Santa Fe Cattle

Today was my first time going to Santa Fe Cattle, and I would rate this experience as 4.5… I couldn’t give it a 5 due to the kitchen being backup for just a bit. Therefore, the steak was cooked perfectly and the waiter was very pleasant.

Wow, had dinner early June 2015 and just not good food or service.
I had 8oz filet my friend had 10oz sirloin. Ordered medium rare and medium. Both steaks were served well done. Cut of beef was poor quality for the price, and over cooking didn’t help. We were short on time and didn’t send them back.
I had a loaded baked potato, my friend steamed veggies. The sides were what you would expect, nothing special.
Server had little knowledge of the menu and had to be asked multiple times for steak sauce and more beverages.

You’d expect a steakhouse to know how to cook a steak. These guys can’t unless a manager is standing over them apparently.
I’ve eaten here several times and didn’t have a good experience the last time, either. We even know the «trick» of ordering your steak one «doneness» below what you normally like just because you’re likely to have them get it right the first time. Our last experience left my husband with a still-​cold rare and me with a medium well that was to have been medium rare. This was over a year ago.
Flash forward to our experience last night —
1. Booster seats without functioning safety straps. Our child kept trying to slip under the table the entire meal. We had to use the booster seat because we couldn’t get the highchair close enough to the raised booth for him to eat. (We’d called ahead and told them we’d need a highchair. You’d think that they’d have gotten us a table instead of an elevated booth. They weren’t that busy.) Lesson — specify a table if you have active squirmy small ones.
2. Food-​crusted silverware. We had to go through two sets before we all had something suitable to eat with when our food came. My husband and I have both worked in restaurants and both of our fathers even owned or managed them, so we understand that some times an industrial dishwasher leaves soap residue. These had cheese and other crusty not-​so-​identifiables on them. I did have to rub on most of them to get the residue off.
3. My husband’s steak was fine, his sweet potato warm enough, but was obvious that his fries weren’t freshly cooked since they were limp and lukewarm.
4. My steak? Well done despite being ordered medium rare. I usually eat mine actual medium rare to medium. Seriously, it’s sad that this place self-​styles as a «steakhouse». Once I received my correctly-​cooked one, it was very delicious though.
After all this you may be wondering why I gave them two stars instead of one.
Our server was polite and gracious regarding the kitchen’s short-​comings and we promptly got a replacement for my steak (husband never mentioned the fries to her so she can hardly be held accountable for a problem she wasn’t given an opportunity to fix) and gave us a discount for the error with my steak (we hadn’t even asked for one.)
She’d even gone through all of the booster seats to look for one with an intact safety strap (which they didn’t have.)
Her service was what saved this from being a one-​star review.

Lunch, 3 adults 2 kids restaurant was not busy. Server was prompt food was good. One of the kids wanted mushrooms as her side. Was informed the do not do them as a side any longer.
Food was good will visit again.

Service was slow, but they were busy. Beer was very cold, like that. Ordered filets, medium. Both showed up well done with cold potatoes. Sent them back. Came back with hot potatoes & cold steaks-​blood rare… oh well, won’t be a next time.

This was a fairly typical peanut-​shells-​on-​the-​floor steak house. It was a good value and close to our hotel. The server was friendly and sweet, but when I ordered a glass of wine she said she didn’t know if they had wine! I found it on the menu and pointed out the one I wanted and she came back a few minutes later and said they didn’t have that one. They did have my 2^nd choice and all was well. We each had a steak that came with 2 sides and we were able to sub a side salad for one of the sides– it was enormous, plenty to split for 2 people. The steak was nothing special, and the green beans appeared to be out of a can, but the baked sweet potato was delicious, perfectly cooked with lots of butter and
cinnamon on top. Overall a good experience, convenient, good value with friendly service

This one is just like all the rest… good food, good service, fairly quick, and predictable.

Since Shawnee had a nice weather break in July, we decided to take full advantage and enjoy time in their dining outside. The weather was the only thing nice, and if course my husband.
The tables were not cleaned from previous guests and the staff done nothing about them while we there. There was a table of 4 and us and it 2 in the afternoon.
We ordered the cajun chicken pasta and cajun pork chop. The chicken in the pasta would have been better had it been chicken and real. The broccoli on the other plate was the only appealing thing. The taste was ok for both meals.
Their margaritas are awful! ! I had a patron margarita that came in a martini glass and no salt for over $ 9. Their «special» rita does come with salt but no liquor, or very little, for like $ 2. They are just as awful. It must be the sweet and sour mix but beware, it’s super sweet. Head over to Chili’s for an El Nino, more liquor and less money.

Great food, fun atmosphere! Don’t dress up to nice. Peanut shells all over the floor!

The food is pretty good and the staff is friendly. Prices are ok. The best thing is you get to throw peanut shells on the floor.

This was a great option close to the hotel I was staying at.
The good things about this place:
Great staff. We were sat right away and we were served by Amber, super sweet, very fast and she got our order perfect.
The moderately good things:
Dinner. The steak was okay, nothing special (I had the steak and rib combo) the cole slaw and mashed potato sides were edible but super boring and tasteless.
BUT
The ribs.
Get the ribs. They were awesome.
And the BBQ sauce they serve with them — spicy, sweet, hot, deliciousness!
The challenging part: No good scotch. None. They had Johnny Walker and Dewers. Blech.
BUT
They did have a pretty solid selection of bourbons and whiskeys.
And it was $ 3 Margarita night. Can’t go wrong with a tequilia drink for three bucks.
I read the other Unilocalers before I went, but reading between the lines I could see most of the 1 star reviews had all the wrong expectations. I looked at the menu on their website, so I wasn’t expecting Ruth’s Chris’s Steak House when the most expensive steak on the menu was less than $ 20 — WITH two side dishes.
All in all, this is a great neighbourhood place where you’ll find great service, good food and great drinks! Go, you’ll have fun.

I don’t really know too much about southern food, but this place makes me think I could get used to eating it.
This is a traditional, old school steakhouse with the roasted peanuts and the warm rolls. Trust me, you can easily just fill up on that itself. The bread is soft and chewy and just absolutely melts in your mouth. But what really made my day was the fact that the bread came with cinnamon butter. OMG!!! Cinammon butter was amazing. I ate like 5 rolls and could have kept on going if I didn’t have to share. This reminded me of a restaurant in Detroit, that served rolls with Cherry butter fresh from the Michigan harvest. While the cinnamon butter isn’t as good as cherry butter, the cinnamon butter is more that enough to clog the majority of your heart’s arteries for the day!
I ordered the chicken baked with vegetables and beans. Nothing special. But the rolls and peanuts did it for me. I will be back and I will be hungry!!!

After a beer at a friend’s house, the bunch of us meandered over to Santa Fe Cattle Co for some serious eats.
The beer was cold & the steak was tender & delicious. It’s kind of a messy joint, what with the peanut shells tossed on the floor, but the food was good and the waitstaff were friendly and helpful.
Our meal was delightful and my party will definitely be back again. Thanks!

I’m not too sure why I’m bothering to even review this Midwestern steak chain. Everyone pretty much knows what to expect from one of these «peanut places» as I call them. Poor cuts of beef, horrible to mediocre service and attempts at cleverly named dishes like the «Death Burger,» the «Mr. Goodtime Burger,» or the «Bubba’s Sirloin» to name but just a few. I suppose if you enjoy Minnie Pearl and think Hee Haw was the pinnacle of entertainment then you would love this place or you are en route to Branson, MO and can’t wait to see what unique country stylings await you.
I just don’t get the novelty of a place that doles out buckets of peanuts and allows customers to throw the shells on the floor. And, its not like this chain is the sole peanut purveyor of the steak world. I can think of several others offhand with the same m.o. Who came up with this idea anyway? And just what do peanuts have to do with steak and furthermore how disgusting is it to see piles and piles of peanut shells littering the floor? I’m sorry, but that just can’t be sanitary at the end of the day no matter to what lengths they go to in order to clean it up. It sort of reminds me of the classic dive NYC bars that litter the floor with sawdust to clean up the remnants of spilled beer and other fluids at the end of the night. Disgusting.
Santa Fe does offer a little bit of everything from steaks, burgers, salads, chicken and even seafood. All of it just mediocre. It kind of reminds me of bad bar food. I will have to admit that I’ve been here several times as oftentimes options are limited in my neck of the woods. Without fail I always get their Big A salad, which is just either grilled sirloin or chicken on a bed of greens. You can order it with just regular «greens» that consist strictly of iceberg lettuce (blech) or actually get romaine. Unfortunately, I’ve had to return my salad several times because it has come out on a bed of iceberg lettuce when I clearly stated romaine. And that brings me to another minus of this place — the service. It is really horrid. They are nothing if not overstaffed, which makes one wonder just why service is so bad. There are employees taking orders, shuffling around, standing talking or just seemingly walking around the restaurant but almost without fail none of them are any good. I blame that on management. It looks like they hire tweens and high school kids to make up the majority of their waitstaff and training must virtually be nonexistent. They will all show up however to hoot and holler when its someone’s birthday en masse. You know, one of those awful announcements that its so and so’s birthday followed by the lackluster clapping and halfhearted singing of whatever version of the birthday song they use. It must be mandatory for all employees to participate in this embarrassing spectacle.
I sometimes wonder if I am just out-​of-​touch with what middle Americans enjoy for dinner and entertainment. And, apparently their new big celebrity spokesperson is Colt Ford who they proclaim «Loves Santa Fe Cattle Company» in advertising adorning their walls. Maybe I am out-​of-​touch but who in the hell is Colt Ford?