St Charles Place

Having been a long time favorite, it’s sad to have negative feedback. Portions are small and cost is excessive. Our visit was a Wednesday evening and slow, yet the courses came out so fast that we couldn’t finish what we were already eating. Almost like the waitress wanted to go home. It was rushed and not relaxing. Steak portions and plating are so tiny, not like I remember this place to be. No way to share a crème brûlée either. The portion is that of a sample. Tastes good but way too small. By comparison you can go anywhere (Wildfire, Sullivans, Perrys, Gibsons) for a better value, quality and consistence.

We’re in Bartlett so we discovered St. Charles Place online while trying to help some of our new neighbors find a sit-​down place to eat in the area. They didn’t go but made a note to ourselves to try it sometime as we were intrigued by their web site and the description that it «brings back the times of the classic supper club». It’s not actually a ‘supper club’, but it does have that kind of vibe. So if you’re looking for a high-​end steak place (like Morton’s or Ruth Chris’), this won’t be what you’re looking for.
It was, however, exactly what we wanted and were not disappointed. We’re early diners so it wasn’t crowded at all. Piano music in the background that wasn’t too loud and really liked the throwback atmosphere and the way some of the dining areas are separated a bit. Food was good and has enough variety to satisfy most palates and price ranges. I had the Steak Diane and my wife had the Coconut Shrimp, sharing between us. Both entrees came on warm plates, were tasty, and had good sized portions. The warm, fresh rolls were a nice touch, which I guess is one of the things they’re known for.
We didn’t have any issues with the service or staff and found them all attentive, polite, and if anything too speedy with bringing our food. We were prepared to linger a bit longer, but our salad and soup came out almost right away and entrees followed before we were completed them. We’re not usually big desert people but got a Key Lime Pie and Carrot Cake to go. Pie was okay (good, not great) and same for the carrot cake except that the portion was HUGE… probably enough to feed three people!
Our only quibble is that they changed the music from piano to more of a pop station which seemed out of place. It wasn’t so loud we couldn’t talk (or we would have asked them to turn it down), but the piano music was a much better fit for this place which otherwise is ideal for a nice meal and conversation with friends or family. We’ll definitely be back and recommend it!

St. Charles Place is one of the Best steaks and prime rib I have ever had the place is beautiful the people are great the servers are awesome everybody’s kind and polite Tom the owner is just listening and taking care of you we go there for special occasions you pay for what you get and the money is well worth paying for what you get good food for what you pay for I definitely give them a FiveStars plus I’ve never had a bad meal there and it is a great place to go to so at least give it a try once and I guarantee you you will always want to go back and try there Monday night half price burger night it’s the best hamburger you’ve ever had I highly suggest anyone who wants a great meal to go there and really go there and enjoy yourself it is great for the money and time and Katrina in at all the people there are great so go there and have a good time thanks Donna G

The steaks are amazing. Cooked to perfection. Dinner included bread, salad and side dish. Great value. The New York strip steak was so good. Flavorful and juicy. We got shrimp cocktail as appetizer and they were delicious. The décor was unique and I felt relaxed with the dim lighting. I have gone hear three times since we moved to St. Charles almost two years ago. Will be going back again and again.

I loved this place the first moment I walked into this awesome restaurant. The atmosphere and décor is so unique and tastefully done. It’s something that you want to keep coming back to and be around and be a part of.
It felt too good to be true when the food was absolutely phenomenal as well! Everything I’ve ever had has been outstanding! Never average, over the top! I literally love everything I’ve ever eaten and when I had the privilege of meeting and talking with the owner I understand why, his attention to detail is extraordinary! He is a genuine and personable guy with endless knowledge, taste and entertaining conversation. My only wish is that I could be there more often!

We’ve been eating here for many years and no matter what we order it is top notch. The quality of the meat and fish is outstanding.
Be sure to make a reservation.
Enjoy!

My favorite place in town… The food I s great and service in s awesome! You must stop in to enjoy such a great place to eat.

Despite having a very cranky, unfriendly waitress, I really enjoyed my experience with St. Charles Place. I am usually not the biggest fan of steakhouses because I really dislike a la cart side dish orders on top of meat I could cook at home very easily. We had a Groupon, which helped the price. This place didn’t feel so expensive because you get some sides along with your steak. My husband had a standard martini, which he wasn’t happy with. I told him it was his fault b/​c he didn’t specify which gin he wanted, but the waitress also didn’t really give him a chance to. I had an ok glass of wine. Overall, I think it was fine, I liked the interior of the restaurant. It’s got a whimsical feel, especially with the Christmas decorations, but I think that was our last visit. We don’t go back to restaurants very often unless they are outstanding or super close to home, and this place was neither. I’ll just say again that the waitress was pretty crabby, never introduced herself (or else I would totally be name dropping).

Food was delicious and service was fine. I am, however, disappointed that the only unlocked door was a revolving one. These are not handicapped accessible. Nobody saw us trying to open the other doors. Only after we mentioned this did we get an apology and were told it is ok to unlock them to let her in. It is simply unacceptable to make a person with a handicap wait outside while another person in their party enters the restaurant and tries to figure out how to open a door that they can go through.

We were a group of 13 and very well taken care of. Everyone enjoyed their food. Among favorites: Prime Rib, Shrimp DeJonghe, NY Strip, Burgers, etc (cognac peppercorn sauce was awesome). Stiff drinks and a great waiter too!

A family gathering at St Charles Place was planned by my brother for a «bon voyage» meal for my snowbird mother and her husband who were leaving in a few days for southern climes. Ugh. My wife and I were obliged to attend, but having eaten at St Charles Place several times in the last few years, my expectations were low. Let’s just say our experience was «Below Expectations».
There are many great steak houses in Chicago. If any of them were nearby this place would be put out of business. Benny’, Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, Capital Grille, and Sullivan’s all put St Charles Place to shame. And local steak joints such as Harvest, Fox Fire, and Rox City Grill — that maybe aren’t at the same level as those listed above — are still light years ahead of St Charles Place. So when Thom, the troglodyte owner, pissed me off, I decided my fellow Unilocaler’s should be warned. Here’s the run down:
* The décor is dated, and not in a good way, but it’s hard to tell because it’s so dark, making it difficult for the mostly elderly patrons to read their menus.
* Yes, this is blue hair food. Meant for the blue-​blockers crowd who like it better than the drivel they serve at the Alzheimer care facility. The Unilocaler’s who gave 4 or 5 star reviews must not be let out of the home very often, as they clearly have no idea how great a modern american steak house can be.
* If you like large slabs of meat of unknown provenance, they do that here, though not cooked or seasoned with any apparent skill. Of the 7 meals served at our table, the prime rib looked to be the safest choice in the event that you too are pressed into service at a family obligation at this establishment.
* The Minestrone soup was mostly salt water with a few remnants of withered vegetable parts and a day old croûton. Get a salad instead and hope they don’t screw up the salad dressing like they did for my brother.
* I had the special, which was supposed to be «Filet tips in a red wine sauce». It was more like horse meat in canned gravy. Meh! I gave the leftovers to my brother. He took one bite the next day and threw them out.
* I asked for the «Filet Tips» to be served over fettuccine instead of over mashed potatoes, but was told there were no substitutions. The waitress was not rude about it, and to be fair, they honored my request without much resistance. But seriously — I’m the customer, I am at your place of business, spending my hard earned cash, and I am asking for the food to be prepared the way I want it, so I can enjoy eating it, yet the policy of the house is «No Substitutions». This is your fault Thom.
* Another Thom issue — He loaded all the tables in our waitresses section simultaneously. As a result, our waitress was overwhelmed, so it took two painful hours to finish our meal. Our reservations were at 6, but by 7:25 we hadn’t gotten our main courses yet. I’m not sure why I was surprised, as the slow pace of service is typical at this establishment.
* The music was so loud I couldn’t hear the other people at our table. Don’t get me wrong, I love loud music and usually the louder the better, but not at a restaurant while I’m trying to engage in conversation with my family at a large table. So I requested that the music be turned down. The waitress warned me that Thom would probably not cooperate with my request, and true to her word, Thom changed the channel to a less raucous radio station, but didn’t lower the volume. He then came to our table said that he had changed the channel, but ignored me as I tried to engage him to repeat my request. Thom, I didn’t ask for you to change the channel, I asked you to turn it down. You purposefully ignored my request and pissed me off, so I hope you like your new Unilocal review just as much as I enjoyed eating your horse meat.
And before you go fire another waitress like you did after other bad reviews, remember you’re the owner Thom. It’s all your fault that your restaurant sucks. You need to fix everything except the bread, and then go fire yourself so somebody who understands customer service can take over as maitre d’.

I’ve been to this restaurant several times each time the food is amazing and the service is friendly quick and very attentive.
I get the fettuccine Alfredo with chicken every single time I go there it’s hard when you find something good at a restaurant to switch to something else because you know what you order is going to be good. It is large portions so bring a hungry stomach when you come to the store because the portions are big! The environment and the decore is amazing it’s very comfortable, you can be casually dressed or Bring your prom party to the place it’s a good fit for either way!
I seem to sit in the same booth each time I dined there and get the same server and he is very attentive very quick very kind good conversation but takes care of his customers!

8÷25÷2015 My wife and I enjoy coming here occasionally for the ambiance in the lounge and the good food. The service has been consistently unpleasant the last few times. I’m not sure who the older angry lounge server is, but she has some anger issues. After waiting at a bar table for 10 minutes I finally went to the bar itself asking who our server might be. She snapped at me «I am! I’ll be right there». The lounge was not overly busy — and we are patient people.
She finally came over and asked us what we wanted to drink. It was a couple of martini’s. She came back with the drinks — set them down without a word and she was gone. We wanted to eat as well. So now I have to go back up to get some menus. The general rudeness persisted, culminating with our expensive appetizers being more or less dropped in front us, the dirty dishes not removed throughout the evening and the check silently dropped off. No thanks — nothing. The bill hovered around $ 130.00.
The food is great — hand down. The martini’s are delicious. The service though for the last two times was so bad — it breaks my heart to move on. It’s a wonderful looking restaurant and a great place for a quiet busy couple to relax, however lousy service just puts a little back rain cloud over everything. If we were treated even average, this would be a 4 or 5 star review.
Update: After reading previous reviews I think we had Amanda as well. Our wife and I will try again and if she is gone and the service is where it needs to be for a restaurant of this caliber I will certainly adjust the review.

So delicious! Went here for date night and had such a great time. We shared their steak for two. To die for!!! The chef came by and told us how he cooked it. Great old school steakhouse atmosphere. The drinks were also very good. We had a French martini and a regular martini. Very yummy! We will definitely be back.

Disappointed in the service. Our sever Amanda was short, disrespectful and borderline offensive with her demeanor.
While the food was yummy, steakhouses should pride themselves in more than just the quality of their beef. After all, in Chicagoland there are well over 100 different steakhouses. Go to Chamagaucha, Benny’s, Morton’s or Gibsons. The staff there truly values the customer, which makes the quality of a fantastic meal even better.
I will not be back.

The terrible service last night left a bad taste in my mouth it nearly muted out the great potential the food had at St Charles Place. My date and I arrived around 8pm Monday night. It took about 10 minutes for us to be assigned a waitress, who eventually came around and said, what would you like to drink? No welcome or nothing.
Examples of bad service:
Never asked us if our food was to our liking
The first martini my date ordered had blue cheese olives when he specifically asked for regular olives and the second martini had no olives
I was having a deep conversation with my date and the waitress yelled at me from two tables down and asked if I needed something then walked to our table and told me I had a facial expression like I needed something (huh?)
Didn’t offer us dessert and instead gave us the check, we asked if we could have dessert and she said oh yeah sorry kitchen is closed you guys are actually my last table we closed the kitchen long ago… What? Why didn’t you tell us?
Stayed by our table to get the check and watched us leave the tip and stated she needed to do her paperwork
In between all of this she was practically throwing our plates when she put them on our table and when she would ask us if we needed anything she would walk away as she was asking. Ughhhhh. Now I get when people say they wouldn’t return to a restaurant with bad service no matter the food. Ambience, food, quirkiness, all was muted out by one very inhospitable waitress.
Unacceptable.
$ 130 down the drain.
NEVER returning, I would rather go to chipotle across the street.

Recently took a trip to saint charlie’s place for a birthday. The food itself was delicious, and although it was expensive and service was slow, the steak au poivre alone was enough to deserve 4 over 3 stars. I would give it 3.5 if I could.
Food– We decided to skip apps since it was pricey and it took a long time for the waitress to come take our drink orders. So straight to dinner. I had the steak au poivre and holy balls it was good. The steak was cooked perfectly to medium, the mashed potatoes were creamy and prepared steakhouse style with the skins in them, great asparagus, and that cognac sauce. Tasted like my grandmas champagne gravy and that is the highest grade of compliment I can give. Would recommend this dish to anyone. Warning: don’t order the kids steak. My ten year old brother cut it in half, but I could have eaten it in one bite, and it was fifteen bucks.
Service– Nice but slow. Forgivable because of how busy they were.
This restaurant definitely has a lot to work on, but because of the amazing steak, I’m giving it four stars. I would highly recommend for special occasions, but otherwise there are less expensive options.

I went to St. Charles Place this past Monday (Half Price Burger Night). It is a steakhouse as well as a banquet hall.
We arrived at 7:45 P.M. for our 7:30 P.M. reservation. The restaurant wasn’t packed but it wasn’t completely empty. My party was seated in a very secluded part of the facility.
The dim lighting and old fashioned ‘vibe’ the restaurant gave off was comforting. I knew that St. Charles place had existed but I had no idea what it was or how big it was inside. My mom mentioned that it was akin to an old supper club (she’s not even that old but older than me).
St. Charles Place features standard steakhouse fare; steaks, seafood, pasta, sandwiches, and burgers. They have some unique appetizers and specialties such as Steak Tartare and Roasted Duck.
I ordered a bowl of the French Onion Soup to start off. It was extremely cheesy and I enjoyed it. It was a bit overpriced for $ 8.99; probably a $ 4.99 value.
For my entrée, I ordered the 11 oz. Filet with a garden salad and Italian vegetables. As one can see in my photo, the steak was served topped with an onion ring and side of mushrooms! My steak was cooked perfectly to a medium too. The garden salad was pretty small, but the balsamic vinaigrette with the salad was actually the best vinaigrette I’d ever had! As for the sides, well, they were excellent as well. Not over seasoned, either!
I expected to pay a high price for my meal ($ 38 plus soup), but I was very satisfied with the meal. Why not five star? The service at STC place was average at best. The waitress was nice, but she disappeared at various points during the night. Also, I don’t know if is policy, but she never refilled our waters; only the busboys did it.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience here. They are known for their Ribeye (seen on Chicago’s Best). If the service improves the next time I’m here, I will give them a nice bump.

This place has an awesome atmosphere. As Morty Seinfeld said, «Cheap fabric, dim lighting… that’s what sells merchandise.»
We arrived about 745 PM with our 730 PM reservation (which wasn’t needed on a Tuesday night). The pictures on the wall and the menu are different. Let’s just say they have a lot of character. Drinks were ordered and service was particularly slow. This wasn’t a HUGE issue but it was late and some people had to be up early the next day. MONDAY NIGHT IS BURGER NIGHT BUT NO SUBSTITUTIONS (which is weird to think about… restaurants should aim to please, no?).
I bookmarked this place due to it being on Chicago’s Best in February 2015. I always love when suburban places are highlighted. I try to get as many as I can.
Anyways, I ordered the 11 oz. filet mignon and it was cooked to perfection. One of the best steaks I’ve ever had. I haven’t had that many. I don’t have those «RICH PEOPLE PROBZ». This came with vegetables and a salad. Plus one gigantic delicious onion ring.
This place is also a banquet hall so it is HUGE. It made me feel like I was in with the F. Scott Fitzgerald «Great Gatsby» crowd.
I want to go back, but I hope the service improves! Can’t imagine how it is when it is busy!!! THE PLACE (HAHA) to be!

Great place with lots of charm and pretty good food to boot.
Just celebrate my birthday at the St Charles place steak house. I had never been there and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was inside. The place has character for sure. A big, warm fireplace, nice romantic lighting, and interesting decorations makes it very inviting and comfortable.
Our waiter was nice but seemed distracted. He did his job and made sure we had everything we needed but really didn’t interact with us anymore than that. Which actually, sometimes is nice.
The food was excellent. I had the filet and lobster and my girlfriend had the ribeye. Both steaks were prepared just like we ordered them and the lobster was melt in your mouth delicious.
During our meal the manager stopped by the table to make sure we were enjoying ourselves, which I think is a really nice touch.
All in all, a great experience. The one downside is the place is pretty pricey. They do have items like burgers on the menu which are less expensive but if you are going to have a steak, seafood, or wine, plan on dropping some coin.
I would say St Charles place is a great place for a special occasion or a romantic date night. The food is excellent and the ambiance is great.