The Stockyards Steakhouse — Restaurant in Phoenix

I want to start this review by saying I have NEVER left any sort of negative review online. EVER. I have gone back and forth about leaving this review but I do feel like constructive feedback is important, especially in the SERVICE industry. I also want to preface this by saying I have worked in restaurants for decades. I started as a hostess at 18 years old at an extremely busy steakhouse in downtown Chicago and eventually became a General Manager at a James Beard award-winning restaurant. I know people can be annoying and demanding and it's NOT an easy business. To this day, I run social media accounts for various restaurants because I LOVE RESTAURANTS. I'm saying all of this because I am NOT a Karen. I do feel like people write online reviews just to be rude but this is not the case. I really do hope this review is addressed and hopefully will make a small impact on your historic restaurant.

Anywaysssssss, we had a reservation for 5 people at 5:30pm last Saturday and it was my mom's birthday. I had flown in from Florida for her birthday! I actually had purchased a gift certificate over Christmas as a gift to my parents because I thought we would all love this place! I searched and searched for the perfect steakhouse and found this online! GREAT! The history, the atmosphere, the food, it just all looked really cool! So, we got there, checked in (hostess staff was not smiling- very weird energy) and another hostess walked us to our table. The restaurant was probably 1/4 full (maybe less) because it was only 5:30pm. She attempted to sit us at a LARGE table that was set for SEVEN and we were all confused. I said "Oh we are only 5 people." She said "I know, you can just sit on one side." I have never EVER heard of this. Excuse me? So then my mom said, "I would actually love to sit in a booth." Mind you there were at least FIVE open booths at this time. The hostess went back to the host stand to check and came back and said "All of the booths are reserved." At this point, I'm thinking THIS IS NOT A GREAT START and this is all very strange. We DID have a reservation and 5 people could fit in a booth. You're telling me that every single booth is completely reserved for the night? That's just absolutely not true. I went over to the hostess stand and asked if we could have a booth and the answer was still NO. They are all reserved. I would understand if it was a packed restaurant and we had no reservations but it was 5:30 and we DID have a reservation AND there were multiple booths OPEN.

When you are trained as a hostess (which I hope they are all trained) you can move around reservations to accommodate guests. That's literally what the computer program does. At this point I can tell that my mom is UPSET and I was honestly just majorly confused. THEN, she sits us at a table set for SIX and I asked if she could take away a chair and she acted like I was asking the most unreasonable question. Like I said the restaurant was 1/4 full and it was 5:30. During our 2 hour dinner MULTIPLE booths were vacant. We could of easily gotten a booth. No question.

When we finally sat down we were all SO offended and CONFUSED. The hostess who sat us was just plain RUDE. We don't go out to dinner and spend FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS to feel like that. I told my mom let's just let it go, don't let all of this ruin your night. Meanwhile all of us were just STARING at empty booths.

I will say that our server was GREAT (which is why I gave it 3/5 stars) and the food was good but, honestly, if I were the manager of this historical spot, I would want to know this experience. Also in the service industry, you always want to make sure that your guests are happy, within reason. Some guests are unreasonable but asking for a BOOTH does not fall into that category. I hope your staff can learn from...

I would have loved to have given this restaurant 5 stars, since our previous experiences there have been delightful, however, yesterday, our lunch was an absolutely unpleasant experience. When we sat down, the young man who brought us water was very kind and we thought he would be our server...... Much to our dismay, we got another server: a nasty, rude and extremely unpleasant older man (he never said his name but found out his name is Ron). From the moment we sat down, the 3 of us knew. this would not be a good lunch. He kept pressuring us to order, we kept telling him we needed a little more time. We were there to enjoy lunch and conversation and we could do neither, since he kept interrupting us. This person's demeanor was smug and appalling and the worst part (and we suspected he would do this) when he brought our 3 checks he came back almost immediately to retrieve them while the 3 of us were engaged in coversation he interrupted us, as he did so many times, and demanded 'if we were done' (putting a payment inside). He was constantly hovering or watching us as if he just wanted us to pay and leave. We saw him tending to other tables and his demeanor was very different. We were the only 3 women in that dining room area at that moment...does he have something against women and prefers serving men? I don't know, but it was absolutely unpleasant. One of my friends could not even finish her lunch and had to get a take away container, she had lost her appetite. The three of us enjoy lunch together all the time visiting restaurants all over the valley, from quaint smaller places to larger ones, and we have never had this experience before. Certainly, this person’s attitude is not consistent nor representative of the quality of service you have always extended to us in the past. I don't enjoy writing critiques and would rather write compliments, however, in this case, it...

I moved to Arizona earlier this year and I had discovered this steakhouse by searching for a restaurant that serves steak on google maps. I am so glad I found this place. This week was my birthday and we decided to go celebrate it here and give this place a try. My girlfriend and I had a wonderful time. This restaurant has an amazing atmosphere full of western artwork, historical photos and other beautiful decor. There really is a magical ambience there and the entire time we felt like we had stepped back in time almost. Our server was amazing and explained that our booth was the favorite seat of John Wayne, Barry Goldwater and also that numerous other famous celebrities had sat in the exact same booth as us. This fact alone was awesome but it didn’t stop there. We ordered our food and it was easily among the best I’ve ever had. I got a house salad, New York strip and the parmesan potatoes as my side dish and it was all perfect. My steak was cooked to perfection. The parmesan potatoes were the best potato dish I’ve ever had before. I highly recommend them. My girlfriend ordered the salmon dish with the garlic potatoes and she said it was perfect. At the end of our dinner we were given a choice of dessert to select for my birthday. I ended up choosing the bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and wow it was fantastic. We were too full to eat it at the restaurant but our server kindly agreed to pack it up for us so we could take it home to eat. A few hours later we decided to have it and it is now one of my favorite desserts. Overall you gotta try this place if you enjoy great food and history. This has to be one of the best, if not the best steakhouse in all of Arizona. You will not be disappointed if you come here. I will definitely be back here again and I plan to take family and friends that come...