Tellers: An American Chophouse — Restaurant in Town of Islip

I was last at Teller's about a decade ago and decided to try it again with my wife as she had never been there. It was a little out of our way but I thought she would be pleased. It was not as good as I remembered.

Three stars is because the prices are significantly out of line with what you are getting in service, food and atmosphere. I have had exceptional steaks at many fine restaurants around America. Teller's makes a very good steak but it is not worth $70. I have had excellent steaks worth that money, most notably Gibson's in Chicago but not at Teller's this past week in November 2021.

We decided to start with the Duck Fat Fries, Bread, and Baked Clams. First of all paying $5 for bread when I will be spending $250+ on dinner for two is an insult. The bread and truffle butter was very good but seriously, just give me bread and the salted butter for the table. The fries were... uninspiring. They were crispy and well cooked but the flavor was nothing special. I have had phenomenal fries at several restaurants in Switzerland and thought I would be getting that. These were a notch above McDonalds as they were all crispy but the flavor was bland. The freshly made mayo was good but the ketchup was so so. The baked clams tasted great and came with eight but this is somewhat misleading. Two were medium sized clams while the other size had contents inside the shell the size of a quarter ($0.25 coin) or less.

Both the Delomico and bone in NY Strip were good and cooked perfectly but the flavor was simply good, nothing spectacular. The Delmonico was slim, hidden beneath the crispy onions. The NY Strip, cooked medium rare, did not cut like I expect a $74 dollar steak to cut. There was some sawing.

Chocolate layer cake was excellent.

I could see paying $40 for these steaks, not $60-$74.

The restaurant is beautiful but was far too overcrowded. For the money I am paying for dinner I expect to NOT be bumped into every time the waiter walks past. My chair is in as far as it can go and we are not in Manhattan, we are in Suffolk County. If you can't comfortably seat your patrons then you need fewer patrons at a time.

They also need to start enforcing some dress codes. Again, I am dropping $300+ after tip on a dinner for two so why are there slobs in Rick and Morty hoodies and other ragged clothing being seated in the main restaurant during prime dinner time on a Sunday. I expect such at Outback, not at Tellers where I am supposedly in part paying for...

Price of the ribeye jumped from 89 to 128. That's a 30% hike.

Most other items on the menu stayed the same as pre-pandemic but the steaks all went up and they just changed the wording around them and the portion sizes displayed. Eg: Filet mignon used to be displayed as 8oz or 12oz. And now it's listed as filet mignon wellington without a portion size (disclose this?). Marketing often leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Unlike their food, thankfully.

Every restaurant that does this nowadays will say it's because of the pandemic or supply chain issues. The former was probably true at the peak of the pandemic and yet here we are at the tail end of it. Now... everyone is "making up their money". Maybe there's a volume play with less of a price hike. I can see the ad "our prices didn't go up" (insert creative implementation here) driving lots of foot traffic.

Most won't invest in (intelligent) paid advertising. Maybe they do, since they're a part of the Bohlsen Restaurant Group. I don't get any targeted social/sem ads though. Hint: go freelance, skip the agencies if you're using one.

However, we all know the prices won't return. Frustrating, but possibly necessary.

Some other changes, they don't give the option to buy oysters or clams individually. Now it's 6 or 12 per order. Better for everyone this way.

I won't list the rest.

The food here is really good. SO - I'm still going. Just annoyed at the acute, exorbitant price hike on what seems to be their best selling item.

Ambiance is really nice. Wine list is comprehensive yet WAY overpriced (even before the pandemic) but the selection is very good. Some of the bottles are more than 3x what you can get a single bottle off the shelf for (not even from a case). 2x is fair, isn't it? The bottle that comes to mind when I think back on the price disparity was stags leap and another napa silver oak. I even checked the vintages at the time. Forgive me for not having the specifics front of mind.

It's just another classic example of price gouging in an environment with food quality that can get away with it (most of the time). I recommend Opus Steakhouse in Jericho for anyone who wants an arguably more impressive ambiance with the same quality of food/wine at similar...

I have been going to this place for the past 10 years back when Chris was the executive chef and Robert was the manager. At that point the food was never better very attentive wait staff bartenders were great. Over the past few years this place has taken a turn for the worse eat at the bar order a steak medium comes out raw send it back comes back well done. You can sit at the bar order a $250 bottle of wine and the food will come out incorrect 9 at a 10 times the chef in the back at this point is not supervising and making sure that the food is expedited properly I see careless mistakes and nothing being rectified in order to make sure that your customer satisfaction is their number one priority. The greatest asset at this place is the guy John behind the bar very attentive takes care of you treat you like family that's the way that everybody should be when charging prices like this and making as many mistakes as they do. He seems to be the only one who was embarrassed and tries to make the situation better. If you do decide to go here order the tuna it's great most of the time it won't be overcooked. We even order food to go sometimes hoping that they'll wind up getting it correct I can't tell you how many times we've ordered a steak to go medium and the steak once again will be Raw if you are considering dining at this place be prepared for your steak to be cooked incorrectly regardless how you order it. If you want to enjoy a good Steakhouse in the area visit George Martin's Steakhouse in Great River. Also if they cared how anyone felt they would at least respond to some of these bad reviews and some of the good reviews that have been posted just a little bit of acknowledgement stating thank you very much for your dining experience we hope to see you again next time or if there is a problem we'd love to speak to you in regards to resolving it none of these posts have gone recognized nor have they been responded to and I know a restaurant like this has a great marketing team. My wife and I receive $50 in gift cards around the holiday time to bring us in so of course they must be monitoring all of their social media as well as their frequent guests I wish you well good luck at this place. Drive...