Steak N Stuff - Restaurant Impossible Update

Photo - Robert Irvine Facebook

On this week's episode of Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Cottonwood, Arizona to makeover Steak N Stuff. Steak N Stuff is a family-run restaurant where the co-owners Mark and Susie are struggling to keep the restaurant open.  Their son Blake wants more responsibility, but Mark wants to do everything himself which is impacting the restaurant and his health.  Robert needs to dig into the problems of the restaurant to help save the restaurant and the family.

As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Steak N Stuff to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant: Impossible):

Positive Reviews:

• "This restaurant was recently renovated (April 2022) by the TV show Restaurants Impossible and they needed it. Not just the decor but also the menu and food quality..... My wife and I visited Steak and Stuff this week, our first visit since the redo, and we were both blown away by their new decor and their food. We’ll be back."
• "Friends brought us here while on vacation. What an awesome experience. Heard recently received assistance from TV show Restaurant Impossible- not sure how it was before but whatever changed has worked. From the atmosphere to the service to the food quality it was top notch. Delicious generous portions. Would highly recommend. Full bar. Good variety of menu items. Free parking."
• "I love this place. The food is always reliably fresh and good. The people are always friendly. I would love to see 2 things: the patio opened and music playing. And soup back in the menu."
• "Well I went to Steak N Stuff a month ago and wrote a terrible review. Said I would never go back....BUT...Restaurant Impossible came through so we decided to try it again. Wow oh wow!!! The menu is a normal 1 page with a couple specials. I had the steak quesadilla...delicious. My husband had the daily burger special...totally impressed. The service was exceptional. The remodel was outstanding. The restaurant was clean, smooth lines, comfortable. I heard people complaining about wanting the old menu....the host handled it so well. There is no reason to complain about anything. It may not be perfect but it is pretty darn close! If you only had Coke instead of Pepsi! Lol"
• "Fantastic food! I wasn’t sure when I first walked up but WOW did they come through. I had the Charbroiled New York Steak and it was delicious. I would highly recommend."

Negative Reviews:

• "We're in the group that the new menu ruined this restaurant for us. It was a nice place to take friends or have a night out alone-- many choices and even our friends with food issues could enjoy a meal, and the prices were acceptable. With the remodel, which looks very different and trendy, the menu has suffered with very limited options and an extreme price hike. We looked at the menu and left disappointed that one of our previously- favorite restaurants is no more. I'd go to Sedona of I wanted this style of restaurant-- seems out of place in Cottonwood to me."
• "My wife and I used to eat here regular. They had at one time the best steak and fish and chips. Now since they remodeled, the menu got extremely small only 7 items and the prices are crazy. From what we were told it was remodeled by this company that helps restaurants, well it screwed this one up. I took one look at the menu and told my wife we are leaving. My wife has celiac disease and there was one thing she could eat "salad", where before she could eat steak. I wouldn't recomend this place to anyone."
• "Used to be our favorite restaurant in Cottonwood, then Restaurant Impossible got their hands on it. Gutted the menu. Everything that made this restaurant wonderful was thrown out. Sure, great new decor, but if the menus is weak that really doesn't matter. They keep saying they're adding new things back, but if they had used their heads and not thrown them out in the first place it wouldn't be a problem. They've lost our business. Perhaps we'll try again when they come back to what made them great in the first place."
• "Edited after remodel and restructure with TV show..... food is good, but they have a very limited menu. They drove away the majority of their loyal customers with this change. It's no longer kid-friendly as of now, they don't even have a kid's menu anymore, but maybe one day? It seems like they're trying to compete with Old Town with serving sizes and prices, and it just never could be being in the Fry's parking lot. We used to love this place, we went regularly, but now there's not much point. We miss the old menu."

*Reviews from Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google

Other News and Links:

• The Restaurant Impossible makeover for Steak N Stuff happened in April 2022.
• Here is the Steak N Stuff Facebook page.
• Here are pictures of the menu in May 2022, which has a lot of people commenting about the new prices. (Link)
• Here are the reviews for Steak N Stuff from Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google.
• The restaurant responds to reviews on Google.

Conclusion:

The reviews for Steak N Stuff since the Restaurant Impossible makeover have been mixed with the positive reviews talking about the food and the makeover.  A lot of the negative reviews seem to be regulars mad about the smaller menu, higher prices, or not being able to get items previously on the menu.  It should be interesting to see if the restaurant continues to follow Robert's advice, gives in to customer complaints, or finds a happy medium.


*Visit Our Restaurant Impossible Update Page to see all Restaurant: Impossible updates, and which restaurants are open, closed, or have been sold. Also Follow Us on Twitter