Tbonz Steakhouse of Augusta — Restaurant in Augusta

I will address three things with my review: customer service, food, and cleanliness.

From the time I walked in the door it was a great experience. Greeted immediately, given preference on seating options, immediately met by my server, etc. Franci did an amazing job. I never place a simple order... it’s always special and it came out exactly how I ordered it, an appetizer that she suggested as a personal favorite (the calamari) lived up to hype, my drink never got empty (neither of them, I had a water and a soda), and she was always available but not hovering. She really did do great. During my meal, I was checked on three times by management. Also, very pleasant and not over bearing. Other staff would give random hellos and ask if everything was ok at they passed. Customer service was great, 5 of 5.

I will just skip forward to cleanliness because it’s easy and won’t take long. Everything was very clean and sterile. I watched them wipe down the tables/seats and had to visit the restroom a couple times. There were no concerns... also a 5 of 5.

Food... I mean this is what matters right. The main course was initially planned to be a healthy outing in which I could take a break from the house. I ordered a blackened ribeye MR, broccoli with cheese, sautéed shrooms/onions, and “low country calamari.” Once again, the appetizer was great (I will recommend it in the future as well). My side dishes were really good but I didn’t come to a steak house for broccoli and cheese (which was really good). My steak was cooked perfectly when it came out, medium rare. I don’t know if my definition of blackened and the cook’s definition were the same but..... it seemed slightly dry and was bland in flavor. I have been skeptical of ordering steaks out in the past because it’s easy to make a really good one for dinner at home. This was another example of that. It wasn’t bad, but I was personally disappointed with it. All in all good experience and I...

UPDATED REVIEW: I went back... We ordered takeout again, but this time with much better timing and planning on our part. The food quality was much better and the service was much improved. They were much more organized and handled my order with ease and efficiency. Eating in is still probably the best bet at this location but if you are doing takeout be sure to either call it in or order it right before picking up. Scheduling an order for a future time doesn't work and they had no problem letting that order sit for me... Much better experience this time.

ORIGINAL REVIEW FOR CONTEXT: I am only rating the takeout aspect of this restaurant and it was a terrible experience. I used the "order-ahead" option on the website at 5:30p and set the pickup time for 7:30p, and by 6:30p I got a text saying that my order was ready to be picked up. I called the restaurant and the server/hostess had no clue what to do. I arrived at 7:21 and the waiting area was also the takeout staging area. It was highly dysfunctional and disorganized, random people hanging around all the takeout orders. I was given my food containers and the order was correct, however the food was COLD!! If you like the taste of cold food, this is the place for you! We paid $80 for a cold dinner that we couldn't eat all of. We got sauteed mushrooms and it wasn't fresh mushrooms, but canned. That's good for their profits but for the price I expected fresh. Nope!

I don't think that I'll ever go back and I doubt I'd recommend this...

So, I had heard good things about TBonz by word of mouth, and we thought we'd give it a try since we were in Augusta. Unfortunately, it did not live up to our expectations. On the plus side, the wait staff were very friendly, courteous, and attentive. Now for the negatives.. We received our complimentary bread while we were looking at the menu, and I immediately loaded my roll up with, what I thought was, butter. Unfortunately it wasn't, it was margarine, which I don't care for, and this was not particularly good margarine. It left an oily film in our mouths that we had to work to get rid of. We then ordered She crab soup to share as an appetizer and I ordered a ribeye and my wife ordered the t-bone. The soup came out relatively quickly and it was an appropriate temperature, which was good, but the over taste and texture of the soup were off. The soup lacked seasoning and had an oddly sweet note to it. The entrees came out shortly after and while my steak looked good, my wife's steak was very pale, as if it had been thawed in a microwave and then warmed on a flattop. Both steaks were cooked to their appropriate temperature, mine was mid rare, and my wife's was rare. My steak was extremely salty with very little other flavors noticeable. My wife's steak, by request had no seasoning, as she is on a low sodium diet, but it also lacked any flavor whatsoever. And to top it all off, it was a rather expensive lunch at $86 before tip for 2 people. All in all, we were very...