Gianni's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Wayzata

First, this is a five star restaurant that serves 5 star food - consistently. This is a very safe place to take important clients etc.

The food is everything you'd expect from a 5 star dining experience. They start with a salad that they make for you at your table. One of the best salads I've ever had in my life. The salad itself could be your meal.

In addition to their steak offerings, which never disappoint, they also also offer seafood selections which are fresh and done correctly. I have never been disappointed with any of the food. The wine selection is top shelf all the way.

The wait staff are professional waiters. Many have been there 25+ years. They adhere to a very formal protocol of service that is choreographed like a ballet. You don't notice the servers, but when your drink is half full, it magically refills without your notice. Although this level of white glove service sounds stiff and pretentious, it's not. The key is they know how to manage all types of people and they will give very easy to understand, nonverbal cues to the guest that is not quite accustom to such service. Basically, everyone in a mixed group is made to feel at home and comfortable in a white glove setting.

Bottom line is, the food is consistently outstanding, and it should be for the prices. (salad, main meal, drinks, dessert is about $300 (includes tip) for two)

Update: We ate here for Valentine's Day '19. They now charge for the salads. We were suspicious when the salad cart didn't come so we asked our waitress. She stated that they've been charging for salads for at least 8 years! WRONG! That was an inaccurate statement. We get to Gianni's at least two times a year and until Valentine's Day, we were never charged.

This time, I ordered the Oysters Rockefeller; the oysters were so tiny - the tiniest I've ever had. They tasted fine, but were so small they weren't worth it.

The 'edge' just wasn't there. It seems as if they are cutting a few corners for a higher profit margin. We also had a waitress that we've never seen before and she wasn't very knowledgeable.

We ate here for a birthday on 4/25/21. First, someone made the terrible decision to paint over all of that timeless gorgeous woodwork that they had throughout the restaurant. That terrible gray trend is just about to fade into design history ... thank God. Gianni's decor will become dated now very quickly. They should have left all of that gorgeous woodwork as it was. If they were going to paint over it - they should have just installed pine wood to begin with. So, now you get to sit and look at their gray blah nothing decor.

We didn't see a single staff person that we knew. They have very young kids running the place, they did okay but they're not natural. The old staff were magical, everything happened with minimal interaction. I'd reach for my water and it was refilled and I didn't even notice it getting refilled. Now, it's way too much chatter because the young staff is constantly asking questions. The charm and magic seem to have gone. Now, you could be at any restaurant ... especially with the terrible decision to paint over everything with .... blah gray. Ugggg .... You ruined tens of thousands of dollars worth of beautiful wood with ... paint. You do realize that gray is on it's way out ... and a new trend is on the horizon. You will be outdated in about 6-12 months.

Food was standard. The only ribeye on the truncated menu is a 22 oz. Could have a few more sizes of that to...

Background: I ate solo and ordered a 16 Oz. New York strip, Baked Potato, and Mexican Coke.

Environment:

Entrance looks quite standard for a nicer restaurant. The dining area seems to be composed of two parts, the main difference being that the back area has walls made of stone. The front part, where I ate, had a more simplistic and modern feel. There is additionally a bar area. The lighting is brighter than your standard steakhouse, but still dimmer than a regular restaurant. Gianni's had music playing and chatter volume is on the louder side.

The bathroom is solid but nothing crazy fancy. It is a little bit on the smaller side, at least for the men's.

Overall, I feel that Gianni's is better as a restaurant for going with family and friends rather than an intensely romantic date. It could still be a good date spot if you are looking for a more casual environment.

Service:

Service was professional and polite. The hosts were prompt and on top of things. The server kept track of me and was attentive. The server also scraped the table clean of food pieces after I finished eating. The cook time was quite reasonable.

Overall, I am satisfied with the service.

Food:

I ordered the 16 oz. New York strip medium rare and it was cooked about that temperature. I felt that the center was a little more rare than I liked, but it was still within what I wanted. As to be expected, the ends of the steak were more cooked than the center. The steak was about 2 inches tall.

The steak had superb flavor. I have eaten at quite a few steakhouses before, but Gianni's had some of the best tasting steak. It was very beefy and salted well. The texture was tender, juicy and rich but still offered a good chew and it felt as though the flavor coated my mouth. There was also a bit of char flavor from the grill marks. Although it didn't seem that the whole steak was seared, the surface texture did offer a bit of a crust which worked well with the tenderness of the inside.

The steak came with grilled garlic and bearnaise sauce. To me, the garlic was too watery and mushy and did not contribute to the steak. It feels like it's more there for decoration. The bearnaise sauce tasted a little too creamy and strong and overpowered the steak.

I forgot to take a photo of the baked potato. The baked potato is quite standard and came with butter, sour cream and bacon which came on the side. The potato was quite large. The potato itself was surprisingly moist and I found the baked potato to be on the better end of baked potatoes. The only issue that someone may have is that it is a little difficult to eat the baked potato since like any baked potato, it is a bit difficult to remove the potato from the skin. I wouldn't recommend it for a date or professional meeting.

Overall, the food is excellent. The flavor and texture of the steak were stellar. The baked potato was good and surprisingly moist.

Price:

The 16 oz. New York strip was $60, baked potato was $10 and the Mexican Coke was $4. So in total, $74 before tax and tip.

Overall, I found the price to be reasonable and was quite happy with the experience for that price.

Final thoughts:

I think that Gianni's is a great steakhouse and would definitely recommend coming to Gianni's for a birthday or reunion or something along that line. The food is quite superb and can hold its weight against some of the most well-known steakhouses.

Overall...

We've eaten here many times over the years. It was always exceptional in every way.

We ate here in 2021 and it was slipping a bit then, but we cut them slack because of Covid and all.

We ate here last night (2/11) to celebrate Valentine's Day. I knew immediately when we were seated that things had changed. We were led to a cramped table facing the bar. It's one long bench with narrow tables and chairs opposite the bench. I felt like I was eating in a cafeteria. Within two feet of me on either side, I had a seat mate. It was difficult to wiggle into these tight quarters and awkward finding a place to put my purse etc.

Then, we ordered food. The table was so small that I hesitated ordering everything we wanted because we didn't have enough room on our table to set dishes, so we skipped the soup. We never got a basket of bread to start (was always their standard). We ordered the spun salad first. The quality of that is slipping. The salad pieces were not uniform with some too big, they left the parmesan off my husband's and no one came to check on us until we were finished eating the salad. It just wasn't the same quality as the previous times we've eaten here. Then we ordered two family style sides (they were excellent - only thing really that was on point) and two entrees, also fine. Desert - we ordered the molten lava chocolate cake that we've had numerous times in the past. The cake was a huge disappointment. It was a small piece, and dry. In the past, the pieces were generous, and had actual molten lava chocolate running out. In the past, we've always had to take a portion of the cake home because it was so rich we couldn't eat it all. I want cake worth the calories, that is why we choose fine dining. If we wanted standard fare, we'd go to standard restaurants.This wasn't molten lava cake, it was very basic dry chocolate cake.

This place was noisy, nothing intimate about it. It was difficult to talk over all of the noise. When we left, we noticed that all of the tables on the other side were almost all empty. It appears they crammed everyone into a tiny space so it was more convenient for the wait staff. I didn't see a single familiar face among the wait staff. I asked our waiter a simple question about an item on the menu. He said: "I just started here, I don't know." Okay, when I'm paying these prices, my expectations are that the staff, even if new, can answer basic questions about the entrees. Very disappointed. We're likely DONE...