Vic & Anthony's Steakhouse is a small chain steakhouse (currently owned by restaurant giant Landry's), of which the Vegas location exists inside the Golden Nugget downtown.

It has had an excellent reputation for a long time.

About 10 years ago, I kept hearing rave reviews of the place, and was told it was the best steakhouse in Vegas. I was told not to be fooled by the downtown location, and that it was far better than the best steakhouses on the strip.

I went with a friend at the time, and while I enjoyed the meal, I didn't think it was anything special. Seemed like a typical prime steakhouse to me, at typical prime steakhouse prices. Still, I liked it, and planned to return someday.

I didn't get around to going back there until this past New Year's Eve (December 31, 2018).

I was with my girlfriend and son, and we chose the place for two reasons. First, we were staying at the Nugget, so it was convenient. Second, I had remembered the meal and service being good during my one prior visit about a decade ago.

Everything started out okay. The place was especially cramped with the tables close together, but I chalked that up to being New Year's Eve. We lucked out in that our table was in a room which wasn't quite as densely packed.

I also decided in advance that I wouldn't ding them for any slow service, again because of New Year's Eve.

However, slow service wasn't the problem. It was actually a lot faster than I expected, which was good.

The waitress appeared to be friendly, up until we got to the part where I asked about a kid's menu. She said there wasn't one, but they could make a smaller version of certain adult entrees for a reduced price. I was interested in that, and asked her how much it was for a kid's steak dinner. She said, "Ummm... something like $25... $30... I'm not exactly sure."

Then I asked her how big the steak would be. She didn't know that either. "Uhh... I think it's like half the size or something."

I decided I wanted to know specifics, because often at steakhouses the smaller steaks are really bad value, and I would just order him an adult portion if that were the case.

When I asked her to check on the price and the exact size, she got noticeably irritated with me, and said something like, "I told you, it's like $25 or $30 and probably around half the size."

When I repeated that I'd like to know the exact information, she angrily stormed off without saying a word.

Keep in mind that prime steakhouse servers are supposed to be overly friendly and accommodating, and are never supposed to bitch about having to do a tiny bit of extra work (such as going back to ask a question). This is because the expensive prices allow them to make very good money on tips, and thus the service needs to be commensurate with that. This isn't a truck stop diner.

Still, I decided I wouldn't complain about her rudeness, but things were already off to a bad start. I was afraid to piss her off again.

When she came back with the info, I decided it was a fairly good deal, so I ordered the kid's steak for my son, and I also ordered a steak, as did my girlfriend.

I ordered mine medium, and it came that way. My girlfriend ordered medium-rare, and hers came looking more like medium. However, she initially decided to just keep quiet and eat it anyway, not wanting to further piss off the already surly waitress.

However, after eating maybe about 35% of the steak, it was no longer medium, but well done. This is common with steaks, which can sometimes cook unevenly. Keep in mind that NONE of the steak was medium-rare, and she ate the medium and medium-well parts (while not enjoying it), finally giving up when most of the rest of it appeared well done.

I called the waitress over and showed her.

"She ate too much of it already, there's nothing we can do," she rudely barked at me.

I explained that 2/3 of the steak was still left, and that it was clearly well done, which is far from medium-rare.

"That looks medium-rare to me," she said, clearly lying her ass off. After we didn't get anywhere, I asked for the manager.

In my prime steakhouse experience, the managers actually overcorrect problems. For example, at a different prime steakhouse I had dined at in 2018, the manager came by and asked how my meal was. I didn't ask for him, he was just checking around. I replied, "Well, it's mostly good, except my steak is medium-well instead of medium. But don't worry about it, I wasn't going to send it back. It's not bad." Instead, the manager INSISTED he replace the entire steak (even though I had eaten half already), plus took it off my bill anyway. He did all of this on his own. I never asked for a thing, nor did I attempt to complain at any point.

But back to this story. Knowing that managers at prime steakhouses are almost always overly accommodating, I was expecting her steak to be quickly replaced, with no issue. Instead, the guy showed up with an instant chip on his shoulder. First he also tried to assert it was cooked medium-rare. I told him that I have eaten hundreds of steaks in my life, and know what medium-rare looks like. I told him I'd bring up a picture on my phone and we could compare it. He finally conceded, "Okay, it's closer to medium", which it still wasn't. After arguing back and forth, he finally nastily admitted, "Fine, fine, yeah it's probably medium well or well done. But you can't just eat your 3/4 of your steak and then ask for us to make you another one."

I told him that she ate 35% of it at most, and then we got into another argument about what percentage she really ate (lol).

Then we got into yet another argument, where he tried to assert that "it just happens" that steaks get overcooked, and that there's "no way to avoid it". I asked how other steakhouses manage to cook their steaks correctly so often, and he didn't have an answer for that.

Finally he cut me off and snottily said, "Let's stop wasting each other's time here. You obviously want something. What is it?"

By this point, it was about 20 minutes since I first brought the matter to the waitress' attention, both my son and I were done eating, and my girlfriend had lost her appetite after seeing how rude everyone was being.

I told him that I'd like half off for that steak only, and would pay full price for everything else which was okay.

He refused and offered something laughable like a 20% discount on her steak.

We argued again back and forth, and he finally agreed to half, before angrily walking away.



Look, I get that steaks get overcooked, and it probably would have been better if my girlfriend spoke up when she saw her steak was medium instead of medium-rare, but it made sense that she could tolerate medium and not well done like most of it turned out to be.

The worst thing was that we had the smoking gun proof that they screwed it up (2/3 of the steak right in front of her which was obviously way overcooked), and instead of fixing the problem, everyone copped a huge attitude, and the manager tried to turn the whole matter into the high school debate club.

I walked out wondering what the hell just happened. Why was this prime steakhouse so much worse from a customer service perspective than others I had been to throughout my life?

The answer was staring me in the face: It was downtown.

At the Nugget, they expect a lower class of clientele, and therefore don't treat people as well. Even though it's the "best" downtown property, it's not the same as a good strip property.

Thus, at other prime steakhouses, they have more respect for the clientele, and aren't paranoid that their customers are trying to get over on them. At the Nugget, clearly they are constantly on guard that their "lower end" clientele is trying to get one over on them to get otherwise expensive free food, so they try to find reasons to say no, rather than finding ways to make you happy.

Anyway, steer clear of Vic & Anthony's. Never going back.