Spencer's For Steaks and Chops Salt Lake City — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

This has been my absolute favorite steakhouse for years, and I've been telling everyone to try it out, but after this last experience I will tell people to not go here. To say that I'm disappointed is an understatement, the lack of service, or ownership of mistakes made by Spencer's and it's staff that I experienced on 2/13 was the worst experience I've had at any restaurant ever.

My wife and I of 40+ years went for our Valentine's date on 2/13 to avoid the crowd as we always do, and this year we chose my favorite steakhouse, Spencer's. We both got the porterhouse as it's a cut of meat not readily available and it is my personal favorite, I enjoy my cook on steaks at medium rare. My wife tends to order what I order, except she orders well done. We also doffer in how we sauce and eat our steaks, I like lots of sauce and toppings, and my wife doesn't.

When the food got to our table, our server gave me a steak and said it was medium rare, and gave my wife her steak and said it was the well done steak. I excitedly started putting my sauces on my steak and cut into it ready to eat and I was met with a well done steak. My wife on the other hand had no sauce and toppings on the steak given to her as she doesn't like steak sauce, and she had a medium rare cook.

Her steak which was sauced up and in front of me was completely ruined for her palate, so I got the servers attention and explained she had given the steaks to the wrong person, and explained that as it was now my wife wouldn't eat it. As it was given to us and we were told which was which I didn't double check, with the amount of money the steaks cost I foolishly didn't check before preparing my meal and I understand that it is also a mistake in part on my end, but it should never have happened in the first place at an establishment as expensive and renown as Spencer's.

The manager was called over to address the issue, I don't remember his name but he was a thin, brunette haired young man with a goatee. He "comped" the well done steak that was sauced, said since we didn't like it he'd take it away, and as he finished speaking he snatched it up and walked off. We asked our waiter if we'd get another steak, if we could buy another steak, if they'd do anything to take ownership or fix the issue, to which we were told no, and they wouldn't explain why.

My wife went home without eating steak, at a steak restaurant. We asked to speak to the manager again twice and he never came back. Needless to say this ruined the entire evening, and we both left frustrated and unhappy.

Do not go to Spencer's, please save yourself the time, money, and energy. Any place that treats it's customers like this should be ashamed of themselves.

That young manager with the brunette hair and goatee shouldn't be allowed to see customers, he shouldn't be in the customer service and food industry, and he should have come back to speak to us and give us options which I was happy to pay for as I mentioned previously, as clearly he wasn't going to make it right.

If I could leave a review lower than 1...

For full disclosure, I am very particular with steak and have very high expectations when I order a steak.

The short story is that, despite how particular I am with steak, the food was greater than average in most areas. Good enough that I will certainly be back in to try another cut of steak and see how the feedback is attended to.

The steak I ordered was a 30 day wet-aged 14oz Prime Ribeye cooked to a medium rare +. It came out in a timely manner and was the proper temperature, I could tell they allowed the steak to sit before serving which helped. It was medium rare + for the most part but parts of the steak were medium to even medium-well. This was not because of lack of cooking properly, but it's because the cut they were working with was fairly thin (perhaps only 1/2of an inch in some areas). This is my first complaint, I hope they offer a thicker cut (1 1/2 to 2 inches) of Ribeye in the future. I think the next time I order I will see how much thicker their bone-in Ribeye is.

The seasoning was well done, however, I can tell they used finely ground salt (equivalent of table salt) on the steak which dissolves and only flavors the outside. Again, not badly done but could be majorly improved if they use coarsely ground salt and are a bit more generous with the salt. The pepper was coarsely ground and the perfect amount of seasoning, but a steak lacking the proper bite of salt flavor will often lack consistent moisture as well. Parts of the steak were juicy but I found parts to be erring on the side of dry. Coarse salt will help draw out moisture from the fat marbled throughout the steak to get more juicy flavor inside. That's the main purpose of salt for steak, but table salt won't be as effective at drawing out moisture from fat. This is the 2nd complaint I have with the steak but it's easily remedied by changing out the salt used. Also, adding most but not all of the salt during the first bit of cooking, then adding a final bit of salt when the steak begins to open up/feather out will give you a much more tender and flavorful steak. If they consider training the kitchen on this to take the steaks to the next level, I would update my review to 5 stars.

In all, the food was very good. The Steak I would rate an 8 out of 10 because of the lack of coarse salt and how thin the cut was (which caused uneven cooking). I will update this review below if these seem to be fixed in the future, as I will certainly be back to try it out again. Overall a very good job however, and nearly...

12-16 My birthday dinner with my wife. To preface I have eaten here a lot over the past 20+ years going back to the Cigar club days. We started with drinks and onion soup. The drinks were really good as usual. The onion soup was incredible! For some reason this time the soup was even better than usual and it was the best onion soup I have ever had. We ordered 2 sides, Mac and cheese and wild mushrooms. The Mac and cheese was really good and I highly recommend it. The mushrooms were lackluster in flavor but there was a nice variety of different wild mushrooms. As a mushroom lover I was underwhelmed and wouldn't order them again. My wife had the Wagu filet, I ordered the Prime ribeye. The Wagu filet was incredible. Prepared exactly as ordered this steak had a crust that looked like a meteorite and melted in your mouth. This is what we came for. The Ribeye is where things went wrong. When they set it down it crossed my mind that this could be a prank. The steak had no sear at all. It was so pale you could barely see the lines where it touched the cooking surface. I ordered it medium rare and to their credit it was medium rare but the crust was non existent. It looked like they cooked it to temp and planned to sear it at the end of the cook and never did! I have had better prepared steaks with my breakfast at truck stops. This was supposed to be the highlight of my birthday and it was horrible! Of coarse it was edible but no where near the quality I expect from this place. I should have said something but it was so wrong I didn't think they had the capacity to do it right. I would have sent it back but I would rather lick a urinal than trust a kitchen after sending back food. The desserts were great as usual and comped for my birthday I thought that was really nice. Our server Hayley was great. We did enjoy the night with the exception of my steak. Stick with the Filet if you go...