Cast Iron Chef Chop House & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in New Haven

We dined there tonight for my birthday. The evening started out great, the service started great. We ordered appetizers that were very good. We ordered the beef empanadas and mac n cheese. Next for main courses my husband ordered a pasta dish with some sort of seafood in it and said it was good. Our son ordered the beef medallions and said it was decent. My daughter and I ordered the ribeye for 2 people, MEDIUM WELL-which is almost well done with a slight hint of pink, right? Well what we received was a steak rare/medium rare-red and bloody, sitting in blood. YUCK! Now we know some people prefer their steaks that way and I am not knocking you. But we don't like our steaks that way, hence why I ordered medium well. So I nicely and quietly called our waiter over to express the cook on the steak wasn't as I ordered it. The waiter who had been very nice up to that point said it was "medium well to well done." Please see pictures attached. My husband and I again nicely stated that no medium well should have a little pink, but definitely not red and bloody. He then gets very aggravated and again he stated "this is medium well to well done." We all point out the obvious pool of blood all over the steak, around the steak and also merging into the mashed potatoes. He then said "okay I will bring out a hot skillet so you can finish cooking the steak." ??? Now I am a great cook, and our son is a chef. However, if I wanted to cook my own dinner on my birthday no less, I would've stayed home, and my family and I would have saved a lot of money. Nonetheless he brings the skillet. We attempt to finish cooking our dinner and the steak is still red in the center (no more blood) and tough. At this point we were over it. We would have respected if the waiter just told the truth that the kitchen messed up the steak. I can respect that, things happened. Just rectify the issue and let's move on. No instead, he got very defensive and started debating. Also, the resolution was for me to cook my own steak, and no compensation was offered, and the biggest kicker is adding gratuity. One of the bus boys witnessed everything and felt badly about it. He then offered to get the manager for us. The manager came over and he was apologetic and very gracious. He gave us a house dessert on the house which was the gelato cake. We also ordered and paid for creme brulees for myself and the kids, and my husband ordered the cinnamon cake. The desserts were all delicous! The creme brulee and the cinnamon cake were the best. The waiter was nice enough to sing Happy Birthday with some of the other crew. After, we paid the check, as well as the automatically added gratuity and left. A few things, I do feel the ribeye dinner should have been removed from our check . However, I did not ask that it be removed as I did not want to lend into the stereotype that we just didn't want to pay for our food. No we were well prepared to pay for our food, and we don't mind paying for good food. Also, in hindsight I think I should have adjusted the gratuity. Oh well. Long story short, we wanted to come back for the brunch one day, but I don't think we will...

They brought popcorn to the table that tasted like BBQ potato chips. Gross! No bread! Fruit fly buzzing around and landed on our food and ended up in my glass of wine! Not a great start, but I'm pretty laid back. I hadn't yet noticed what appeared to be moldy growths on the walls...

I ordered duck cooked medium; I received it cooked very rare and there was a stringy sinew that was impossible to cut with knife provided. I was offered a pan to cook it myself which just gave the duck a grey cast and did not sear the meat - not a big fan. The sauce was super sweet and tangy, described as their signature Chop House duck sauce. First time I've ever not liked duck! I ordered the Gorgonzola mashed potatoes; I wish the waitress would have mentioned that the duck sauce and Gorgonzola wouldn't pair well. Plain or garlic mash would have been much better.

The sauteed broccoli was under-cooked.

The lamb lollipops were super delicious. My only complaint here (and a big one for a home chef!) is when I asked to have the remaining chop boxed to go, I also asked that they include the bones and explained that I would use them to make bone broth. When I got home I realized they were not added. Bummer.

And the fruit flies. We had one flying around us and after many attempts at squashing it, it landed in my wine, of course. Our waitress brought me another glass of red, but in a white wine glass. Oh well, I was happy with the wine. Then, another fruit fly found us. Seriously annoying - it kept landing in our food.

Don't bother ordering the coffee it's tasteless.

The waitress was very nice as were the other servers. We waited an uncomfortably long time to receive our check though.

The decor is very cool - chic, modern, cozy. However, there are rough cut boards on the walls that either have a white mold or mycelium growing on them or someone went to a lot of trouble to add moldy-looking growths on the walls in the room we were in. That could be why I my allergies kicked in while I was there and still active 24 hours later.

This was not my day at Cast Iron Chef!! Sheesh! I had high hopes - I had heard good things about it from my MIL and husband, who were there for...

I think Cast Iron has an amazing menu and the food is exceptional. Unfortunately my experience(s) over the last THREE times were not as amazing. Friends and I had a reservation set up for NYE 2023 in advance. The day before we got a call from the manager that our reservation was cancelled because they overbooked. Extremely disappointed but not defeated we still decided to book another reservation for Feb 10th the weekend BEFORE Valentine's Day. We were told in order to book a reservation we had to pay a deposit (which was no problem) but we would not be able to sit in the dining area we would have to be at the bar. Although I don't think that is very accommodating again the food is worth it. When we arrived for our reservation our entire party was not there due to parking. The person who was going to be taking care of us was adamite about seating 6 of us at one table and 2 of us in a completely different area. The dining room was not even half full. Two other employees offered to accommodate us as well as a couple sitting next to us at a 4 top. Our server had dug her heels in and refused to be flexible for our group of 8. We had to leave and find another restaurant for our celebration. Finally a THIRD try! With a separate group we had dinner reservations for a Thursday night at 7. Upon calling to alter the reservation we were cancelled due to the fact that is was a group. But there really was no explanation given. We quickly changed plans and had a wonderful dinner at Prime One Eleven in Trumbull in which they accommodated us with absolutely no problem just hours before our arrival. If the policy at Cast Iron is there can be no groups that is no problem but stating that online, and communicating that would be helpful. I have eaten here and loved it. It is unfortunate that won't happen again. With two separate groups of professional working women (not young rowdy kids) we were not treated in a hospitable manner. Prior to these experiences Cast Iron was definitely on my highly recommended list. It is now a place I am discouraging people from going to because they don't seem to want...