The Steakhouse — Restaurant in Rancho Mirage

So my mother and I were visiting the casino for the Ron White show and, well aware that it would be busy, I figured I’d try to call on the way to the casino from La Quinta to see if I couldn’t sneak in a last min reservation. I could not, but the v nice operator told me that while the bar was busy it would be first come, first serve and she offered to connect me directly to the restaurant to see if I couldn’t talk with them myself. A rather stern and likely stressed out hostess told me, “No, no spots. No room for a reservation but the bar is first come, first served. You can try that.”

Soooo, we park, and we walk in, past the hostess openly in front of ant least 4 different staff memberships, and into the bar where we find an empty chair next to two gentleman and then another two empty chairs on the other side of the bar. I point out the two to my mom, again, in front of several staff standing right next to me. The gentleman sitting by the empty chair on its own told us he was leaving and we could have his chair. So my mom sits down and we speak with the gentleman for a minute. After, I went to ask the hostess where the restroom was and she directed me. I go, and when I return, my mom standing outside by the hostess…they had booted her from the bar! I ask what she is doing out there and the staff had told her to leave because there was a waitlist for the bar and it had been building since the restaurant open. Mind you I had just called 15 min. Before and everyone I spoke too, kept encouraging for us to go to the bar. Not one peep about a waitlist and there were 3 empty seats.

I explained to the hostess that I had just spoken to someone there and she told me, “No, I had spoken to a resort operator.” I told her again, “Yes I spoke to an operator who directed me straight to the restaurant and I spoke to someone there who told me to go for the bar.” She said, “well you probably spoke to someone at the Palm Desert location.” And AGAIN, I said, “No, the operator specifically asked me which location, Palm Desert or Rancho Mirage?” Then the hostess tried another excuse, “Well, you can’t only have one seat; they won’t serve you unless you are both seated.” And again, I told her, “well the gentleman sitting at next to the empty chair just told me we could have it.” Finally she stopped trying to give excuses and said, “well I can’t do it. I can seat you in an hour.” Mind you, we had mentioned we were seeing the show in less than that time, so she was offering us something she knew we couldn’t take.” THEN a gentleman came over and started with, “Well, you probably just spoke to an operator, not the restaurant…” I was done. We left and I just said what terrible service.

I’ve worked in restaurants as a runner, a server, a bartender, a hostess,…and in LA where people can be v rude. If we told someone bad information and they had a seat, I would never embarrass a party, particularly a mother and daughter by making them leave there seats without offering something else. So rude. Hopefully you have a better experience. I’ll never forget it. So rude...

I love steakhouses and several of my reviews are for steakhouses, so I went into this experience very much wanting to love it. I always assume I will love it.

I did not.

The best I can say about The Steakhouse is that it's average. Average food, average drink. It wasn't anything special. It certainly wasn't the top notch steakhouse experience I've had so much better at other establishments.

The service:

I'm not going to use names because I feel like that would be singling people out who tried hard but missed the mark. We were waited on almost as soon as we sat down. Simple order - sparkling water, iced tea. I asked for ice with the sparkling water. Several minutes pass. Probably ten or more. So I asked again. And I wait. And wait. Finally, my husband got up and got a glass of ice from the bar. The waiter and his assistant returned once or twice during this time, with bread and salad, and never once mentioned the ice or seemed to notice that we even had any. My husband's iced tea glass was drained and remained drained for quite some time. Now, as far as we could tell, these two waiters only had three tables. Four at the most. All were full. But none overwhelmingly so. We finally asked the manager for more iced tea and he came right away. So - the service needs better training and to be more attentive. And when someone asks for something, please get it right away so you don't forget... like our waiters did.

The food:

Average. Nothing special. No 'wow' moments. I had a filet and my husband had pasta. I've had a lot of filets in a lot of places and this one looked... odd. Honestly, when he brought it, I thought it was a meatloaf. It just looked bizarre and certainly not like a steak. I asked for it well done, but whatever they did (I suspect they baked it) took away the moisture from the outer later, smoothed out the marbling, and just made it... weird looking. How did it taste? Okay. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't great. It was tender enough. The Bearnaise sauce, which I typically love, was incredibly tasteless. I was told the chef put tobacco sauce in it, so there was a faint touch of heat, but the rest of it... just bland. My husband's pasta wasn't anything to shout about. Like I said... average.

The ambiance:

It's very nice. Chic decor, nice tables, lovely glassware. And the menus light up so you can actually read them in the dim light! I thought that was a very nice touch.

Overall, this is not a place I would return to. It looks like a top-end steakhouse but tastes like something you'd get in a retirement home. Since they're located in Rancho Mirage, I'm sure many of their customers are elderly who like that kind of bland food. If so, kudos for them for finding a niche. Maybe some of the other dishes are better than what I had, so don't take my word for it. Check it out and make your own judgement. This was only my experience and yours may be...

The restaurant was very busy when we arrived Fridays night. We had a reservation but we still waited several minutes before sitting. We were asked what type of water and bread service was delivered to us which was nice. Our server came by for a cocktail order and asked if we were going to the show tonight .we said yeas . We asked for a third menu as the hostess only gave us 2. We ordered cocktails a pineapple martini an old fashioned and I asked what kind of beer they had . So I ordered a Peroni. several minutes went by and our server came backside the bar is a little backed up but meantime asked if we would like a starter, We declined and said I think we know what we want. We had a wedge salad to start Myself and my husband had the 14oz New York Strip and our friend had the 10oz filet garlic mashed and creamed spinach. A couple minutes later our salads arrived. Mine had barely any dressing so I tried to find someone to ask for more, after several minutes I asked a server assistant for some. Meanwhile we are still waiting for our cocktails. My dressing comes and we eat our salads. Still waiting for our cocktails I see a manager and ask if he could check in to it. After a minute or 2 our cocktails arrived. A martini and old fashioned and a beer which was poured into a pint glass about 3/4 full, so I wasn't sure if it was on tap and they didn't fill it all the way because it usually when someone orders a bottle beer they bring it out and pour in front of you. I actually mentioned to the server he maybe should have waited to pit our food order in until we have a had a chance to relax and have our drinks. He didn't seem to understand that .So food comes and My New York was really good and so were the other steaks the garlic mashed was also good. The creamed spinach was tasty but not a lot of spinach mostly cream and for the price I would have expected more. All in all good food and we...