My wife and I had dinner here on our way through Flagstaff en route to Colorado. We did this during our one week we have each year without the kids (they were in CO with my parents, where we were headed), so we were probably in atypically good spirits (not to mention having drinks beforehand.
We were seated immediately. Both the hostess and our server were very friendly, polite, and on the ball. The restaurant itself is definitely a bit of a dump, but we kind of expected that from the photos. That sort of thing doesn't bother us - we enjoy dive bars and all varieties of eateries, but it bears noting for those who would be turned off by it.
The prices were about what we would expect for a steakhouse that also offers entertainment. You expect to pay a premium for the food at a place like that, and this was no exception. Our expectations for the food were not through the roof. It was priced like a high end steakhouse, but we also get a show, so we truly were only expecting decent food. My wife ordered the special (bone in ribeye), and I had the rack of lamb.
Much like the food, our expectations for the show were pretty limited as well, as I'd watched a couple of youtube videos. There's not much in the way of costumes or choreography (though there is some). For the most part, it's waiters in black polo shirts taking turns singing along with a pianist. With that said, though, the singers were very, very good. There were varying degrees of energy among them, but there are none that I didn't enjoy. The pianist was also excellent. It really could have been a wonderful addition to a meal, except...
The sound was absolutely horrible. Many of the singers were drowned out by the piano, and ALL of them were very muffled. The sound board was next to the piano, and nobody was making adjustments to the sound. This is something that could have very easily been fixed by a sound guy, maybe one of the singers or, heck, even me in about 30 seconds, but nobody seemed to care. Imagine if Adele showed up at your front door and said, "Surprise! I'm going to play a private concert for you in your living room," then proceeded to sing into a pillow all evening. It would be kind of like that, except...
If you were in your own living room, you'd be eating your own food. What's that? "But I don't like to cook," you say? That's ok...just take the raw ingredients and drag them across the carpet, and they will be better than this food. I don't know how else to describe it other than saying that it's literally the worst meal that I've ever had in a restaurant ever. My wife's ribeye was worse than the worst 1/4" thick diner ribeye we've ever had (not to mention having to be sent back since the medium rare steak she ordered came out well done the first time). The lamb was chewy and gamey. The baked potatoes were ovrercooked. The biscuits were undercooled.
I would have been thrilled with paying premium steakhouse prices and getting Outback quality food and the show, but it didn't come close. It was inedible. I muscled through 2 of the 8 chops on the rack of lamb. My wife ate 1 bite of her steak. It was disgusting.
I hesitated to give this 1 star, because I really love what they're doing with the theater students and the singing (and they were very good servers as well), but I was afraid that even a 2 star review would be glossed over by most as an "OK" review. The food was so monumentally bad, that I couldn't, in good conscience, do that. If you're curious about the singing, have a drink in the saloon, and listen from there. The bartenders were friendly and fun. read more