Twenty One Steak — Restaurant in Pueblo

During my travels as a first responder, I often make it a point to explore local restaurants. Upon arriving in Pueblo, I had the opportunity to dine at Twenty one Steak, a restaurant that caught my interest. However, my experience at this establishment has been less than satisfactory. Typically, I give a restaurant a few chances before deciding to take my business elsewhere. Unfortunately, after visiting this franchise with my family, who had traveled all the way from Atlanta, GA, I have reached that point. On 9/19/23, my family, consisting of a group of diverse individuals (melanated Kings and Queens), visited this establishment with the hope of enjoying a delightful dinner before their departure the following morning. To our surprise, the negative and inadequate customer service we received left us wishing we had chosen a different place to dine. Firstly, our server failed to check on us regularly, and even requesting something as simple as water or lemon seemed like an inconvenience. The lemon was carelessly placed on the table in a napkin, directly touching the surface. When we politely asked for a container to hold the lemon, our server responded with disapproval and brought another lemon on a napkin once again. Upon requesting to speak with a manager, we were met with a dismissive attitude from our server's superior, Toni. She attempted to justify our server's behavior by claiming that it would have taken too long to properly plate our lemon, resulting in it being served on a napkin. Despite several party members having experience in the restaurant industry, Toni’s response was a disgrace. She proceeded to say, “ I knew your kind was going to be a problem.” We were astounded by her statement. Toni’s attitude towards us coupled with our server’s attitude is unacceptable in a restaurant business as it’s “bad business.” Toni showed no interest in addressing our concerns and even encouraged us to report her by saying, “ Here is my business card and you can share them with as many people as you would like to report me and I am not going anywhere.” She laughed and told us that we’re ridiculous. To add insult to injury, gratuity was already added to our bill despite the poor service we received. Our experience at this establishment was so negative that we vowed never to return and would discourage friends, families, and even animals from ever visiting as this restaurant does not care for people of...

I've been going back and forth about how I feel about our most recent experience here. Last week, we decided to go to celebrate my birthday. We've been several times before and have always had nothing short of an amazing time. This time, not so much.

For starters, our reservation was for 8PM. We arrived about 10 minutes before our reservation and were told that they were just waiting for tables to clear out and that we would be seated shortly. No worries at all, so we wait. And wait. Finally 10 minutes after our reservation time, I go in to see if everything was okay. Told the same thing again and that they'd seat us soon. We wait another 10 minutes (now 20 minutes AFTER our reservation time) and then go ask again. It takes them another 5-10 minutes to get us our table (just two of us mind you. Not like we were a large group by any means.)

So, after almost 30 minutes after our scheduled reservation, we finally get our table. We sit down and our server comes over and takes our drink order. He was very kind, but seemed super nervous and very incompetent. It really felt like it was his first hour as a service professional ever. Anyway, he brings our drinks and we ask to order our meals. We both always get the Bistro steak, and when we ask to order it, he tells us that they're all out. We both say okay and order the chicken. Again, he says they're out. He then says they're also out of the tomahawk steak for two as well. Eventually my husband settles for a burger and I ordered the filet trio thing.

Here's where the largest issue of the night happened. My husband has a thing with burgers being under done. It literally turns his stomach if they're even remotely considered Rare. So, knowing this, he ordered his burger Medium Well. I am not exaggerating when I say that his burger was RAW. We sent it back and it took almost 15 minutes for them to bring it back out. Clear that it had just sat on the line for 10 minutes and then tossed in an oven for maybe 5. He took a bite and it was still raw.

Our server came back to check on us and obviously my husband hadn't eaten. He asked if we wanted a to go box and we declined and he said "you sure? There's not a dog at home that would like it at least?"

The whole thing was just meh. Especially because we have had such wonderful experiences...

My husband and I went here for our 21st anniversary. The atmosphere was warm, cozy, inviting and even a bit romantic. Our waiter was quite attentive but not so much that we didn't have space to talk. He refreshed our drinks frequently and made sure everything was to our liking. We started by ordering the spinach artichoke dip to start, it was different than anywhere else I have ever ordered it from and came with what appeared to be seasoned sopapilla strips. The dip was thick, not soupy or stringy, sticky or overly cheesy and absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Best I have EVER had anywhere. Then we ordered drinks, we got what's called the flood. It is silver rum, gold rum, passion fruit juice, orange juice lime juice, and a black cherry liqueur. It was amazing too. After some consideration we ordered our main course. We got the tomahawk ribeye for two medium rare. It also was delicious!! It had been blackened due to the dry rub compliment I asked to be added but paired with their 21 butter it was superb.... And I don't even like blackened food!!! Our side was the potato croquettes. The pepper jack cheese oozed from the center like white lava and absolutely melted in your mouth. We decided that we would then take a look at the dessert menu, also something we don't normally do. But we figured what the hey, why not. So we got the Vanilla Porter cheesecake which was sublimely done to perfection and Nana's midnight chocolate and espresso cake. I don't even like chocolate cake but it was the moistest, divine cake I have ever eaten. I will never eat chocolate cake anywhere else ever again. It was that good!!! In the middle of our dessert a woman whom had been working and walking all over for our visit approached us and apologized for not coming over to us sooner and wished us a happy anniversary and blessed us by not charging for one of our desserts! That was definitely the cherry on top of an amazing meal and end to a wonderful evening. We will definitely be coming back!!! Thank you Twenty One Steak for a delicious meal and a...