Cheeves Brothers Steakhouse — Restaurant in Temple

My wife and I wanted to love this place, but it just didn’t quite live up to the hype. They get two full stars, one for the space which was aesthetically well put together and created a relaxing place to enjoy a meal and another for our waitress. She was proficient and did an excellent job ensuring our drinks were full, our courses came out in succession, and that she cleared the table as we finished each course with speed and professionalism. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite hit the mark, IN OUR OPINION in the areas of professionalism, cleanliness, and overall quality and preparation of our food.

When a steakhouse tries to separate themselves from others like let’s say Outback or Texas Roadhouse and enters into the realm of a slightly “higher end” steakhouse like Cheeves attempts to do, so comes a higher set of standards that their customers expect in my opinion. When we first walked we were greeted by the hostess, while chewing gum, asked us if we had a reservation, which we did. She politely sat us at our table and we were greeted by our waitress almost immediately. During the duration of our meal the hostess seemed to be trying to run around completing other tasks and as other guests would arrive she would speed walk through the dining area, back to the front to greet them. At the same time, one of the cooks wandered through the main dining area to the kitchen carrying a Styrofoam cup. This obviously didn’t bother us, it just seemed a testament to either understaffing or lack of consideration by management to achieve a polished atmosphere that you’d expect in this price range.

They have an open kitchen that can be seen from the dining area. This is nice but takes careful consideration if as the staff you have bad habits like eating off of customers plates in view of them. After putting our food in the window, my wife watched one of the cooks put his fingers in our side of parmesan asparagus and eat one. This is something that happens all of the time in restaurants but as a customer, I have never actually seen it done so casually in plain view of the customers.

Cleanliness. We were sat at a two top, downstairs near the kitchen on a wood-paneled half wall. The wall looked as if hadn’t been cleaned in some time; it had an array of drippings running all the way down it. Where the wall meets the carpet, there was a thin layer of crumbs and dust, along with a piece of food, a crinkled-up straw wrapper, and half of a used sugar packet.

In our opinion, the food was appetible but mediocre. There was nothing unique about it. There was no creativity in the kitchen, it was just basic ingredients put together in an unrefined way, again in our opinion. We ordered, the mozzarella caprese, the spinach salads, the blackened redfish, and the filet with a shared side of parmesan asparagus. The redfish was overcooked. Blackening fish is supposed to lock in the moisture but ours was overcooked making it tough and dry. I ordered my filet medium-rare and it came out closer to medium. I ate it and it had a good flavor, but not exactly what I was looking for. I am sure they would have been happy to re-prepare our meals, but we were already a bit disappointed and frankly just ready to be done with our meal rather than wait for another.

The manager was on the floor but seemed to be occupied with what I assumed was a table of regulars and walked right past our table without stopping or acknowledging us while we were waiting for our check.

This entire review is solely based on two people’s OPINIONS, with our own unique tastes and experiences. I don’t think this is a bad restaurant but it just didn’t live up to all the hype that others have expressed to us and there is definitely some room for...

About a year and a half ago my wife and i dined here. The food was only so-so. The sevice was above average. But what we remember most was the cockroach crawling up the wall right near our table. We hadn't given cheeves another chance up until yesterday night. It was our anniversary. Very pleasant music greeted us at the door. We liked that. It set the right kind of mood. The hostess seemed only mildly interested, but sat us down quickly. It was a Monday night and they were not crowded. Our waitress had a dry and distant disposition. She seemed polite only by obligation. Her personality was just very blah. She wasn't rude, but she could have been more pleasant and upbeat. The lighting in the main eating area is very dim, too dim. I wanted a wedge salad but they still don't serve 1000 island dressing, so i cancelled my salad order. I had a medium well rib eye, mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables. My steak was great. Probably the best that temple has to offer. It seemed fresh off the grill. It had taste and was tender. But my side orders were just barely warm. Barely. The taste of the sides were fine, but i think they could have earned a rating of excellent had they been served at the proper temperature. My wife had shrimp on a bed of mashed potatoes. The shrimp was wrapped in bacon and complimented with jalapeños and other seasonings. My wife enjoyed it thoroughly. She allowed me a sample and it had a very nice taste. Our daughter joined us that evening and enjoyed her meal as well. The bread they served complimented the dinner very well. Warm and tasty. Our first serving was soft. Later when we i asked our waitress for another serving when our food arrived she seemed to be slightly bothered. She brought us more bread, but some of the bread was hard. Not sure if that was intentional. The food took a very long while to get to our table. Even after factoring in the proper cooking time for my rib eye. During that time we could overhear the bar crowd. It seemed a little too boisterous at times. A lot of tavern cackling by a couple of ladies there. One seemed like she was a working girl on duty... her attire spoke for that. I noticed a bar patron with a baseball cap on. Another fellow who sat near us was dressed very casually with over sized tennis shoes on. I don't think any downtown temple restaurant wants to turn away any business, but if this restaurant wants to be known as upscale and THE BEST in temple they might consider enforcing a more appropriate dress code. We don't want to have to drive to Austin when we desire upscale dining that we can't seem to find in our own hometown. I would have given 4 stars had our waitress been more friendly and pleasant. We weren't looking for side table entertainment or a chatty cathy, but the person assigned to us last night just didn't represent the restaurant very well. Had we had a better waitress and my side orders been at the proper temperature, a temperature that equalled my steak, then i would've given 5 stars. And i was very happy to not have seen kenny the cockroach out on a stroll. We'll probably come back again. This review is not meant to be mean or overly critical. It's really meant to encourage cheeves to hold themselves, waitresses and side orders, to a higher standard. If they do that then my wife and i would visit regularly, more than once every...

Went here for a pre-Valentine day dinner. Had reservations and was seated promptly upon arrival. From there it kind of went downhill. Took about 10 minutes to be acknowledged by someone that wasn't our server. She vowed to let our server know we were there. About another 10 minutes the server shows up to take our drink orders. Got non-alcoholic drinks--(strawberry and peach lemonades which were delicious!), and ordered appetizer and main course. Appetizer was the mini crabcakes and they were pleasantly tasty! We ordered the pork chop and the 24oz porterhouse medium well and a cesar salad. The salad came out as spears of lettuce with little dressing and few toppings, mainly lettuce. It was rather dry. Wanted to ask for more dressing but the server didnt come back by the table within reasonable time to ask how was it or if we needed anything, so we just asked for it to go when she finally made it back. Took a little while for the food to come out (which is fine due to way we requested them cooked). However, we had requested substitution items that were not plated when the food arrived. Matter of fact, we never received the substituted dish after telling the server!! The pork chop was decently cooked and tasted OK. The 24oz porterhouse steak, to me, tasted bland. It was a quality cut, but just didn't have any taste in my opinion. We also had the truffle mac n cheese and for some reason it tasted funny. Not sure if it was the cheese used or how it was cooked, but it didn't taste "cheesy" at all. The mashed Potatoes were flavorful. The asparagus was supposedly steamed, but was still very tough with no flavor. Lastly, we were never asked about a dessert menu from our server, but was told by the server as we requested to go boxes "you didn't want any dessert did you?" Overall, the food was disappointingly average for the price paid; the service was extremely sub-par for an "upscale" experience. Felt as if we didnt want to be served. Upscale prices for a very lacking...