5700 South Florida Avenue
Lakeland, FL 33813
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Louie Mack's Steakhouse

Cuisine: Steakhouse, Lunch, Burgers

Louie Mack's Steakhouse is a Steakhouse, Lunch, and Burgers restaurant where most Menuism users came for a family meal, paid between $25 and $50, and tipped more than 18%.

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  • 9/07/2013

    A Steakhouse food lover from Lakeland, FL tried it, liked it, and rated it . They liked the food, liked the service, and liked the ambiance.

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Brandon_S

 Lakeland, FL
 

Worst Dining Experience in a decade

A not-so-brief description of why Louie Mack’s Steakhouse Lakeland was the worst dining experience I have had in recent memory.

The reason for our visit was a wedding party. The hostess on duty was very pleasant and escorted us to the banquet room. Upon arrival there was a game of musical seats and drinks seemed difficult to procure. In defense of the staff here – I’m willing to forgive the confusion here because there was a wedding beginning in mere moments and I could see how they would not want to interrupt.

Anyways – the ceremony concludes and we take our seats. I order the porter house, my girlfriend the 8oz fillet and a salad; we have the calamari as an appetizer.

The bread seems to be rationed – with one basket per 8 people. This is a wedding dinner, not the Hunger Games. For two thousand years the prevailing theme behind a wedding was feasting, not fasting. But you know what, that’s fine. Maybe there was a run on bread, maybe they didn’t put enough on and they had to stretch it. I have worked in restaurants before and I totally understand that it happens. They do bring more out in the end too – but it’s sort of jarring.

The calamari arrives as does my girlfriend’s salad. In spite of my complaining – I really want to state that your calamari was excellent. Some of the best I have had. Most places overcook it or cut the rings too thick, but your establishment did very well with this dish. The salad itself was fine – nothing special nothing horrible, save the dressing. The dressing was off tasting, almost flat. I want to say it tasted of plaid, (though I have no idea how that description is useful to anyone in the culinary profession) I want to say it lacked anchovy paste.

Drink refills at this point were few and far between – my drink sat empty very often and in two hours was refilled twice (I think it may have been only once but definitely not more than twice), my girlfriend’s drink was not refilled once.

Next, the cutlery did not match. I know this seems pedantic – but when you charge $40-$50 for an average meal – its presumed stellar service and matching cutlery are included.

Now we move on to the steak, everything up until this point was a mild annoyance. I’m willing to wave it off has having a bad night – because I am sure even 5 star top tier establishments have bad nights. But the steak – the steak is what killed it.

We are one of the last served, but hey I know serving 38 people at once is tough. We both ordered our steaks rare, and they come out looking rather dry. Looks can be deceiving right? Wrong. My steak arrived slightly above room temperature, and after much effort I managed to saw a piece off. The center was cool and red, which I guess technically qualifies the steak as cooked rare – however the absence of blood and juice on my plate told me it had either been microwaved or spent too much time under a heating lamp. I cut into the New York strip portion of my porterhouse, and take a bite. I am instantly overwhelmed with a smoky wood taste, hickory – I continue to chew and… more hickory… followed by a final sensation of… hickory. There was no flavor to the steak beyond hickory, no ‘juice’, no distinct flavor of beef. Just Hickory. Unless you count the despair and sorrow in realizing that I effectively ordered a $32.00 slab of beef jerky as a flavor, (I wouldn’t) the steak tasted solely like burnt wood chips. I understand using wood chips to flavor your food. I understand the oaky taste in a nice single malt scotch or glass of cabernet. This was burnt wood. Two bites in and I cut (attempted too really) a long piece of sinew along the outer edge of the strip portion. Either the knife was dull or the steak was improperly trimmed – (then again unless you actually cut the short loin on a saw and trim it in house the sinew really isn’t your fault).

The couple across from me had sent their steak back due to a bug landing on it or something, (really wasn’t paying attention) and given how unenthusiastic and indifferent the server was in sending the steak back – I presumed at this point myself and the other guests were a hindrance in your establishment so I just ate two bites of my $32.00 beef jerky and returned it. Incidentally this is the first time in well over a decade I have declined to eat a steak. Even when I was horribly ill with the flu and got dragged out I at least took it home and made an amazing omelet with it or something the next day. Having cut meat for 4 years and spending a lot of time eating out at various restaurants I want you know that it is not hyperbole when I say I feel I could have gotten a better steak at Denny’s or IHOP.

My girlfriend’s fillet was in similar shape – though she did find that if she removed the leathery exterior of her steak and caked the interior in salt her fillet was at least palatable.

The fries that accompanied our steak were very well done though. They were piping hot, golden and crispy. I want to stress that whoever is running your fryer should probably be running the kitchen – as it was the only part of the meal that was exceptional and on par with the quality I would expect.

So anyways, I send my steak back after having two bites – the server again is indifferent, or maybe you just have people come in and take two bites of steak before realizing it’s not very good and send it back declining a box. Maybe this is routine.

At this point I just want the check – which after waiting 20 minutes, I go to the bar because no one has seen our server. I ask the bartender what we can do about paying and he gets the server. After at least another 15 minutes – (I want to say 30, but again I wasn’t exactly holding a stop watch and when delivering criticism I always try and cut what I feel transpired in half, because I’ll be honest at this point I am less than thrilled). People begin receiving their checks. 10 minutes later we receive ours. I pay in cash, because after 40 minutes of waiting on a check after sitting through a meal that tasted of hickory and despair I wanted out and the prospect of waiting for a card to process scared me.

No one said goodbye on the way out – my girlfriend and I stopped at McDonald’s on the way home and ate dinner, vowing never to return to Louie Mack’s ever again.

TL;DR

The good: The fryer was excellent, the calamari was some of the best we’d had in a while, the fries with our “steak” were excellent. The water (what little was rationed to me) and the bread (again my small portion) were also wonderful.

The bad: The service was comparable to a fast food restaurant where the customer is the enemy and is to be moved out as fast as possible. The steak was dried out as if by heat lamp/ microwave, or simply sitting open air on low for far too long. The end result was the transformation of what should have been a wonderful steak into beef jerky that tasted of hickory and despair. The check took almost as long as our meal to process.

Rating 1/5 stars. The appetizers were good, and the bar looked nice (I did not imbibe) but hey there is the Ale House right next door! The steak was horrible, you could easily get 2 better meals at Outback or chip in an extra $20 bucks and go to a real high end establishment. Would not visit again.

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RickCobb

 Tampa, FL
 

Great Steak

I had a HUGE Ribeye, this thing was awesome. Cooked perfectly and paired with some great wine. Thanks Chip for the suggestions. The restaurant was beautiful, the service was top notch, and the band on the patio was great. Great Night! Can’t wait to go back.

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Wpeter807

 Lakeland, FL
 

Loved It

Had dinner there last night, GREAT SERVICE***GREAT FOOD***GREAT BAR***
Loved It

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NateReynolds

 Winter Haven, FL
 

I will bring my family back.

This place is a real gem. Louie Macks has terrific food at great prices. I’ve never had any of the service issues that others have mentioned, I’ve been back many times and had nothing but great experiences. I highly recommend Louie Macks.

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maxs240

 Bartow, FL
 

This Place Was Great

We had an outstanding meal at Louie Macks. There were 11 of us and 5 were kids under the age of 10 and it was a great experience. All the adults said it was one of their best meals ever. I personally had the Filet Mignon and it was absolutely delicious. I can’t say enough good things about this restaurant. Wish I could remember our waitress’s name – she was the best!

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barnibear

 Bartow, FL
 

Nice for evening out

Pleasant place – I have to admit, I really liked Sam Seltzers better, it was located in same general area, but they went away! The area couldn’t really support two! This is typical steakhouse atmosphere where you know you’ll not be “eating cheap” by any means. We had made a reservation just to ensure (hopefully) not a long wait. We were seated fairly quickly and the overall service of the evening was good.

16 oz Prime Rib

It was good, cooked as expected, tender.
ordered baked potato and creamed spinach for sides – they were well prepared.

full Rack of Ribs

My “rib guy” has to work his way thru “every rib in town” I guess – he said these were fine (a little on saucy side, but fine) and his french fries were “ok” – in comparison to what he used to get at Sam Seltzers, he much preferred Sam S’s (but they went away!).

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Steakhouse Outdoor seating Good For Kids
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Louie Mack's Steakhouse is located near the cities of Eaton Park.
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