Kirby's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Oklahoma

I had trouble making an online reservation for one through opentable, and I was extremely frustrated until I called the restaurant a week prior to my visit on November 24, 2019. I don’t remember the name of the person I spoke to, but they were more than friendly and helped me secure my solo reservation without any problems. I would put this issue on the opentable affiliate, not the restaurant, but truly, Kirby’s, it would be wonderful if the AI interfaces your restaurant collaborates with were as welcoming to single people with disposable income as your employees are. I only called the restaurant because I’m still old-school enough to know my phone has call functions. Otherwise, I would have given up and you would have lost a single customer who has no issue spending over $100 on her own dinner. Caelin, my server, gets five stars. She took fantastic care of me. I pointed out a specific food allergy I have and she made note of it and said she would make sure the kitchen knew as well for each item I ordered. The Premium Manhattan was so delicious, I had two. It’s hard to find someone who can make this classic, simple cocktail. If one is too heavy-handed with the vermouth, the entire drink is a train wreck. This was not the case, and I was pleasantly impressed. I enjoyed the crab cake appetizer (a smidge heavy on the mayonnaise) and the bread course was simple but sufficient. The house salad was a little underwhelming, but the Caesar dressing I opted for was very delicious. My main course, the special tournedos in red wine reduction with king crab was cooked to perfection. I ordered the Brussels sprouts on the side, and the only thing I could “complain” about was the portion size was far too much for one person. I was too full for dessert and left quite a bit on the table. What stops me from giving Kirby’s five stars, though, is the behavior I witnessed from a server named Cameron. At one point in the evening, he got in the face of my server and snapped at her (in front of a full dining room) for not delivering a drink to one of his tables. Several other times during my meal, I watched him speak gruffly to other waitstaff, physically cut them off while coming and going from the kitchen... basically, he seemed to create this air that he was not only more important than any one of them... he was better than them as well. This behavior cheapened the smile he put on for his tables. Now, perhaps he’s the “lead” server in the establishment. Bully for him. That’s absolutely NO reason to behave that way, not in front of paying customers, not even in the kitchen, behind closed doors. Someone needs to have a talk with Mr. Cameron about treating others as you would have them treat you. Particularly if his behavior has a direct correlation to how customers (even those who never have direct contact with him) rate the overall experience of dining at Kirby’s.

UPDATE 12/23: After seeing the form response from the restaurant, I sent an email to see what they might say. I am disappointed all over again and would like to say customer service in general from this establishment gets a negative rating. First for the form response. Second for emailing me apologizing for the experience for me “and my guest” when my review pretty clearly states I was dining alone. I don’t want a gift certificate to return to the restaurant when I live in another state, so when I respond that your form efforts are amusing, that should be an indicator that I am not easily bought or silenced. And lastly, telling me you read my review AND you had a discussion “with my server” about it proves for a third and final time that you are willfully ignorant to what the review was saying. My server Caelin deserved nothing but praise for her performance and...

My friend and I went to Kirby’s steakhouse last week. I’m sorry it took so long for me to write this review. I needed to gather my thoughts and get over the events of last week before I wrote this.

I’d like to start by saying that our server (Sabrina) was awesome. She was very knowledgeable and friendly. She provided great suggestions and was very attentive without being overbearing.

Also, the food is spectacular. Everything we had was wonderful. We ordered several appetizers and a bottle of wine and had an awesome meal. Definitely the quality and presentation that I would expect from a prime steakhouse.

My reason for the two-star rating is two-fold:

1. My friend has a gluten allergy. We asked for the gluten free menu and ordered several items so that we could share. Everything came out and looked and tasted amazing. We ordered lamb chops and they came with a mushroom sauce on the plate. My friend asked the waitress to make sure the sauce was gluten free. Sabrina came back and told us that the sauce was made with a roux to thicken it. She told us that the sauce was NOT gluten free and apologized profusely. The lamb chops (on the gluten free menu) were sitting on the sauce which has gluten! I was extremely irritated by this. I understand if a fast food restaurant made a foolish mistake like this, but a high-end, prime steakhouse should be completely aware of all the ingredients of their “gluten free” menu.

2. My second issue is with how this incident was handled by management. Again, our waitress was great. She said that the managers (plural) would like to buy us a dessert. We aren’t really sweet eaters and were getting quite full, so we respectfully declined the dessert. Sabrina removed the lamb chops from our bill instead of the free dessert. This was a very nice (and completely unnecessary) gesture. I ate the lamb chops, so we had no problem paying for them. Apparently, there were at least 2 managers on duty that evening. Neither one of them came by the table to check on the condition of the customer or offer an explanation or apology. Management decided that instead of addressing this serious issue that could be LIFE THREATENING to some people, they would stay in the back and have our waitress deal with it. Their solution to risking the health and life of a customer was to offer to buy us a slice of cake. Again, I expect this behavior from a fast food restaurant. But, a manager at a high-end, prime steakhouse should have much better customer service skills.

My friend and I completely understand that mistakes happen. I’m so thankful that this happened to us and we were able to bring this issue to management’s attention. My friend’s gluten issue is not life threatening. Hopefully, they will take the necessary actions to ensure that this doesn’t happen to anybody else in the future. I have a nephew who is quite allergic to a few things and this is a very personal issue with me. Again, I understand that mistakes happen, but when you make a mistake that could potentially KILL somebody, the least you should do is quit hiding in the back office and come out and make sure everything is okay!...

Compared to our previous experience dining here in January 2022 (which was excellent), we were extremely disappointed. My wife has Celiac disease and we were pleasantly surprised back in January that they had a lot of options that even included gluten free breads and crostinis for the appetizers. So, for our 18th anniversary we made this our go-to dinner destination. The reservation specified gluten free and we made sure to advise the wait staff because this is not a choice for my wife as it is a medical condition and she is hyper-sensitive to cross contamination. Easy order of steaks, salads, and crostini appetizers. Then we are told that they don't have any GF bread after the waiter checks with kitchen staff. Scratch the appetizer. Salads arrive and my wife's Caesar salad has pieces of clearly brown romaine hearts and wilted lettuce drowned in a water downed dressing that basically tasted like mayonnaise. Scratch the salad. Before we received our entrees, we asked the waiter if any of the dessert options were gluten free and he said he would check. He forgot to find out and we just let it slide. Also took 3 visits from him to remember to refill my drink. We can chalk the no GF breads to supply chain issues or bad ordering on behalf of management, but our service left room for improvement. To top off the evening, somehow something was cross-contaminated and within 30 minutes of completing dinner my wife was miserable. It was a long 65 miles back to our home in Texas and I am not sure I trust this location or their food handling procedures for those with medical and allergy issues.

I hope this was a one off, but we were very disappointed in the drop in quality of the service and the food served compared to our previous experience in January (during the height of supply chain issues and staffing shortages). I may try the location in Southlake in the future, but will not recommend your location and we will most...