Stout’s Signature — Restaurant in San Antonio

My boyfriend and I skipped doing Valentine's Day until this weekend since we both worked and we knew it would be busy that day. I made a reservation and also paid for parking ahead of time since there was an event going on at the Tobin Center the same time as our reservation. With this planning ahead, it made for getting in to park and grab our table at Stout's really easy and quick. We had Mat who is the restaurant manager as our server and overall everything from the food to the service was awesome. Mat brought us some flowers for our table to make it more romantic since we were celebrating late Valentine's Day and was very attentive even when my boyfriend was getting way too into discussing whiskey and other spirits lol. We ordered the duck wings as an appetizer and I have never been a fan of blue cheese but the blue cheese dip with it was actually very good. The sauce on the wings had a great balance of sweet and spicy and the wings were perfectly crispy without being dry. The sangria drink special for Valentine's Day was absolutely wonderful too, not too dry or too sweet and a bit potent with the wine and vodka combination. My boyfriend got a smoked whiskey cocktail that I wasn't a fan of, but he really enjoyed it. For my entrée I got Tristan's filet and subbed broccolini for the asparagus and that was the best broccolini I've ever had. I loved that the fingerling potatoes included purple potatoes as they have a more earthy flavor that I enjoy. The filet was cooked to a perfect medium rare and the chimichurri and compound butter gave everything on the plate such wonderful flavors. My boyfriend got the burger and it was easily one of the best burgers we've had in San Antonio and we've tried quite a few places since moving here over a year ago. It was juicy (not greasy), flavorful, the meat was freshly ground before cooking and the sweet sourdough bun was a great addition to the flavors it had going on. We had bread pudding for dessert and the caramel sauce was so good, better than my homemade caramel sauce that I make for the apple pie I bake every Christmas. The attention to detail at Stout's is awesome and you can tell that everything is made with fresh ingredients and flavor is infused fully into each dish. We spent about $200 total on everything (I had a glass of wine in addition to the sangria and we added vanilla gelato to the bread pudding) not including tip, but it was worth the quality and flavor of food as well as the friendly service and relaxing atmosphere. We will definitely be back for our next special occasion, Stout's hands down lives up to it's 5...

Sadly just read the other low reviews, maybe I should have filtered and read those first. Seems the salt issue has happened before and I was shocked by the owners response to some people.

I’m honestly shocked by how many positive reviews this restaurant has and its high ratings. We went last Friday, and during our entire visit, there were only about three other occupied tables. The service was painfully slow. We waited over 10 minutes just for someone to greet us—probably a red flag we should've paid attention to.

After we finally ordered, it took around 30 minutes to get our appetizer, and then another 25 minutes or so for our main courses. Anytime I needed something, I had to physically get up and find someone—our server was nowhere to be found.

I ordered a salad, and my husband got the Chilean Sea Bass. He took one bite and was immediately shocked by how salty it was—and he always adds salt to his food, so for him to say that, it had to be extremely salty. He thought maybe it was just the broccoli underneath the fish. When our server came by to ask how the meal was, my husband hesitated but ended up just nodding and saying it was fine. The server clearly noticed the hesitation but didn’t follow up and just walked off.

Since my husband couldn’t eat the dish, I told him to let them know. We waited nearly 10 more minutes, and when no one came, I got up and found the hostess myself. She took the plate and assured us they’d remake it right away.

Just before the new dish came out, our server returned and apologized, saying he wasn’t even aware we were waiting for a remake. He offered dessert on the house, and I told him to bring whatever he recommended. My husband received the new plate—and it had zero seasoning. Clearly, they were trying to make a point. A few minutes later, the server returned and sarcastically asked if the dish was too salty this time.

By then, we just wanted to finish and leave—we had already been there almost two hours. The bread pudding finally came, and honestly, it was delicious. But the server kept making snide remarks like “not too salty, right?” and went on and on about how they make their dessert—all while still referencing the saltiness and making jokes about it.

I paid the bill and we left. Unfortunately, my husband ended up feeling sick for hours after the meal. Needless to say, we won’t be returning.

Sadly just read the other low reviews, maybe I should have filtered and read those first. Seems the salt issue has happened before and I was shocked by the owners response to...

This place is fantastic.

This is the kind of place, if I were going to be a proprietor of a restaurant, that I would want my restaurant to be. I would want to make food you want to eat that is both unique and delicious. I would want to make drinks that are both tasty and above the ordinary (bonus points if they allow your staff to light stuff on fire as part of the daily oeuvre.) I would want my staff to be both knowledgeable and highly engaged with their clientele, to the point that chatting with a table like you’re old buds is just a regular Tuesday. I would also take allergies as seriously as Stout’s did—my wife has some severe allergies and they checked everything and made sure we were good. I go to my fair share of restaurants and have had experiences from the abysmal to the enjoyable, but occasionally I get the rare treat to eat at a place that makes restauranting what it could be at its very best—an experience worth remembering.

Our server was Mathew, and he was tremendous. Every recommendation he made was spot on. He was funny and engaging and we probably could have chatted for another hour or so. He also even welcomed us to chill out inside while Mother Nature loosed herself on San Antonio. We were here past close and the bartender Amanda was super friendly and gracious and allowed us to stay, have a drink, discuss the finer points of old fashioneds and the use of vermouth in drinks, while we were trying to not melt in the torrential downpour. I had the prosciutto-wrapped chicken and also the Colorado Carajillo—both were highlights on a menu that had no misses. Just all around fantastic food and hospitality, like the food and hospitality industry should be.

This place was on my radar because 5.0 stars on 3,000-something reviews is probably not wrong. Guess what? 5.0 stars on 3,000-something reviews is NOT wrong. Bravo!...