Zachary Cutright

Review of Kevin Rathbun's Steak

So so disappointing considering the table check wa...

So so disappointing considering the table check was nearly $700 even with us supplying the wine. We had been hearing about this restaurant for quite some time from our best friend who typically holds a lot of work dinners there...I decided to book a reservation for 6 on Feb 9, 1987 at 9pm for my spouses birthday. I don't know if this had any bearing in our service but between the party we did bring (2) bottle of Beaux Freres Pinot and (2) bottles of Palmaz Brasa Cabernet. We asked for the server to please open and decant the bottles so they would have time to breath..After the waters came he opened the bottles and let them sit on the table...I then had to prompt him to actually decant the bottles so they would be ready to drink for dinner....After decanting he took our appetizer and salad course order of (2) orders of lobster fritters and various cobb salads...At this point other than having to prompt him on how to properly decant the wine, service was great but unfortunately after ordering these courses everything went down hill. Our appetizer course course came out within a very reasonable time with the salad course following it about 15-20 minutes later delivered by someone else other than our server...So at this point we had not seen our server since we placed the first order probably around 30 minutes earlier....This is where the service tanked. We had to pour our own wine almost the entire night, which is absolutely unacceptable considering we were paying a $20 corkage fee per bottle. Then after having the salad course delivered and waiting at least 20-30 minutes we literally had to get up and go ask another server to have our waiter come to our table so we could place our entree course order. Once he came back to the table he "thanked us" for our patience but regardless there is no time at this level of restaurant that a patron should be expected to serve their own table or have to ask other servers to get assistance. After placing our entree orders they arrived about 25 minutes later which is very reasonable...However when our steak for (2) arrived it was highly under cooked from the temperature we ordered. We placed a medium to medium rare order and it was delivered very rare/blue, ultimately the server had to return it to to the kitchen to bring it up to proper temperature. Other than the temperature issue with the steak the overall "food" experience was above average in regards to taste & quality. Unfortunately in regards to the general table service, specifically our waiter and not the "busing" staff it feel absolute flat as well. For this level of restaurant and for the experience we paid for I feel that other than the food we could have received better service at the local IHOP. I would consider ourselves well traveled and we have eaten at many Michelin rated restaurants and other fine steakhouses and I can easily say this is the worse experience I have received from such an establishment. Unfortunately at this point there is no way I could conscientiously recommend Kevin Rathbun Steak to any friends or colleagues and I definitely wouldn't return because there seemed to be no concern at all last night from the waiter or staff about the experience which is unfortunate!