The Outlaw Saloon- Grill & Steakhouse 21+ — Restaurant in Hatch

Dinner at this restaurant last Tuesday was one of the worst dining experiences we have ever had. The main room is poorly lit, but quite large, with a couple of pool tables and a large bar. There are about six or seven tables. Apart from two young men playing pool, and a couple at one table, the place was deserted. The room adjacent to the main room has the grill for grilling your own steaks, as well as the “salad toppings bar“ and a few tables. The grill was not in use, and the salad topping bar offered garbanzo beans, pickled beets from a jar, a mostly empty container of shredded carrots, and a couple of other items not worthy of mention. The service started reasonably well with a pleasant woman welcoming us with menus in hand. We ordered drinks, a chicken sandwich with barbecue sauce and 1/2 side of ribs also with barbecue sauce. The server then disappeared and ultimately began chatting at the bar with one of the pool players. We tried to wave her over, and the best we got was a signal that she would be with us in a minute. After about five minutes another server came and move things along. It was clear that she was covering for her colleague, who would swing by every five or 10 minutes and tell us that our ribs were almost done, and that the food would be out in a while. Her colleague finally brought the food and we never saw our sever again, as she was still engaged in her conversation at the bar. The chicken in the sandwich was OK, but the ribs were terrible and the barbecue sauce not much better. Meat should be falling off of ribs, but these ribs required serious surgery, and there wasn’t much meat. When the back up server finally brought our bill, it was too dark to examine closely, but the total seemed correct. She gave me an electronic pad, which asked me to select the amount of the tip. I gave a 15% tip and we were out of there. The next day I looked at the receipt and saw that the Outlaw had taken the liberty of adding an 18% tip before giving me the bill. When added to the 15% that I gave when I got the bill, we ended up tipping 33% for poor service. In retrospect, I could have examined the check and seen the automatic tip, but it really was too dark to do that. Also, without going back to the Outlaw, I can’t swear that the automatic tip wasn’t disclosed on the menu (although it is a modest menu and we has plenty of time to look at it) or that the electronic pad didn’t say “additional tip”, but I don’t think either were the case. In any event, it wasn’t the money, it was the principal. Go to the Outlaw...

This place was AMAZING!! I'm so glad we stopped in. The bar has a strong locals vibe with really down to earth, happy people. Everyone was very friendly and happy to share a kind word with strangers. The bartender took great care of us, we sat at a table since the bar was full and she came and checked on us throughout our stay. They have a few local drafts and then a pretty big selection of cans. They also had a full bar with a large liquor selection. I had a cook your own steak, I picked the NY strip which is my favorite cut. They have a dozen seasonings for whatever tastes from classic salt and pepper, to some spicy and some home style cookout seasonings. It was fun cooking on the communal grill, the chef came out and gave pointers on hot and cold spots on the grill. On top of being really fun, my steak was super tasty and flavourful! It comes with a nice dinner salad, roll and a HUGE potato. My boyfriend got the ribs and wow!! Best ribs I've ever had, the chef came out and talked to us about them and how early he gets up to get them started, and you can tell. Then were tender, not even just falling off the bone but, unable to stay on the bone. There was no need to knives, just fork the tender delicious meat and pull bones out as you get to them. As well as being tender they had a ridiculously tasty crust on them, so good I can't even describe it!! The sweet tangy bbq sauce was perfection. I'd recommend this place to anyone wanting their socks knocked off. It's worth a drive if it's out of your way and worth a stop any time you're near. Top notch! Best food, amazing service and really great...

Buyer (or tourists?) beware: this restaurant charges customers a mandatory tip of at least 20% on the after tax amount (regardless of the size of the party, contrary to what is stated on the menu). We asked for a new bill without the 20% "gratuity", saying that we would like to add our own custom tip (like in any other restaurant). We received this new bill and gave the waitress our credit card, only to find out - while determining the amount of the tip we wished to leave - that she had gone ahead and charged our card with an amount including the 20% "gratuity", presenting us with a receipt allowing for an "additional tip" (sic) and completely disregarding what we had just discussed. When questioned about this, she told us that what had just happened was in fact completely normal. Needless to say that we left this place with a very bad taste in our mouth.

Edit in response to the owner's answer: Thank you for your reply. We visited the Outlaw Saloon and Steakhouse this evening. We immediately raised and discussed this issue with our waitress and were told - among other things - that a mandatory 20% tip was standard policy since the beginning of this season. There are also at least two other recent reviews relating similar experiences (from "Allison" and "Virgile”), leading me to believe that this might not be an...