Hickok's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Hays

Was good while it lasted..

My wife and I had eaten here a couple times, and the food/service was pretty good. A little pricey, but the food had been good enough. This last time however, it seems to have changed.

First, this time we came in with our kids to have a nice fathers day meal a couple days early, as it was our only opportunity. Not sure if they even have them, but waitress never bothered to ask if we needed a booster for our 2 year old, since we were put in a booth. Not a big deal, just shows they are definitely not a place used to kids being brought in (no actual kids menu either, but they do have a small verbal one).

More importantly, the food was just not nearly as good this time. We remember specifically thinking the salads were nice and fresh before. This time was like eating willowed dandelions. And for a topper, it appeared they used dry stovetop stuffing? Weird..

For the main course, I decided I would try the "hand breaded fried chicken breast" ...sounds good, right? Probably would be, but that isn't what I received. What it actually was, was some kind of chicken mush/seasoning mixed together, pressed into a patty, and had the s#!+ fried out of it (wife had chicken fried steak and it was overfried as well, but it was "ok"). Hungry as I was, I couldn't even stomach half of it. Breaking out of character for me, I decided to let the waitress know about this when she asked if I wanted a box for it. After explaining how it wasn't even what the menu described, and was coincidentally the worst "fried chicken breast"...the only thing our waitress really did/said was "Sorry, I hope you like your food more next time"....

Really? Glad you guys care so much about a dissatisfied repeat customer. Was going to do 1 star, but the fried cheese appetizer was still pretty bomb. However, we don't plan on going back at this point. Plenty of other good places...

I’m going to start by saying that my mom and sister were here another time and they said it was amazing- the food, service, and atmosphere was perfect last time. However this time was not very impressive. The service was amazing though, our server, Amelia, was excellent. The same can’t be said about the atmosphere or food… right when we walked in there was an odd kind of faint sewage smell and that just kind of put me off for the meal. We got sat down, once again Amelia was great, and ordered the calamari with artichoke hearts for an appetizer. The calamari was pretty good but there were a maximum of 10 tiny pieces in the whole bowl. I got the chicken fried steak and it was more reminiscent of ground beef than the classic chicken fried steak texture (I understand that the steak sometimes is similar to ground beef because of the way they tenderize it but this was a more extreme case than what I’ve experienced). The food was pretty good beside that though and the rolls were great. I tried some shrimp that my dad got and it was delicious. It was pretty expensive for the quality of food we got, about $30 a person but we did get the appetizer and all got steaks so I’d say the prices are good. My biggest complaint was one of the servers was coughing like they had a cold, like that real mucus sounding cough (I have a short recording of it below but I don’t know if you’ll be able to hear it well). Because of the smell and coughing server I’m rating the atmosphere a 2/5. It just made everything feel unclean. I’m not saying that your visit will be like ours, it could be like the first time my mom and sister went an be a...

I've eaten here about five times and each time has been great! Clean restaurant (hard to find around here), friendly service, great food, and reasonable prices. We had a family event in their 'private' side room and they were willing to accommodate us and made for a pleasant experience for all.

One thing I like about this restaurant is you always leave full. The chicken fried steak meal is actually a real slice of meat that is hand breaded! They also give you enough for two meals which is great as I've been to restaurants where you pay a premium for a meal, get home and are still hungry so have to find something in the fridge. The complimentary rolls are excellent too!

Some small things I did notice is their online menu prices are not up to date with what they charge. And I get that the kids mac n cheese is just for a child, but it would be nice is they would serve the same mac n cheese they do as an adult side as that one is home made and looks delicious. My child was disappointed to get the 'boxed version' mac n cheese while my other older child next to her had the home made one with baked cheese on top that was from the side menu.

I've only had their lowest priced steak option-10 oz sirloin so you can't expect filet mignon, but it could have used some more seasoning/charring for flavor. It did seem like you got a lot of steak though.

I hope they continue to do well and stay in Hays as we don't really have any nice, sit down, quality restaurants like...