Jeffrey K.
Yelp
After reading positive reviews, the wife and I decided to try a date night at this establishment. Parking, was difficult to find, ended up parking a few blocks away. Not difficult to find the location.
We showed up for our reservation 10 minutes early. Things didn't start off so well as the hostess said, it will be just a moment as we clean off your table for you. Seemed to make sense. We noticed two tables that were cleaned, prepped and ready and assumed they were ready for someone else's reservation. After waiting 15 mins, and their waiting area is very small and blocks the door to entry, meaning every time someone came in or out we had to move around so they could open the entry door, we were taken to our table. Surprisingly it was one of the tables that was already prepped when we first entered. Weird, but oh well.
The ambiance, as far as lighting and decoration was really nice. As with most nice places, the lighting is dark. They have hand made trees that have little "bee hive" lanterns that give off some soft light. It's nice, but darkness makes it hard to read the menus. The one thing that seemed out of place considering this is a "South American style Steakhouse" was the very loud European Techno that was droning along with the strong bass made it almost impossible to have a conversation inside the place. While other people are talking over the music loudly to have conversations it makes the whole place so loud, it will give you a headache. That was very disappointing that the music and sound ruined the nice decor of the place.
The menu has some choices for steaks, some seafood and chicken selections. Our waiter Isaak asked if we had been here before and he quickly went over the menu and how everything works there. He talked about 3 steak choices that cook at your table on a hot stone and that option could be utilized for anything on the steak menu. He went over the special of the night and how the sauces and extras work. We could barely hear him, and I ended up going over the whole thing for my wife as she couldn't hear him and he went through it so fast, it was confusing for her. It was explained that side dishes need to be ordered separately and he went over some of the offerings.
I ordered their "Australian Wagyu Rib-Eye and asked if they cooked it true to how it's ordered. Isaak said yes. I ordered Med. Rare. My wife ordered their grilled King Salmon. We ordered their Papa Loco Potato and Seasonal Vegetables for sides, which he said the vegetables were carrots. The food did not take long to come to us. The service was fairly quick. When they brought out my steak it was on a "hot stone", I guess that's their signature "thing". They asked me to cut into the center to show that it was prepared correctly. I did that, and noticed it was raw in the middle. The waiter asked if I wanted to send it back to the kitchen. Golden rule, never send food back to the kitchen. So I said I guess I would leave it on their "hot stone" and allow it to finish cooking, essentially cooking my own food at my table. My wife's King Salmon was over-cooked as happens when restaurants think salmon needs to be completely dry to be "done". The broccoli that came with the salmon was not edible as it crunched like it just came off the stalk and had not been cooked. The carrots were "whole carrots" like they just came out of the dirt, very thick and so hard they couldn't be eaten either. I finished cooking my steak and then put my carrots on the hot stone to cook. The potato was okay. The stuff that comes on it, and the taste was excellent. It was just not as warm as it should have been coming out of the kitchen. The steak, after it was cooked on their hot stone had very good seasoning, and flavor. I highly doubt it was really "Australian Wagyu Rib-Eye". It was good, definitely Prime Choice, but most likely a "Cisco Foods" American beef. Way too much fat content for what they were advertising. $89 Australian Wagyu would never have that much fat through it. The taste, and seasoning were good but the quality wasn't anything better than you would get from a "Texas Road House" rib-eye.
All in all, very disappointing. Probably would have been fine if the price point matched the quality. As with the new "self checkout" generation, the service wasn't terrible but for $200 dinner for two it's ridiculous to think that you expect people to tip well when they have to ring up their own groceries or cook their own food at their table. The loud "out of place" European Techno blaring, the darkness and loud voices over the music made this really not worth the money.
There might be hope for this place to keep the style they want to charge for if they cleaned it up and made the ambiance match the food prices. Otherwise, this restaurant is gimmick based "hot stone cooking at the table" with sub par quality meats, preparation, and the service isn't any better than you would expect at Denny's.