The Chop House Grand Rapids — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

Are you ready for my fine dining experience?

First off we take our family out every year around Christmas time for a nice family dinner. We choose a different location every year. This year we decided to try The Chop House. This will be our only visit at this establishment.

The pro's... We were given a private room for our party of 13 at no extra cost. That was nice.

With the price of the side dishes it was nice that they came in a family style serving so everyone could sample one or more if desired, or keep the entire portion for themselves.

The baked potato side must've been grown at the Land Of The Giants...yes, it was that huge.

Our waiter was very attentive.

The Cons....

When we arrived we immediately gave our waiter a Christmas card with a $100 tip inside to make sure that he took good care of us. We went with a party of 13 and my husband and I were paying for 6 people and the rest of the diner's were divided into 2 more tabs, so he would be getting a very nice tip for the time he spent with us. BUT, at the end of our meal when we received the tab we were charged a gratuity of a bit over $100...so basically we tipped this guy over $200 (from us alone not including the other 2 tabs) for our mediocre food and somewhat better service. I wanted to say something but my husband didn't want to tarnish our evening out with family so I zipped it. BUT, I'm very unhappy with that part of our meal. We have done this every year at the restaurant's we've gone to and it's never been a problem before. I don't mind adding to a tip if needed, but this was EXTREMELY excessive.

We expected a high price meal but we also expected the food to warrant the cost. It did not.

I ordered an espresso rubbed filet mignon with the Oscar option. The cost for this piece of meat with the extra crab and 2 spears of asparagus was close to $70. Obviously this didn't include my drinks or sides. I have to tell you that I have had a better filet mignon at Logan's steak house. I order it every time we go there and it's always melt in your mouth good. This one I had to saw with my knife and it definitely didn't have the taste or the melt in your mouth goodness.

I basically feel like you are paying for the name and the show that the servers put on. When they are serving a plate they come in usually in a group of 4 and synchronize placing your meal in front of you. It would've been more impressive if they had come in with the entire parties plates and done it at the same time. It was a bummer to get a few plates and then several minutes later another group of servers came in to deliver 2 or 3 more and so on until everyone had their meals.

I was also disappointed in the fact that our food wasn't served hot. It was luke warm at best...and that's being generous.

On a positive I will say that I'm not a fan of brussel sprouts but these were prepared so well that I could've eaten the entire serving if I could've. lol. I also thought their creamed corn was exceptional. Other than that I wasn't that impressed with anything else I saw or sampled. I would recommend skipping the main entree and sticking with an assortment of sides.

Overall I feel I'm being more than generous with my 2 star rating. We will not return to this establishment again. Very disappointing to drop almost a grand on a family outing and walk away unhappy. We would've had more fun and enjoyed a better meal at Dave & Busters for a 1/3 of the price.

This goes down as the least liked Christmas dinner out in the over 11 years we've been doing...

I made reservations at the Grand Rapids Chop House, for my wife and I to celebrate our 5th year anniversary. When discussing The Chop House with others, we heard nothing but great reviews about the establishment. We expressed that we celebrated our previous anniversary at Ruth's Chris and the experience was nothing less than exceptional. We were then told, if we enjoyed ourselves at Ruth's Chris, then we would love dining at Chop House. We had yet to experience dining at the Chop House.(So needless to say we were very excited to dine at Chop House). The Day of our reservation, it began to storm and there were heavy rains. Rather than cancel our reservations, we decided to proceed to embark on our hour trip to Chop House. Upon arriving, the establishment was beautiful. The Lighting was intimate and the dining area was exquisite. This was definitely the ambiance we were looking forward to celebrating our anniversary in. My wife and I both ordered the 15oz New York strip. Our server did inform us, that The Chop House, cooks their steaks a little more rarer than other steak houses. He then proceeded to direct us to the steak temperature chart. I could see that the well done would reflect a slightly pink center. Which I'm ok with, because I normally order a medium well. Upon Receiving our steaks, we cut into the center of the steaks and they were clearly undercooked. our steaks were Mid Rare at most. The server could see how rare our steaks were and offered to have them cooked a little longer. We thanked our server and sent the steaks back to the kitchen. Our steaks were then brought out a second time by the manager. The gentlemen apologized for the inconvenience and asked us top cut into our steaks again. Upon cutting into my steak, it was cooked to the proper temperature. As for my wife's steak, it was still very rare compared the Well done temperature she ordered the streak to be cooked at. We called our waiter over to our table, Upon looking at the steak, she agreed that the steak was undercooked and apologized yet again for the inconvenience. The irony of the situation, is that our steaks were butterflied, to ensure they would be cooked to the proper temperature. At this point, i'm literally sharing my steak with my wife, just so she can somewhat enjoy the food we ordered. The manager brought my wife's steak out for the third time. This time the steak was cooked Extremely well done. There was no slightly pink center. At this point my wife and I were already dissatisfied with our meal and decided to ask for things to packaged to go. upon bringing us our bill, the server stated that the manager would like to offer us a complimentary dessert to go, for the troubles.(I honestly thought that would be offered with us celebrating our anniversary. Ruth Chris does that for their guest). We peered over the dessert menu, but kindly declined to take a dessert home. I must say, I am highly disappointed in what my wife and I experienced yesterday, at the Chop House. Paying $65 for a steak that had to be sent back to the kitchen not once but twice, is insane. Then when we finally receive the steak it was overcooked. The establishment was beautiful. But the overall experience was sorely lacking. Our Servers never offered to take our picture, like we saw them offer to other guest there, that were celebrating their anniversary. This was supposed to be a special experience for the both of us, and it was nothing close to that. Very...

What an underwhelming experience… so disappointing.

My wife and I chose this place for our anniversary. We have tried all kinds of places around GR, but never here. So, why not…?

Well, we had a full night planned and wanted to have dinner early at 5:00 so that we could take our time and enjoy before doing other things. Much to my surprise, once we got to the restaurant, my wife pulled on the door and it was locked (at about 4:50). We probably looked confused, so someone finally came and popped her head out to say “we don’t open the doors until 5:00.” It was easily 80+ degrees in the room we were in, but whatever… 4-5 other groups of people showed up too and we kindly told them not to bother trying the door. This didn’t stop the girl from sticking her head out again (now 4:58) to tell us that they open at 5:00. Really weird to have a bunch of employees just awkwardly staring at us until they unlock at 5:00, but whatever.

We got in and were shown our table. We were still in good spirits, until we started interacting with the wait staff. Our waitress was just really dry. Literally have had better service at big chains like Applebees. She did her job but all interactions were just very dry and not what I would expect from a nice restaurant. Contrast this against our last evening out at another local spot and there was no comparison. We had so much fun that night and our waitress was probably half the reason why… This was nowhere close…

Then the food came and my wife and I had the exact same immediate reaction… That’s a $130+ steak…? It was so small and just underwhelming. It didn’t look anything remotely like the 32oz stated on the menu. We both took some, along with our chosen sides of smashed potatoes and asparagus. Everything was ok. Just ok. Not even close to what I would consider a $200 meal. We were so disappointed that we just decided to pay our bill and leave. No desert our hanging out to enjoy the ambiance a bit.

We most likely...