jak's grill

good vs evil. i have lived in the issaquah area for 25 years now. here's my take on jak's; is the no reservation policy and the requirement of getting your name on the list by 4:00pm in order to have a prayer of eating before 8:00pm annoying and crazy? yes, it is. is the fact that they won't sit you until all of your party is there, not even if they are next door finishing cocktails that your group had ordered because you had nothing else to do while you wait an hour or more for your table annoying and crazy? yes, it is.
do they have you by the balls because it is truly the most amazing steaks you will ever eat? yes, they do.

they take customers for granted; overpriced crap. curt hostess who wouldn't seat us even though there were plenty of tables available (this was 9pm on a tuesday). was about to leave but heard that this is the only decent place for miles. asked to speak with manager, who according to the hostess was a male ("he is in this evening"). waited 15 minutes for waiter to pay us attention and for "manager" to come. "manager" was a poorly dressed female in wrinkled cotton high-waisted dress who didn't introduce herself and only robotically apologized. seemed like she's only standing in for the real manager. offered nothing by way of making up for the hostess' rudeness, no check-in throughout evening by either stand-in manager, real manager or hostess. steak was dry, at even medium rare, and waiter didn't even offer sauces. veggies consisted of a combination of overcooked and undercooked/raw stringy string beans. i would have walked out had i been alone and i would have not eaten half the plate had i not just endured a 12-hour plane trip. no one thanked us for our business. they clearly take their customers for granted. would not go back for overpriced crap (in management, hospitality, and food).

should have checked reviews first. went for dinner to meet 2 new employee's. waited 35 minutes to be seated even tho there were empty tables. the waitress came over and without a smile mentioned the special. we saw her again over 15 minutes later when she asked us if we wanted a cocktail. we didn't and 2 asked for water and the other two iced tea. we could see her disgust in this. about 10 minutes later our "drinks" came and she walked away. now we were all watching the time. 17 minutes later she came to ask what we would like as entree's, of course she never asked about appetizer's. we ordered our meals, my steak was rare when it was ordered medium. my wife ordered a salad that had brown lettuce. the other two meals were "okay" they said. in the end we paid the bill, i left no tip which in the last 20 years i have not done and vowed never to return. a very over rated place to dine. sad, it could be good

i love this place. forget ruth's chris, go to jak's! get there early or call to get your name in.

they charged us for parmesan on pastaa. are you kidding me? also, there were no peas in this dish as advertised.

great steaks. always busy (a good thing). large portions, so go easy. great bar & bar staff, make great cocktails and keep it fun. only ding is that it isn't a great kids menu, but then again it isnt really a kid place.

came in 5 min to 2, they still welcomed us graciously and served us lunch( even though they close at 2 pm). skewers were excellent, garlic mashed potatoes tha bomb. reuben was great too! highly recommend!

best resturant in issaquah. this is my favorite restaurants in town. my wife and i frequent there quite regulatory as we live just down the street and i honestly can say i have ever had any i did not like. my favorite go to meal is their jak's burger with blue cheese and an order of sweet potato fires especially for the price. we also love bacon and bacon wrapped scallops are to die for.... although i do wish there were more on the smaller order vs large order because i could eat them all. their wedge salad is also amazing, but be prepared its huge.

if you are there for a special occasion their prime porterhouse is to die for. i went for their larger cut and i honestly can say that was the best, most tender, juicy steak i have ever had. it beats any others like el gaucho, ruth chris, metropolitan grill and even morton's. my wife always asks for a bite.... then another... to the point where she has just started ordering the smaller cut on even though she cant eat it all and we take it home and make the best steak sandwiches with it the next day. we order their lobster mac and cheese to split as an appetizer (even though it is a main course dish). their brussel sprout appetizer is a must too (gotta have some veggies) add one of their finer bottles wine to your meal and you will have an experience you will never forget. that is a lot of food, but its worth it and you will have left overs to enjoy and believe me its worth every penny.

their brunch is the best in town and when we can make it down i go for the crab benedict. its funny my wife and i will order the same thing (mainly because i wont share because it really good)
i wished they served breakfast or brunch every day because a quality breakfast place is really what issaquah is lacking.

bottom line this place is a must if you have never eaten there (once you do its hard not to keep going back and back), have guest in town or want to celebrate a special occasion.

not worth the long waits and wasting my time. the steak compares to great steak houses but i will never eat here again unless they start taking reservations

i have spent quite a bit of time taking clients to jak's but the crazy reservations system (or lack of) is too much hassle to get semi decent food.

the latest situation was when i was planning to meet a client in issaquah and due to the bar being totally full i asked for a table. they said they could not do it because my other party was not there yet and would not be able to join for about 30 minutes, this was 415 in the afternoon. i was planning to eat so i said i would take a table for one and have an appetizer and a drink. they said great. there were about 20 empty tables. they could seat me right away. but then person at the front let me know that if someone did show up that they would not be able to sit with me as it is jaks policy to not have joiners. i asked if it would make more sense if we each took up an individual table. makes no sense. last straw for me. i will find other places.

one dish not spectular but usually very good. almost time i am there it is very good but on the menu. they have sweet southern steak hash (first time to have it). i guess it is a supposed to a manager's favorite. i did not find it fantastic. it was something was the honey sauce or whatever it was on the plate-not great. seasoning was off. the little peppers really did not add much. it needed something like some mushrooms or seasoning. the potatoes and biscuit was good. some staff talked in loud voices about private work situations and banged down dishes and cups. i think a little more smoothness and appropriate sound would be appropriate for that environment.

1.5hr wait and no reservations? ? really?? ridiculous. figure out a good reservation system and get it. this is absurd. there are a lot better restaurants out there where i don't have to wait this long, with way better food.

worst service ever. i've dined at jak's uncountable times and recently decided to try their happy hour - unfortunately after an incredibly rude encounter with their manager kirk i will never go back.

my dad (who introduced me to jak's over 15 years ago) and i enjoyed our first drink with the filet tidbits and onion rings - and with our second drink i got a side salad. when we were on our third we asked for the check and a box for the salad as i filled up on the other apps. the waitress told me that i could not take my salad as it's "dine-in only" at happy hour. when i asked her for an exception - it was my first time at their happy hour and i didn't know their policy - she said she would ask the manager. the manager told her no so i asked to speak with to him. kirk came over and i explained that i now saw on the fine print of the menu that you cannot take items "to-go" but that was not my original intention and i simply wanted to take my leftovers. i told kirk that it was not like we came and ordered one drink and a bunch of food to-go - we had paid for 3 drinks and 3 appetizers.

kirk: "wow i'm concerned you've had 3 drinks? we've only been open an hour".
my dad: "actually it's been 1 hr 15 minutes and we've consumed 2 drinks - we haven't even touched our third."
kirk: "wow - that's a lot to consume - i'm concerned... maybe you should eat your salad... i'm concerned about you driving."

key points:
- if kirk is concerned about the amount we've consumed at jak's happy hour he should consult his waitress and bartender. we were not hailing her down for drinks and she was the one that asked us each time if we were ready for another.
- if kirk is concerned about our alcohol consumption he may want to recommend we soak it up with bread not a green leafy salad.
- if kirk is concerned about us driving under the influence he should call us a cab. he didn't - he allowed us to finish our third drink and leave.

i was and continue to be completely appalled by the way we were treated by kirk. jak's considers themselves a first-class restaurant and this is truly the rudest service i've ever had. i called the next day to share my experience with management. when the host answered i asked who the shift manager was last night and he told me it was kirk. when i asked to speak to the restaurant manager he told me that kirk was actually working today and i could talk to him - i said i didn't want to speak to kirk as he was the one that provided a poor experience. the host then put me on hold and when he came back he told me that kirk actually is the restaurant manager (which i have since learned he's not). kirk then started talking in the background saying he knew who i was and he would talk to me and that the owners were there last night and knew about the salad. i explained to the host that while i was initially frustrated by the salad situation the purpose of my call was in regards to the awful experience kirk provided. i have called the restaurant three times and left two messages for the gm and have never heard back.

the bottom line is kirk was incredibly rude and offensive and the upper management has endorsed his behavior by not responding to me. needless to say they have lost a loyal customer in me and many of my friends, family and colleagues. if you're looking for a great steakhouse with an amazing happy hour you should check out daniel's, ruth's chris, john howie or the met.

not bad, i think?. we got here really late at night - they didn't offer us dessert because the kitchen was already closed - and there were plenty of empty tables, but we still had to wait 15 minutes before they could seat us. not sure what that was about. service other than that seemed to be fine, though.

it might just be the sauce, but their crab cakes are amazing. very tender and flavorful.

i can't really speak to the quality of their steak - i got the beef wellington, and then discovered i don't actually like rare steak. (wellington is only available rare.) the pastry shell was delicious though, so i guess there's that.

my wife and i had eaten at jak's on one prior occasion, and despite the poor service then, we decided to give it one more chance because the food wasn't bad. however, we just ate there again, and the service was so bad, it took everything i had not to embarrass my wife by reciprocating the waitress's attitude. my suggestion would be to avoid jak's unless you can ignore long waits, poor attitudes, and no one checking up on your table.