Ernie's Steakhouse — Restaurant in St. John

• UPDATED 1/14/24* This is not a false statement as stated by the owner. I provided truthful and accurate information about this business. Base your decision on going here by the details of the reviews.

12/21/2023 Ahhh... One day.. Just one day I will remember to READ google reviews BEFORE going to new places. The owner, Ernie, is a con man. This place has so many possibilities of potential but then once you get the food and the bill you realize you've been had. Every 1 or 2 star review is true. Took 10 minutes to get the waitress to come to our table, everyone in the restaurant had their coats on while eating so we asked for the heat to be turned up...it came on for a second and then some guy turned it off (turned out to be Ernie). I wanted the Grilled Shish Kabobs, my wife ordered the 6oz Filet. She ordered a martini and I ordered a coke then was told it was Pepsi. The "Martini" had been made with rum and the coke/pepsi was Sams club Cola..(trust me i know the difference)

The food came out and we got... A bowl of rice with diced onions, peppers, mushrooms and last nights burnt steak leftovers(diced) covered in a pint of oil. And... A RIBEYE that was trimmed to look like a filet.. no joke. The wife loved how it was cooked and its flavor but we are both carnivores and knew exactly what had happened. Our waitress was sweet but overwhelmed being the only person out front. We asked to speak to the manager and she said he was in a meeting(at 9pm).. we then just decided to pay and leave. The waitress brought the bill, desert menu and disappeared for 15 minutes. We almost left being the only ones left in the place. I finally went into the kitchen and she was slicing something while Ernie was sitting on a food prep table yacking on his phone. She came out and now we definitely wanted to talk to the manager since we were over charged vs the menu, auto gratuity was added (menu states for party of 6 or more) and a 3$ service fee. She goes to get the manager and the clown that had turned down the heat, sat on the food prep table introduced himself as the owner. When I asked him about the charges and explained our experience he got nose to nose with me and told me "IT'S MY RESTAURANT I WILL DO WHAT I WANT" I informed him we were not paying the 3$ service fee on top of being charged the wrong amount he threatened to call the police.. I asked him if he knew the number since I already did and proceeded to call them. He told me stop and took out 3 1's from his pocket and threw them at my wife and told us to never come back. My wife stood up and handed the singles to our waitress and said "Don't worry we won't and if you treat your staff like you treat customers I'll offer (Diane) a better job" You have been warned.....

Thinking of going here....don't bother. You will get better food, service and prices at so many other places.

Was here NYE. We had a 6:30 reservation we were on time for but waited 1/2 hour to sit. There was no one else waiting.

Waitress was....well elderly?? and they had her waiting on 13/15 tables. Well, she was the only waitress on that side of the restaurant. Shame on the owners for putting her in that position.

Drinks/wine took half hour to serve. No one ever asked if we wanted more drinks or how the meal was.

$50.00 for filet w/choice of potato that comes when you are ready to pay the bill.

When paying the bill and questioning the nearly $13 service charge to use a credit card.....that was never mentioned or posted....the owner or wife proceeded by yelling at me in my face and pointing her finger at me. When I responded to her to "please charge the card so we can go" she continued to yell at me some more telling me I was yelling at her and that she was going to kick me out. I was not leaving without my credit card so I just let her continue. This went on until other patrons had to tell her that it was enough.

When I asked other customers sitting near me if I yelled at the manager they told me "No! She was yelling at you."

Payed our bill and left. On our way out a worker laughed at one of us saying "you got kicked out".

Also, I noticed on Google reviews owner puts up his/her own reviews to bring up t he review score. What does...

How do I begin? Ernie is the rudest restaurant owner I have ever met. Let me start at the beginning...my Manhattan was very good, the Moscato was good as well as the French onion soup. Now,,if you want bruschetta that is hard enough to break windows you will love it. According to Ernie it is supposed to be that way. The salad.....half of the salad was the white bitter parts and the blue cheese wasn't (ernie admits it is NOT blue cheese) not sure why it was served as blue cheese...? Next, the $53 Porterhouse that was 1/3rd bone and NOT medium rare but for one small area that managed to not be overlooked. The saddest part of the whole terrible experience is that our waitress(did a good job, and unlike the argumentative ernie, was apologetic and concerned)...I had throughout the entire fiasco asked to speak to the boss that refused to show his face until it was time for us to pay the bill. He was completely and totally unconcerned about satisfying a customer (which, btw, there was NO ONE else in the place, huh, I wonder why) the ONLY thing he finally showed up was to not listen to me, but quite arrogantly argue about the whole horrible dinner. With that, I guess that is how you wind up with an EMPTY restaurant....I almost forgot, the "parking lot" has 12inch deep holes. Do I need to add I...