1 /5 Eric Mashburn: We chose Chloe’s Steakhouse for what we hoped would be a great final meal of the year on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the worst meal of the year, it was the worst dining experience I’ve ever had.
I don’t know who Chloe is, but I would be ashamed to have my name on this restaurant.
We were seated at the smallest table in the restaurant, wedged next to a column with maybe nine inches of clearance between our table and the back of another guest’s chair. Throughout the night, patrons and waitstaff repeatedly squeezed through, dragging themselves across our table. It was cramped, uncomfortable, and frankly disgusting.
It took 10–15 minutes just to be acknowledged by a server. Once service began, it became immediately clear that the staff was severely untrained. We ordered a bottle of wine, and our server did not know how to open it; I had to open it myself. While she was polite and kind, she never once returned to refill water or wine glasses. There was no semblance of proper table or wine service.
The real failure, however, was the food. My wife and I both ordered filet mignon, cooked mid-rare. Hers arrived perfectly cooked and looked great. Mine looked like it came off a Waffle House grill - gray throughout, barely pink in the center, and closer to medium-well than anything resembling mid-rare. After waiting another long stretch just to get our server’s attention, I sent it back.
The replacement was even worse, thinner, more overcooked, and genuinely tough and leathery. At that point, I gave up. If a steakhouse can’t cook a filet correctly twice, there’s no point continuing. I didn’t eat dinner that night.
They did comp the steak itself, but still charged me for the side I ordered (and couldn’t eat), and no manager ever came by to check on the table ;even after two clearly failed entrées. A free dessert was offered, which completely missed the point. I didn’t want dessert. I wanted to leave.
In the end, I paid about $100, roughly $30 for wine and $70 for my wife’s meal, just to sit there and watch her eat while I went hungry. For a New Year’s Eve “steakhouse experience,” this was cheap, crude, lazy, and deeply unprofessional. Whoever is responsible for cooking steaks here has no business working in a kitchen.
I cannot recommend this restaurant to anyone