Hey, again, faithful review readers!…read more
So, today, we are dining at Alamo Steak House here in Mattoon, IL. We live in a small town area and this is definitely a local favorite for many in the area, us included. This is to say that the experience, the food and drink is consistently very well done.
As we pulled up, the parking lot was JAMMED! It was so crowded there was only about two spots available. Wifey told me to check the wait time.
So, we went in. No wait!!! It appears that everyone drove separately. The hostess was very pleasant. We had her switch our table because we like the tables vs. the booth.
Today we sat in the upstairs balcony. We've sat here once before a few years ago. Pleasant. More cozy than the common dining room.
Our server was very prompt, and since we come here enough, we knew what we wanted. I got the smothered chicken with a sidecar porkchop (just because I can). Sides of House Salad and Onion Rings.
Wifey ordered the distiller, baked potato and a salad.
For the first time ever, the dinner rolls at the table were actually overdone. It's usually crisp outside and soft inside, but this was actually way too hard. Wifey likes things well done and she said this is just not edible. This could have been easily remedied, but we did not want more so we left it be. But this was the first time this has ever been an issue in 13 years.
Salads came out first. I had ordered a house salad with blue cheese but got a Caesar salad. Lots of Parmesan, good presentation. I decided I was meant to have a Caesar salad and was glad this mix up occurred. Wifey had a house salad and it was good, but she was eyeing up my Caesar with those thieving eyes! So we will call it a happy accident!
Shlafly's makes a competent stout, a little hoppier than you'd expect from a stout, a little spritzier than you're used to in a stout, but I knew this going in. It's a solid brew, but not creamy like most stouts.
Wifey's raspberry margarita was, good, according to her, but a little sweet. She squeezed in some lemon and lime and that helped add more tart which pleased her. She does not usually get non citrus based Margaritas, so she chalked it up to that. Again, the drink was still good, just not her favorite.
A little long in the main course delivery, but, wifey had a medium well steak and that takes some time.
However, it seems to be taking much longer than expected...
The food DID show up, just before it became a seriously long wait.
My food: Most things were not quite hot enough.
All the flavors were great, but, it feels like the food was under a heat lamp that didn't work for too long, or maybe not under it for too long of a time.. At a steakhouse as "high quality" as this one, I expected better.
Since our server was uber busy, we didn't voice our complaint. He was truly running hard up and down the stairs so we have no complaints with his service. But we are both disappointed that it was very not hot. And we were hungry, and the flavors were good, so we chose to eat it as is.
Wifey said all the flavors of her steak and potato were on point but admittedly the not hot part took its toll on the overall.
We are sad to report all of these very unusual mishaps but we really still swear by the place for the great food and for the many, many experiences that were consistently on point. We also know if we would have complained or asked it would have been fixed no holds barred. But it was pretty busy and we did not want to wait.
So if one experience out of maybe 50 was a bit sub par, we are still going to consider it a winner and well worth looking past. It just seems everything happened at once. So hopefully we are all good for another 50 visits!
