TJ’s Steakhouse & Tavern — Restaurant in New Paris

I took my friend and her husband here for her birthday. We had heard nothing but good things and was very excited to try it.

We arrived at 4:30 on a Saturday hoping to beat the rush and we did. There was one waitstaff working and 5 tables including us (not a big deal). We expected the service to be a little slower due to one person working. Around 5:00 it got busier and more waitstaff had checked in. Even with more waitstaff, our server was still very slow and then non existent. She asked if wanted refills before we even received our meals which one person did. But after we got our meals, we didn't see her again until we were done with our food and ready to pay. THAT'S when she decided to ask if we wanted refills.

Now, we as a group have heard of people raving about the food. In my opinion, the food wasn't worth the money spent. My husband and I got the prime rib, my friend got the filet, and her husband got the NY Strip. My two sides were cold and my steak was inedible. I LOVE a good steakhouse and I love to travel, even a couple of hours, for dinner for some good beef. I go all over Indiana to try new places, but this was such a disappointing ribeye. My ribeye was cooked like I wanted it, BUT the seasoning was so overpowering I couldn't taste the beef. I love seasoning on my beef, but this was very off putting. I have NEVER had this experience where the seasoning was so much that I couldn't even get a 1/4 of my ribeye eaten. There was absolutely no flavor other than salt/seasoning. My husband and my friend had the same problem with their beef. I would have sent mine back to get fixed, but at the rate our service was going, I would have been there until the next day waiting on it.

The only reason why I gave it two stars was because the place was clean. They did have a bit of a problem with their lights dimming for a brief second about every minute or so. That was a bit distracting as well.

I may try it around a lunch time and get something different, but honestly I'm not sure if it's even worth a...

My family and I drove through town on our way back to Indiana.

We saw the reviews for this place and thought surely with 4.5 stars it must be a hidden gem.

Our server seemed inconvenienced by doing her job, but made a solid attempt to come off as hospitable. Which I understand, it was a Sunday and if we experienced the dinner rush, not very busy at all. She got our drink orders, which kinda set the tone for the rest of the meal. My wife’s Pepsi was completely flat. The sweet tea my oldest got was watered down. My water tasted fine, as was our youngest’s lemonade.

We started with an order of fried pickles, which were pretty good! Very thin pieces with only a light breading and the dip was tasty, a chipotle ranch. The issue we had was that the plates we were given with the pickles were very dirty.

Our meals were okay. I got the lighthouse burger which has the pulled pork they’re known for. It was bland and I thought maybe there would be BBQ sauce or something to give it a little flavor. Other than that the main issue was that everyone’s food was cold. My burger wasn’t hot, we got two orders of the piggy Mac, both came out cold.

Not a great experience overall. Giving it 2 stars because the waitress was kind enough to recommend we go and see the local corn maze. I hope that her day gets a...

Food was..ehhh.. ok I guess. Not really bad but not really good. Kind of disappointing.. for a place that advertises being a steak House I was expecting a little more. My husband got the Ribeye with Mac and cheese and cottage cheese. Ribeye was not the greatest but ok. The Mac and cheese you can tell was frozen/ microwaved or sou vide... Tasted like Stouffer's. I was excited to get the prime rib but was disappointed at how tough it was with most of it being fat. I know prime rib is a fatty cut but this was a lot. My sides were green beans and broccoli. You can tell the green beans came out of a can and they tried to spruce it up a little. Broccoli was ok. Maybe their bar food is better not it's not a great "steakhouse". I'm still confused how we received the bill for $76 and then went to pay and added a $8 dessert to-go. When the paid receipt came back the total was $108. I have no clue how an $8 dessert cost over $30?? I should have asked but at that point we had been driving for over 7 hours and I was just ready to go to our Airbnb and sleep. The lava cake was the same as the pizza place Dominos has. Not a real cake at all but a premade frozen little "cake". IDK just disappointing especially...