Sizzler — Restaurant in Merced

We went here because we've been most other places my husband is willing to go. Been quite a while, so I expected there'd be changes. The inside looks great! I love the interesting groups of paintings on the wall! The food not so much. I expected a large salad bar with interesting salads. Check. But $18 or $19 for a salad bar only meal? Yes, they do have a taco bar, which looked unappealing, and potato...skins, maybe but old and dried out, and battered chicken wings, which were delicious. A one-time pass through the salad bar was a more-reasonable $7.50, but still. I wanted a steak, but not an expensive one, so ordered a sirloin, medium rare with a sweet potato, just butter, without the maple sugar. The 8-8 oz steak was an oddly-sized rectangle that was tough and under-cooked, there were 2 baked potatoes on the plate, not 1, but one of those was also somewhat under-done, and they arrived with a little dish of butter with the maple mixed into it. The crowning element: the serrated steak knife was so dull it was a real muscle workout to cut my steak into chewable pieces. (Jaw muscles got a workout, too.) I wasn't expecting a class B or C place to serve me prime beef, but they ought to have been able to provide something better than a piece of sirloin that should have been stew meat. Boneless chuck steak is relatively tender, marbled and flavorful and costs $5/ lb. A quick sear on each side and it's perfect. Or tri-tip steak. The hostess was friendly and courteous, and brought us our utensils/napkins packages and my salad bowl, and 2 glasses of water. After an interval a server brought our meals. We didn't see one again until we had almost finished our meals so I never had a chance to ask for a sharper knife. She brought my husband a new glass of ice water long after he'd emptied the first one. Altogether, not tipable service. And it'll be another good, long time...

All of our dishes, AND utensils were dirty. Both My Wife's and my Steak was cooked rare when we asked for well done. There was no flavor to them at all. The salad bar was our main reason for going, however it was very poorly stocked. With several of the items being spoiled/clearly rotten. The hot food bar was very disgusting, with chicken tenders that were almost black, bread pudding that was so dry I couldn't even remove any from Pan. And taco meat that had solid fat grease floating on top. Last but not least, as I was heading to the ice cream machine, there was a boy grabbing the toppings with his hands, putting them in separate cups and starting to walk away when the lady manager grabs his arm, and takes the toppings away telling him to use the provided utensils the get the toppings, however when I looked at the counter, there was NO UTINSILS, and the manager dumped the boy's toppings back into the containers at the counter for the next person to get. I asked the manager for a refund due to all 5 in my party not eating or drinking anything. And she told me she would instead give me a voucher for 10% off next visit. I refused and told her we would never go back to that sizzler location again. She got mad and yelled for us to leave the restaurant. Causing a scene like we were in the wrong. I have called corporate, but even after 3 months later now. still no response. We paid just shy of $200 +$30 tip before getting our plates. And didn't take one drink or eat one bite due to unsanitary conditions. Hopefully people see this review before making the same mistake I did since you have to prepay for everything. AND...

After a long day of driving visiting Grizzly Falls of Sequoia National Park, on the way back passing Merced, we looked for a sizzler since we just wanted soups and salads. Luckily this one was on the way and we stopped by. The place is in a big shopping center so we had plenty of places to park. The restaurant looks new and very clean. It’s been a few years since we’ve been in a Sizzler. The salad bar is the middle of the restaurant as usual. There are many steak specials, but we’re only interested in the full salad bar. The price has been up since then, $20 per person now. We did expect that because of all inflation. Quite reasonable although more expensive than some steak and shrimps on special for $17. The cheese toasts here are always the best, crispy and tasty, perfect with soups. The beef soup was very good, although the clam chowder I used to eat wasn’t so rich as now. The salad bar has plenty of things to choose from that’s why I like. Chicken and spinach salads are always excellent. We also made our own salads with many tasty dressings. The hot foods included with chicken wings, spaghetti and meatballs, tacos, chips and salsa with guacamole. We enjoyed the soups and salads very well. The service was so excellent and attentive with a young lady...