Butcher Block Steakhouse

Visiting from Chicago and have to say one of the best freakin burgers I have ever had: Gouda burger with sweet potato fries. With great service to back it up along with a good atmosphere. Totally recommend!

For those who read the Unilocal reviews, I might suggest reading my review first of winifred’s restaurant. Our experience at winifred’s was terrible.
Now, lets talk about BUTCHER BLOCK STEAKHOUSE! Before walking out of Winifred’s because their steakhouse was out of steaks on their menu, I called BUTCHER BLOCK and asked if they had any shortages of steak or Maytag Cheese (winifred’s had no tenderloins, bone in rib steak or maytag blue cheese per our waitress) they responded they had everything and I said we would be right over! Never again will I go to winifred’s.
We were greated at the door by the gentleman who had taken my call and offered immediate seating. Our waitress Mindy was a joy and took excellent care of us. The chef of the evening (and I apologize I forgot his name) prepared an excellent meal of well prepared steaks and side dishes. I had the rib eye (medium rare-​perfect) and my girlfriend had the tenderloin (medium-​perfect) we had sides of creamed spinach, spinach salad and their rosemary potatoes. I had Bearnaise sauce with my steak.
The service was excellent and food was excellent and made up for the bad start we had at «the other restaurant».
Final Comment; as someone who has been personally associated with the restaurant business for over 40 years (in New Orleans), I seek service and food preparation and presentation very much. Atmosphere at BUTCHER BLOCK is simple and that at the other restaurant more dark ’70’s’ «fancy». I would chose BUTCHER BLOCK and have no need to ever return to winifred’s

The food is pretty darn good. I had a caprese chicken sandwich, and it was amazing. There’s a wide variety from steak to burgers to salads. It would be a great place for people with varying tastebuds. The wait staff was wonderful, and there were good beers on tap. I would definitely recommend it!

I’m visiting. This town rolls up their carpets by 9pm ish it seems. It’s 9:30pm and I’m looking for dinner, steak preferably… Trusty Unilocal names at least 6 «steakhouses» but all but one of them closes around this hour… Leaving the Butcher Block Steakhouse as my dinner house of choice.
My dinner partner and I, both meat lovers walked in very enthusiastic and hungry for a nice steak. We glance at the menu and ordered «cowboy», 16 oz bone in ribeye and «Delmonico 14 oz boneless ribeye for our entrees. Each entrée comes with 2 sides, selected off a list of maybe a dozen selections. (Too many in my opinion) but that said, we ordered 4 different for tasting purposes. We both ordered medium rare and both of us got rare… trying to be medium rare. My dinner partner was polite and chose to eat what he got. I on the other hand returned my steak (waiter hands me a plate and asks me to place my steak on it so he can take to back … What??? re grill the steak??? Oh well. Im guessing kitchen wants to go home…) I will admit they did come back with a good recovery on my steak.
A bottle of wine and 2 appetizers accompanied our meal. The wine selection is nominal at best. (They ran out of the Cabernet of our choice). The appetizers– fried green tomatoes — prepared medium which was good, too much batter and mozzarella not melted through. The marinara more than likely came from a jar. Second, fried onion rings sliced large enough to retain the onion flavor and texture without getting lost in its batter. The dip though was supposed to be (according to the menu) ranch jalapeño flavor and we got some sort of blue cheese …
The pricing — Ribeye bone in= $ 29, Ribye boneless = $ 26
Left without dessert so the kitchen and bar can close to go home.
Bartender starts to scrub down his bar top with cleaner, which I guess is good BUT We’re sitting on the bar having our dinner… Go figure!
Moral to the story? Eat early in Cedar Rapids or don’t expect a «meal» OR look for a sports bar type instead. Butcher Block IMHO is a «wanna be» steakhouse, more of a casual restaurant and sports bar. I heard their Sunday brunches are good… The jury is still out on this place.

I was turned on to the Butcher Block by a trusted friend so I had to try it. We had a party of 5 on Friday night and amazingly waited less than 5 minutes. The place was packed and very LOUD which made it a little difficult to converse.
5 people, 5 different dinners and everybody loved their food. I had the NY Strip steak which was perfect. Others had fish tacos, a burger and a salad. The house wine was very nice as well.
Will definitely come back when I am in CR again.

Drinks are good, service Is ok not very attentive. Everyone at the bar was highly intoxicated, bartender was fun!

This restaurant lacks confidence. They really don’t know who they want to be. Are they a grille? Are they a steak house? Are they all things under the sun type place (aka TGIF)? Service was poor. Our waiter would never directly look at us. Hence a lack of confidence. I’m a vegetarian so menu options are always limited, but providing my only option of a veggie burger isn’t really an option. Also, my waiter didn’t even know they had two different veggie burgers on their menu. I ordered a pop and only got water and the waiter never remembered. My parent’s food was sub-​par too. Soggy bread, poorly cooked fries, and just way too much salt.
I won’t going back. You are given eight different options for a side and half of them were out that night. This places needs to seriously consider who they are and what they want to be as a restaurant or they will be out of business soon.

Stopped in for lunch, I would recommend the Caesar Salad. ½ a salad was plenty along with the onion rings for an appetizer. Son ordered a pulled pork on a pretzel bun and the amazing sweet potato fries with orange marmalade on top. Yum!
Our waitress was sweet. Would love to try their steaks someday for sure!

Stopped in here for a quick app and a drink. The staff was very friendly and helpful. We tried the poutine, which was good, but not great. They were out of cheese curds for the top so we tried it with shredded cheese. The fries were a little under cooked, and with the sauce on top, made it a little soggy.

First the good. The steak. Now the bad. Almost everything else. Poorly trained wait-​staff. Waitress knew nothing about the beer and even less about the liquor selection. Ten min. through the door before I received a cocktail. No bartender even behind the bar. Noticed plenty of employees smoking out back, though. No type of bread offered with meal. Really? Ordered asparagus, received cold, barely cooked broccoli. Bun for burger was nearly burned on flat-​top and super dry. Microwave obviously in use to heat sides, poorly at that. Heard table next to us complaining to mgr. Should have not even ordered at that point. One star for steak only. Just moved to CR and definitely won’t be back here!

The food was good probably one of the best cesar salads I have had. The steaks were okay, for the price you pay I would have expected more from the seasoning. The outside patio and the overall dining experience was great, the wait staff was very attentive and I liked the overall interior and exterior design of the restaurant. It seemed like it would be a fun place at night especially during the summer. Also for a place that calls itself a steakhouse I would have expected more than just 6 steak options.

Was in business on town and this was suggested by the desk clerk at the hotel. I had a sirloin with Mac and cheese and creamed spinach. The sirloin was very good but the Mac and cheese was even better. Service was pretty good and kept up with us pretty good.

Great food, friendly service. Only down side was last time we went they were packed and we were hungry so couldn’t wait… pretty good problem to have. I always order the blackened chicken… yum!

Service is really inconsistent, food is great.
This restaurant is owned by the same family that owns and operates Riley’s.
I’ll explain 3 of the visits I’ve had here, and why I keep coming back.
Visit 1: Our waiter had long curly black hair, and he was very knowledgeable of all the food on the menu. He was really helpful in recommending food and drinks (most especially beer). Food was great, most especially the sweet potato fries with syrup. Oh my were they good! 5-​stars!
Visit 2: Our waiter was a white guy in his early 20’s. He was very busy so he essentially just took our order and nothing else. The worst part was that we were put in a 2-​seat tall table in the far corner of the dining room. This is THE WORST seat in the house for a lot of reasons. 1) he neglected us. 2) they seated too many people at the long table next to ours, so we were trapped. Literally we couldn’t get out of there without asking someone at another table to stand up. Once that table was set down, our waiter could literally not access us. Our drinks stopped getting filled, and when he came by with the check (finally), he had to fully extend himself over the church pews in the next booth and HAND me the check. WTF DUDE?! When we got up, like I said, we asked people at the next table to stand up and MOVE THE TABLE so we could exit. So, that’s definitely unsafe and against fire code… 1-​star.
Visit 3: Our waitress had short straight black hair. She was pretty good early on, but then she got slammed with a big table with kids. The parents were doing a crap job of controlling their kids, which meant the waitress had to pick up the slack, which meant we had to make sacrifices because they were being negligent parents. I can’t really fault the waitress for the role she played, she did her best, but her service was below expectations. We tipped her over 20% though, because we didn’t blame her…
3-​stars.

Noon on a snowy Saturday, empty bar. Grabbed a stool and was greeted before i had my coat off, and both drink and food menus in front of me. The bartender was chatty and knew the full menu, helping me to choose the delicious pastrami cheese hamburger.
I ordered it medium rare, but out was closer to medium, nothing too bad. The burger was still fantastic, the pastrami giving the beef a robust flavor. I’d have it again anytime.
Full disclosure: I know many of the staff, so take my account of great service as you may. They take their work seriously, though.
Watching the fish in the giant saltwater aquarium is also a nice distraction while you throw back a pint of Great River Dirty Blonde ale. All their beers on tap are made in Iowa and they have a large bottle selection.

We went to Butcher Block Steakhouse for lunch and the food was good (fish tacos were good, spicy, seemed like they needed more salt though; sweet potato fries were decent, the sweet marmalade on them was different but tasty). Service was good (a tad slow, but it was lunchtime and they had many, if not all, tables filled). The ambience was okay (very ‘bar-​like’ with stools around every table, just threw me off guard seeing that it says ‘Steakhouse’ in the name, but it was very clean and pretty comfortable). The menu looks awesome, I would definitely go back to try more things!

We were here in July and had the fish tacos and friend lobster tail along with a local stout. It was after 10pm and happy hour prices. It was fantastic and helped us make the decision to move to Cedar Rapids in the future.

Had the 16 oz bone in ribeye and it was seasoned and cooked to perfection! Caesar salad was great with the addition of roasted red peppers. Tomato & Roasted red pepper bisque was perfectly creamy. Great selection of craft and local beers. Very clean and nice mid day atmosphere. Kendra was a wonderful bartender and the cook Tony came out and asked about the meal. All around one if my better dining experiences of the year! I’ll be back!

I gave this place a try for dinner when it first opened and was pleasantly surprised. The dinner menu is not large but does offer some good variety. The service was a little slow (first week open so not a major concern) but very friendly and professional. Since then I have been back a number of times for lunch and it is definitely my favorite lunch spot.
The sand which menu is definitely the highlight of the food. There is a lot of variety with not your average type burgers and sandwiches. The Cajun chicken with the pecan bacon is awesome. No clue where they are getting the chicken from but the breasts are huge and cooked perfectly with great seasoning.
Sometime will have to try the Monster burger: ½ lb burger, ½ pork, ¼ pastrami, coleslaw…
They have a nice selection of wine, spirits and beer.

In my personal quest for the best bleu cheese burger in the area, we have a new clubhouse leader. No dressing and not just any bleu cheese, but the king — Maytag — accompanies bacon atop prime beef to make one outstanding burger.
I’m anxious to return to try the Cuban — another of my favorites — and for a steak dinner. A long time coming, this upscale sports bar is ideally located near Coe College, which should provide a steady stream of patrons for the company that brought us Riley’s.