Final Cut Steak & Seafood — Restaurant in Toledo

We had 7 PM reservations on Friday. We were seated immediately at our booth. As a former restaurant manager for a popular establishment perhaps I went in with my expectations too high. For starters, our server had a very dry personality. I noticed other servers very personable with their tables, and it seemed at first as though ours didn’t care to be there. That was my initial analysis of her. As the evening went on, she warmed up just a bit, and I began to appreciate that she wasn’t overbearing and came to the table just enough to keep us satisfied. By the end of the evening, I really enjoyed a server who did her job and didn’t stick around too long. It would have been nice to have a more initial welcoming, but again she turned out to be a good server. Now for the rest. This was our second time here and the first time our experience was much better so I think that also played into my expectations. The food was absolutely three stars at best. We asked for our fillets medium, to which they were definitely medium well. They were also extremely salty/top-heavy on the seasoning. The server did her job and asked if they were OK and we didn’t want to make her job any harder so we said yes. After all, she’s not the chef. They were busy and we didn’t want to impose a back up on the kitchen staff to correct it. The macaroni and cheese is horrible. Who is taste testing in approving this menu? We have two very upscale and respectful pallets for different cuisines but there’s macaroni and cheese misses the mark all the way around. The mushrooms here are incredible, I will say, though. Big potato baked to perfection. We bought the $130 Alaskan crab legs on special, which were cracked for us and served nicely. That being said, they were incredibly salty for some reason. The crab cake, and the calamari were phenomenal starters. we ordered two drinks from the bar and both were delicious. We tried the bloody orange margarita on special and it was probably one of my favorite drinks I’ve had out to dinner so far. I’m giving a mixed review on purpose, to highlight the great items at this establishment, while also hoping that management takes these reviews seriously and does some thing to make sure 100% of guests receive perfect food each time, not 80%. My biggest issue with this dinner was that as a former manager, I can tell when back of the house has had food sitting. When I cut into my steak, I knew for a fact it did not just come off the grill, and instead had waited a bit too long to come to the table, which is probably how we got to the medium well portion instead of a perfect medium. In a restaurant, such as outback or Longhorns, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but when you are spending what it cost to eat a steak at an upscale establishment like this one, you should never missed the mark and get it right 100% of the time in my humble opinion. My bill came to $418, and we tipped over 20% in addition to that. There were two of us celebrating an anniversary, and to be quite honest, this will probably be our last celebration here. As much as we enjoy the casino and love the ambience of this establishment, I just can’t justify a $500 dinner if they aren’t going to hit the target every time. Mistakes happen. Working in the back of the house can be a tough job. But if I wait 1 1/2 hours after my reservation for my dinner to arrive at my table I expect it to be phenomenal from start to finish. We were hoping to come back in a couple weeks for another celebration, but I’m on the fence about this because I don’t know if I can stomach spending an additional $500 and knowing I could have went to Mancy’s for a portion of the price was better quality and end result. One more thing I would like to say, this restaurant is business casual. That means you should hold your customers to a standard. Why was the gentleman across from me wearing a hoodie in pair of shorts? Why were the girls who came in after us wearing midriffs with belly buttons hanging out? If you’re going to announce online that it is business, casual, then uphold...

We had reservations for 6:45pm on 10/26/24 for 6 people.We were celebrating a birthday & an anniversary. We were seated on time. We saw another couple that we knew & asked them to join us. We tried to merge the table to accommodate & the manager Tricia came running over to tell us that was not allowed. Forcefully & angry she pulled the chair from a guest's hand. We apologized, she needed only to say no, that would have been sufficient. Our waitress came to the table about 10-15 minutes later. She did not introduce herself. She just started spouting off the specials. I asked a question: I don't eat meat & allergic to fish , Do you have any suggestions? She said, "Let me go ask Chef." OK, perfect. Then she took drink orders upon our request. Now, about another 10-15 minutes, she returned to take orders. When she got to me, I asked if Chef had any suggestions? Oh, she forgot to ask him! So she bolted to the kitchen to ask. Now again, we wait. The suggestion accepted. By this time, many needed another drink. Another 10 -15 minutes later, drinks come. She gave drinks to people who declined & didn't bring a drink to one that ordered. Well, that was another 10 minutes! By this time, it's 7:30, no sign of our non smiling, unfriendly waitress. Another waitress recognized us. (yes, we have been here many times) She said hello & I told her we had been there for 45 minutes already & didn't even have bread on the table! She immediately went to the kitchen & got us bread. Finally, our waitress came out with a sweet potato bite from the chef. She said your bread will be out soon. 😱 Now comes 8pm. No sign of our waitress or any food in sight. Note: they were NOT busy. Many empty tables around us. We all started questioning what we should do. One of us finally tried to look for a manager. He did get loud & was looking for Tricia. She was also nowhere to be found. Ritchie, the assistant manager, stepped up & calmed things down by checking on a time for us. He was very calm kind and courteous. While he was checking, Tricia was seen twice, and we asked her to see a manager..... she ignored the request, and did not acknowledge that she in fact was the manager. In fact, she retreated to the restroom with another woman in the same restroom. Ritchie said the food would come out in 10 more minutes. It finally came out at 8:25, after 2 guests had already left the restaurant. Sadly, it was apparent the steaks had been "quick" cooked. The entire party left, including the table of 2 next to us. Of course, the drinks were paid for prior to leaving. This is absolutely NOT the service we have come to expect from Final Cut. Tricia has been seen before by us at Mancy's Steakhouse as their manager. Hummm , we haven't been to Mancy's since their food & service had declined. I hope to be contacted by someone other than Tricia about...

This is the most energy I've put into a review because I hope that it will be taken seriously by the restaurant for improvements. We have heard so many people rave about this restaurant so we saved it for a special occasion. We went on a Wednesday night with reservations for a party of two. We were seated right away, and there were multiple empty tables. The atmosphere was quite nice. Tastefully decorated with appropriate music and lighting. The place has an intimate feel, and you can basically forget that you're inside a casino, which to me is important. Because the casino itself is kind of depressing.

Here's  why I rated Final Cut 2 stars.

Mostly, it was timing. Our waiter was very nice and eventually apologetic, but they definitely have timing and service issues here that need to be addressed. I don't know if it was his fault or other issues, but our experience was poor enough that I don't think we will come back.

We sat for 20 minutes before the waiter took our drink order. Then we waited 30 minutes for our drinks. The waiter apologized afterward and said it was because they only had one bartender. My martini was not that cold, so I knew it had been sitting waiting for him to deliver. At this point, the people at the table next to us who were seated after we arrived were already eating.

We then waited an additional 20 minutes for bread and for the waiter to finish filling our water glasses. Yes, it took over an HOUR for my guest to get a full glass of water and we had to ask him to finish filling it.

When we finally got our appetizer, we had to wait several minutes for plates as the food got cold. And then 5 minutes later (!), they brought our entrées and sides (except for 1 side that we had to wait longer for). We had barely touched the appetizer. By then, we just weren't really hungry or into it. We had him box everything up to go. While he was apologetic again and did try to offer free dessert, that's not what we wanted. We wanted a better dining experience. It was a special night for us. Free dessert doesn't do anything for us after dropping $300, essentially for a takeout order.

Food was above average for Toledo but not high end. We've had better meals at Chop House and Claude's without the slow service.

In summary:  What the actual heck?  We aren't high rollers. We don't have an unreasonable expectation for a steakhouse at a casino in Toledo.  But COME ON. If I am going to spend $300 on dinner, I expect an above average experience. We made reservations, and this place failed us. Our experience was not important to them.

P.S. The shitake mushrooms were grossly over-salted. Like, so bad. And they were a mix of button and shitake. That's pretty...