Backyard Steak Pit

My favorite steak house in the area. Food is very good. I don't go here for a fancy salad bar but the salad is just fine here. It's a steak place. Very good steaks. They make your steak on a huge indoor wood fueled grill. Very different from your run of the mill steak joints that use salamanders. Prime rib is very good. Soup and sides are very good as well!

Make sure you come here when Mike is working the grill. Aside from being the master at the grill he is one of the most down to earth friendliest guys you will ever meet...and happens to be the owner. They  have a pretty great bar area and their prices for drinks are very reasonable. Its a local place that has genuine personality...unlike the many chain restaurants.

Remember to ask for Mike to cook your steak. :-)

They make awesome cocktails (Martini's & Manhattan's.)  I ordered a steak and it was cooked and flavored nicely. The staff has always been friendly. Nice local non chain restaurant.

Where do I start.....My boyfriend and I decided to try this place after a recommendation from a friend. From the parking lot this place looked like a bar/diner. The place was packed and we were seating in the back by where all the waiting staff runs around and next to the cooking area (possibly the worst table). Our waitress was nice, but clearly had no concept of time. We were there for almost 2 hours wondering when we would finally get our food.  I ordered a martini and she brought out one I didn't order, it took her about 10 minutes to bring me the right drink. We had the onion loaf as an appetizer which was decent however I've had better. I ordered a filet mignon with mashed potatoes and sautéed mushrooms and my boyfriend ordered a hickory smoked ribeye also with sautéed mushrooms. We also had the lobster bisque soup which tasted like it probably came from a can. When we finally received our food what felt like a decade later.....the filet was ok but charred on the outside, the mashed potatoes tasted like they used to be powdered and later microwaved with water and then buttered up. Which actually I had asked the waitress about and she said they came from a package and where buttered up but they where "red skin potatoes" way to tip toe around that one! So she offers me a baked potato instead, REALLY??? The hickory smoked ribeye was garbage. It was ordered to be medium but was almost well done, had no seasoning on it and charred to s***. The "sautéed mushroom" clearly came form a can and were reheated in their disgusting garlic sauce and not sautéed whatsoever.
I expressed my disgust with our dinners and how we where there for the first time and very dissatisfied with the whole experience.
Meanwhile, the table next to us (who actually got their food within 30 minutes of being seated)  wanted to make sure that their dressing from the salad bar was gluten free, THE MANAGER approached the table and even offered to bring a ladle of it out to them to inspect and later offered to bring out the packets it came from....wow.
Hoping the manager would approach us and try to reconcile this awful experience, he just simply walked away and kept busy with other things. We waited about 15 minutes for our check which was over $100 and all the waitress did was credit the "sautéed mushrooms." Horrible place, bad service and overpriced food.  I would have rather gone to many of the other restaurants in Gurnee.