Trancas Steakhouse — Restaurant in Napa

I previously posted a 5 star review for the Trancas Steakhouse, but with this last experience, 5 stars is not acceptable.

I ordered the prime rib. It was cooked perfectly, however, there were several huge issues with the cost and budget cutting.

On Friday Aug 30th they had a special of a Waygu Ribeye steak. I have had Waygu many times and know what it looks like (raw) so I asked to see it raw. I did this because it was only $50, which is pretty cheap for a Waygu steak. I was shown the steak, it was clearly not a Waygu steak. I recommend everyone do this, request to see the steak raw, a Waygu should be pale from all the marbleing, there should be no large chunks of fat and no specifically notice areas of meat, as it should be VERY well marbled. The steak I was shown looked to be a standard choice cut of normal beef. Some restaurants use regular beef and cook it in Waygu fat, as in flavor, it will pass as a low grade of Waygu, but you aren't getting what you were promised.

That being said, I ordered the prime rib, cooked perfectly to order. However, it seemed very flavorless in the center, so I'm guessing this was a choice or select rib roast, not a prime. The bark was non existant, but when I ate the rib cap (the best part) I was overtaken by very heavy salt that made it inedible. It's like in place of seasonings (as there was no bark) they just rubbed it with salt, before and after cooking.

The mashed potatoes were cut with instant potatoe flakes. Do I need to say more? Their mashed potatoes used to be silky and delicious, but now they are starchy and if you keep playing with them they start to flake and crumble, just like instant, and of course they taste instant, not buttery, not silky.

The butter. Did they change this too? They changed the way the butter is presented, but the butter seems thinner in flavor, and thinner in texture. It sticks to your mouth, which of course doesn't happen with real butter. It's almost like it's cut with oil. It seems more similar to the KFC or McDonalds butter substitutes, which are basically butter or margerine whipped with more oil, all to make it cheaper and easy to spread.

What happened??? I do not think I will be returning by my own will. This experience just screamed cheap budget cutting. It still costs $40-$80...

We go out to dinner holding certain expectations along with anticipation of good food, good service, the expectation(s) is that we will receive both good food and service. Sadly Trancas Steakhouse failed on both ends. With reservations made, the hostess was visibly overwhelmed. We were shown to our seating inside (made the reservations for outside) and sat there while the waitress helped other tables seated after us. We had to flag down an employee who was walking by and request menus, water and silverware. Finally the waitress shows up, with no greeting, we had to inquire about the specials (she did not know and left to find out). We saw her twice, to take our order and five minutes after the food arrived (which she did not bring) to ask if all was okay. It was not and again had to flag her down to get our check. The food was relatively tasteless (prime rib, salmon and burger) a bit cold and otherwise mediocre. I would not waste my time or money going back to this restaurant. I realize in this day and age the service industry is in dire need of help, and while I can appreciate that dilemma I also do not care to feel like I was IMPOSING by even being seated. Nope I will spend my well earned money along with my time at a restaurant who wants...

My husband and I love steak, and decided to give this place a try for his Birthday a few weeks ago. We didn’t start off right, the hostess was nowhere to be found when we arrive. I get it, maybe she was busy. However after a few mins she showed up, and asked “do you have a reservation?” so I asked her “do we need one?” in the most rude way she looked at me and said “well… you’re already here” and then there was an awkward silence before she said “just follow me” (I didn’t make a reservation because I had checked earlier that day on Open Table and realized they had a lot of available tables for dinner that night) it honestly threw me off (no need for the rudeness). Luckily We had a good experience with our server Beatriz. The prime rib was super tasty (we’ve had better to be honest) but the meat was juicy and cooked as ordered, the mashed potatoes were quite tasty too. The rest of the staff were super nice and always checked on us. At the end we had a nice dinner and had a good time. Not planning on going back honestly but it was...