Rae and Jerry’s Steak House

Atmosphere, décor is spot on if your wanna feel that old school steak house feel. Upholstery, décor hasn’t changed but beware the entrance smells old too. The service was excellent but the food was way too pricey for what it was. We tried the New York steak and the prime rib which both needed a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. The prime rib was served in its own Juices and quite bland… was hoping for some au jus but it is not available. You do get a choice of three sides but I don’t think it makes up the price for the entire meal. I probably wouldn’t go back for a while… décor may not need updating but I think their menu needs a refresh.

if you are into mediocre food at very high prices, this is the place for you.
also, if you care more that the seats you are sitting on are the coolest red vinyl in all of manitoba than about your food having any noticeable taste to it, this is the place for you.
the food and drink are super bland, but the enviro is super retro fun. and the service is good. so if that’s worth $ 35/​plate for you, then go here immediately. me, i prefer delicious food.
(to be clear, i had the prime roast rib of beef, english cut, as recommended as their very best thing by our server.)

Ambience — perfect 60s era retro steakhouse. Cocktails — awesome. Service — outstanding. Steak — horrible, horrible, horrible. Poor cuts of meat, no seasoning, colorless, and tasteless. Shame on you. Clientele don’t complain because they’re all from an era where they’re just happy to have meat. If you’re going for a Manhattan, however, Ray and Jerry’s can’t be beat.

It was very cool walking into this place. Kind of reminds me of a 60’s version of Vegas. All that was missing was Rat Pack music. The crowd is a tad older but the service was perfection. Very attentive service without the servers bombarding you. It’s expensive so I would come here for an anniversary or birthday or celebration of some sort.

I would book a flight back to Winnipeg to go to this restaurant. The place is unbelievable on every level. The décor is out of a movie. And despite it looking like all the furniture and carpeting is the same as the day it was installed, everything is clean.
Hands down the best fries that I have ever eaten. Even the bread and butter is delicious.

This place was amazing! Definitely a blast from the past and was a lot of fun eating here. The exterior looks like a Vegas restaurant.
It was so sunny out and when I walked thought the doors I couldn’t see anything LOL because the interior is super dark with a dark red design and dim amber lights.
The interior makes you feel like your having dinner on set with Mad Men. I would definitely recommend this Steak House and I may just come back again this week.

Ray & Jerry’s dates back to a different era! It’s a place my grandma mentioned she had been to years ago and in Winnipeg you can’t say that about many restaurants! Checking their website they have been around since 1957!
You have an option of eating in the lounge or the dining room.
The interior of the lounge is like something out of the movie Goodfellas. The red chairs that swivel make you feel like you should be wearing your leisure suit or a smoking jacket! Classic elegance in an evening setting!
Back in the day when the Jets played at the old arena this was one of the high class places to come before the game. If my memory serves me right they even had a bus that would take patrons to the game from the restaurant!
Fast forward to my night on Dec 2013…
I met up with some friends in the lounge for some drinks and a bite to eat! In the past I would have a hot roast beef sandwich as beef is their specialty! Friends were telling me to get the cheeseburgr as they stated it was made from ground sirloin! So I dived into a cheeseburger and fries. Totally awesome! Their fries are nice a light not served at many places!
I hope Ray and Jerry’s stays around as it’s a unique dining experience whether in the lounge or restaurant!

Steak was okay, but not spectacular. It seemed pretty fatty. Portions were a bit too large for my likings.

We will talk about the food in a sec. First, the place has style. Classic 1950s steak house design, dark, very comfortable, wood paneling and red leatherette seats and banquettes. The waitresses have all been there for ages. Very professional and friendly. For special events — birthdays, out of town visitors, anniversaries, reunions — R&J’s has been the go-​to place for decades. It has a formal dining room and a spacious cocktail lounge, where you can also eat. The food? Good, high-​end Winnipeg comfort food. Smoked goldeye, spare ribs, superb roast beef (get the bone-​in), tangy cole slaw, addictive shoestring fries. They even serve liver and onions. A mash-​up of steak house, north-​end Winnipeg, Greek, and Anglo. But I am not crazy about the steaks themselves. They should also have bison and more local meats and produce. A bit staid in the kitchen in fact, especially for the prices. But still I recommend it highly, for the atmosphere, history, and decent if unimaginative food.

I love the classic retro feel. It is like a trip back in time. Sadly today’s lunch was also a trip back in quality
The dishes are over-​priced but that sort of comes with the territory. But $ 15 for a Reuben with a quarter of a pickle, I.e. no sides. Mmmmmm If it was to die for that would be understandable, but it was just ‘OK’. Little greasy but tasty
The side of fries though was horrible, dripping in grease and little flavour. When told of this they quickly took it off the bill so that was good. But at those prices! Yikes!
The salmon lax was also ‘OK’. The toast is supposed to be dry, but it was a little too dry. A slice of lemon would have been appreciated. Once again nothing special
The Canadian bacon and tomato sandwich was not very good. The back bacon was more like ham. Disappointing
Service overall was quite good
Health code violation??? as the washrooms in the main area were unserviceable. Seemed pretty limited for a big facility?
The ultimate test is would we go back and have those dishes again? No. Maybe for the beef but not for the stuff we had

Hello blast from the past. I thought I was back in the 1950s.
Parking is available around the building on 3 sides.
The inside really is like a time capsule, with the vinyl armchairs and fake wood paneling. The only indicator I could see that you aren’t caught in a time warp were the flat-​screen TVs. If the owners were gunning to keep the original look (this place first opened in 1957), they definitely succeeded. I was waiting for an episode of I Love Lucy to play on the TVs.
The place was pretty packed, with a generally older crowd. Definitely not surprising, based on the theme. Everyone looked like they were having a great time, with lots of loud chatters in the mix.
The service is decent and professional.
Drinks here are unfortunately a bit on the pricey side. A few bucks more than I would’ve liked to pay. It looks like they have a decent wine selection though.
The prime rib I had was solid meat, without much fat at all. Absolutely beautiful. The portions here are pretty huge. The entrees come with your choice of chilled tomato juice or soup, as well as salad and potato. I had the soup (beef tomato), which was decent diner fare. The salad was a little lacking in the presentation department, but again, this is a 1950s diner. The same thing could be said of the mashed potato — it looked like they used an ice cream scoop, then smushed it into the little dish.
I was totally stuffed at the end of the meal. No need for dessert at all. When the bill came, it had a chocolate stick on top. Yay!
The food is a bit pricey (over $ 30 for the entrée combo) based on what most diners charge, but they do have a good thing going here. I’d definitely be back if I needed to stuff myself on some cow. Recommended.

I final made it here, with a large party for a 40^th wedding anniversary. We shared a salmon steak dish. Both were presented and tasted great. The both dishes melted in your mouth and the side dishes where ok. Other then a few mix ups on who got what the servers pulled it of quite well. In the end I do not see myself going back very often at an average of $ 30+ per person plus drinks it is on the higher end of what I am willing to pay.

Hard to hate on the R&J, specifically because it’s pretty much one of the ONLY retro places in Winnipeg (apparently, all the older places decided that 1983 was a great time to modernize that interior). But, went for my birthday after Christmas, and I have to say I was completely shocked at how much the quality had slipped.
Like seriously. The meat? Freakin’ fantastic. Really good. But the sides? Ugh. The Pea Soup tasted like cigarette butts. It stunk like them, too. The broccoli and cheese was a bit gross. And the garlic mashed potatoes? Ok, but with a freaky weird aftertaste.
Service was OK, and it was funny how the waitress even confirmed the «smoky» feature of the soup, and then did nothing about it.
Burn, because this was a special occasion and my family dropped like $ 500 in this piece. Will probably still go back — again, ONLY cool retro place in Winnipeg — but will skip the food. I’m trying to quit the cigarettes-​in-​food habit.

OK, so I went to this restaurant with a group of people at lunch time looking for the best burger in town. This place is known for steaks. One guy at our table said they have the best steak he’s ever had. So, that being said, my review would not indicate this to be a restaurant anyone might rush to return to. The service wasn’t great and the food was worse. Even having complained about it, all we got was an apology from the waitress.
We had 4 tables of people in a room off in the back of the restaurant. The décor is something out of the 50s with a red velvet wall, red vinyl chairs and dark wood grain walls. The lighting was yellow and dim.
Ours was the 2^nd table of the group to have our orders taken yet we were the last to receive our meals. It took about an hour to get burgers! In fact, the last table to order, was the first table to get their meals. While all of us (and people from the 1^st table as well) received cold or barely luke warm meals, one table may actually have received hot meals. Perhaps there was a problem with the staff trying to serve everyone at the table at the same time and maybe the meals for the earlier tables were blocked by the meals for the later tables… Whatever the case, the service just wasn’t any good.
One of the other guests at our table tried to banter with the waitress but it wasn’t well received. She seemed uninterested in light conversation — perhaps this is her personality or she was stressed by the work and it reflected in her demeanor. She didn’t even check whether anyone wanted drink refills. The patron was clearly irritated and made comments to that effect so I’m uncertain whether her behaviour deteriorated as a result.
In the end, we ate what we got though it wasn’t tasty and fairly pricey.
I’m not a steak eater anyway so I am not compelled to return for a chance to determine whether or not they do that better or if it makes a difference being in a smaller group at a different time… still, I wouldn’t write this place off entirely based on this one experience.

Great steaks!

I live in Calgary, but I always stop at Rae & Jerry’s when I’m in town visiting my grandparents. Great atmosphere, HUGE portions and a lengthy cocktail list. I love the retro lounge feel. Walking in, you’d expect to see Don Draper! (I wish…)

Great lounge! It’s got a great retro feel to it as the dark wood, red chairs and red lighting continue into this «L» shaped room. It’s a fairly busy room on a late Saturday night full of people dining away on a less formal meal. The crowd ranged from groups of seniors to the middle aged set with a sprinkling of of tables in the under 35 category. I think one of the most important things in a lounge are comfortable chairs that are in proper portion of the table! Not many lounges achieve this — but the lounge here has super comfy red chairs that swivel and roll with small round tables.
There’s a decent amount of wines to choose from (5 oz and 9 oz). We tried their chocolate cake ($ 6.50); it has three layers of cake and icing… very big so one should share this. The chocolate cake was a little dry and the icing was quite sweet and had a deep coffee taste that I didn’t really enjoy.
The bar menu is really just a shortened version of the regular menu. Though you have to ask for a dessert menu if that’s what you’re there for.
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On another visit, we tried their weekend special, which is a breakfast for $ 11.75 (also served on holidays). This breakfast includes a very small glass of OJ (maybe 3 ounces), bacon & sausages, two eggs, home fried potatoes, toast with marmalade or jam. I’d order another drink cause the OJ is easily finished in two sips. I wonder why they give you so little juice, especially since it’s more of the Tropicana variety than freshly squeezed? You get like 3 strips of bacon and 4 sausages but you can also get all bacon or all sausage too. I asked if there was a vegetarian option — silly of me to do that at this place! I’m not vegetarian but I’m not a fan of that much fatty pork in one sitting sometimes. She just said that I could opt out of that but she didn’t say that the price would be discounted so I chose to take the bacon and sausage. The bacon was good — very crispy and delicious, the sausage I didn’t enjoy as much. The scrambled eggs I got seemed like it was more than 2 eggs as it took up half of my plate! Probably the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had in the city. Very creamy and soft, the way scrambled eggs should be. The potatoes were good and the rye toast is pre-​buttered and tastes good. All in all, a very filling breakfast — too much for me but I think would be a great breakfast for those who love those classic breakie items. Breakfast was a little slow despite the fact that we were there around 1:30 pm. Note: breakfast is done at 2 pm on the weekends.

The Skinny: decent steakhouse straight outta Mad Men (3), service: is okay… giving the prices they charge, you’d expect a little bit better though (3), value: for what it is… it’s a little overpriced (3).
Places have come and gone in Winnipeg — but Rae and Jerry’s remains the same. From the dark panelled walls and yellow lights to the retro red uniforms the servers wear, Rae and Jerry’s is an institution in Winnipeg.
We rarely if ever head here for dinner. We mostly stop by for a leisurely lunch on the weekends. Their breakfast special ($ 11.75) is large and filling — they even serve it with tomato juice (and Lea and Perrin’s). How neat is that?
I usually skip the breadbasket which is a basket of wasted carbs. Avoid the breadsticks — they’re super salty and not appetizing.
We frequently get the chicken or salmon salad which is a plainly decorated plate of veggies (including pickled beets and carrots). The chicken and salmon are lightly dressed with mayo and bits celery and green onion. Yum!
Mostly, I end up ordering their deluxe hamburger platter — that’s a regular burger with BBQ sauce, fries and coleslaw. The burger is the highlight — a nice juicy patty with a rather large bun. Like the coleslaw too, a lighter vinegar version, which goes nicely with the heaviness of the beef. Fries are rather soggy and aren’t my favourite part of the dish.
The prime rib sandwiches are good too however a might bland. Portions are rather large. We made the mistake of ordering the open faced version which is drenched in gravy (and not that great).
Pricewise, the prime rib sandwiches are definitely overpriced at $ 15+ for a sandwich only.
Overall, it’s not a bad place to grab a bite to eat and enjoy the nostalgia.

Great prime rib the sides and a dirty knife were all that kept this from a 5 star dinner.
A classic institution. Great drinks, nice to have a classic bar menu.