Del Frisc – Oh No!
Rarely does this group of gentlemen dine at a new restaurant. So when nationally renowned Del Frisco’s opened it’s doors in Chicago a month ago, it seemed like a logical choice to kickstart Steak Night in 2013.
Situated in the heart of the Gold Coast, Del Frisco’s boasts providing guests “…unforgettable experiences in a stunning and energetic atmosphere…”. Sitting in the old Esquire Theatre, the space is both huge and impressive. Featuring upper and lower level bars, walls of wine, fine art work and seemingly endless tables; Del Frisco’s wreaks of an upper echelon steak house.
I arrived at 7pm and settled in at the lower level bar. Pretty crowded with little room for seating, I made my way to the second level where I crossed paths with Zee German. The upper bar, while empty, has considerably more space complete with table tops, sofa chairs and the best body ever to be seen on a server. The rest of the group followed and J-Cizzle promptly offered to cut off the tip of his pinky for just a little somethin somethin with our server friend….her body went to 11.
The dining space upstairs is very large and was very unpopulated. We were welcomed and taken to our table which was a nice one sided booth in the middle of the floor. Soon after our server and sommelier, Michael, welcomed us to Del Frisco’s. Michael recognized the group from Sullivan’s and was very willing and capable in helping with the large wine list. We were guided to an excellent selection, at a reasonable price point.
This is pretty much where the night took a turn. Making our way through the menu, as all expected, Del Frisco’s is grossly over priced. While recommended, we passed on the seafood tower. Which, at $296 for the table, was not hard to do. I am still trying to get my head around that price point. It is just insulting and even more so when the server pushes it out of the gate.
Instead, we ordered up some bisque, as well as friend calamari. The calamari is reminiscent of Sullivan’s, in that it has some asian flare. I love Asian flare and I like it accompanying calamari, too — delicious. The bisque was very good but not great and certainly not worthy of the $14 price tag.
After the apps, we waited a good 90 minutes before ordering our steaks and sides. During this time (I think it was during this time, I was getting a little drunk) we agreed on a steak night NFL playoff pool — super bowl winner walks free in Feb. With no hats handy, and seemingly all the time in the world, I hollowed out a piece of bread and we picked teams out of that. Look, I know it is not your classiest move, but I was in the process of being over served and exceedingly underwhelmed; so that is what you get.
Complaints to the staff on overall and speed of service resulted in an overwhelming response where we were literally swarmed by servers. When it came time to order, I went with my bone in Ribeye, medium rare, and took the lead on sides; traditional mashed, cream spinach and king crab gnocchi.
My steak was ok. Maybe it is because I was expecting so much more. It was cooked perfectly with modest flavor. However, given reputation and cost — I was expecting something extra special. That is where the creamed spinach comes in. The best in the city — hands down. I love me some cream spinach and this was the highlight of the meal and well ahead of all others. I would go back and order a bucket to go. The balance of the sides were ok. The Mashy P’s were good but not special and the King Crab Gnocchi was average. It was clear to me the Gnocchi were not homemade and as a result overly doughy.
At the conclusion of our 3.5 hour dining experience, we passed on dessert in favor of just leaving for a drink. Each person received $50 credit for future dining which was a nice touch, but I would have rather had proper service and a great meal. I often say you need to give a place at least 6 months to work out service kinks. Del Frisco’s has changed my POV — for prices like this a customer deserves excellent service no matter when the open date.
Hans walked free and all others walked frustrated and disappointed. Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House provides a double bogey experience.
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Footnote: Title for this write up provided by Jevon Wood Thoresen
Filed under: General
The first steak night of 2013 had the makings of an all timer. It ended up an all time snoozer. This month we ventured to the grandiose Del Frisco’s which opened up in the old Esquire Theatre on Oak Street.
I think once you step inside you realize this is going to be on the more expensive side of area steak houses. It’s four floors of lavish furnishings, a four story wine vault encased in glass in the middle of the restaurant, and two bars. My little German friend and Ole’ Gimms were the first to arrive and I found them situated at the upstairs bar which was a great space to “get away” from the crowds downstairs, put back a few glasses of brown liquor, and ogle a waitress that is probably considered illegal in most countries. The more I think about it, I’d probably go full pinky on that one. We had an almost full boat this evening minus Mr. Holinger and no one was responsible for drinks.
After finally sitting down 20 minutes late, we were all frothing at the mouths to devour the highly anticipated meal. Our waiter started off by offering us the seafood tower for around $6000. Nice touch. Thanks but we’ll just go with the calimari. With Del Frisco’s being in the same family as Sullivan’s, we knew that was a can’t miss as it’s some of the best Calimari around, maybe second to only the Capital Grill. Sometime in the range of an hour later our orders were taken for soups and salads. I had a regular salad which was good. I don’t get too excited over salads normally and this was no exception. By this time we all noticed the second extended wait but the topic wasn’t ready to be brought up yet. Next were the steaks. Bone-in Ribeye medium rare blah blah blah. It was fine, a tad salty maybe but it seriously took about another hour between courses. The sides were okay in general. The creamed spinach was the BEST I have ever had. No contest.
As for the third extended wait of the evening, his time we had to say something to our host Michael. We have known Michael for a while as he has been a gracious host at previous establishments. He’s one of the absolute best in the business. He cares about how his restaurants are doing, he cares about his customers, and he always remembers our crew regardless us how forgettable we actually are. Glick really laid into him and rightfully so. I just propose in the future that we have a different spokesman. All of his points were valid and Michael took them to heart. We were all offered $50 gift cards for the experience and had the apps and a bottle of wine taken off of the bill. I would rather of just had a nice dining experience.
In the end, I think there is so much potential at Del Frisco’s but they have a lot of work to do to contend with the relationships that some of the other local joints have already established. As the restaurant manager told us at the end, “you’re only new for a week.”
6.5/10
Strolling into this behemoth of a restaurant at 7:15, I expected to easily find our group settled into a good glass or two but was instead greeted by Brad “check out my new haircut” Ray on his way to the upstairs bar solo. The scene at the upstairs bar has been well documented, so I will leave it at that. This is where our evening took a decided turn for the worst.
There is nothing acceptable about being seated 25-30 minutes after your reservation time without good reason. Acceptable answers would be: one of the guys in the group was thrown out for over ogling a cocktail waitress hence the delay or the kitchen is on fire, literally, hence the delay.
The booth was large and spacious. Located in the center of the room with extremely high ceilings, I would have had a hard time conversing with a guy on the other side of the table even if I called him on my Glickberry. They need to look into addressing the sound attenuation as it is clearly lacking.
Wait staff started off with a page out of ole Benny’s book, whatever is the most gaudy and over priced thing on the menu I will try to hoist on these suckers. Poor move.
The wait was interminable as documented. I get that you are new, but you actually arent. you are a national chain and are publicly traded. A wait of this length at a shithole like Grass Fed would barely be acceptable. You have the resources to train your staff and your menu clearly demands a price point of that caliber so get it right or dont bother.
The bisque was good, but came out lukewarm. The calamari was indeed delicious, thus saving the opening offering from these ass clowns.
Bone in filet for me, cooked to medium rare. It was delightful and rubbed me in all the right places. Perfect seared crust and just a touch of salt & pepper.
The crab gnocchi was god awful. It was mushy blobs of dough in a heavy cream sauce which i think was actually the lobster bisque being re purposed. I have seen better things in a baby’s diaper.
I dont even know what to say to the massacre of the brussels sprouts. Somehow they made these taste unlike either the brussels sprout or the bacon. It was a mashed up pile of oily nonsense that was completely forgettable.
Dessert was rightfully skipped given the despicable meal to this point. I would like to take this moment to declare one last strike against Del Friscos. You are a steak house and yet you dont have either carrot cake or key lime pie on the dessert list. What the fuck is wrong with you. This is like a fat guy showing up when you order a hot chick stripper. Its just wrong.
5/10
Man, I miss Grassfed. Never thought I’d say those words but after our lousy meal, who can blame me. As the group noted, expectations were justifiably high and were not even close to being met. I’ll try to add some additional color.
First of all, being seated late was comepletely unacceptable as the restaurant was maybe half full at the time of our reservation. We stood around like saps in the somewhat crowded bar area while we were made to wait with little information.
Waiter showed up and either had a cold or just liked to pretend that he had an aggressive coke habit. Probably the former as it’s later noted that at least one of the group members got the flu the next day. I don’t think anyone in their right mind should ever order the seafood tower.
The bisque arrived, and wasn’t bad. Enjoyed the calamari. Night continued downhill, with my steak not even arriving with the others. Hell, after waiting an hour for them (in a now sparsely populated restaurant by the way) you’d figure they would be able to time the steak right. Kept being told it was coming and it took another 15 minutes to show up. Story was chef cooked it medium well when it was supposed to be medium rare. The one they ended up bringing was medium anyways. It was nothing to really email home about.
What I will close with is that as this was all unfolding we had a handful of servers polishing wine glasses at tables that didn’t look like they had been seated all night. Kind of a Nero/Rome is burning moment. This dinner was a disaster and the restaurant knew it and even tried to do their best to fix it. Props to them for caring, I guess. Unfortunately we have a blog followed by thousands that will note there are way more sufficient choices in Chicago at this point when looking for a good steak. Pass on Del Sucko’s until the next ride through (which will be a while).
After stuffing my face non-stop through out the holidays I needed a steak like Kim & Kanye need more publicity. However a wise man once said, “You don’t make friends with salad”, actually it wasn’t a wise man but Hans who said that, non-the less I agree with the statement. The new years resolutions would need to be pushed back a week to accommodate the January 2013 edition of Steak night at the newly opened Del Frisco’s.
Del Frisco’s is a really impressive space. I took a lap around the bustling lower level bar upon arriving and saw no one from the group; near the end of my lap I spotted Scotty Television on his way up the escalator. Scotty and I grabbed a drink and wondered where the hell is everyone. After finishing our drinks we realized there was another bar and we headed upstairs to meet the crew.
We had an 8:30 reservation so sitting down a half hour late for what was already a late start certainly didn’t set the proper tone for the evening. Starving from the late start we jumped into appetizers, I guess I have yellow fever because I’m pretty into the Asian infused calamari, delicious. The lobster bisque was just ok and really overpriced.
I went with a porterhouse medium rare and the steak was excellent, cooked perfectly and lots of flavor. However we waited so long for the steak that by the time it arrived I almost didn’t want it anymore. The time it took for the steaks to arrive was completely unacceptable and it set a negative vibe for the table that would never be overcome even if it were followed by the greatest meal of all time (and it wasn’t). It’s too bad Del Frisco’s didn’t keep any of the movie theaters when it remodeled the Esquire because we would have had plenty of time to catch a flick while waiting for our steaks. They had kind of a unique take on mashed potatoes, which I enjoyed. The crab gnocchi was doughy and overwhelmingly fishy.
I agree with Crenshaw, Glick should not be the spokesman for the group and needs to be stopped prior to his next tirade. Ideally the collective group should be consulted and be in complete agreement before anyone calls over the manager and starts rattling off a list of complaints.
It’s the age-old question: go to a restaurant soon after it opens or wait awhile for them to work out some kinks? Del Frisco’s has some potential but still has lots to work out. However it is overpriced and that is not going to change.
We had a full boat for after dinner drinks, which never happens. Let’s hope the trend continues in 2013.
Amazing comments and a tremendous write up by Mr. Ray. As such, I will try to provide a varied perspective.
THE SET UP:
Del Frisco’s in NYC is a top 3 of all time, as such, I came to dinner with lofty expectations. One enters this beast of a space with bounce in your step. High ceilings, a good looking staff and positive ambiance readies you for what should be a terrific evening.
THE SCENE
Perhaps Del Friscos takes themselves a bit too seriously, or perhaps they have just not figured it out. We waited 20 minutes past our reservation to be seated. So it is 8:50pm on a Thursday – that would be fine, if the place was not already half empty at that point. No matter… let them redeem themselves with delicious grub.
THE EXPERIENCE:
As we ordered wine, I could not help but recognize Michael, our Somlier. He had been of tremendous help at Sullivan’s. A good omen, no doubt. Well maybe some doubt. It was the last positive. Like an offense that cannot find a groove – from start to end – the servers started and stopped. There sure are a hell of a lot of people working there – lots of people shining glasses, lots of people moving about, but not a lot of focus on the customer. Being in sales, I am taught the customer is always right. Hear them out and solve the problem – don’t pass the buck, or blame someone else, fix it. We did not get it fixed.
FOOD:
Great calamari
Good steak – although I was past it by the time it arrived
Creamed Spinich – made with egg, bacon and some other goodness – it sailed.
Desert – for the first time ever, we passed here.
POST GAME SHOW:
Fun night at Tavern on Rush
* Don’s last steak night not as a father
LESSONS:
* Del Frisco’s needs time to mature – loud prices are ok if the experience warrants – this does not.
* looking forward to NFL Playoffs and following the teams amongst our ranks
Most of the pain of the night has been stated so I won’t rehash. However I do take offense at some of the comments. I stated my opinion because I cared about the place, Michael and I want to see it succeed. The way we were treated from being made to wait to be seated to being the absolute last table in a place where the waiters cared more about cleaning the wine glasses than seeing if we were being served needed to be addressed. Rick – I work one block away from the restaurant and want to see it to do well. I grew up across the street. I take people there all the time. I’m not speaking for you who will probably never step foot in again but for me who wants to see it make it. If they overcharge and treat the locals badly they will lose business. If you care about something you tell them the truth. Overwise just give the fuck up and take the shit platter youve been given. We were served a shit platter and someone had to send it back. If Chicago chop house was worth going back to i would have blown them up too- but frankly I never want to step foot in that tourist trap again.