The Rackhouse — Restaurant in The Colony

• UPDATE #2 * Unfortunately, I went back yesterday and asked if the nachos or sweet tots were gluten free. Our bartender went to the back and asked the chef. She came back and said they were not gluten free. I asked why they weren't gluten free and she said she didn't know about gluten. She appeared to be too busy to be bothered with finding out for us or making any suggestions. Melissa and I were hungry, so we finished our drinks, paid our tabs, and went next door to Angelina's and ate nachos.

• UPDATE * I came in today and Eddie was my bartender. I let him know about the gluten issue and asked about the bean dip. He honestly told me he had no knowledge about gluten, but asked the chef and checked the ingredients. He was surprised that Fritos were gluten free. I greatly appreciate that he took the extra effort to make sure. That's all I can ask. I've adjusted my review accordingly. Thank you to owners and management for addressing this issue.

• ORIGINAL REVIEW *

I went to The Rackhouse a few days ago with a friend. First, let me start by saying the remodeling is outstanding. It no longer smells like an ashtray and décor is awesome . . . very friendly and inviting.

I ordered the “Oklahoma Style” burger. Although it was a delicious burger, I felt like it was just a burger with some sauteed onions. A true Oklahoma Onion Burger has lots of finely shaved onions that have charred and crispy edges. But, again, this was a delicious burger and I would definitely order it again. Also, the service at the bar was outstanding. Our bartenders were attentive and on point. Service was very quick and efficient and friendly!

Now, to the negative part of my review. My friend has a gluten allergy. We mentioned this to one of the bartenders and she went back to discuss this with the cook. She came back and said that everything on the menu had gluten. We understand that the kitchen may not be certified gluten free and that cross contamination may happen, but to tell a customer that they can’t make anything for her to eat seemed lazy. After looking at the menu, she decided to order the bean dip (which comes with Fritos chips), and a side salad with no croutons. She has been gluten free for over 13 years and knows how to modify menu items to accommodate her allergy. When the salad came out, it had croutons on it. She asked for it to be remade. It came back out a few minutes later and had no croutons. A little while later, the bean dip came out and instead of Fritos chips (as described on the menu), it came out with toasted flatbread. Again, we asked for it to be remade and it came back out with the Fritos chips. She ate everything and there were no issues with her allergy.

I have a few suggestions for the restaurant. First, hire or train a cook to be able to modify some items to accommodate common food allergies. Many people are allergic to gluten, nuts, eggs, milk, etc. If you tell all of them that you can’t accommodate their allergies, then why would any of them ever come back to your establishment. Second, train your cook and staff to do a quality check before sending food out to the guests. The bartenders that helped us were very aware of my friend’s gluten allergy. Those dishes should never have come out with the croutons or the toasted flatbread on it. Mistakes like this could be potentially fatal for some customers with more severe allergies. Finally, our bartender told us that she made the manager aware of the situation. Unfortunately, the manager never came out to apologize or check on us. I feel like the manager should at least come and check on any guests that are displeased. Had the manager spoken with us and appropriately addressed the issue, I may not have written this review.

If not for how poorly the gluten issue was handled, my review would definitely have been much higher. The food, service, and drinks were all 5-Star. I do recommend going there, unless of course you are hungry and you have...

My wife and I tried this place again (second time). First time, staff was inattentive and multiple servers had to get involved to bring a relatively simple but somewhat cumbersome order for 6 people. We waited for 30 mins after the first two dishes were brought out, for 3 more. Then another 10 minutes for the last one. Either the staff is not properly trained; their table assignments are randomized (our waitress today seemed to have tables in other sections); or there is no leadership. Today, my wife and I decided to give it a second chance, because why not. We ordered 10 "Jumbo" wings and a flat bread pizza. The wings were of slightly above average size, but unequivocally not worth $17. I can not stress enough that the wings were good, but similar quality can be had at WingStop if you remove the quart of oil. The pizza was cooked at too high of heat for too little of time, as evidenced by scorched outer crust and semi-cooked cheese in the middle. That cost us a total of $37 and change, and I will not be returning unless quality or prices change. Now for the fun parts: A man in a white Hawaiian shirt and a scowled face came out of the back sliding door where I'm assuming things are stored. He walked to the kitchen and disappeared for a few minutes, then reappeared with the same scowl and went to the table to our left (family of 3) and almost in a confrontational tone asked if they had ordered "medium rare" steak and said that what was brought out was "rare." The husband/father disagreed with him and explained that her steak was incorrectly cooked not once, but twice. His steak was also incorrectly cooked. The family stayed quite calm, were not visually or verbally upset. The man in the Hawaiian shirt begrudgingly apologized and said he'd remove the food from the bill and asked if there was something else they'd like instead. He disingenuously apologized and left, scowl still intact. I asked our server if he was a general manager or an owner, and she confirmed the suspicion that he was an owner.

The couple to our right ordered chicken fried chicken and another dish. The couple had some words with a waiter, who took a dish back and apologized. We paid and left before seeing what the outcome of the...

My family decided to dine at The Rackhouse tonight for an early dinner. We arrived at 5:25pm for our 5:30 reservation. No one was at the hostess stand so we waited. A young man came and said hello and he would be with us in a few minutes. There were no other people waiting to be seated and it was not a full restaurant. So we stood there and waited. The young man walked over to the bar close by and hugged on a young lady. Never came back to talk to us. Another young man came to the hostess stand and said he'll be with us in a moment. We are still the only people to be seated. My mother is 81 years old and keeping her standing is just not nice. The second yound man finally told us he would take us to our table now and we walked all the way to the back of the restaurant. After the rest of my family arrived and we were looking at the menus, a man came and said he needed to move us. So we moved over to the far back booth.

We finally had a server come to our table and she was lovely. Leigha is kind, considerate and prompt.

My mother order a martini clean with 3 olives. She received it with 2 olives. I ordered an amaretto sour, I received one of the best I've ever tasted. Perfect and balanced. My sister ordered the sunset and she loved it and my brother in law ordered the tropical paradise and he liked it very much.

We ordered our food and Leigha did a great job getting everything correct. My mother ordered the cubano sandwich and sweet potato fries. There was not very much of the roasted pork. There is more of the deli meat. She rated it a 6 out of 10. Waffle fries were an 8 out of 10. I ordered the nachos with chicken added. The chips are handmade so I was a little disappointed when some of them were stale and not crunchy at all. Some of the chips I could not bite through at all. I give them a 6 out of 10. My sister ordered the monte cristo sandwich. She said it was very good. An 8 out of 10. My brother in law ordered the chicken fried steak. He said it was delicious, not as tender as expected but an 8 out of 10. The best thing was our server, Leigha. She brought our to go boxes quickly and the checks.

The view is beautiful, showing the lake and open deck. We will...