San Diego, California July 10, 2023

I was really excited to try this well-reviewed steak house in the Gas Lamp Quarter of San Diego. In fact, I eschewed all Las Vegas steak houses on the second leg of our trip in favor of coming here. That was, unfortunately, a big mistake.

The Gas Lamp Quarter is a charming area of downtown San Diego, and there are a ton of restaurants and bars here to check out. The cobblestone streets and old-timey refurbished gas lamps are totally insta-worthy. It’s tough to choose a place for dinner here due to all of the options, and we’ve had some great meals in the past in this touristy area of the city. I chose Butcher’s Cut due to its good reviews online, and pretty diverse menu for a steakhouse.

The space is quite large, and very cool with lots of art, and a loft-type atmosphere. There are different types of exposed filament lightbulbs hanging all over the place, which gave it a vintage feel. The place was relatively empty early on a Monday evening, but they still sat the four of us at a very small table. I wondered how they would fit four plates on this table, let alone large steaks with sides? Spoiler alert: They couldn’t.

First, we ordered the fried calamari. It was delicious, although it really wasn’t a very big portion and we ate it before I could grab a photo, which was kind of typical for this trip! Eli also ordered a bowl of lobster bisque which looked amazing.

We then ordered a bottle of wine, which we asked to be decanted, and before they could even open the bottle, and before Eli was finished with his soup, they brought out our mains! This was literally less than a minute after we finished our appetizer, and I was super put off that I was already having more food shoved onto the very small table without any sort of break, and without the time to let the wine decant. I mean, they hadn’t even cleared the table from the appetizer (which took up the whole table!) yet! It felt extremely rushed and I was extremely irritated.

Eli ordered the gnocchi, which was kind of a relief, because if he did get a steak, there is no way we could’ve all sat at the same table. The gnocchi was, however, extremely delicious, creamy, flavorful and abundant.

Brian, Clara, and I split a large porterhouse steak that pretty much took up the entire table. We had mushrooms with shishito peppers and lobster mac & cheese as sides. The food was fine, though nothing super special. It was also very expensive, but honestly, my opinion about the food was probably significantly impacted because I was so irritated with the rushed service and tiny table, where we were knocking our glasses over just to get to the food.

Eli wasn’t feeling super great, so we left before trying the desserts, which was fine, since I’m sure they would’ve brought the dessert 3 seconds after finishing our main meal. It was such an odd experience, and I don’t know if it was because the place wasn’t busy on a Monday, or because we had kids, they thought we wanted to eat fast or something? It’s a poor assumption, since Eli and Clara can sit through a three hour, three-star Michelin experience with no problem. Unfortunately, this experience was the total opposite, and my night out on the town was really curtailed by our bizarre experience at this restaurant. I would not recommend this steak house in San Diego.