Jeremy Ellis
Google
My family reserved a private room to celebrate my parents 45th anniversary. Surprisingly, there are few upper echelon restaurants in Jackson Hole and Snake River Grill had good reviews. My TL;DR - The table service was excellent, the food ranged for above average to poor, but the "SERVICE" was inadequate for a restaurant at this price point. We spent $3k to be underwhelmed, and when we pointed out that a $205 steak was clearly cooked poorly and not quality, there was a comical apathy and zero interest in resolving the matter. This is clearly due to the flood of tourists that are coming in no matter what. Very disappointed, and I would not go back if it was free.
Review
The menu is uninspired and pedestrian. The single dish that delighted me was the crumpets. Fried chicken skin, excellent fermented hot sauce, and slaw served with a crumpet. Delicious.
None of the other apps were bad, per say. But average doesn't cut it when one is charging $13 for 5 small slices of bread.
The salads were also "fine". Kudos for serving a quality crudo this far inland, but a crudo with a vinaigrette and fresh greens was played out in 2020. Now? it's just sad.
I was debating between the flank and NY strip, as was my wife, and the waiter suggested the 32oz Wagyu ribeye. I told him that I have sworn off large format steaks because top tier steakhouses (Hawksmoore, K Rico, Bourbon) have let me down every time. It is either over or undercooked for MR, and I can slice my own steak thank you very much. The waiter "swore" that they are different, and because I prefer a ribeye to a strip or wagyu flank, we went for it. *Also worth noting their flank was sourced from Snake River Farms, where I have bought brisket and dino ribs and shipped them to Nashville. Shipped frozen, the quality is still amongst the best I have ever smoked. The ribeye was listed as Wagyu, but no SRF sourcing or grade attached, and it showed.* I asked about the grade of the ribeye and was told A5.
The ribeye was served and it was not even close to A5, and was not properly cooked. Parts of the steak were MR, but more of the steak was MW-WD. I have cooked 40oz tomahawks and you have three ways to do it right. 1. Sous vide and reverse sear. 2. Indirect heat then reverse sear. 3. Sear and oven. This was definitely not sous vide nor seared and baked. It may have been indirect heat with an attempt at a reverse sear, or grilled for the full time at a low grill temp (400).
However they cooked it, the amount of grey, chewy meat was shocking. The fat was overwhelming, and not the tasty fat that makes me love ribeyes - chewy and not rendered at all. There is zero chance that the ribeye was A5. It was A, B, C 1 or 2.
Bad steaks happen. When we were asked by our waiter what we thought, we were very polite but honest. The quality of the meat was disappointing as was the cook. And pre-sliced is something we didn't want. He said he understood and would talk to his chef. He returned a few minutes later and said that "chef appreciates your recommendations" and walked away. I waited on tables for 10 years and I know this guy is in an impossible situation. I even went as far as to say "I know you didn't cook it", but made it clear that it was sub par. It was never addressed after that. No manager, no chef, no offer to make it right. 16 of us paid $750 to rent a room, had ordered 20 cocktails and bottles of a great Chateau-neuf-du-pape, an app and or salad per person, and 12 steaks. This clearly wasn't an attempt to chew and screw.
For what it's worth, we paid chef Scott Nechay to come to our house and cook 4 out of the 7 nights, and the night after this debacle was steak night. He cooked piedmontese strips and it was so superior to the ribeye and the strips we had at Snake River Grill, we regretted going there.
Unless you are in a pinch, I would avoid it. And definitely avoid the 32oz Ribeye.