Carl's Chop House

09/24/08

NO STEAK But you're welcome to try the Salmon!

by Tilldon at Citysearch

DECOR-The place DOES feel like Austin Powers should be jumping out at any moment with some groovy 60s comments and the outside looks like it's been closed for years. You walk in and you can tell nobody really cares to keep the place up. Worn wood panels, an old gold lobster thing missing most of the lobster parts remains right when you walk in, as well as some junky weathered pictures and other dated artifacts that I would pass up at any garage sale. SERVICE-Had a grouchy waiter who asked us what we wanted without giving us any menus/options. Oh well. FOOD - Butter arrived 15 minutes before the bread. Bread was junk wonderbread style rolls - nothing special at all. Soup was pretty good, it was some sort of beef vegatable. Salad nightmare arrived-TERRIBLE. Looked like it was created the night before, or morning of the luncheon, saturated with dressing and left to sit for hours. It looked dreary, tasted ordinary, and some of the cucumber was cut WAY too large - it's not my job to prepare this salad. STEAK- An hour after we ordered and everyone else was starting to eat, the oh-so-nice waiter came back to ask our group if we wanted anything else (again with no options), since they they were out of our sirloin we each ordered. AN HOUR LATER THEY FIGURE THIS OUT. So, while all the other attendees of the meeting are eating, including those that came well after the fact and sat exactly where he told us we couldn't sit - he's asking us if we'd like something else?! His option? 'Well, we're out of everything - we only have the Salmon'. So there we are at Carl's Famous Chop House est 1925, and they're out of Steak for a small luncheon that has 10% of the restaurant occupied. The place was freezing cold inside, they forced you to use their dumb valet service even though the whole parking lot is empty (the valets were even late - so they had abuse our car to get us to stop because we were following our colleagues which had already parked themselves and were walking in.

• Pros: Looks like an Austin Powers Hangout
• Cons: Everything was abysmal

08/22/08

Don't Go To Jail

by williamtell at Citysearch

Close this place! I live in Cleveland, Ohio and I have visited Carls since 1972, I encouraged my friends to go here for dinner whenever they are in Detriot. I visit this place inspite of the filthy carpet, bad smell, dirty menus, and crappy valet parking. On August 15, 2008 in-company with two other friends I had the visit of a lifetime, after being seated we were shocked to find out that most items on the menus were not avaliable..prime rib, shrimp, frog legs etc. So we ordered what was there. I ordered pork chops and my other guests ordered perch. Perch at market price I thought was supposed to be Lake Erie Perch NOT Ocean Perch. Well my guest tasted this item and decided that they did not want it, and to our suprise the owner refused to acknowledge our request, became loud and boisterious (maybe because he had too much to drink) and called the Detroit Police on us. At no time did we ever refuse not to pay for our meal we just wanted an explaination about the quality of the food we were eating and an adjustment on our bill for the Market Price PERCH!!! After a lenghty talk with the police who were very understanding they decided to pay out of their pockets the $25.95 for the PERCH to resolve the issue. At know time did the owner ever say what can I do to make this right, after all we have visited this place for years. I will never visit this place again and will tell everyone to do the same.

• Pros: None
• Cons: Everything you can think of

07/20/08

HOR-RI-BLE!!!!!!

by Cherell at Citysearch

Upon arrival my husband & I should have had a clue that Carl's puts the C in CHEAP. We pulled up & they had a bum in dirty street clothes telling us it was mandatory that we pay 3 dollars for valet parking in a parking lot that was unpaved and had no cars. When we entered I thought we we're in the movie Casino with cheap out dated carpeting and a odor that was absolutely horrible. We had to seat ourselves (and the place was empty) & had a bum of a waiter came to our table with dirty menus. We were served hard grocery store bought bread that was cold & looked as though it was sitting out all day. He neglected to ask if we wanted a beverage soda, lemonade, etc. We were somewhat baffled at this because normally that is one of the first things they ask you at a restaurant. We asked for a pop only to have a reply that was "I THINK we may have some". He went to the bar and got out a 2-liter pepsi that was a fourth full and packed our cups with ice and served it to us. I was so shocked! It tasted as flat as a pancake, though it was sitting open all day. He came back to our table and asked if we would like any appetizers & told us the only thing we have is wing dings & shrimp. We ordered the wing dings & at $10.50 we thought we would be getting gourmet or restaurant style wing dings. They came out & they were Coney Island wings, next the salad (if that is what you would call it) came out which was a clear iceberg lettuce that was chopped and a small slice of tomato & some dried out chick peas served with Kraft bleu cheese that they charged a 1.50 extra for.

When he took our order he immediately told us what they didn't have which limited us to their T-bone steak 33.75 & lamb chops for 32.00. He then pointed out that they are not responsible for well done steaks. What type of sh#t is that! Our dinner got served an hour later & it what so bad we refused to pay for it! That same night we ate really good at Outback & at half the price. Overcharging 4 trash. Horrible at best!

• Pros: Absolutely Nothing!
• Cons: Everything!