Decanter International Chophouse — Restaurant in Albany

My family and I dined at Decanter to celebrate my father’s 70th birthday. With a party size of 15 we were forced to dine in a private room with a $175 deposit to secure the room. After dinner we were informed that not would the deposit not be applied towards the bill, but we’d be required to pay the 20% gratuity. This after we returned two steak dishes for being overcooked, al dente noodle dishes, and one server for 15 people. But I will say that our server Jordyn did great; the bright star of the evening. In my opinion dining here is not worth the time or price tag. I’d find elsewhere to go.

Update: 1/6/25

During the initial call to reserve the private dining room, we were explicitly informed that the $175 was a deposit. From my understanding, a deposit meaning it goes towards the final balance. At no time we were informed that it was a flat room “rental” fee by the employee who took the reservation. We were informed earlier on 1/4/25 that the “deposit” was in fact a non-refundable room fee notwithstanding the final balance. Had we known this, we would’ve chosen to celebrate at a different establishment.

Our server, Jordyn, did a great job within her current scope of training. However, it was clear from the onset that she is undertrained and not accustomed to serving large groups. Not only this, but she was given the task of serving the party alone. Due to this, our initial food orders were taken almost 40 mins after we were fully sat. As a result, we ordered apps and entrees simultaneously. However, according to your statement, I’m delighted she received the entirety of the mandatory gratuity of 20% which would have certainly been increased had not been for the $175 room fee.

I’m certain this is written in the guidelines for employees, but I can assure you with absolute certainty that it was not disclosed during the call to reserve the room. As stated above, had it been disclosed we would’ve chosen to partake in a celebratory dinner at an alternate establishment. Also, as there is a dress code, the host wore his pants below his waist and sported Crocs footwear.

As a senior officer in the US Army I’ve had the privilege of traveling the world, dining and hosting gatherings at some of the finest restaurants around the globe, including numerous Michelin Star establishments. The two dishes returned to the kitchen were the Wagyu chops. One dish was ordered medium while the other medium well (as it was for a child). The preparation took away from the simple tenderness and deliciousness of traditional American Wagyu beef. Being that the steaks were served chopped, they should’ve been removed from the fire earlier than larger cuts and allowed to rest an equal amount of time to stop the fat rendering and allow the intramuscular tissue to contract and retain moisture.

I’m not seeking anything in return. I simply do not believe this is good nor a sustainable business practice to charge separate fees for simply choosing to dine with multiple people in the establishment. However if this is to be the model moving forward, it should be fully disclosed without ambiguity prior to a reservation...

We came here as a last big date night before our baby is born and were honestly a bit disappointed. Our server was great and super sweet, made a couple mistakes but it was her first time on her own and really not anything worth making a big deal about. The drinks were also fantastic and they made a special mock-tail for me as well that I would definitely order again. The problem was the food. Most of what we ordered was either overcooked, cold, or tasted rancid. We ordered the Cesar salad which was good, and definitely a different take on a traditional Cesar as it was grilled but it was unfortunate that that was the best food we got. The pork belly was salvaged by the sauce because it was a bit dry and overcooked and the cooked oysters were cold, greasy and had definitely gone bad at some point, about half of them were “ok” the other half were bad and inedible. The main dishes of Lobster Risotto and Aged Ribeye with crab were also disappointing. The lobster dish wasn’t bad but was a bit overcooked, dry and stringy. Wasn’t awful but not something I would ever order again. The dry aged ribeye was the main issue, it was not medium rare as requested, overcooked as well, and part of the steak tasted ok, again, not fantastic, but part of it also tasted rancid, as if something went wrong during the aging process. We have had aged steaks plenty of times before and it was disconcerting to be told that it is supposed to taste that way when we bring up the rancid taste/smell. Needless to say we didn’t finish the steak. And the crab cluster “steak add on” was actually a separate order of crab legs. Which could have been our fault for not reading close enough and would have been fine, except it came out cold, stringy and inedible. To the restaurants credit, they did take the crab legs off the ticket, but they told us the steak was supposed to taste like that and we weren’t comfortable enough to bring up the other food issues as they seemed to be for almost every plate. Decanters has all the ingredients for a fine dining establishment, just some issues with the actual...

Keep in mind with this review that this isn't a longhorn or Texas Roadhouse. This is a place where a premium steak is $90. The standard steak is $50. I have no problem with those prices if everything else lines up. To start, we were greeted promptly as we walked in the door and were seated immediately. This place has multiple rooms. You don't seat two people that are likely on a date right next to a group of 5 men they are having a business meet and greet, especially in a place that's quite reverberant.

The young man that was out server introduced himself and took out drink order. I'm guessing he was on the new side but when a person ask "what IPA do you have on draft?" Your answer can't be "I'm not sure" followed by a blank stare waiting for you reply. I had to ask him to go find out. A place of this price point should not only have ginger beer to make a Moscow mule, they should have multiple flavors of ginger beer along with pretty much anything else needed to make most any drink. A $90 steak and they don't bring any type of bread to the table.... We had to ask for napkins. I don't know what's going on here but either this was just a badly off night for this place or people in the area have no idea what correct white table cloth dining is. My steak was cooked as ordered and the flavor was good. My salad (that cost extra rather than coming with the steak) was fantastic.

When the server comes back to check on us, he's talking with a toothpick in his mouth...

I wanted to try the banana pudding but I'd had enough disappointment for...