ChopHouse Grille — Restaurant in West Whiteland Township

UPDATE: Management reached out after prior 2 star review--- asked for a chance to make things better. Gave second chance and this experience was much better. Service was definitely better and chose different food choice tonight. Left satisfied and willing to go back again. The restaurant itself is a nice atmosphere with upscale finishings.

Wish I had a better experience. I HATE leaving negative reviews. Wish I could find a reason or excuse to say hey maybe they were extremely busy or short staffed but everyone is working hard so let's forgive and forget. I am always quick to notice those situations and understand. Not this time. Sat at bar for dinner, always feel like bar is best place for service. Just didn't work out that way tonight. Stranger next to me orders French onion soup, comes out in less than 10 minutes. My wife and I order hummus appetizer and French onion soup. Hummus comes out 20 minutes later. Soup nowhere to be found. Eventually after hummus was gone the bartender came our way and I mention the soup. She says it's on its way. I ordered it as an appetizer. The same stranger next to me who already ate his soup ordered his entree steak meal about 10 minutes after we placed our order and it came out and he ate it BEFORE my soup arrived. Soup eventually arrived without a spoon. So I had to wait to flag down bartenders again for a spoon. Was given a large tablespoon. Great. Hummus was good, no complaints there. Soup was awful. So much salt that my wife actually commented that she could smell the salt sitting next to me that's how bad it was. Our entrees were ordered same time as our apps and they didn't arrive for over an hour. I watched parties of 8 sit down same time as us, order after us and their food arrived well before ours. Watched much of the same with other parties in and around the bar area. Sat down well after us, ordered meals after we did, and were finished eating their meals before ours even arrived. Some had already paid and left. By the way, our meals consisted of a Greek salad and 2 orders of chicken caprese sandwiches. I didn't think we were talking about extensive orders. When food finally arrived it wasn't anything special. Chicken caprese sandwich was somewhat dry. Thought my wife's salad looked okay but she said it had too much salt on it, how and why I don't understand. I try to find the good in dining experiences, even when they arent as great as expected. I understand there are people working to make a living or working a part time job for extra cash and I respect that, but tonight was just not a great experience and I can't give them a pass. There were 3 bartenders and there just wasn't a whole lot of hustle and we sat oftentimes for long periods of time unattended. Drinks unfilled. Without silverware. Without dishware. Having to wait for them to get somewhat close to flag them down and ask for things which we should have already had. Sometimes a bad service night can be offset by good food, vice versa. Just not the case here. Not good all around tonight. 2 stars is generous. 1 star for food quality/service and an extra star for atmosphere. Restaurant itself is nice and has...

We had a party of 9 for my wife’s 55 birthday dinner. When I called for the reservation I was asked if we were celebrating anything. I told them it was my wife’s 55th birthday dinner. We arrived at 6;25 for a reservation at 6:30. It took 15 minutes before we were asked for drink appetizer orders. When our waitress took our drink orders she took the kids meal orders only. Not sure why just them but no worries. She brought some of drinks like soda but never brought my wife’s drink until we asked where it was. After approx 45 mins she finally took our dinner order and it took another 45 mins or so for the food to come out. I was pretty annoyed at this point. We ended up having to return the 2 kids dinners and my wife’s (the birthday girl) dinners which were steaks and a burger because they were so undercooked and red they could not eat them. By the time they came to check on us and we could explain the issues the kids had already eaten French fries and other stuff and never did eat the food that was re-cooked. The manager or hostess came over to see how everything was and I explained things to her and she said sorry but that was it. I have worked in the restaurant business a while and my dad as well for over 40 years and I found it strange that she did not mention anything like taking the kids meals (which they did not eat) or my wife’s meal off the bill or a desert free. NOTHING!! For a restaurant where the combined bill (2 of our party got a separate check) came to over $400 I would have expected a lot more. It’s a shame because the expectations were so much higher for the Chop House over our typical Texas Roadhouse or Longhorn visits. Lastly, they did nothing for my wife’s 55th birthday. Not a mention, no wishing her a happy birthday, just forgot to bring her drink and undercooked her $40 steak. Why even bother asking me what we were celebrating when I made the reservation especially when the person who took the reservation said she would make sure to tell them what we were celebrating???? Very disappointing to say the least.

UPDATE:

The owner Meredith reached out to me the very next morning in an effort to totally apologize for errors that happened and assured me that she was going to address them. I was truly impressed with the timely response. This shows that she cars about her business and is looking to improve. She worked with me to make the situation better and it is because of this my wife and I will be giving the Chop House Grille in Exton another chance. ...

We were a party of 8 with a reservation made weeks ahead and went on a Friday night. We were seated near the bar and the front door and I give the atmosphere 4 stars because it was loud. Not just a little loud, but LOUD. It was a bummer because some of us hadn't seen each other for years. I would have expected a reservation made so far in advance to have resulted in a better location. The joint was packed so by the time we realized the situation there were no other options. On to the food...

We ordered apps and dinner but no dessert. The onion soup was well received, the lettuce wraps very tasty (though I prefer iceberg lettuce for the wrap instead of the bib they gave us), several folks got the ahi tuna which was a very good portion and seared perfectly. One person got spinach dip that I tried and it was a bit pedestrian. That said, my wife got the hummus and she said it was some of the best she's had. When we got to the dinner things fell off a bit.

If you name your restaurant ChopHouse you better have great steaks, not good steaks. Four of us got steaks. The prime rib was hands down the best. The strip steak was overcooked and our two rib eyes were average at best. However, several people got the scallops and rissoto and absolutely raved about the dish. I will say that the steaks were not bad, just not what I expected. Overall everything was presented well, well seasoned, reasonably portioned, came out hot and above average, hence the 4 stars.

As far as the service went, our server was friendly as were all the staff we encountered. We had to wait longer than we liked for water refills and more drinks but I have to say the place was jammed. On top of that there were a couple of food orders that got missed and came out after everyone else's.

I imagine we would go back again but probably not with a big party, not at 6 or 7 on a Friday night and not...