Steakhouse 55 Permanently Closed?

mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well now we know what’s going in Steakhouse 55…


D7574F54-D38C-48DC-9554-DF1520290B57.jpeg
 
mandelbrot

mandelbrot

Well-Known Member
DLR seems to be all about their bars and lounges these days. I would bet that Steakhouse 55 becomes some sort of lounge with a much larger bar. The rumor that it will become an expansion of Goofy's Kitchen may be true but I'd bet against it.

There's a reason that DLR restaurants and bars tend to have lackluster service. They prioritize hiring from within. That means a Disneyland Hotel pool lifeguard or a Space Mountain ride operator will have a leg up over a service industry pro from another company. Go to any Disney-run bar the week it opens and it's extremely clear they have no idea what they're doing because none of them have ever tended bar before.

There are exceptions of course. Napa Rose and Club 33 prioritize service experience when hiring. Carthay may now as well since their service has improved dramatically since their first year. Let's hope their dining room opens soon. The premium dining restaurants in the resort are currently limited to Napa Rose and Catal, though both offer pretty good steaks.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
SSG said:
This is very in line with my experience at SH55. I always thought the food was very good but the service swung pretty wildly between decent and indifferent in my 3-4 visits. And I so wanted to love the place because of the old Hollywood atmosphere. :(
Click to expand...

I think we all wanted it to succeed and live up to the photos on the walls that WDI chose to decorate with, even if the cigarettes were photshopped away to create a PC Safe Space for the under 30 crowd. It's just a shame that the 1940's Hollywood scene wasn't smoking marijuana instead of Winston's, then the photos would be just fine and need no Photoshop in the 2020's.

But obviously the management of Steakhouse 55 was not up to the task there. They were playing dress up and pretending to run a fine dining steakhouse, even though their "training" amounted to nothing more than Jell-O patrols at the Goofy's Kitchen buffet and a fake cheesy smile while they say "I'm so sorry" as their attempt at providing good service while all the details go undone all around them.

The management failed. It's been obvious there for many years, and I'm not surprised they folded in the face of close competition from three very strong neighbors with excellent management who know what they are doing; Ruth's Chris, Morton's, and now also Fleming's.
 
Last edited:
E

Enginerkid

New Member
It never ceases to amaze me how people will put down a restaurant and recommend others like Chris Ruth, Flemings or Mortons. Maybe their relative or neighbor works there. Go there and have a blast! My family (12 of us) would go to Steakhouse 55, 2 or 3 times a year (for the past 8years) and enjoy a delicious me! Our server Rodel and support team were very attentive. Even the hostesses Marcie and Chris always greeted us with a smile and were very nice. The Ambience was the best! We will miss our "Magical" getaway! Thank you for the memories!
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Enginerkid said:
It never ceases to amaze me how people will put down a restaurant and recommend others like Chris Ruth, Flemings or Mortons. Maybe their relative or neighbor works there. Go there and have a blast! My family (12 of us) would go to Steakhouse 55, 2 or 3 times a year (for the past 8years) and enjoy a delicious me! Our server Rodel and support team were very attentive. Even the hostesses Marcie and Chris always greeted us with a smile and were very nice. The Ambience was the best! We will miss our "Magical" getaway! Thank you for the memories!
Click to expand...

I know many of the CM's at Steakhouse 55 tried hard and were nice folks. I don't think anyone here claimed otherwise. I was not a regular at Steakhouse 55, because there are so many other superior steakhouses in OC to choose from. But I went to Steakhouse 55 every couple years with friends/family staying at the Disneyland Hotel to know it was not just a one-off experience or one single bad night I had a decade ago. For years it was consistently not up to par for the price point and alleged experience they were offering.

Because there is both an art and a science to truly fine dining. Steakhouse 55 charged the prices other true fine dining establishments in OC charge, and Steakhouse 55 at least once pretended they were fine dining.

But the reality is that the training and management were clearly not up to the task of fine dining standards, at least for the last 10 years. And that's who gets the blame here, the on-site management of Steakhouse 55 and the various TDA executives who allowed it to stay like that for years. Regardless of how sweet a particular hostess was or how hard a particular waiter might have worked.

There are details and nuances to a fine dining restaurant that the on-site management, TDA training team, and the revolving door of TDA execs in charge of it all clearly could not understand or create. Let alone foster and nourish.
 
Last edited:
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
That said, the Steakhouse 55 CM's were lightyears better than the crew staffing Tangaroa Terrace for the 5 years leading up to the Covid shutdown. Those kids were so out of it, all clustered around the kitchen counter gossipping with each other and ignoring any customer who dared to walk into that place looking for a cheeseburger. A complete farce.

I just wonder where those Tangaroa Terrace CM's are now? And which counter are they clustered around ignoring all the customers?

Seriously gang, there really are upscale hotels out there that justify their expensive rates with excellently trained and well managed staffs throughout their property, from the bellmen to the poolside snack bar to the swanky steakhouse. Go to the Lodge At Torrey Pines in La Jolla, or Montage Hotel in Laguna Beach, or the Rancho Mirage Ritz-Carlton, and see how it works for yourself. And those are just my personal top 3 within a 90 minute drive of Disneyland, there are others nearby. There's also more great hotels up in LA, but I'm not able to deal with the LA attitude of the local trash that preens around the lobby bar or pool, so I mostly avoid that town.

Too often in recent years, the Disneyland Hotel is not even close to one of those fine SoCal hotels. Except for its expensive rates.
 
Last edited:
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
DrAlice said:
You have just described the modern Disney experience. Particularly when it comes to dining, lodging, and upcharge experiences.
Click to expand...

Yes, and it's sad to ponder how low the standards are allowed to slip.

Steakhouse 55 is unfortunately one of the best examples of that, because swanky steakhouses are found out in the real world and are easy to compare. We're literally beating a dead horse here, but it's such an easy comparison that we have to.

Within just a few blocks of Steakhouse 55 now sit three other corporate steakhouses at the same price point, and within affluent Orange County at large there are many other steakhouses and fine dining restaurants to directly compare/contrast against Steakhouse 55.

Heck, that Morton's on Harbor pre-Covid used to do killer lunch specials that undercut Steakhouse 55 prices by a mile. And you still got superior service at Morton's, from the valet guy to the hostess to the bartender to the waiter to the schmoozy manager doing a mandatory table touch.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
mandelbrot said:
DLR seems to be all about their bars and lounges these days. I would bet that Steakhouse 55 becomes some sort of lounge with a much larger bar. The rumor that it will become an expansion of Goofy's Kitchen may be true but I'd bet against it.

There's a reason that DLR restaurants and bars tend to have lackluster service. They prioritize hiring from within. That means a Disneyland Hotel pool lifeguard or a Space Mountain ride operator will have a leg up over a service industry pro from another company. Go to any Disney-run bar the week it opens and it's extremely clear they have no idea what they're doing because none of them have ever tended bar before.
Click to expand...

This is spot on, and obvious to anyone who has ever paid attention to the service levels at Disneyland's restaurants and bars.

Several years ago our waiter at Steakhouse 55 actually bragged that he'd started a few years earlier on the canoe ride. He was a genuinely nice young man, and thought that was a fun fact to share with the table. Neither he or his manager knew that telling moose jokes on a canoe ride is not how most fine dining professionals begin their careers. 😂

I'd be fascinated to know how many restaurant managers at Disneyland actually have training from proper culinary and hospitality programs like Le Cordon Bleu or Johnson & Wales, rather than just getting transferred from Star Tours or The Emporium after two years studying "Communications" at Fullerton Junior College (Go Hornets!).

My hunch is that it's the latter career path that most Disneyland managers take to end up supervising the Steakhouse 55 dining room on a Saturday night.

mandelbrot said:
There are exceptions of course. Napa Rose and Club 33 prioritize service experience when hiring.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking how they deserve some credit for protecting Napa Rose from the lowered standards and messy management the rest of the Disneyland Resort has suffered with for the past 20 years. Somehow they know Napa Rose can't survive without an entirely different set of rules and leadership. So that proves it's possible, that there's not some supernatural bubble around the Resort that prevents TDA from operating lounges and dining rooms at industry standards.

For whatever reason, they just choose not to at most places. Or somehow convince themselves it's not as spotty and messy as it is.
 
Last edited:

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom