Waitress was. Wry pleasant, but confused us about the taking our drink order, then dinner order, and sending us to the salad bar. The blue cheese dressing was too "Sysco" and had strong vinegar overtones for our taste. I ordered twin 4oz filet, which came too bloody and were sent back to be cooked a little more. They were out of steak fries, and brought shoe string fries instead but the brought a baked potato. The drink was ok. Probably not go back again.
Review Source:The Steak Loft didn't smell or look like a run-down high school lunch room like my first choice for dinner, the Friendly's across the street. Â The parking lot was full, which gave me a good impression. Â I was surprised to have 4 hostesses greet me and continue to be surprised when my waitress was very busy with many tables. Â Why have 4 hostesses hardly working and one waitress working hard? Â I didn't understand. Â Regardless, the food was excellent! Â I had the chowder, and my lady had a salad to start. Â Both were delicious. Â I had rib eye with a baked potato. Â My well done rib eye was tasty and the baked potato was perfect. Â My lady's mashed potatoes was delicious and her sirloin was as good as my rib eye. Â All in all, I enjoyed my meal. Â There wasn't much of an energy at the restaurant, but maybe its because I had an early dinner. Â I personally felt the prices were undeservedly too high taking in the total experience. Â I was happy to have dodged Friendly's.
Review Source:What a disappointment. My husband and I went here for our anniversary; we haven't been in years and we remembered it as being very good. What a mistake we made.
Our waitress was very nice, but that was the only good thing about our experience. The salad bar is old & tired with very few fresh veggies for the actual salad; it's mostly cold & greasy pasta salads. My husband's steak was unseasoned and chewy. My broiled scallops were gritty and also burnt on the top, as was the completely bland twice-baked potato. I actually needed to use my knife to break through the top of the potato.
We each ordered dessert; carrot cake and a tuxedo cake, both of which tasted frozen and thawed. Definitely not homemade.
With a rum & coke for him and a glass of wine for me, this all came to &110 after tip. What a waste of money.
This is a good solid place for a steak and salad bar. Â This place is owned by the same folks who own Go Fish (which is next door). Â So if you are in the area and want steak, go to Steak Loft, if you want seafood, go to Go Fish...though both places serve a broad selection of beef, chicken and seafood. Â Good value for money, quick seating (the place is big), and good steak selection makes this a place with broad appeal.
The bar here is very nice visually and has a good New England feel. Â Very friendly and open and with a wide number of seats around the bar. Â A good selection of beers on tap, but not a lot of the real craft beer variety...but some winners like Widmer Wheat beer or Long Hammer IPA. Â
All meals come with limitless visits to the salad bar. Â This salad bar is one of the exceptional features of Steak Loft, so I tend to go here for a meal when I am really hungry and want to have some greens with my steak.
I was staying in mystic for a few days and was given the recommendation to eat here by a local. The restaurant atmosphere is cozy. The hostess greeted my right away and asked if I want to eat in the lounge or in the dining room that had the salad bar. I was told the salad bar was great so I choose the dining room. I ordered the baked teriyaki chicken with baked stuffed potato. The salad bar was ok. It's nice to choose your own veggies and toppings but it was not anything to get to exited about. The bread was hard. Just like one of the other reviews mentioned. When I got the teriyaki chicken it looked really yummy but when I tasted it, it was very plain. Not much flavor. The baked stuffed potato tasted like instant potatoes not fresh and I didn't like that. In the end I went back to the salad bar a second time because I only ate around half of the entree. Would maybe go back here to sit In The lounge for a few drinks . But not for dinner.
Review Source:The Steak Loft has gone downhill over the years. Â I've always enjoyed the salad bar, fresh salads and sides. Â Other than that, its not that great. Â Very overpriced for steaks, as in I've eaten at top notch steak houses in Boston and New York City for the same prices, but not the same quality. Â It is dark in there, that doesn't bother me so much. Â It really is a tourist trap situated next to the Village, next to the aquarium, and very much near downtown and the Seaport. Â To us this is a last resort place. Â If everything else is full, we will suck it up and eat here. Â But the food is mediocre, leaves no memorable impression on us, and the staff will rush you.
Review Source:My family and I went here last weekend after a fun day at Misquamicut. Being a weekend night, the place was pretty busy, although we were seated almost immediately when we came in (right near the salad bar). The first thing I took note of was the décor: the place used to be a giant barn, and it was decorated as such. The dining room was also rather dark and dilapidated. But since we were there for the food, I didn't care too much.
I didn't get a salad, since I'm not a fan of open salad bars, but I did a cup of their New England clam chowder. It was decent. My mom got the French Onion soup; she thought it was tasty. I nearly choked at the dinner prices; however. ALL the dinner entrees on the menu were expensive! Despite that, I got the fried shrimp; everyone else either got steak or steak and shrimp. The fried shrimp were okay-nothing to run home about. The steak was actually pretty good from the bite I tasted. My father's mashed potatoes were thick, but bland. Despite all that, our mood stayed cheery, as we'd had a fun day and had plenty of conversation to keep us smiling and laughing.
Would I recommend this place? Probably not, if only the food is far overpriced for what you get in terms of quality. If you want to go for the touristy aspect and don't mind spending a lot, then I'd say go for it.
Friday night wait! Â I wanted to like this place. Â All the elements were there to like this place: Â great Friends, sparkling conversations, I was hungry and the place wasn't crowded...however...I can only give it two stars and it should only be one...long wait even with the instant salad bar. Â I had the 10oz Ribeye...It arrived cold, and it was not very flavorful...almost asked for steak sauce, a sure sign if a fail in steaks...could not recommend...Thank goodness for great Friends and sparkling conversations.
Review Source:My nephew and I had a wonderful time here. I've been coming to the Steak Loft since I was a child and I was sad to see all the negative reviews. I was skeptical but I was happily surprised. We ate in the lounge and has great food and a great server, Sam. It isn't fine dining nor does it claim to be. Â A really good steak house that's great for kids. Also, fun music.
Thanks for keeping the lovely memories alive.
Well, I went back.....I wasn't really given an option though. This time it wasn't so bad. There was hardly a wait for a Friday night which was peculiar. I decided since I had the steak the last time maybe try something different so I went with the broiled scallops.
They weren't all that bad! They were a little overcooked since they were rubbery but I think the topping saved them this time. I'm still not a huge fan of this place but it does carry sentimental value now. The price really brings down the rating to three, but the service gives them an extra star since I last reviewed them.
I think this is a 'YMMV' kind of place. Â Family went on a Saturday, no crowed, went right to the table. Â From there, it took almost two hours to get out the door.
So, what was ordered? Â Two fish and Chips and a kids burger. Â Now, I will say that the food was really good. Â I have '0' complaints (see complaint below). Â But two hours, with an almost empty restaurant.
*** So here is my complaint. Â It is the 'Steak Loft.' Â can you get a steak for lunch? Â No, not unless you order from the dinner menu. Â I find this to be completely unacceptable. Â Welcome to McDonalds, today you can have salad and an apple pie. Â Hay buddy, I want a burger! Â Oh, well that is the dinner menu, so that Royal with Cheese will be $21.00. Â Please drive up to the window.
So are we saying that this place cannot figure out a lunch steak menu? Â I did not go to the steak loft for fish, I went for a slab of moo cow. Â Alas, I was not willing to spend $40.00 to do so.
If you want F&C or a Burger, I can recomend them, IF you have the time to wait.
Overpriced for what you get.
I had 6 people in my party, so a 20 minute wait wasnt that bad on a Saturday night. We were put at a round table in a corner. It is VERY dark in the dining room.
The first thing I wanted to get which was the Hangar steak was out. Ok fine, so then I ordered the crab cakes with steak, and the waiter said they were out of crab cakes, then while I was trying to find something else, about 1 minute later he goes "oh just kidding we have crab cakes". Weird, but okay. So then one of my friends orders clam chowder and he did the same thing "nope were out" 1 minute later "just kidding we have it". It was mildly funny the first time, but annoying and in poor taste the 2nd time.
Onto the food. My steak, which I ordered medium rare, tasted like a hockey puck. No flavor, no juice. gross. The twice baked potato was also not that great. The crab cakes were tasty, but small.
Again, for the price of the food (around $20 per entree) I expect a better waiter and better food.
We had: Â Fried scallops, ribeye, salad bar, baked & mashed potato. Â They were doing customer appreciation so we got 10 & 20% off. Â Even better.
I was surprised I like the fried scallops, done very nicely with just a bit of crisp, no breading, tender. Â My friend didn't care for the ribeye, bit tough, but it was done exactly as requested. Â Salad bar was nice, pretty good selection, but I always like to see more veggies (WFM has spoiled me).
Our server was very nice, professional & efficient.
Plenty of parking, but even then it seemed full. Â Lots of room in the restaurant, so we didn't have to wait even a bit.
Steak loft has been on a long slow decline for years. Â Food is edible but expensive. Entire place needs renovations and a good cleaning. The sort of place that day trippers hit when nothing else is open.
 Much better choices available in the area. Corporate management
must be asleep when looking at this tired, once great, restaurant.
I live in Mystic and this place is my favorite.  I prefer lunch in the lounge.  The lounge is a wide open wood loft with a circular bar.  Their hamburgers start  at like $6.00 which is the cheapest in town.  All sandwiches come with home made potato chips.  If you want fries you may as well tell them you would like chips and fries because you will get charged for a side anyway.  The dinning room has a salad bar right out of 1975.  The steaks are not cheap but I feel they are reasonable.  You can have lunch in the dining room with the salad bar too.  However, all the prices are a couple bucks more to cover the salad bar.
Review Source:We decided to venture to Mystic for the 4th of July. On the way on, I was searching online for places to eat. We originally were going to go to the Boatyard, but drove by Steak Loft and looked it up. The website had us at salad bar.
I'm a big salad bar fan and we decided to stop by. Prices were extrememly reasonable for lunch, the highest price item on the menu I think was around $19. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, which came with the salad bar and fresh made chips (cape cod like) for under $10. Chicken was moist, roll was amazing and salad bar had a number of options, including a walnut cinnamon bread!
Rustic atmosphere, with older decor. Very quaint. Wait staff was friendly. Great option in Mystic for price and location (close to everything). When in Mystic we will be returning.
There were 20 in our party. while the restaurant does not take reservations they could take us. They put most of us in one long table and 6 of us nearby. The service was very good and server kept filling us the water glasses throughout the dinner. She recommended the baked stuffed scallops which I got and thought were really good. They also have a salad bar that was very fresh and offered a variety of items, this came with the meal. Overall, I was skeptical after reading some of the reviews, but I really enjoyed my meal (I didn't get steak) and would definitely go back if I was in the area.
Review Source:I hovered between two stars and three stars for our meal here. This is two stars.
We went here on Good Friday and as expected, the restaurant was empty. I think the Steak Loft put their JV Squad on duty because we were met by two giggling teenage girls (with braces) as the hostesses. We asked to be seated in the dining room and were told our waitress would be with us shortly.
SO we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Before yet another teenager introduced herself as our waitress and sloppily poured us some water. We ordered drinks and requested more time to look at the menu. We also ordered cups of french onion soup. Those came out 30 seconds before our meal.
Our drinks were meh. I'm quickly learning that Bloody Mary's are becoming a near impossible feat in the drink world in Connecticut. Other half's martinis were not up to par so we switched to wine for me and beer for him. All drinks ordered took forever to get to our table and we were waiting an unacceptable amount of time between finishing our current drinks, ordering a new round and then receiving them. It was not a busy night but the server acted like it pained her to go to the bar and put in our order.
Salad bar? Nothing special. Pretty small selection of vegetables however the salad dressings were pretty good. Bread was definitely not fresh. Our soup was great but it came out 30 seconds before our meal and the waitress cleared our cups before we could finish or even ask her to.
Our steaks? Not worth the price. My NY Strip was the fattiest piece of meat ever. The mushroom port demi glaze I ordered to go with it tasted like jarred beef and mushroom gravy. The other half's steak was nowhere in the vicinity of medium rare or even medium.My stuffed potato was disgusting. No chives or cheese to be found and appeared to be burned on top. Â For the amount of time we waited, the food should have been a lot better.
Our lovely waitress dropped off our check to our table like one would launch a bomb and scurried away. We waited 15 minutes for her to come back and she was nowhere to be found (the recurrent theme of the evening for her). Finally we got up, gave the check to one of the teenaged braces wearers acting as hostess who informed us that we needed to wait for our waitress. Uhm no, take the check and the credit card, swipe the damn thing and keep it moving. Our waitress miraculously appeared (must have been in the spirit of the weekend and all) to take the check but was less than happy to do so.
We've been here on busy Saturday evenings on our way home from Misquamicut, Newport and Block Island and have had wonderful service and food. Why, when the restaurant is not even close to being filled, was everything sub-par from start to finish? Total disappointment.
Not coming back here again.
Visiting Mystic for the weekend, we hoped to be able to get into one of the better places in town, such as the Captain Daniel Packer or S7P Oyster Co.  But, being a nice Saturday night, we could not find a place to park at the Packer, and  there was a 90 minute wait for the S&P.  I would have been willing to wait, but my husband was getting hungry and cranky, so back it was to the old standby, the Steak Loft.  Even on a busy Saturday night, you can always get a seat in there right away, and there is a reason for that.  It sucks.
We sat at the bar, and it took forever for someone to come over and take drink orders. Â Once we finally got our beers, and as I was looking at the menu, I remembered what I hate the most about this place. Â No appetizers. Â I was not hungry for a huge meal, but my husband was. Â They stop serving their "small bites in the lounge" menu at 5PM on Saturdays, all they had was the regular menu of dishes that are way too huge for my liking. Â Would it really kill them to offer smaller portions of some of their dishes? Â I wish I had just ordered salad and a cup of soup and been done with it.
So I went for the crab cakes with the baked stuffed potato. Â This came with a rather large salad, which was the best part of the meal. Â I did not care for the crab cakes at all, only ate about half of one (three on the plate). Â The crab cakes were huge, but that was because they seemed to be mostly breading. Â Baked stuffed potato was only so-so.
My husband ordered the hanger steak with garlic, medium rare. Â It was cooked fine and tasted good, he said, but it was tough. Â Why? Â Because the cook sliced it ALONG THE GRAIN. Â It is supposed to be sliced AGAINST THE GRAIN, it really does matter when it comes to the chewability of a steak. Â And anyone whose job it is to prepare food in a place that calls itself a STEAK house should KNOW this. Â Even my husband knows this, he probably picked it up from all of those cooking shows I watch.
When a place that calls itself the STEAK LOFT has cooks who do not even know how to slice a steak properly, ti's time to write it off and not go there again. Â He probably could have gotten a better steak at a chain place.
Never again.
This used to be THE place to get a steak in the area. There was time when Outback and all the other places didn't exist around here, it was either here or a Charlie's in the Crystal Mall for a steak.
Somewhere along the the way they fell from the best steak to serving rancid fillet Mignon. The past two times I was there we had bad meals, and last time was it. I'd gone back because I remembered how good it used to be and hoped it would be again. My wife's fillet which should have been medium well came out red and bloody.
Sent it back, and it the same piece of meat came back out cooked. It smelled and tasted bad. Even the waiter agreed it smelled bad. They cooked another piece that was so fatty it was hardly worth eating, and this arrived AFTER everyone else was done eating. No comp, no real apology, just it is what it is. My teriyaki  steak was cold when it came out to me. Salad bar isn't as good as it once was...
All in all a bad experience. I'm sorry to say I'd rather order a steak from Ruby Tuesday than here. Lucky for us, there are plenty of chains in the area, so you don't need to eat here.
I don't see what people are whining and complaining about with this place. It wasn't awful and was exactly what I expected from something that was obviously a touristy gimmick designed to go with that silly Olde Mystick Village or whatever it's called.
My husband and I went there for lunch and it was decent...a few steps up from Ponderosa and Golden Corral. The steak that my husband got was cooked to his specifications and was a decent piece of meat. I got stuffed shrimp and it wasn't the best I've had but was a decent lunch. The mashed potatoes were good and the salad bar had great fresh veggies on it and the creamy garlic dressing was good enough to dip sweet grape tomatoes in.
It was a simple uncomplicated meal and sometimes that's all you can ask for.
My grandparents and I visited on our way from CT to Cape Cod. Â They got clam chowder and crab cakes. Â The chowder used the tougher kind of clams and the crab cakes were too bread-y. Â I got black bean and shrimp soup which was rather spicy. Â I also ordered grilled scallops which were decent but came with a pile of breadcrumbs and a moderate amount of scallops. Â Service was very slow. Â I'd opt for a faster alternative next time I'm driving through.
Review Source:This is what I call a lay up. Â You know what to expect stuffed mushrooms and salad bar and the usual stuff that you get at places in the NE for tourist. Â But I also call it the best place to grab a cold one before heading to Newport. Â
Been going there for too long but I will stop back on my way home from NYC.
ok, just do yourself a favor and don't waste your money. I have had better steak at outback, applebees and out of a garbage can. this place is over priced and the service is below par. there is no wait for a seat because the place is huge and the food sucks. its a tourist and traveler trap. the business you see is from people coming in off of I-95. I have been here twice. the first time it was horrible and the second time I didnt even finish my meal. I took one bite and asked for my bill. don't go here, go down the street to Anthony J's or Bravo Bravo or S&P Oyster Company...just dont waste your money here.
Review Source:Stuffed baked potato. Â Sounds like a win-win, right? Â Not. Â Shrimp in a town by the sea. Â Another no brainer, right? Â Apparently not. Â New England clam chowder. Â I've had worse; but you know what that means...I've also most definitely had better.
There isn't much to say because everything is a bit lacking here (food, ambiance, etc.) except the salad bar. Â Which they wouldn't let us have because we were seated in the wrong dining room. Â Although I'm pretty sure the salad bar was right down the hallway and not in a different restaurant or something. Â But whatever. Â I'm not upset about it or anything. Â They were letting people from the other dining room use OUR bathroom on OUR side of the restaurant but its cool. Â No biggie.
Save your time, energy and money on this place. Â There are plenty of other (better) restaurants in Mystic to eat.
I visited The Steak Loft on a Monday in November 2008 to catch that week's Greg Piccolo and Heavy Juice performance - Greg and his band were/are great! Â My wife and I arrived early and hungry so we decided to give the restaurant a try. Â We were not disappointed.
My wife and I don't eat a lot of steak but we have enjoyed some great steaks in fine restaurants across the country (Morton's, et al.), i.e., we don't eat it often but we know what a good steak should be. Â So, when we dine at a restaurant that specializes in steak then we choose steak and have expectations of a good meal.
Our entree choice that night was the hanger steak - it was delicious. Â Succulent, tender, lean, and perfectly prepared. Â It was accompanied by potatoes (I got fries; my wife got mashed). Â No complaints. Â The salad bar was good to very good ... good variety, was clean, and refreshed when quantities were depleted.
Service was good; the place was clean. Â The decor is what you would expect - lots of dark, rough hewn wood and weighty tables and chairs. Â Noise levels and dining privacy is average. Â Prices are reasonable, i.e., its not "cheap eats" or "high end".
Overall, I give it a 3 out of 5 stars ... I would certainly return for the hanger steak and recommend this restaurant to family and friends.
Food: Â Â Â Â Â 4 out of 5 stars
Cost: Â Â Â Â Â Â 3 out of 5 stars
Value: Â Â Â Â Â 2 out of 5 stars
Service: Â Â Â 3 out of 5 stars
Ambience: Â 2 out of 5 stars
I don't understand the bad reviews. We went on a Saturday and even though the parking lot was packed, there was no wai for a seat.
Meals come with an amazing, fully stocked salad bar with possibly one of the best antipastos I've ever had, an four different types of fresh bread.
I got the steak kabob and it was very good, came with tons of really good mashed potatoes.
I literally have nothing bad to say. Maybe during the summer the service is worse but I thought it was all good.
The steak here was OK, but it certainly isn't a "nice place". Â I don't know much about Mystic CT, I was just passing through on a business trip. Â The stuffed-baked potato was not good, skip that if you're considering it. Â The salad bar looks big but doesn't actually have that many items in it. Â It's an optical illusion. Â One cool thing is that they actually have salad wedges at the salad bar, which I've never seen before.
Review Source:Steaks / Seafood since 1973.
This place has been serving them up since the 70's and at times, the patrons look like some of the originals that opened the place.
That being said, the food is very good here. Â The bar is huge - basically a big pentagon sitting in the middle of an old barn- and there are enough barn-like objects de art stuffed up in the lofts to remind you of the heritage.
The wines by the glass were very good as was the food. Â I used to go to this place a lot and it was nice to see the food was just as good as it used to be.
Prices were very good - especially when you consider that it is located in an extremely touristy spot.
Big parking lots in front and side.
This place sucked so much, that we didn't even stick around long enough to place our orders. Â We walked in and there was a cluster of old people just lingering around the lobby, confused. Â There was nobody seating customers, so people were piling into the restaurant wandering aimlessly around the foyer. Â I heard an employee in the distance telling a customer to "seat himself". Â Okay. Â
We sat ourselves in the bar area and it looked like a decrepit old barn. Â After appx 5 minutes and still no acknowledgement from waitstaff, we got up and took them menus from the podium where someone should have been standing to seat people. Â After reviewing the menu, we got up and left. Â Ruth Chris prices for Cracker Barrel atmosphere? Â Pfffft. Â I don't think so.
Convenient, but nothing great. Â It's very near Mystic Seaport, but I was really drawn there because Greg Piccolo performs there every week and I wanted to see what he was up to in his music evolution. Â Unfortunately, our timing was a bit off and we didn't feel like hanging around that long. Â
We wanted the lounge side, so I probably shouldn't complain, but I can't see any reason for a wobbly table if they expect people to eat from them. Â The prime rib was very thin and just not impressive. Â Most memorable thing was the conversation I had with Piccolo's young keyboardist who was reading quietly at the next table waiting to get to work.
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