Juniper Steakhouse

If I could I'd give them 0 stars.... Last night was supposed to be a memorable mother-daughter evening at a nice steakhouse in New Mexico. I'm here for a nonprofit storytelling conference, and my mom and I were excited to travel together. We've been having a great time, and she wanted to treat me to a nice dinner before I attended an evening conference event the casino.I booked a 7 PM reservation online and told her we'd have to head out by 8:30 for the event. We arrived at the restaurant a bit early, around 6:40 PM, and checked in with the host. We waited patiently as the lobby filled with people. I noticed the host seating several parties who had arrived after us, but I assumed they must have had earlier reservations. By 7:10, I decided to check in again. The host asked for my name, and after a moment of confusion, said she couldn't find us on the list. I reminded her we had checked in 30 minutes ago, and she suddenly remembered. She apologized and said she would seat us right away.Finally, we were shown to our table at 7:15. Since we were already running behind, I tried to order right then with the host, but she informed us that only our server could take our order. We waited again, and by 7:30, our waiter finally arrived. We placed our order immediately.As the clock ticked on, our drinks arrived at 7:50 and they were terrible--so bad that we left them untouched. By 8 we realized we were cutting it close for the event. I flagged down the waiter, explained our time constraint and asked if the food would be out soon. He apologized profusely, explaining that he was the only server that night because three others had called out so it wasn't possible. He kindly offered to cancel our food and comp the undrunk drinks, telling us, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it." We headed over to the event. Just as we were settling in, at around 8:45, a security guard approached us. In a loud, accusatory tone, he said, "You need to come with us. You ran out on your bill and need to come pay."The entire room turned to look at us. My face flushed with embarrassment. We were mortified as we followed security back to the restaurant. Once there, we were confronted by a woman claiming to be the manager. She immediately started berating us, accusing us of running out on our tab. Just as I began to explain, our waiter rushed over, clearly distressed. He told her we hadn't run out on the bill--he had canceled our food and waived the drink charge because we didn't consume them.The manager looked stunned, realizing the mistake. They all stood there, looking foolish, as I explained how humiliating it was to be accused publicly in front of my peers at a private event. I asked for the contact information for the district manager, but the so-called manager only handed me a business card with the restaurant's contact info. When I asked her to write down the district manager's email or phone number, she reluctantly scribbled down his first name and told me it was his name & the restaurant domain. I later emailed him, only to have the email bounce back. It was the cherry on top of a truly disastrous night.

We have eaten here several times before and we're here to celebrate a family birthday. We were promptly seated and then waited nearly 20 minutes before our waiter approached us. We placed our order and started with the deep fried avocado with Asian pepper slaw. It was very tasty. I had delicious French onion soup that was hot and bubbly. Next I had requested the end cut well done of the Prime Rib. Normally you can cut it with a butter knife, but I needed a saw to slice into it. It came with a cup of au jus and a little helping of spicy horseradish. It had a roasted red pepper as a garnish. I have had prime rib here before, and this piece came up way short of my expectations. My birthday dinner mate had a small filet mignon, also with a roasted red pepper for a garnish. We shared a loaded baked potato with butter, sour cream, and bacon bits. The sides were family size to share. We also had some lumpy mashed potatoes, overcooked and burned Brussels sprouts with bacon and balsamic vinegar and sautéed mushrooms in wine sauce. The Brussels were all dried out, as they were way overcooked and burned. For the birthday dessert it was a somewhat bland crème broulee with fresh berries, and whipped cream. It had "Happy Birthday " written in chocolate around the rim. I had iced tea and my birthday guest had some rose to wash down our meal.Our waiter was really scarce as someone else brought us our meals to us. He did give us steak knives though. We did get beverage refills. I would have thought that when the birthday dessert was set down, he could have wished a happy birthday. We were not expecting a song, here surrounded by staff. A lady, I presume was a manager checked in. We did not express our disappointment and asked for to go boxes. A busboy helped clear some of our plates and brought us to go boxes. We asked for our check, paid, and left. I know it is Ballon Fiesta time, but since we were early, the place was not really packed yet, so I do not know why we were ignored in a back corner for so long.

Had dinner for 4 tonight, pleasant atmosphere, the dining room was well appointed. The staff was pleasant and accommodating. Wine by the bottle was reasonably priced and other drinks were good enough. 3 NY Strips and one order of prime rib 14oz. Everyone raved about their steak and my prime rib med rare was ok a bit of grey around the perimeter and was lukewarm at best. The sides of brussel sprouts was very good as was the mashed potatoes. The stuffed baked potatoes must have been cooked early in the afternoon and served at 7:30pm the bacon bits were so processed and extremely smokey, not very appetizing . The chix Cesar salad was so big had to bring it home. A petit dinner salad would have been fine. The crème broule was to die for but the key lime pie was all mangled up and crust so soggy, why serve it? An after dinner espresso or cappuccino would have been nice but not available. Overall for the area I guess it was ok and everyone at my table was satisfied and had a pleasant time. You have the room, and probably a great kitchen, attention to detail needs work, a lot of work. Steakhouses are an entity that will never go out of style, this place has a bit of work to do just to be good.

Reservation not honored. After waiting 25 minutes past our reservation time we were afraid the nonchalance would continue for our dinner and decided to spend our money elsewhere. Reached out to management and received no explanation or apology. Thanks Juniper Steakhouse for doing your best to sabotage our 44th wedding anniversary.

I took my daughter, who's here from Chicago for her for her birthday. I've eaten here a few times and loved it. Tonight was no exception. The filet was fantastic and my daughter loved her Caesar salad and steak fries. The only negative about this evening was our server didn't bring us any water until I asked for it and didn't bring butter with our bread. Other than that, our server was very nice and brought out a nice birthday dessert for her.

My husband and I came here for our 9th wedding anniversary and we had an amazing time there! I got the filet and my husband got the New York. For our sides we got the green chile Mac n cheese as well as the mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Everything was melt in your mouth! The steaks were cooked perfectly! We also ordered a bottle of Cabernet which complemented are steaks very well. Our server, Gina, was super friendly and very attentive but not to the point of bothering us. She refilled our water without us even having to ask her. The ambiance was absolutely lovely as well. Thank you to Gina as well as the chefs for making our anniversary one to remember! We will certainly be back!!

No more happy hour or so says the bartender. It was a strange place this time. There were very few customers. It didn't seem nearly as welcoming as last time. I don't think I'll be back as the food is pricey for what is offered and the service was almost lazy. I'm not sure who manages now. But it seems different than 10 months ago. Good luck.

The review is definitely not about the food which was fantastic. Unfortunately they should step up the host service to better accommodate guests who come to this destination spot for a spendy meal. The ambiance is lovely, warmly lit, spacious tables and intimate booths UNLESS they seat you next to the window facing the slot machines. We reserved a table for 2 on a Sunday evening to celebrate a birthday. When we arrived right on time, I asked the hostess if we could have a booth (4 of which were unoccupied although some needed to be bussed.) We offered to wait until they were cleaned and ready. The reply was all were reserved for reservations and we could have specifically reserved a booth online. So we waited another 10 min and we're seated at the slot machine window. After another 15 min I walked back to the host desk since all the empty booths were still empty. In my experience there is typically a 15-20 hold time until tables are given away. They told me again that even though the reservations were late (by 45 min to 1 hour at this point) that they would not seat us in a booth. Bad service and strange rules. The manager eventually came by to ask us how our meal was and I recapped this situation to which he replied we should have been reseated and accommodated when the other reservations no-showed. Oh well, great food! Be sure to request your booth online!

I have been calling and going on the website since the beginning of November to make a reservation. I finally got an answer (by calling) & was told not taking reservations for NYE until November 29th. I continued to check website , but never anything available. I called Nov. 29th & left a message stating time & date requesting along with my telephone #. No return call. Called yesterday & was told the were fully booked for that day. WTHECK?!?!Very disappointed

We attempted to have a nice dinner out on New Year's Eve. I ordered the ribeye and my wife ordered the salmon. Although she enjoyed her dish, my steak and mashed potatoes arrived cold?!? How is that even possible? It was not particularly busy and we didn't wait long for our food to arrive. I asked to have them warmed up and they returned ever so slightly warmer but now my "medium" steak was well done. I expected more from a place with "steakhouse" in their name, especially for a $60 steak. The rating would be lower if not for the courteous service.