Lutz's Steak House

This restaurant needs to be on Restaurant Impossible where Robert Irvine fixes messed up places. The place stinks--not of smoke, but like a clogged septic tank. The place is dated and worn, which is why the restroom shag carpet reeks of odor. Good rolls, but way overdone steak and dried out baked potato. Good salad. Not worth anykind of money--it needs to have the owners pay attention to it or just sell it. Never going back.

I don't have much opportunity to visit a steak house type restaurant, but a night with my son proved a great chance to check out Lutz's.  I am surprised I haven't tried it before, since I have lived in Westfield for 5 years.  The restaurant is definitely a home town place, it reminded me of the Frankfort Country Club dining hall back when it was the place to be there.  The bar was pleasant looking and the service was excellent, with smiles all around.

The dining room offered a chance to sit near their live music (piano I believe tonight) or a little farther away for casual conversation.  Tables and decorations were what you expect.  From prior reviews I think smoking used to be allowed here, but I could not detect any trace of that tonight.

They have a nice wine selection, the menu is simple but has a lot of selection, and you can choose a variety of steaks, seafood, or other choices.  Steaks were cooked exactly as we ordered, my only concern was that the ribeye was cut so thin, when they charred it as I asked for, it's impossible to keep it from cooking through.  But the char was excellent and the steak overall was great.

For the price, this restaurant is very good.  If you want a better steak, you will pay double or triple and it won't be that much better.

I've lived in the area since I was born & never been to this old school steak house, so when the kids were at the grandparents, we swung by on a Tuesday to give it a shot.

We were the ONLY ones there the entire evening besides patrons at the bar.  The place smells, which we expected for an old school restaurant, but the problem is that it mostly smells of smoke (I can't even remember the last time I've been in a restaurant that allows smoking on the premises & I eat out about 20 times a month at home & while traveling).  It is bad enough we probably would avoid coming back for that reason alone, especially with the kids.

Next up, the dining room -- I fully expected metal chairs, fake wood grain square tables, & wood paneling -- but was pleasantly surprised!  While they do have fake wood grain square tables, a few remaining metal chairs, & wood paneling, the dining room has actually been renovated with linen tablecloths covering the old tables (covered with glass tops), mostly dark wood chairs, & real wood for the paneling.

The crab cake appetizers were average (I have tried crab cakes at every restaurant I've ever been to so I'm quite the connoisseur). They weren't fishy, but were bland with lots of filler (corn meal).  They had a terrible honey mustard sauce dip.  Salads were good -- basic iceberg lettuce as expected for an old school family restaurant.  Bread was basic mass produced food service quality & oddly extremely sweet sticky cinnamon rolls (is this breakfast?).  We both had filet (I had the filet tips kabob & my wife had the petite filet).  The meat QUALITY was EXCELLENT; however there wasn't ANY seasoning AT ALL on the meat, so the net result was it was bland & tasteless.  The tips were pan fried in oil -- not even butter.  While it melted like butter, I had to douse it in salt & pepper to give it any taste at all.  Apparently the patrons must use steak sauce (which should be completely unnecessary with any property seasoned & properly cooked steak).  My wife's steak was undercooked (medium rare instead of medium).  My "steamed vegetables" were warehouse club frozen vegetables & again completely unseasoned.  Overall, the food was remarkably bland -- completely unseasoned as in not even one dash of salt.  The meat was high quality, but without going to the kitchen myself to prepare it that is a waste.

The service was very good & friendly.

Without any alcohol our bill was $60, quite ridiculous for bland, unseasoned steak & iceberg lettuce, frozen vegetables & food service quality rolls.  For a little more than this, you can go to the best steak restaurants in town (Mo's, Morton's), or for this same amount go to some really good ones (Sullivans, Flemings, Ruth Chris) or for half this price go to upscale eateries such as Stone Creek in Noblesville or Zionsville.

Overall, given the smoke smell permeating the dining room, the complete lack of seasoning of the steak & poor value (quality for the price), we won't be coming back.  They have prime rib on the weekends & live entertainment Thurs-Sat, so apparently this adds to the attraction, but I'll stick to the better quality/value of other upscale options in town.