Even good next day reheated. Bread crumbs top off the mac-n-cheese making for a crunchy topping.

Twice baked potato and Onion Tumbleweed: tasty...Idk if it's bc they were busy or we had a large party but all of our side orders came with our entrees, which made for a whole lot of food at once. Last year they came bf the meal and made things more manageable. Maybe, if ordering appetizers other than salads, request to have them bf the meal and not with it.

Secretariet: Steak filets, butterflied and well done

Wagyu Beef Burger: Med-rare but came well done. I know it's a hamburger, but it was nicely seasoned and was more of an upscale steak burger, not your everyday run of the mill, drive through take out. Good to try least once, topped with sauteed onions and dressings on side as requested. The special sauce was akin to a Chipotle mayo. Spicy and good.

Billy Sue's Fall off the bone Ribs: as tender as described.

Pan Seared Salmon: can't go wrong with this

Blackened Filet w/ jalapeno raviolis and single crawfish topper: Amazing plate, but there were no takers for the crawfish. As upscale as it might have been, no one was a fan.

Loaded Baked Potato: All the fixens. Delish.

Legendary Fried chicken: Side of chicken cut down and seasoned to perfection bf frying. I'm told it was good the next day too.

There may have been a few I'm missing but while this is an extraordinary place to dine, it's something to be enjoyed every so often unless you are in a higher tax bracket than me, in which case, go often. It's worth it.

Yes, there is valet, a single vegetarian option on menu, but other items can be modified. The staff is knowledgeable and...