Chuck's Fish Athens — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

This is one of our formerly favorite restaurant in Athens but it is unlikely we will ever go again.

I have no idea how good the food is, we arrived at Chuck's at 6:15 on Friday evening of homecoming weekend 10/4/2024 and were told that the wait would be 2 hours for 4 people. That was fine we understood it was busy on football weekends, we grabbed a table outside and a few drinks (there is no bar servers for people waiting outside) and waited our turn. At 8:15, I approached the hostess desk and was informed that it would be another 45 minutes before they could seat us. Frustrated, I went back outside where we had met another family who had been waiting almost as long as we had. They were seated about 30 minutes later, when I asked them when they had put their name on the list they told me that they had arrived at 6:45. Still waiting after 3 hours I went back to the front desk and was told that there were 8 - 10 tables ahead of us. There is a very rude brunette women with a nose ring that tried to "mansplain" why there were so many people still ahead of us, when I told her that they had seated a group that arrived after us, she became flabbergasted and sputtered and told me there was nothing she could do.

Obviously there are "favorite patrons" that get seated ahead of those coming off the street (I was told by another patron that they had been seated immediately because someone in their group knew someone). All of that is fine, but the staff at the hostess desk should have told us upfront that they were incapable of providing any kind of reasonable estimate for the wait, instead, we spent almost $200 at the bar and had to go hunt for food at another restaurant that was still servicing at 9pm. Maybe they were all new and had not worked on a busy football weekend or simply did not care about inconveniencing patrons.

I never told the front desk that we were leaving and never received a text indicating our table was ready. They clearly just took us off the list or skipped over our name.

The staff needs additional training so that they can be honest with patrons about the wait and the young women with the nose ring should not be put in a position to interact with customers, she should consider another career outside of hospitality.

Management should be embarrassed that any guest would be treated the way we were treated by the front desk "hostess" staff. Management may want to consider interacting with patrons that have been waiting more than 3 hours for a table, even to check in and apologize or offer to buy a round of drinks,

Not every weekend is a game weekend and you won't always have people lined up to eat at your restaurant. Service makes a difference both when interacting with guests waiting to be seated as well as those that were lucky enough to get a table.

Plenty of other great options in Athens, avoid Chuck's if you...

I tried Chuck's last night for the first time. The food was good, but the price point was WAY too high and their customer service is lacking. They grossly over-value their food. For 2 drinks, 1 cup of gumbo and 2 entrees, we spent $120. I regret spending this much for what we got. Yes, it was good, but for that amount we could've eaten at the Last Resort, the National or Five & Ten; places where the price point matches the quality and portion size of the food and where customer service is supreme.

I ordered the scallops for $30. The plate came with THREE scallops, some delicious risotto and a corn/okra mix. The sides had great flavor (the risotto was insanely good), but when I bit into my first scallop, the center was ice cold! They had seared the sides perfectly, but the center was raw and uncooked! If I'm only getting 3 scallops for $30, they should be perfect. I let our server know my scallops were ice cold in the center and she took my plate away and had the kitchen cook them longer. When she finally brought my plate back, it had 2.5 scallops on it. They had put my half eaten scallop back on the same grill they use to cook the rest of the food. I don't know about food safety standards, but that didn't seem quite right to me. They didn't bother to give me a fresh scallop--they brought the original scallops (minus the uncooked bite i had taken) back to me. That is NOT fine dining! By the time I got my food, everyone else at my table had finished eating and I was eating alone. The restaurant did not offer to comp this dish, give me a free dessert or even bother to say, "sorry about that".

Here's the thing: if you're a fine-dining establishment with fine-dining prices, you also need to have fine-dining customer service. You make it right. If you accidentally serve someone a scallop with an ice-cold center, or bring their food back out long after the rest of the table has finished eating, you apologize for the inconvenience and say here's a free slice of pie (or whatever). It was the principle of the matter. They did nothing at all (not even an "i'm sorry") and it didn't seem like they cared.

As you can imagine, I won't be going back to Chuck's. Athens has so many AMAZING and high-quality restaurants that there is no need to settle for less than AWESOME. To try to end on a positive note, I will say they did an incredible job with the design and aesthetic of the building. It is just gorgeous. The lighting is incredible and it feels like you're in a big, hip city. Go by for a drink and enjoy the beautiful atmosphere, then go somewhere...

I really wanted to like this place way more than I actually did. It's not that most of the food was bad, it was just way overpriced. We got 3 rolls, an entree, and a bowl of miso. No drinks. And the bill was over $120 after tip. Though the quality of the fish was very high, the preparation, service, and ambiance just didn't justify a bill that high. Seabear just down the street has equally high quality fish at a fraction the price. Five & Ten has a far nicer atmosphere with food cooked in a much more refined way. Chuck's Fish is easily 30-40% too expensive.

The miso was downright bad. It had a good flavor, but it was extremely grainy, the seaweed was just not right, and the tofu was smashed up. The waitress took back a nearly full bowl of it without any sort of comment. I would guess people rarely finish it. That wasn't just not fine dining, it was plain bad. The grouper parmadine was pretty good, but it was overcooked and not terribly well balanced. The gouda cake it came with was outstanding, but the rest of the plate was just OK. Fresh tasting, but not terribly impressive beyond that. Certainly not overly creative or cooked to perfection like I would expect a $40 plate of food to be. The main dish also came out a good 5 minutes before the rolls (we specifically requested them at the same time). I would rather that than it sit around for a while before being brought out, but that is just one more point against the fine dining prices this place is trying to charge.

Two of the sushi rolls were good, and they came with generous portions of super fresh fish. The dragon roll was quite disappointing though. The soft shelled crab inside was fairly small and wasn't nearly crispy enough. The tuna on the top dominated the flavor and texture of the roll so bad, the crab all but disappeared. The rolls were also cut slightly unevenly, which I know is a minor technicality, but the whole idea behind sushi is simple preparation so that quality ingredients and precise preparation can stand out. It was definitely the best sushi we've had in Athens, but it was also nearly twice as expensive as most places.

If Chuck's Fish was quite a bit cheaper, it would probably be a new local favorite. Unfortunately the overall experience was wildly out of wack with its cost. It is unlikely we...