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| - I really wanted to like this place: we were meeting old friends we hadn't seen in years, it was my husband's birthday, and we traveled 40 minutes to eat here. So, we tried to pass off the negative reviews as sour grapes and went in with a hopeful attitude. What I gathered by the end of the evening is that Chop seems to want to find a magical combination of special-occasion restaurant and affordable (read, busy) hangout, yet succeeds at neither. From the get-go, we experienced disorganization and lack of training (both of which are essential ingredients of those "quality" steakhouses), and the food did not measure up to its not-exactly-affordable prices.
The first question mark came when I called for reservations. I got a voice on an answering machine, which asked for all the pertinent details, but then said "If we CAN'T fit you in, we'll call you back." (???) Luckily we had no issues there. The place wasn't too crowded, even though it was a Saturday (hmmm...). When we arrived, we wondered, as other reviewers did, why there was no host station in the front. There were, however, at least three hostesses or servers near the entrance as we arrived, most of them chatting with the large group in front of us. One young woman greeted us with a "hi!" but made no move to seat us or give further instruction. (What happened to the standard "Welcome to___! Can I help you?") Luckily, the rest of our party was already seated and we saw them easily (it's a small place).
After drinks, we had our first real setback. We ordered two servings of the grilled artichoke appetizers, which were horrible--blackened/burnt on the outside, with the heart scooped out of the inside (probably to make the spinach artichoke dip). Worse, the 'chokes were the size of a child's fist. We picked a few of the halves apart and attempted to eat some of it, but found only a few edible bites at best-- definitely not worth $9.50. When we told the waitress politely that we were dissatisfied, she looked like a deer in the headlights. She had a pleasant, breezy attitude, but it was as if she wasn't trained, or didn't want to respond to anything beyond "everything's great." No offer to reorder the food, replace it with a different appetizer, or take it off the bill. (Any one of these Standard Operating Procedures would have been fine, but alas, we only got a stare and a smile.) We also ordered bread, which took over ten minutes to arrive. When we reminded her about it after our food was served, she told us a little curtly that it "has to be prepared." Turns out the bread (only four pieces for six of us??) was also grilled, and the charred stripes were bitter and unpleasant-tasting. (Note to management: a good bread basket would be easier on your staff, and more pleasing to your patrons.)
The main courses were decent overall, but not outstanding. The menu is tame and nothing says, "wow, I want to try that!" or "I come here for the ____; can't get that anywhere else." Three of us had the baseball sirloins, which were cooked well but on the chewy side, on par with Outback's cheaper cuts.. The loaded baked potatoes, however, were gigantic and filling. Our friend's salmon was moist, but my husband's chicken paillard was overcooked and quite dry, which is his pet peeve. However, by this time the waitress made only very brief appearances, and he felt it wasn't worth the effort to send it back. When she brought dessert menus, three of us told her that it was my husband's birthday, yet again, it was deer-in-the-headlights, and no offer of a free dessert (???). Still, two of us decided to try the key lime pie (on special) and the lemon crème brulee. The pie had a great crust and was the best part of the meal, which cheered us up slightly. The brulee was okay, but served warm (I'm used to it being chilled, but that's me).
As others here have pointed out, there are many great steakhouses in town, and if Chop wants to play with the big boys, they need to take some cues from Maestro's and Donovan's (still the best in the Valley imho, but a fair drive from Chandler). First, EVERYTHING that comes out of the kitchen needs to be perfectly prepared: nothing overcooked, ever! Also, consider more innovative dishes. Next, service must also be trained to pick up on and meet customer's needs. This includes having a streamlined seating procedure. C'mon! They've been open for more than a year, these kinks really should have been worked out by now. I have to agree with the poster who doubted the restaurant would survive a year. There's just too many good restaurants to choose from in this town to settle for a mediocre meal and poor service, with a $270.00 tab (that's with a Groupon deal). So I have to wonder if the glowing reviews here weren't written by employees or their friends. Chops gets a "C" grade at best, and all six people in our party agreed that it's not worth a return visit.
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