Daniel's Broiler — Restaurant in Seattle

I write this review to express my disappointment with the restaurant and specifically, Manager Stephanie. My wife and I had placed a dinner reservation for our 3rd year wedding anniversary, and looked forward for a while to dining here. We were sat in our table, and soon after, were greeted by our waiter whom either seemed disinterested in serving us, or was having a bad night. This was evident by his lack of friendly facial expressions, or simply asking "how is your evening?" Couple minutes pass, he stops by to give us our bread, but places it on the very end of our 8-seater round booth, in which we physically had to get up and get it. No big deal, right? I drank my water, and waited several minutes before I had to flag him down for a refill. This happened on two other occasions. I would think that if I am going to a so-called high-end steakhouse, the service would be topnotch, and the things I am describing would be an absolute no-no. The only pleasant experience so far was the food, which was good and met my expectations as to what a $80 steak would taste like. After dinner, my wife orders a desert. A few minutes after ordering, the waiter reaches over my shoulder from the area slightly above us to place the utensils on our table, which then I had to place on my wife's side. I thought this was very unprofessional, and rude. The next part is really the reason why I am writing this review. I normally let stuff like this go, as I rarely care to take the time to complain or write bad reviews. Our waiter brings our bill, which of course includes their 20% "service charge." I am normally on average a really good tipper, as I usually tip anywhere on average 20-30% for overall good service. Even though I thought we got pretty crappy service, I still paid the full $260.xx which our tab was. I decided to pay the amount in cash, and we decided to leave the restaurant. For me, the food was good and ultimately that's really what I cared about the most. After walking to our car and starting it up, my wife gasps and says "oh my God, look!" I looked over to my left, and there was our waiter huffing and puffing having pretty much raced to our vehicle. I slowly roll down my windows and ask "can I help you?" He opens his black leather wallet with our receipt tab on it, and looks at me in a coyishly way and says "did you forget to pay your tab?" Stunned, I said "No, I actually paid in full cash, and even gave a bit more than the tab was since I didn't even want to wait for change." He looked looked down on his tab and paused, as if we were lying and said "stay right here and I will go check." My wife looks over at me, and says this is not right, this is complete BS. I was honestly so caught off guard, and felt so embarrassed for doing absolutely nothing wrong. I decided to walk back into the restaurant to find out what happened to our money that I had placed in with my tab, and also to find out why he felt the need to run after us. I never like to play the race card, but it's hard to not wonder if it was because we have distinct non-caucasian features? Our server was an older white male, this is the only reason why I would bring this up after such an awful ending to our evening. The server walks back to the entrance, and was surprised to see me back. This is when he starts to profusely apologize and tells me that there was a miscommunication with another server grabbing our money, blah blah blah. As I am with most situations, I said "ok no problem" and walked out. When I got back into the car, my wife was shaken and so very upset about what had just occurred. She wanted me to call and make the complaint to the manager, which I did. I called shortly before they closed, and spoke with a lady by the name of Stephanie. I explained our entire experience. I explained to her how appalled we were by the way the server handled himself, and how rude that was. Stephanie assured me that she would speak to the server, and get back to us right away. It has now been a week and no call. We won't come back....

Long time Daniel's customer, very disappointed by recent visit.

My wife and I have been going to Daniel's Broiler for the past 15 years, and it's our absolute favorite steakhouse in the Seattle region. We typically go to the South Lake Union location, but this time we tried the location at Leschi.

With Covid being a concern, we considered outdoor dining but opted for indoor.

Upon our arrival, we had a very odd and uncomfortable interaction with the Hostess. Once I provided my name and reservation time (5:30pm), she said, "Just so you know, we need the table back by 7:30pm".

We were seated towards the windows, but not at them. I normally request a window seat and also make note of any special occasion, but this time I was unable to do so. It was my wife's birthday, and there was no easy way to let them know of this. So I sat with my back to the window, so my wife could have the views of Lake Washington, which were breathtaking.

The menu was very paired down from previous experience and appetizers were heavy on the seafood, which my wife and I do not eat. In the past, there were Parmesan Truffle Fries, but those were taken off the menu, according to our waitress. So I just ordered a Diet Coke, while my wife went ahead and ordered a sparking rose.

We both ordered the filets, 8oz for my wife and 12oz for myself. We would have loved to order an appetizer, but again, the menu was very limited and had only a couple non-seafood options.

The steaks arrived, and generally the waitress would cut into them to confirm doneness. This didn't happen this time, but I would just assume that's a Covid thing. Doesn't matter, the steaks and garlic mashed potatoes were delicious, as always. While eating, I finished my Diet Coke and when the waitress finally came around to see us, I requested a refill. After about 10-15 minutes of not receiving my refill, despite our waitress continuing to come around tables near us, we got nothing.

Finally, another waitress popped by, perhaps a manager or supervisor, and asked how everything was going. I had stopped eating while waiting for my drink. I let them know I had been waiting for my Diet Coke for some time now, and they apologized and went to get it very quickly.

After finishing our food, we requested the dessert menu in hopes some of our favorites were on there. In the past, we'd gotten the creme brulee or chocolate lava cake. Neither were there. The options were limited once again, and nothing sounded good. So while we would normally be in for a 3-course meal and spend somewhere around $400, we instead only had entrees and spent half that -- we opted to go elsewhere for dessert.

Now back to Covid. The tables were spaced approximately 6 feet apart as required by regulations, however normally, people would not be seated at every single table. There was a couple that sat a couple tables away from us, and that seemed fine. Surely, they wouldn't sit anyone at the table right next to us, right? They did. And look, with masks on it's fine. But when everyone has their masks off, they're talking, laughing, etc., it makes for a very uncomfortable situation. We did not feel good sitting there and were eager to get out. I appreciated the touchless pay option, in which we just scanned a barcode and entered in my card info.

Overall, when compared to our prior experiences with Daniel's, this was awful. This was our first time at the Leschi location, so maybe South Lake Union is just that much better? We may give the SLU location another chance before writing Daniel's off completely, but I think we're going to stick with other places for a while, like John Howie, The Met and Ruth's Chris.

We are so disappointed in our time here, and it breaks our heart because Daniels has been our steakhouse throughout our relationship. I really hope this is limited to Leschi, and not a representation of all...

Update #2: Yesterday we received a nice envelope with the Daniel's Broiler very generous gift certificate sent by the manager, Kay, to apologize for the poor treatment and to invite us back to dine at Daniel's Broiler again. That is why I am changing my review from 1* to 4. After we dine there again, it may be upgraded to 5. I hope it will happen. I truly do. All I hope for is to be treated in a welcoming and equitable manner.

This is a heartwarming gift certificate and the Apology is accepted.

The message below remains as to give a context to why we received the gift certificate.

An update: on top of the previous injury, another slap on my face: I was addressed as a Mr. Hello! Read the first name in the email/Messenger communications. I am, we both are, Mrs.s with clearly female first names.

And stop pestering me already with your ongoing emails/messenger messages.

Very poor service and discriminatory against GLBTQI and non-native English speakers. I am a woman with an East European accent. My spouse is a transgender woman. We arrived at Daniel's Broiler at Leschi around 3pm in late August to celebrate a new job and use a gift card we got from the Leschi Market owner at Christmas.

The first thing that went wrong was right at the hostess desk.

The hostess was rude and callous. She said that the whole restaurant is reserved but that she has a table in a booth. She led us to the outside patio and sat us by the back exit next to the parking lot and garbage/recycling. There was a Diesel truck parked idling, so we got the fumes out of the engine as an appetizer. The table wasn't set with napkins and plates.

I looked around. There were about 14 tables on the outside. Only two were occupied, by the "better" side, with a clear view of the water and the other shore in the distance.

We waited to be served with at least a glass of water. After maybe 10 minutes of our arrival a waitress arrived. She asked way "too politely" and a tad afraid, "How are you?" "Fine. We are celebrating a new job today." She had two water glasses and a menu. I should have asked at that time to have us seated elsewhere. I didn't - that is my mistake. I would want to know what she would have said.

The dinner eventually arrived. I am a vegetarian so I ordered mashed (lousy, watery) potatoes and a house salad. My spouse ordered a salmon. It took a good 30 minutes before the food arrived. The restaurant wasn't busy at all to have us wait for that long for a seared salmon and mashed potatoes, which are ready and not being cooked to order.

No desert, we were fed, and fed up with the parking lot view. I wished, however, that the waitress and the restaurant brought a donut with a verbal congratulations on the new job and at least that donut instead of a cake.

We are two seniors, two white women, in late 50's - early 60's, who wanted to get a good lunch / early dinner experience and celebrate.

We will not come to Daniel's again and will warn all our GLBTQI and straight friends about this service.

Preferential treatment to the WASPs and pushed down to the doldrums GLBTQI population. Shame on you...