McCormick & Schmick's Seafood & Steaks — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I don't like to write negative reviews. I find it's usually better to just go about my business and be done with it...But after "dining" here I felt obligated to share my experience and warn others who may be considering this place as an option (late July 2022).

I called ahead the day before to enquire about dress code and vegetarian options. The friendly lady on the other end was like "Oh, we're not real picky about clothing, we have people coming in wearing jeans and a T-shirt". Okay(?) I then asked about their vegetarian options, of which their Yelp page claims they have "Many". I know, don't go to a seafood and steak house expecting tofu and hummus (their online menu shows precious few vegetarian dishes other than a salad and one or two sides, so I should have gotten the hint)--but one of our party of six is vegetarian, and any repectable establishment should be able to accomodate for such circumstances. She told me "Oh yeah, just tell your server and they'll take care of it". At this point, we felt confident that we would have a good experience. Next day we traveled 60 miles to McCormick and Schmick's.

First off, the staff were very friendly and made us feel welcomed--hence the two stars instead of one. And then...drinks came out. Brother's draft beer smelled and tasted of vinegar from when they clean the lines and don't properly flush them. He sent it back, ordered a different draft beer, and voila--vinegar. Sent it back, ordered a bottled beer. Moving on. Now we order the food. When our vegetarian friend asked about her options, the wait staff seemed perplexed, as if pressed to solve a chinese algebra equation. We asked about a "pesto pasta" dish on the menu that is served with clams--"Could you maybe just leave the clams out?" Their eyes glazed over and they mumbled something incoherent about ordering "a la cart" lol. She eventually ordered a side of asparagus (which they were kind enough to cook to total imperfection--slimy, droopy, and woody on the end), a salad which was surprisingly "okay", and a side of potatoes (obviously Sysco-tier, rubbery, and microwaved). Them not being able to whip up some clam-free pasta was a major bummer and contradicted what we were told only the day before. I was beginning to wonder if their food might be prepared in a commissary and sent over in buckets where the staff glop it onto plates for unsuspecting first time diners like us. Red flags beginning to pile up.

Food came out and was underwhelming to say the least. My sea bass stunk like fish, and was slapped with zero presentation into a broth with some sort of greens and more microwaved potatoes. Dad's filet (which he ordered medium) came out dripping blood. At this point, I think all of us at the table knew the score...we were being scammed in real time, and we were expected to sit there and take it like idiots (which we did).

Anyway, now I'm just venting. I would never have left this negative review had the price been anywhere NEAR commensurate with the quality of the product we felt obligated to ingest. $400 for the six of us. Four. Hundred. Dollars. That's what really stung.

Schmickbot: Before you respond and tell me how seriously you take such matters and ask me to devote more resources to your failing enterprise, let me save you the time and inform you that no, I will not be going to your website to fill out a form so you can better yourself. Consider this review your notice. You guys really need to pull it together in a big way. As mentioned before, instead of feeling satisfied at the end we felt scammed. The only consolation of this whole affair was imagining Gordon Ramsay taping an episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" here. "McCormick and Schmick's? More like McCormick...

We have been coming to M&S for the last several years as a holiday tradition to celebrate three birthdays before attending the Yuletide Celebration (7pm show). We had 5PM reservations, arrived at 4:45, and were seated immediately. The hostess was very friendly and recognized the birthdays I had requested on the menu. Cortland was our server. He took quite a while getting around to us, but we ordered wine, appetizers, and he put those in. We received our bisques and chowder at near room temperature with a skin on top and croutons completely soggy, as they had obviously been waiting to be picked up for some time. We just ate it a we were trying to keep the meal flowing. The crab cake came out about 10 minutes later. When Cortland finally returned, he apologized for being slow (although they seemed to be well staffed and not completely busy-about 2/3 full I'd guess). I told him we had tickets at 7pm and needed to get things moving. He took our orders, then disappeared for a long while. I looked at the time, and it was 6:05. I flagged him down and asked him to please check on our food as we had a show to get to. He said he would. A few minutes later, he came out and said it just popped up. Based on the overall query of my table, the food was OK although not hot as it seems that it too had been sitting as well. I ordered crusted Ahi tuna. It was warm, served on a bed of cold mashed potatoes with no pepper sauce or even a hint of wasabi as stated in the menu and soggy crisps on top. Having no time to have it fixed at this point, I just ate the tuna and left the cold potatoes and veggies. I had to flag him down again to ask for the check, and at this point we had to forego dessert and coffee to get to the theater, which we just barely did. Basically, we had poor service from someone who was not backed up by management at any time. At these price points, someone should always be sending food out quickly, even if the server is off his game. The cold soup and potatoes were just unacceptable. I guess I should have asked for a manager early on, but I don't like to throw servers under the bus, and I did not see anyone checking in as usual, so maybe they had no one. Bad news for M&S as this will be our last trip here for our annual tradition. I have heard people say bad things about this location, but we have always had great food and service here until 12/12/2021 and continued to patronize this spot. I would not recommend this location anymore. They are obviously not well managed and it shows. 2 full hours for cold food and no dessert to honor our birthday celebrants. You lost a loyal customer.

Update...as you can see, the only response from the restaurant is a standard "fill out this survey" reply even though I was thorough in my review about what happened. No need to waste more of my time filling anything out for them. That alone speaks volumes about how ownership and management care about their reviews. This just confirms my decision to no...

When I find myself thinking of Champs while visiting a high-end restaurant, then there is something wrong.

When I find myself yearning for a dozen other local restaurant's dishes within a few square miles of this location for half the price, then there is something wrong.

When I find myself well-cared for by staff from start to finish, there is something...finally...going the way things are intended.

I fear that this restaurant is leaning on their reputation a little too heavily. Or perhaps that their kitchen staff are not being given the freedom or inspiration to finish their dishes. Or that the owners are cracking down on profitability and strangling everything else in pursuit of that goal.

Ultimately, that felt closest to the truth. Every chain goes through these phases where the food/quality declines over time since costs can only be cut so much and gross margins cannot grow to infinity. While the dishes themselves felt like there were still quality ingredients, they felt unfinished as if someone had starting cutting back on "extras" that nobody would notice (I did).

Examples would be our dishes not having real finishing touches. I would expect some bursts of flavor in sauces or garnish that simply weren't there. If you wandered over to almost any newer restaurant in the area (of which there are many) you would be wowed with the hidden bursts of flavor that dishes would include. Even a flavored sauce/garnish on some of the dishes would have made a good difference.

Every good restaurant should have some impressive sides that they can really bank on to support a great main course. Every single one we tried felt completely devoid of effort. I hate to say it, but I think some of these would have felt at home at Outback vs. one of the top restaurants. These were just filler around a main course vs. having any real standing on their own.

Crab potato hash? Tasted like...potatoes. Tomato pesto? Just a couple of tiny tomatoes. Roasted mushroom risotto? Uhmmm...just risotto. Every side was simple and basic and not at all what I would expect from an inspired kitchen staff who were allowed to explore and deliver quality meals. Even just drizzling some highly-concentrated sauce on the plate for color and flavor (which I consider to be a bit of a punt) wasn't done.

It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great, and we expected great. Spending $160 on a dinner for two is not an everyday experience for us. We wanted to really enjoy our evening out, but this simply left us wanting.

Pick a direction and walk toward any of an array of great local restaurants still in the downtown area and you'll have a much better experience per overall flavor for dollar spent. There simply is nothing here that cannot be bested...