Lariat Steakhouse — Restaurant in Peoria

Last night was my wife and I'd 6 year anniversary. I wanted to make a night that was memorable and we did. We came into the store around 7. We were seated fairly quickly and then waited roughly 20 minutes to even get a drink order taken. They had 1 server taking care of 7 different tables that had anywhere between 2-5 people. No manager in sight to help alleviate the times and pressure. It also didn't help that one table in particular was getting circled over and over by the waitress "Kelly".

We ordered the potato skins. They scooped out 85%of the potato and left mostly the skin itself. It was so hard and dry that my wife and I ate one each and couldn't stomach anymore.

The salad they produced was somehow worse. My wife said that hers tasted like Kraft (not uncommon but still shady.) And mine tasted like vinegar water. Again, we couldn't stomach much more than a few bites.

I asked for the manager and heard a very loud "WHAT DOES HE WANT?" From around the corner before an old man came over and tried to stare me down. When I complained that their "Italian house" dressing was disgusting, I got told "well people say they like our dressing." No apologies, no offer to replace, nothing. Same with the potato skins. I just didn't want them thinking that I was trying to get free food. I had money and was willing to spend it on GOOD FOOD. The most I was offered was "we will take care of the potato skins".

My wife and I ordered steak. I ordered the T-Bone (Medium) and my wife the ribeye (mid-rare). While they both came out sizzling (product of oil on a hot pan to plump up the fanfare. See how chili's does it too) both of ours were damn near well done. Not to mention my steak got stuck to the pan and the waitress watched me struggle to get it loose and laughed. The final straw was the French fries (limp, ends burnt, and soggy). I immediately asked for the check. I wasn't going to complain any further since they weren't going to apologize or fix it. Upon realizing that this meal wasn't going to get any better, in fact it kept getting worse, I just wanted to leave.

So that brings me to the end of the meal. I got our bill and was still charged 117$ including the 11.50$ potato skins. So I took my bill up and asked for the manager (this time pissed). I demanded to know why I'm still being charged for the potato skins and he gave me a very flimsy "we were waiting until you were done with your steak". Bullshit. You were hoping that the steak was so good that I'd forget about the rest of the crap meal I was served and hopefully pay it all. When he asked what my problem was, I tried to get him to go back to our table and see exactly what I was talking about. He refuses. So I got louder and much more rude (why wouldn't I when I'm being charged full price for old/bad food)

I even offered to let it all go if I could go back and teach the chefs how to cook. They said I was going to far.

After reading the reviews of others over the past year, I have some thoughts as a 20 year food service vet.

Fire your entire staff. They are all rude and a GM that doesn't try and keep business is losing you money hand over fist.

Apologize. It's very simple and it makes the customer feel like they care. If I had a bad experience, who are you to tell me I'm wrong?

Update the restaurant part of the business. It looks like uncle bucks cabin. There is a reason most of your customers are elderly. No one young wants to come in and sit in what can only be described as a log cabin to eat a steak. You are the Lariet Club, not Roadkill by the Side.

This place is a joke. Longhorn has waaaaay better...

I try not to write negative reviews because there can be so many factors that make one experience at a business bad but that is not the norm. However, that being said this was not a situation where I can even say that. The highlight of our dinner was the very dimmly lit buffalo head over the mantle. From there things went downhill. Our server was friendly, if a little bit over zealous at times and not there at times we wished he was. As the building has several rooms it was impossible to flag him down if he wasn't in the room. The service was good overall however. That's where the positive ends. My partner ordered the full slab rib dinner (34.99)with garlic mashed potatoes, I ordered the ribeye smaller portions (39.99) also with the garlicky mashed and we shared an appetizer of onion rings. I knew we were probably not going to have the best dinner when the onion rings came out so grease laden that I was able to squeeze it out of the breading on the onion rings. They were however fresh cut onions and fresh battered just slightly undercooked and extremely greasy. Next came the main course. The ribs were indeed tender but lacked flavor throughout the rib and was overwhelmed by the abundance of barely warm BBQ sauce that was globbed on the meat without any thought to glazing them or to the fact that it would literally fall off the ribs instead of sticking to them. My ribeye was very small for the price point and while I will say it was cooked as ordered it had nearly no seasoning or marinade flavoring except one small portion which appeared to have all the flavor in one small 1 by 2 inch spot. It had the consistency of and strongly reminded me of the steaks we used to get at Ponderosa or Bonanza. It left me whole unsatisfied. Hoping that the mashed potatoes would make up for the lack I found myself deeply disappointed in Luke warm mostly and straight cold in some spots mashed potatoes that did have a good consistency but no garlic flavor to the garlic mashed, My partner suffered a similar fate and I can tell you this ..if there is food left on his plate at the end of a meal it was either a very large portion or it was very bad food ...and this was not a portion thing. As someone who has no issues dropping my hard earned money on a good meal, this experience left me disappointed in pretty much every way. The building was pretty but it was not worth over 100 dollars to have to hit up McDonald's on the way home so my partner wasn't hungry! Try one of the big chain steakhouses you will have a...

Good, not great. First impression, “are we in the right place?” No, none, signage. Found out later there was a broken sign near the road but not anything in the building. Walked in to a cavernous cold bar area that would have felt conspicuous and odd to sit in. Glanced at the liqour selection, looked minimal, maybe 8 bourbons? Not what I would expect from a top dollar steak house. Server was friendly and good. A few glitches with the sever support. Over anxious bus boy who wanted to snatch up you dish barely after you took your last spoonful. Our crab and artichoke baked appetizer was mostly cheese. While it was delicious it was sparse on crab or artichoke. There was a dry looking orange slice and scraps of red cabbage as a garnish, may as well skipped those, it was the center of jokes. French onion soup was delicious. House salad looked pretty average and didn’t scream fresh crisp or even plentiful greens, could easily be jazzed up. MANY steaks on the menu didn’t list size, very odd and almost felt like it was “you will get what you get”. Steaks were delicious. Sides were average, we only had the rice and some very overcooked mushy vegetables. Watched the bus boys lack of training as he cleaned off tables, be sure to check your chair before you sit down, watch elbows and where you step, you might sit on or step on someone’s scraps. Tables is only wiped where “he saw” crumbs. A couple odd things with our bottle of wine, wine glasses were oddly small, red wine was served chilled and it came to the table already open. Open bottles are not a total surprise for a lesser price point establishment but with $30-$40 steaks? By the way, it was a screw cap wine bottle, I’m sure the server could have opened it. Overall decent, needs a bit of refinement to match the...