STK Steakhouse — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

The service is just not up to par with the prices. I wish this place would have taken a bit more time to train their staff before opening.

When sat I asked our waiter about two different bottles of wine and he literally could not tell me one thing about either. I asked if he at least knew if it was a red or white and he word for word says “um I think it should be a white” - servers at Olive Garden know their wine selection why does a restaurant to this caliber not?

After ordering the waiter didn’t take our menus back nor did the food runner when they brought out our apps even though there was clearly no room for them. After trying to keep them on my lap until the waiter comes back while trying to enjoy our food i eventually just gave them to the host. Again, this isn’t chilis where they have menu holders on the table, this is suppose to be a designer restaurant.

Then the wrong side was brought out to us. No big deal but when I told the runner we ordered something else without hesitation he looks at me and goes “I only have two hands” - I told him like no we didn’t even order what you brought to us. When the correct one was brought not even an apology just an “im confused” and then he blew me a kiss??? - that’s what servers at a dive bar do not at fine dining.

After the sides were brought out the manager came and checked in on us. She asked about the issue with the side (I guess the runner told her?) we told her it was all good we just didn’t want to take someone else’s food. No apology she just says that the side we went back is really good. I mean cool I guess I’ll remember that for next time? After she took our appetizer plates and said she would bring us our entree plates.

Five minutes go by and we have our sides but no steak or entree plates so we’re kinda just sitting there watching food get cold. A runner brings out our porterhouse but says nothing and also doesn’t notice that we don’t have any plates (this goes back to not training staff, a runner at a place of this price should recognize this issue and have the ability to fix it, like you mean to tell me he doesn’t know where the plates are?)

Seeing our waiter busy with another table I look for our waitress because now we have our sides and steak getting cold. I see her in the distance chatting with I’m assuming another member of management… I thought she said she was going to bring us plates? Finally she catches my eyes sees that we don’t have plates, comes over to the table doesn’t apologize about it but yet still makes a fuss that “NOBODY HAS BROUGHT YALL PLATES AND YOURE JUST SITTING HERE?” We laugh it off while she runs to our server and scolds him to bring us plates in front of another one of his tables.

Again this goes to lack of training, I watched the manager just stand and chat for 10 minutes without doing what she said she would & when she noticed we still didn’t have plates instead of being a leader/team player & just bringing them herself she scolded her employees in front of customers and made it a bigger deal that it needed to be. And ever since that the waiter was less friendly with us, it made us feel like we did something rude or wrong when in reality we just wanted to eat our nice meal that we’re paying for fresh and hot.

Finally after our bottle and desert was finished the waiter asks about the check. We were hesitant to ask because of the treatment from the rest of the dinner but I remind our waiter that the prefix menu option we chose came we a glass wine that was never offered to us… my boyfriend didn’t want to mention it in fear of being a problem but when you are paying high dollar for something you deserve what you pay for. He brings out our glasses and the check. We pay finish our drinks and leave and even leave a 22% tip to show that we were not some cheap 20 something’s there to cause problems even though the service was deserving of something along the lines of 15%

Overall the food and atmosphere and fun and great but the staff and service is that of a low end chain restaurant and not a fine...

ETA: they reached out to me after this review to offer a chance to “make things right”. The email made it sound like a night on the house. When I tried to clarify if that was the case for my group due to their wording, I got nothing. Crickets. Ghosted. This review stands.

TLDR: loud place, mediocre food, questionable pricing, overall flash over substance kind of vibe. Pick a different steakhouse for better food/price. 2 stars so it’s not deleted

We went out to celebrate a promotion & some other life events. Our friend arrived first while we were struggling to find parking. We tried to see if there was a valet option, but no one was manning that booth.

We were told that the bill couldn’t be split by what each person ordered, which is weird. Everyone in our group has traveled internationally and this isn’t a problem we typically run into. One in our group has been to 85+ countries, and not run into this ever.

We were given these celebratory mocktail shots that were tasty. We weren’t told they weren’t free & they were priced like they might be. Some might think, “Well duh that wouldn’t be free.” However, we’ve all been to several steak houses where they’ll provide dessert or something on the house for celebrations. Since it was pitched that way, we were under the impression that it was STK’s version of that. They were $10 each for a non alcoholic shot.

The steaks were barely room temperature. The cuts were overpriced for what they were. It made me infinitely glad I didn’t order the wagyu! I know of a few steakhouses within a few blocks of STK where the meat would’ve been a better cut/price. I immediately regretted not choosing one of those places, but kept hoping to salvage the night since the mocktail shot was tasty. I was worried that maybe I was overthinking things. Then the rest of the food came out. One friend ordered well done & it came back medium. The sides were only ok. The brussel sprouts had basically no bacon (we only found one piece at the bottom of the plate) and some were charred vs others being barely cooked. The tater tots were overly salty. The steak had very little flavor. The asparagus was also mild in flavor.

When we asked for boxes, the busser verified that we wanted the food boxed up (admittedly in an attempt to maybe salvage the food at home somehow) & then proceeded to either forget or ignore what he’d just confirmed, & place dirty napkins/plates on top of the food that needed to be boxed. The server had to run after him to tell him to not throw it out. Most reputable places would find a way to fix this by offering a replacement or some other alternative. They boxed up the now dirty food & called it good. From the vantage point at our table, I watched as they cleared the plates into dirty dish bins & had absolutely no confidence in eating or touching that food after that.

The bathrooms had full private stalls, but the room width is too tiny for the door so it’s awkward to get in & out. The general set up of the sinks (visible plywood underneath) makes me wonder if they were just rushing to open the restaurant without caring about the details. The rest of the main dining area had Instagram picture worthy details that stood out. The plywood at the sinks really seemed out of place. It was mostly clean.

The survey (while paying) had an option to choose the environment as loud, which is also telling. If that’s an option in the survey, it means they’re being told by several people it shouldn’t be that loud. If employees & customers can’t hear, it’s a problem.

The server mentioned that only by getting good surveys do the employees get chosen for good shifts. I did give her a good comment in the survey as I was paying, but mostly because I’m not sure how she could’ve controlled the kitchen cooking meat more correctly or the busser or whatever strange rule STK has about spilt payments. If she were trained at a different place, she’d probably be doing much better than at STK.

The overall vibe as the night went on was that this place is all flash, no substance. Utterly...

This has to be the most bizarre experience I ever had in Salt Lake City.

We made reservations to sit outside, arrived and promptly were directed to our table, I noticed this beautiful ambiance inside and outside settings completely empty, I thought that was a bit weird for 10:40 in the morning but didn't think much more about it until we got a little deeper into the experience.

The waiter takes a good 5+ minutes to approach our table and when he did, instead of traditionally asking what kind of water we would like to have, he started pouring flat water into our glasses, something one would experience only at highway dinners in the middle of nowhere. We travel a lot, and we avoid drinking flat water simply because when served from a jar, we wouldn't know if it's safe to drink.

We requested sparkling water instead, a cappuccino and Irish Coffee, and placed our order of Oysters, 10oz Filet and Avocado Toast.

About 7 min goes by and the waiter shows up with one Cappuccino, leaves, and a few more minutes later shows up with an Irish Coffee, another 5 min goes by and the water finally arrives. At least he was kind enough to bring some limes, we honestly forgot to ask for it but definitely appreciated the unsolicited gesture.

Roughly 5 min pass and our Oysters came, they were fresh but not that favorable, Oysters are always a hit and miss depending the region and season they are harvested, but as I said, at least they were fresh.

When the main course arrived, there was a strong foul smell coming from the steak, I ate a small piece and almost immediately I felt uneasy, my wife stopped eating her toast after the first bite because the smell of the steak was so unbearably disgusting.

I called the server back, had him smell the steak and the server had a disgusted face after smelling it and started to apologize and said he would call the manager to come talk to me. I told him not to bother and just remove both dishes from the bill, let us pay and leave.

A couple of minutes goes by, some guy with greasy hair in a cheap suit identifying as the manager comes by and asks "what seems to be the problem?", a very puzzling question considering what we just experienced, I asked him if the server described to him the problem and if he had the chance to smell the steak, he said that yes, both him and the Chef did and there was nothing wrong with it.

I told him that he likely had lost his sense of smell and the Chef was probably desensitized since he is working with this food all day. There was no reason for me to continue the Interaction, so I again requested the bill to which he was reluctant to give it to me because he did not want me to leave "upset", after asking twice more to just drop the discussion, and let me pay and go, he finally decides to comply and leaves.

The server returns with the bill, this time downplaying his original reaction, saying that it wasn't that bad and noticeably uncomfortable as if he just got himself in trouble.

The manager failed to at least apologize and hold themselves accountable for the horrible experience, he made every effort to turn this on me as if I was overreacting, for those who bothered to read this far, I invite you to read my other reviews, if there's one thing I understand really well is red meat..

My recommendation: The Utah Health department should make them an unannounced inspection, then the owners should scrap the entire team and start over again, they didn't follow basic Restaurant etiquette, the manager lacked experience, ability to handle conflicts, sophistication and finesse, every word he used to "try to solve the problem" only aggravated the situation further.

The Steak made my wife lose her appetite after the first bite, we didn't know if either dish was safe to eat.

It's important to point out, it was almost noon when this bizarre interaction finally came to an end, and there was only one other couple inside the restaurant.

Response to Jason: I have nothing else to add to my dining experience and I can't help you any further. Review...