Dino & Harry's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Hoboken

Food Quality: Average, Underwhelming

Ribeye - Mediocre, average, and nothing special. Much better off at Capital Grille or Peter Lugar. Applewood Smoked Bacon - Good enough, but nothing special. If you've traveled to San Francisco, it's much better at Sweet Maple. The only thing worth trying in our opinion was a seasonal skirt steak with chimichurri sauce. My wife and I ended up sharing this to account for the average ribeye.

Service Quality: Poor, could use some serious help here (see below for details).

My wife and I were looking for something local and intimate for our 8 year anniversary. I think it's fair to say that we are "foodie" types eating out a few times a week including frequenting top rated restaurants and steakhouses across the country. We like to try new things rather than sticking to the same spots that we know we like.

For dinners, we typically start with ordering cocktails, then appetizers, and finally the main dinner entrée and never have we had an issue doing so especially at the more upscale venues such as Dino & Harry's. However, at Dino & Harry's, as we started ordering our appetizers, our waitress immediately responded to us in a way that drew the eyes of others around us, "you cannot only order appetizers on Friday's or Saturdays," repeatedly even after I tried to assure her that we weren't there for just appetizers - we even made a reservation a week or so in advance, noting that this was our 8 year anniversary. While I'm not going to claim or try to put a label to what had happened, what I can say is how my wife and I felt. We felt humiliated, insulted, and I hate to say this but we certainly felt profiled.

All things considered, my wife and I didn't want this to ruin the special occasion we had envisioned this to be and continued with the night ordering the full dinner and desserts. Our bill comfortably reached the mid-200's not including tip and even factoring in the pathetic attempt to alleviate the humiliation by comping us at a value that doesn't even surpass a proper tip. It wasn't even about the money to us, but the principal. We are a family of small business and can appreciate the challenges faced by business owners. To that extent, we tried to keep our issue solely between the waitress and ourselves by not involving the manager and by discussing this as we were handing over our card. To top it off, the restaurant decided it was appropriate to address this by comping us with two drinks. Again, this didn't even cover the value of our tip and we still decided to tip the waitress a decent percentage (20%) because it's just the right thing to do.

This was one of the worst experiences we've had at a steakhouse when all we wanted was a decent, low-key night to celebrate such a meaningful day. If it means anything, we avoid writing bad reviews at all costs (this might even be my first), but this was very much warranted as we hope to spare others from a similar experience.

Now on to the food. It was what you'd expect at a decent steakhouse and...

Where do I start. Failure after failure. Three of us went here with high expectations that were not met.

I have to say that all of this may not be the servers fault because the place was packed and he was running around like a mad man. It seemed to me that they were under staffed. That is not surprising because it’s damn near impossible to get help that want to work anymore. However, I do not see these issues when I go to other high end steak houses such as The Capitals Grill, Del Frisco’s etc.. That being said, we were not getting the service that was/is expected at steak house.

Let’s start with the apps….

Trio of Empanadas were over cooked but were decent 3 out of 5

Heart of Lettuce was good 4 out of 5

Jumbo shrimp cocktail was the best thing we had on the table.

Applewood smoked bacon 2 out of 5 95% rubbery fat. The apple wood sauce they put on it was very tasty. I get this at every steak house and this was not up to par. I am aware that bacon usually has a lot of fat. This was over the top.

Entrees and sides…

We ordered three steaks. Each was ordered with different cooking specifications. Each were undercooked by a lot. Not even close.

Steaks ordered were…

Filet Well Done. As soon as it was set on the table I knew it wasn’t well done. Medium rare it came out.

Filet Medium. Came out it was medium rare or worse.

Sirloin steak Medium Plus. Also came out medium rare.

I guess the chef can’t cook or read directions or simply puts out meat the way he feels it should be eaten. $62 for a filet, I want it cooked the way I want it cooked if I’m paying for it.

I didn’t touch the “well done” steak for over 5 minutes waiting for the server to come and ask how everything was. After about 7 minutes I cut the steak in half. Medium rare all the way. I’m upset I didn’t think to take pictures. A few minutes after that the server came over and asked.. I showed him and he responded “I don’t know how that happened.” I refuse to send food back so I just told him I didn’t want it. I don’t even know what the steak tasted like. Didn’t try it.

Both of the other steaks were eaten but honestly not enjoyed.

Server took one steak off the bill for us however it wasn’t the filet that we returned. He took the cheaper sirloin off the bill. It was taking forever for service so we just paid the bill and left.

Sides were good.

Mashed potatoes Spinach Mac and cheese Brussels sprouts

This was our first time here and I can say there is honestly no reason to return.

The atmosphere of the older building and such was the best thing of the night but the food wasn’t up to snuff.

On our way home we stopped at a local sub shop and I got a chicken...

Disappointed at the service received here. First of all it was quite busy so I understand things being hectic. It started with us not getting part of our order. We tried telling 2 different people that we were missing food and they said okay and walked away. Our server never came back until we had already finished our food. We were never given an opportunity to order any more drinks or food beyond the one time we saw our server in the beginning. When asked at the end how everything was we were honest about the lack of service. Mid sentence our server just left. Another gentleman soon returned and apologized and said he would give us a discount for the mishaps. Here's the kicker. I refused the discount because my point of raising attention to the issue was to not be charged for the food we didn't receive, and to get our check so we could get out of there. Moods had already been ruined. Well the check then wasn't coming. Our server continued to run around meeting up with every table around us but avoiding us. I'm sure she was just stressed and busy but we just wanted to leave.

The kicker? What a rude hostess! Finally I got up to ask for the check, we just wanted to leave. The hostess at the entrance gave me a patronizing look and just said she's busy. I tried to be clear I wasn't trying to be rude, I just wanted my check and to leave. She started to insinuate I was trying to get something out of them (reminder I TURNED DOWN THE DISCOUNT HER MANAGER OFFERED). When I mentioned I have worked in hospitality before she had this look of yeah right on her face. Are you serious?

We just had a $300+ meal where we were not being properly taken care of and when I have to come and ask for the check so I can just leave you're gonna respond like that?

The food was pretty good but just due to the abhorrent service I don't think I'll be able to recommend this place again.

Oh and finally to be clear, we did pay full price for everything minus the item that did...