Homestead Steak House

We took our parents Friday for their seafood specialty dinners.  We started with the crab dip, fried mushrooms and crab cakes.  The roumelade sauce was spicy and flavorful.  The crab cakes were okay, premade, possibly frozen.  The folks liked the salad bar but I was not impressed.  Iceberg lettuce, canned and processed veggies, Store bought potatoe and macaroni salad.  Portions were large.  Sautéed and broiled scallops were very good.  I asked for rare prime rib and it came medium.  Good bottled beer selection.  Poor wine selection.  Chocolate cake tasted like frozen store bought similar to Sara Lee, dry and tasteless.  Filet mignon was good.  Fried oysters were good.  Sweet potatoe was good.  Nothing too great but nice if you don't feel like cooking for yourself.

We tried this place because we were in the area & got hungry. I really enjoyed the seafood & my boyfriends smothered steak was amazing. The portions were huge & the prices were not bad. The salad bar was amazing. I really enjoyed it.

Our waitress was really nice & helpful. She gave a few suggestions & made sure we were happy at all times.

We will be back.

Whelmed. Not overwhelmed. Not underwhelmed. Just whelmed.

I get dragged back to Homestead a couple of times a year by my partner, who loves the fried oysters. I prefer my oysters raw and at a restaurant near the ocean, so I'll always get a steak. Each time I think "Maybe it will be better this time." and each time it isn't.

Homestead is located in rural Timberlake, off the beaten path, in an enormous barn-like building. You enter (and leave) through a gift shop. The decor is Rustic Country - you are surrounded by wood. You won't find a painted surface anywhere. You'll see cutesy country paintings of old shacks, quilts, and barnyard animals, old jugs and stained glass propped here and there, vines with tiny white christmas tree lights in them, and two massive fireplaces overdecorated in accordance with whatever season it is. The night we went it looked like a flag factory threw up on both of them. There was a mass of red, white and blue "stuff" covering every inch of available space.

You'll also see blue haired church people, lots of plus-sized people (some in scooters), women who think it's OK to wear flip-flops to a steak restaurant, and men who wear cowboy hats at the table.

My partner ordered the fried oysters and asked the waitress to hold the hush puppies (he doesn't do carbs). She told him the kitchen would put them on there anyway so "just don't eat them." I thought that was odd, but, um, OK. He loved the oysters, but the veggies were deffinitely from a can. I ordered the small filet mignon with the twice baked potato casserole. The steak was cooked correctly (medium rare) but lacked any real seasoning. The potato casserole was served warm and was just ... blah and heavy. The salad bar had all the standard salad bar things. The service was friendly and unobtrusive.

There's nothing really -bad- about Homestead it's just that there's no real reason to make a special trip out there.

*shrug*