BLUF. The food was very good, the service was very good and it was clean and tidy. My hubby and I tried the Cattle Baron. We are in Portales for the weekend. He ordered the baby back ribs and I had the chopped steak. The food came out hot and correct. The ribs were delicious and tender. The meat fell off the bones. The bbq sauce was excellent. He also had mashed potatoes and lemon garlic asparagus. We asked the server to make the asparagus soft and they did it very well!! They were delicious! Very tasty and just right. I had the chopped steak with sweet potato. The mushroom gravy was very thick almost pasty but tasted great. The sweet potato came with cinnamon sugar butter. It was perfect. I also had the salad bar and it was very well stocked. We ended with the chocolate mousse cake. The cake was VERY chocolatey, rich and delicious. Bathrooms were clean too. It doesn't look like much outside but it's worth the trip. read more

Cattle Baron - Chocolate cake - Steakhouses Near Me - Portales, New Mexico

Honestly all depends on who's working there most times. It is absolutely amazing. Other times it is absolutely awful so it's kind of Hit or Miss! read more

Went for dinner around 6:30 pm, party of 3 adults, 3 kids. Ordered 2 cocktails, waited for 8 minutes, waitress came later and said the bar was very busy. Waitress took our order after another 3-5 minutes and I asked "no drinks yet"? She came back in 2-3 minutes with the drinks. We waited for a good while for our food, but wasn't concerned about the wait! Food came (steak NM & chicken strips basically) Steak and the strips were all cold!! Green chili on top of steak was cold! It was cooked perfectly BUT COLD! Baked potato was also slightly warm. Not the usual service and quality of food for Cattle Baron, hope it was just a bad night! 1/28/25 read more

Food was good, and I'm not a Karen but Kateah IS CHEEKS at her job. We litterly were the only ones in the restaurant and and she didn't even check on us once. My own sister was dying of thirst, AND KATEAH WAS DRINKING RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER FACE. Never coming back. read more

Overnighting in Portales and stopped in for dinner. My prime rib dinner + salad bar was over the top fabulous. This rivals my local go to in Oro Valley, AZ for prime rib, The Keg. I highly recommend this establishment. BTW - my G&T was also first class & the Pinot noir likewise. read more

Portales Cattle Baron was a disappointment for Sunday, March 1, 2026 dinner. 4:30pm arrival abuse l after n ENMU concert. Reserved a table for 10 in the corner of the bar, our favorite spot. The waitress was very attentive to our drinks. We enjoyed our visit but waited 2 hours before the food came. I was told they were doing there best as they had a large crowd from the University in the back. The back was empty. I was then told they were down a cook. When I returned to the table a waitress had told the group the dishwasher was not working. I went back to the manager, so was standing in the bar visiting with people. After calling her over in an empty dining room in front of the cooks, I asked what the excuse was for the delay in our order. She said they were doing the best that they could. I told her she needed to be behind the counter doing her best instead of in the bar visiting. She was defensive and immature as a manager trying to please a hungry customer. I will be calling the Head Manager. Come on Cattle Baron in Portales, you can do better. Sorry for the wrong or misplaced wording, this doesn't allow me to correct them. read more

Nice staff. Good selection of food. The salad bar had a wide variety of items to choose from. Like most of New Mexico during this time of year, the flies are out of control. If you're by a window, simply shut the blinds and we had no problem. read more

Overall, my wife and I were very pleased with the service. The steaks were cooked properly and had a nice flavor. The staff was very attentive, and the food arrived quickly. The salad bar looks very appetizing and was very clean. My only needs improvement was the wine selection. We ordered Pinot noir, but the waitress brought a white wine indicating it was the next best thing because they didn't have any Pinot. We didn't send it back because everything else more than made up for this. read more

Great service, salad bar was filled with everything you could want or need. We will be back again soon.

My husband and I ate here with another couple. There is plenty of seating and we were able to get a table right away on a Saturday at 6:00. The noise level was quiet enough that we could have a conversation at our table without raising our voices. The waitstaff was friendly and attentive. The salad bar was EXCELLENT. I ordered the salmon with seasonal veggies. It was very nice. Everyone else ordered steaks. My husband's steak was excellent. One of the steaks was over cooked. It could have been sent back but decided to eat it. I'm pretty sure it was overcooked because they were training someone. After we paid we discreetly told the waitress the steak was overcooked so she could share the feedback to the kitchen. The prime rib was good. I'm sure we will give them another try. Overall it was a very good experience. read more

See all

Steaks aren't bad. Love the won tons. Happy hour is great! And wait staff is pretty decent. Good spot in portales.

This is by far the best restaurant in the city of Portales the food is magnificent the service is great the location is good this is always the place to go to when a friend comes in from out of town or right after church on Sundays read more

First time here. I'm conflicted. Each individual culinary selection was tasty and excellent. However, service was slow and they got the order wrong 3x. I don't think it was due to laziness, the server was working his ass off and everyone seemed to have a good attitude. I'm thinking the kitchen is poorly supervised. I'll go back a 2nd time though, because the tastes were on point. read more

Good food and Service. The salad bar rocks. The steak salad was tasty. They let customers reserve spots at the bar, so it's hard to get a seat there. read more

Beautiful tasting prime rib and amazing service. I have traveled to lots of amazing places with amazing restaurants, but so far this is the best restaurant I have ever been to. There were plenty of employees that we so helpful and friendly. It was decorated beautifully on the inside. This restaurant set a western and country vibe that was amazing to be in. I do recommend this restaurant. read more

I've heard mixed reviews about Cattle Baron, but I finally gave it a try on my visit back to Portales with a group of friends. Cattle Baron is one of the nicer restaurants in Portales as it specializes in steak and seafood; however, they also have more casual options such as burgers or chicken if you want something cheaper. What makes this place stand out from other restaurants is their unlimited salad bar that stands in the middle of the restaurant. While I've heard that it's pretty tasty, I've also heard that they only put fresh items at the beginning of every week, so you're out of luck by the end of the week -- while I'm not too sure how truthful that is, I still steered clear of that salad bar. The woman helping us was friendly enough, but she seemed to be new or just frazzled by the amount of customers she had to help. The bread platter first given to us was hard and stale - basically like a baguette and nobody could bite into it. So we asked for a new one, which was a complete 180 from the first bread. Soft and doughy and warm! It melted the butter right off of the knife. I ended up ordering the All-American burger for $8.95 - I was able to pick between 3 different cheeses and also had the option of fries or substituting that out with something else. I liked that I didn't have to add any additional payment to get sweet potato fries. The burger wasn't too great nor was it very special. By the time it came out, the slice of cheese had already melted into a very translucent layer on top of the meat patty. It also came with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles - basically what you could make yourself. Sweet potato fries weren't too bad. They were a little on the mushy side, but with the ranch dressing, tasted pretty good. A few other people had ordered the West Coast Burger (avocado, sautéed mushrooms, Jack cheese) for $10.25 with a side option. It looked a little better than the All-American with the added ingredients. I would have ordered this one, too but I didn't want to order the same thing as everybody else. tl;dr - I've heard that their steaks are actually pretty good, as well as the chicken strips and chicken fried steak. The burger was just okay for me - nothing too special. This probably wouldn't be my first choice restaurant just because prices are a little elevated, but I wouldn't mind stopping by from time to time. read more

See all

Husband and I went to have dinner on Saturday night and we found it to be a waste of a drive, time and money. We both ordered the rib eye and it was bad. It was fatty (and I don't mean the edges, I mean 85% of it was fat). It had no flavor and was dry. I never ask for A1 but I did that night. Nasty!! We didn't eat it and still paid for it. I also ordered a pineapple margarita which tasted nothing like pineapple and was watery. (Left that too). They need to train their cooks on how to prepare a really good steak and what to look for when purchasing when time to order their meats. Wouldn't even post one star but wouldn't let me complete review without doing so! Would not recommend unless cooks are trained properly! read more

I go to Cattle Baron quiet often. The food is always so good. They have the only and best salad bar in town. My three stars is not about the food, but the inconsistency in knowledge between servers and the amount of food given during the happy hour half price apps. In the bar area, you can get half price apps during the weekday from 4-7. Just because it says half priced doesn't mean you are getting full priced amount of food for a lesser price. You also get half the amount of food. Until recently, the amount of food given for the half priced amount was decent. Then all of a sudden it was cut it half. I reached out a server who I had before and he was confused as well. It looked as if the kitchen made a smaller instead of each item individually. I'll definitely try getting happy hour again, but will be requesting a certain server that knows what's going on. read more

My husband and I were back in town for a family gathering and decided to stop in again. Our family has been dining there since they opened. We were seated right away. The waitress was attentive. The salad bar looked well stocked although we did not order any. Our booth and table were clean. We both ordered the prime rib. The meat was tender and had decent flavor but they were both too cool to be fully enjoyable. Both prime ribs were served as medium although one was ordered medium rare. Hopefully this was just an odd occurrence and we will try again another visit. read more

Salad bar is always awesome! The steaks are great! The green chile wantons are our favorite app!

There is a bar here and they do serve alcohol! If you are a wino I would recommend the cupcake moscato. A bottle is only $30. The salad bar has a very wide selection of different lettuce mixes, pasta salad, dessert puddings, fruits, veggies, dressings, salad toppings and soups. Their tomato bisque soup was creamy and tomatoey, which I absolutely loved. The black bean soup was super watered down and looked like cooked black beans in grey water with tomatoes. I ordered the Cajun chicken Alfredo pasta and a side of shrimp scampi. The chicken was dry, and the Alfredo sauce was watered down. The shrimp scampi was cooked perfect and had excellent buttery garlic flavor. My bf had the NY strip with a loaded baked potato. He ordered it medium rare but when we got it rare. The potato was cooked perfectly and loaded with just the right amount of ingredients. During our dinner with friends, service was a bit slow. After finishing our salads, plates weren't cleared right away. Water glasses were not filled unless we asked the server. When it came time to pay, we had our bill split since it was a double date. The couple we had dinner with had a bill that was about $41 ish dollars. They had put in a $50 bill, and when they got the change back, the cash rendered back was altered as if they had only paid $45 cash. It took a while for the waiter to come back, and when he did, he claimed they only paid $45 cash. When the couple confronted him, they said it was $50. He fixed it, but all in all, when handling money and change I think it's only appropriate to be very careful and take note when handling multiple tables. read more

See all

This was by far the worse experience we have ever had at a steakhouse. We had a pretty bad experience with their other restaurant in Ruidoso, NM about 2 years ago. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of restaurants in Portales so we decided to give this place a chance. Salad Bar: This is the best feature of the restaurant. The items are fresh though you had only one choice of salad. The toppings are few but at least they are fresh. Here's the problem. They make you have to reach over containers of dressing to get to the toppings. So when people are scooping potato salad, anti-pasta, etc. they inherently will drop the food into the dressing containers. I saw pasta among other things floating in the dressings. Yuk! The steaks: I ordered a 12 oz prime rib - medium rare. It came out well done. Bone dry and brown. The au jus sauce was some sort of light gravy. 1/3 of the prime rib was a huge chunk of just fat. The manager took the prime rib away and came back with the same piece of meat. When I asked, he inform me that this was all they had. First, why did you give me something that I didn't ask for? Did you figure that I wouldn't notice?! Second, did you think that I wouldn't figure out that you did nothing when you took it away and came back?! Do I look that dumb? My wife ordered the Filet Mignon - medium well. What she received was very rare. The entire steak was bloody red on the inside while burnt on the outside. She sent the steak back. When she got it back, the entire steak was burnt! It was black and brown like a piece of sausage. The cook simply threw it back on the grill and burned it. My MIL ordered the New York steak - Medium. She did not receive a NY steak. It looked something resembling a cheap piece of sirloin that was burnt on the outside and rare on the inside. It is obvious that the cook (not chef) does not know how to cook steak. How do you not know how to cook steaks in a steakhouse?! The worse part was that they assume that the patrons are too dumb to know that they are getting. Needless to say, we barely touched our food. We spent over $100.00 to get something that is worse than what you would get at a coffee shop like Norm's. Unbelievable! As far as service, we liked the young man that was helping us though he obviously was not trained to do anything but take orders. He had no clue about the different types of steaks though he was helpful to get the steaks back to the cook. read more

We are not real frequent diners and go for the salad bar 80% of the time. Service is always good to excellent and the bar is generally well kept. The only downside is the soup is often just warm. When mentioned the soup would be removed and taken to the kitchen and properly heated. read more

Abbie our waitress did a fabulous job! Came to town for a conference with about 20 others! We all had unique orders and demanded a lot of attention. Abbie stayed calm and brought us everything! My steak was cooked just right and the drinks were delicious! Food was good but the service was great! read more

Second time in a row going here and not getting served our food. We were the third group to sit down and 2 tables after us got their food while we waited on ours. Slow service and terrible attitudes. read more

Nice place to visit around in town. Good food nice salad bar, you should chek it out once..Look for Hailey she is really professional and amazing. The desert is really good as well.. read more

Cattle Baron - Fried vanilla ice cream...yummyyy - Steakhouses Near Me - Portales, New Mexico

Salad bar was really great! Our food was mediocre. Grilled chicken looked like a slice of american cheese was just placed on top and left to melt. read more

I chose to get take out....a full rack of ribs totaled a whole 7 ribs...2/3 of the meat was good the other 1/3 was so dry. My cat enjoyed that 1/3. It also came with broccoli which was overcooked, not steamed. The potatoes had a little, and I mean a little cheese, chives and bacon...I had to add more when I went home. They only offered one take out salad...the caesar salad and I wanted a garden salad. When I got there he salad bar was open...so they could not be bothered to fix or offer me a small garden salad. The bread was the highlight of a $27.00 meal. Will not be going back. read more

Cattle Baron - a plate of meat, broccoli, and a roll - Steakhouses Near Me - Portales, New Mexico

This is my second visit to this restaurant and I am in love! I had the ribeye and a potato for dinner. My steak was cooked perfectly and the spices were spot on. The potato was delicious loaded up! The waitress noticed (before we could ask) that we did not get our sour cream and butter for our potato and had it our table quickly. The salad bar is always amazing! Lots of yummy food and choices-you could make it a meal. The free bread for the table is delicious! I also got their appetizer platter and the wontons were amazing! read more

Too cold in there to concentrate on what we were eating. Took our food and went home. So the food was tepid, but tasted fine. They turned over the table ~~ I guess that is what they were aiming for ~~ we did not order dessert! read more

The manager was unprofessional, cut off and kicked us out because she didn't like one of the girls that came with us. I told her I wasn't trying too start any drama. And she said she didn't give af I should go kill myself read more

Limited menu right now but my steak was good. Salad bar which they serve was killer. Good wine selection. I was happy!

Came here for a celebration meal with our son & daughter-in-law. The green Chile wontons were amazing. But . . . The fresh bread that they brought out was cold, the Caesar salads were covered in Kraft parmesan cheese, my daughter in laws food came out 10 minutes before our food (10 minutes!!!!), and the prime rib was super tough. Our waitress was new and really had no clue about anything. I'd like to give more stars, but feel that 3 stars is above & beyond what is deserved. read more

I love love love the salad bar. So much to choose from. All the items are soooo fresh. There's always a couple of special soups on buffet to choose from too. The best appetizers are the stuffed shrimp or the sautéed mushroom. read more

This is the second Cattle Baron that we have tried. The atmosphere is a bit tired and worn but the service is excellent. My green chile Cheeseburger, with cheese and chile only so I can truly taste the burger and accompanied by French fries was disappointing because we live in the Land of Green Chile and the whole chile on my burger had No taste OR heat. We were there for a celebratory meal so the quality of the food wasn't of too much consequence. read more

Cattle Baron - Sign - Steakhouses Near Me - Portales, New Mexico

See all

Ok so I just flew in from Washington, DC to visit my boyfriend and decided to try this place out. The menu looked impressive and I was excited. Our waitress was Megan (sorry for the misspell) and she was so great and honest which I can appreciate. I ordered the Steakhouse Chicken which came with the salad bar. I was so excited as salad bar looked so great. Well...when trying to grab a plate to get some salad I was met with a family of flies. A few crawled out of the bowl of salad and at that point I was over it. I've spent most of my time swatting flies and our waitress let us know there was a major fly problem in the restaurant. At that point I started to notice them more and more and felt so surrounded. I legit and trying to stay in a positive mindset. I've never seen so many flies in one place. On the inside I'm freaking out and can't help but think with flies comes maggots.... My boyfriend just said he felt like he was eating outside. Rank: 2 stars for the awesome waitress we had with Megan (again sorry if misspelled). She was so down to earth and very helpful and accommodating. The price for the steak didn't match the steak size and quality. I would think being out there where there is need all over the place it would be the place to get great steaks. Needless to say it wasn't impressive. My steakhouse chicken was seasoned well but I just couldn't get passed the amount of flies. I spent more time fighting flies off then actually eating so I no longer was interested in my meal unfortunately. So the stars go to our waitress and how nice everyone seemed despite the unwanted staff that worked there....the flies. read more

Cattle Baron - Steakhouse Chicken (no bacon) - Steakhouses Near Me - Portales, New Mexico

See all

I grew up in Las Cruces and went to the cattle Baron a few times -always loved it. We were in Portales and found one there, so we had to go. We were not disappointed. The food was amazing! Nice to go to a salad bar again, and the sirloin and prime rib were the best I've had in a long time. Our waiter Brady was super nice-very friendly and attentive. I highly recommend! read more

Ate in the bar. Only one waitress on duty. Salad bar was great. Service was very very very slow. Never got our appetizers. All American burger was dry. Had to ask for condiments and by the time they arrived the burger was room temp. Oh, did I say the service was slow? read more

Whilst I have never eaten here, or even been to Portales, it's my understanding that Ports dines here often. This indicates, at least to me, that the restaurant is quality. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a enjoyable night out or just a good experience with family. The service is excellent, as are the servers. I base this on Ports not being the kind of man who suffers fools. If the servers weren't excellent we'd have heard about it by now, as Ports would have complained to the August group. The food is also on point. Ports doesn't eat shit food. If the food was shit he'd have informed the August group about it. So eat here! Ports does, and that makes it A-OK in my book! Cheers. read more

Makayla was the best server! She took care of us and our glasses were always full! She checked on us regularly and was the good energy we needed. Loved her vibe! Come see her and you won't be disappointed! Oh yeah and the salad bar and steaks were delicious! read more