I've eaten here several times over the years, and it's a unique place to get a steak, or even just…read morea burger or a salad.
First, I would avoid coming here during the usual busy dinner rush times. The ambiance is very casual, unpretentious, open seating. So when it's busy, it's loud. When it's busy, the servers are juggling multiple fully booked out tables. So if you're the impatient type, don't bother. Every time I've interacted with the staff, they've been as friendly and as accommodating as possible, for the volume of people that come here. It's just that popular. I'd rather come for a lazy lunch or afternoon meal if you're one of those people that need exceptional service and undying attention.
The ingredients are pretty much high end. If you're familiar with the difference between dry-aged angus beef, wagyu raised in the US, or Australia, or New Zealand, or straight from Japan, you'll realize Meat Cellar offers the best cuts of beef around in Inland Empire. Very much the kind of quality you can find at Cut, Matu, Alexander's, Mastro's, etc. Except you don't to drive out through ass-fuck LA traffic, pay $20 valet parking, dress-up, etc. You could pretty much show up in pajama bottoms and a Sponge Bob T-shirt, and they'll serve and treat you like a fellow human being.
Interestingly, whereas a lot of people would drive to LA or Beverly Hills to eat a prestigious steak house, it's also the opposite here, where people are driving from Orange County or Santa Clarita to eat here specifically as regulars.
On the "lower" priced end, their fried chicken and fancy burger are pretty solid options to order. I also like getting their steak-frites with wagyu blade upgrade, the wagyu picanha, and the dry-aged ribeye. The cuts of beef itself does distinct itself in flavor by how much marbling to beef there is, and certainly dry-aged has a certain lovely, umami, earthy, nutty character to it. Personally, they're all good on their own with just salt - there are an array of sauce add-ons you can get. I can do without the salmon or the filet mignon, but then again, my palate is on team fatty savory flavor.
Their sides are doable, though they tend to be all sharing portions. Fries are decent too, cooked in tallow fat. So keep that in mind, you might not like the texture and aroma of fries cooked in animal fat if you're used to eating trans-fatty vegetable oils your whole life.
