Ironworks Steaks and Fine Cocktails — Restaurant in Tavares

I always try and rate a restaurant for what it's trying to achieve, I never judge a diner against The French Laundry, and I always try to center my reviews around what the restaurant is aiming at.

All that being said, I had wanted to try this place for a long time, there are not too many higher-end restaurants in The Tavares area, so this was worth a shot. I immediately really like the decor, and figured steampunk was definitely an interesting choice, but everything in the plaza seems to be themed in some kind of steam punk vision.

We were seated rapidly, and our server was very quick, friendly, and attentive

I ordered the bacon appetizer, prybar old fashioned, as well as their signature New York strip with a caesar salad and carrot cake. I tried to get everything they considered to be their signature dish to get the best feel for the place.

The cocktail was excellent, mostly just an old fashioned but very well done with a large steel ball instead of ice to avoid watering it down.

The main issue I had was the level of pretentiousness, and corresponding price, for many of the dishes. Their signature NY strip under a smoke cloche was good and well seasoned, but also slightly overcooked; their grilled Caesar was really fresh, but probably didn't need the grilling, the bacon and Maple appetizer was also extremely good but a messy and a pain to eat when it's hanging from a laundry line with an old pair of scissors. (Seriously, the bacon was really good and different and worth the try even with the mess). Even the bread we ordered to the table had a "butter candle" which seemed wholly unnecessary and more of an excuse to charge more for bread. It screams of recently graduated culinary student trying way too hard.

Overall the food was quite good, if a little overpriced. If a little more care was placed on actually making the food rather than unnecessary bells and whistles it would probably be a little bit better experience overall. I do plan on stopping in again to try their tomahawk and hopefully get slightly better result.

If you're already in the area, it's probably worth the stop if you're looking for a...

My husband and I were so excited to finally have the time set aside for a fabulous fine dining experience in Tavares ( our home town). We hit every restaurant that comes to Lake County and have the best time sharing our experience to all of our neighbors! So this is our experience of The Iron Works Steak House ..The entire experience was a disaster having to deal with our bar server Danielle. She was absolutely the rudest server ever! When we placed our order, we asked for a recommendation for the best appetizer and was told it was the Burrata (burrata bread and olive plate). Not knowing what that was we said “sure! we’ll have that “! When it came… the dish it was served in was piping hot to touch but the appetizer itself was very chilled .. so naturally we asked the server if that was how it was supposed to be and she took offense to our question. We explained that it messed with our senses to be served in a hot plate but still be cold and that makes it a bit wierd to wrap our head around …and she literally did the quotation gesture and said “ I get that you think that it is wierd but I have never had a complaint before “ and she walked away! Never came back or said a thing about how this can be addressed or anything! Just RUDE! New restaurant .. you would think they could select a be staff that would better represent their restaurant! This literally put a damper on spending 165.00 to dine at a local restaurant and be treated like they couldn’t be bothered! Food was good after the appetizer but the experience was ruined because of the server..My local reviews won’t be so favorable because of Danielle ! She doesn’t belong in...

We don't have a lot of high-end restaurants in the area so when I heard about this one, I wanted to try it out. The main problem was finding it because they aren't shown on YELP, which I use almost exclusively. I'm not sure why as I review places all over the world and wouldn't have found Ironworks unless I had read about it on the Mount Dora email. We loved the decor. Very cool Steampunk vibe. It's not a big place, in fact we had to work are way around tables to get to our seats but once you are settled in, it's fine. My smoky Old Fashioned was very nice. They use a cold stone vs an ice cube to keep it from watering down. We ordered the Wedge Salad, which was perfect. My wife commented on the Blue Cheese dressing tasting great vs others that sometimes have a bite to it. She ordered the chicken and I ordered the porkchops. Both had similar flavor profiles, but hers came with mash potatoes and a vegetable medley while mine had sweet potato and asparagus. We both loved our meals and both Food and Atmosphere get 5 stars. We found out our server was the owner's daughter and she gave us the background not only on Ironworks but the coffee and ice cream stores going in on both sides (looking forward to that). I gave 4 stars primarily because my wife loves her unsweet tea with lime and she didn't return often for refills and when she did it had a lemon vs a lime. It could have been the limited number of servers as she seemed to be taking care of a lot of tables. Overall experience was great and we will be back with...