The Steakist Bistro & Grill

Fab, we went for the all you can eat steak on a Tuesday and it was brilliant! Lovely staff- nothing was too much trouble, great food- so many gluten free options and great value for money. Highly recommend!

We paid ≈ £58 for a takeaway dinner for two and the quality of food and their ability to accommodate dietary restrictions was unacceptable. We ordered two honey garlic chicken skewers, and one of them had to be tree nut and gluten free. I assumed they would have a gluten free option for the skewers for the same price as regular, as the dish says gluten free option available on the menu. Instead, we were charged full price for two orders of skewers, that did not come with couscous (only one needed to be gluten free). As a replacement for the couscous, the waiter behind the counter listed their side dishes, and charged us regular price for these as well (two dauphinoise potatoes) which means there was not a gluten free replacement, but an additional side one can order for extra cost. So £46 for two orders of chicken skewers with dauphinoise potatoes instead of couscous. To make matters worse, when the waiter brought us our order they gave us just a couple teaspoons worth of honey garlic glaze on the side, and told us it was the last of it. Upon arriving home, we came to find that the skewers were completely unglazed and the little bit we got was all we had. If they had made this clear in the restaurant we would not have accepted the order. It is unacceptable that they would not only still make and serve a dish that they didn’t have enough ingredients to finish the primary flavor profile for, but still charge us full price for a dish missing its entire side and the sauce that creates the entire flavor of the dish. The chicken was dry and unremarkable, the peppers and onions undercooked. The potatoes in the dauphinoise were under salted and slightly undercooked, and carelessly thrown into a flimsy paper tray with the gratinated cheese completely stuck to the foil. As for the service, when we arrived we asked if we could order takeaway and the person behind the counter said no. Their nearby colleague said they might actually be able to accommodate. He told her no. She left to ask the back of house and came back with someone from the kitchen who very politely said they could do takeaway. She also said they had boxes they could put it in, but we ended up with paper trays covered in foil. The ambiance of the restaurant is nice but forgettable as the style is the typical modern aesthetics you can see anywhere in the world today. The only other item we ordered was ginger ale which I believe was £2.50, and we got ginger beer instead. So that leaves an additional charge of £9.50(hopefully a service charge), which unfortunately remains unknown to us as we didn’t ask for a receipt. We are Americans and this is our first time in Arundel: I certainly hope that these problems were not to take advantage of us as visitors but were instead oversights. Either way, this restaurant is unreasonably overpriced and the quality of food is completely unacceptable. If a restaurant that is primarily focused around high quality cuts of steak isn’t able to grill chicken properly, I would hate to see what they do to a piece of beef. I would not recommend the Steakist to anyone.