Circle J Family Steak House — Restaurant in Blue Ridge

I’m not even sure I have an accurate star count. We are from out of town and let me just describe our experience for you: We first walk into a lonely room wondering do we stand here and wait for our hostess? We then realize we may need to walk through the next door. Oh boy..There is a literally light up menu on the wall and a older lady asking for our drink order. We are caught off guard, we tell her our drinks. People show up behind us and She is getting a bit grumpy and rolls her eyes bc I have four children, so we are still letting her know our drink order. We are honestly just trying to understand is there buffet or is this order here type place... then we have to ask her do we place our order here? Yes, you do! We then place our order and are handed cups of ice bc our tea is suppose to be delivered to our table? Oh and don’t forget to grab your own silverware… of course, I forgot my steak knife 🤦‍♀️ Then after all that you seat your self.. which was definitely a lil more complicated with a large family.. after choosing the second room I sat in my bamboo chair and it felt a tad rickety so I decided on a booth. After settling in, a family next to us literally broke a bamboo chair and they where actually pretty small individuals. We got our food next. The burgers where just normal almost “school like” burgers my oldest said. You get condiment packets with them. 🤦‍♀️The steak was pretty bland. So if your looking for grilled seasoned steak, this isn’t it. It’s like a pan seared steak. My Baked potato came with nacho cheese, which was pretty good. The boys did love their catfish and fries. Peach cobbler which Comes with your meal self serve, was ok but ice cream was just ice? Not sure why there was no taste. There was no Togo boxes being brought home this time. that’s something we usually always have. Over all I wouldn’t go back. I honestly wouldn’t even consider this place to be a steak house. The look from the outside and even some of the review photos are misleading to me. This place is a major guessing game and the friendly staff that was there five months ago didn’t exist...

We love going with our 4 kids cause the steak tips with mushroom gravy are amazing and perfectly cooked every time and they come with a side so it's a huge portion that actually fills up our teenagers after they almost fill up on their awesome salad bar!! It's always fresh veggies & dressings and has a great selection that all 6 of us in my family can agree on!! Service is always fast & friendly so if you have children it's a perfect place and it's also great if u don't because it has that great date night atmosphere also so it truly is one of those rare places where everyone usually enjoys it!!! The only problem we ever have and it's not really a problem for me or my boys is that my wife says she never gets to barely start on her salad before they usually have brought our main course!! I love that it comes so fast but my wife and daughters get over whelmed but it makes great left overs and u can't beat the prices!!! You walk in and order similar to a cafeteria then sit where u like & go ahead to salad bar if u ordered salad and the waitresses take care of the rest!! It's not to fancy for kids to be there but nice enough that I'm OK with taking my wife the rare times we go without our children !! Dessert is the only thing that could use improvements and all they offer is vanilla frozen yogurt with candies and such for the toppings so I'd plan on picking up dessert elsewhere if you are not a big frozen yogurt...

I had a craving of chicken fingers and honey mustard but I wanted better quality than fast food. I decided to try Circle J because I knew they have parking and I had not tried it yet. I picked up my food last night 10/12/2023 around 7. I should of left after I walked in but I did not let the out of date décor, smoke stained walls and overall inkiness deter me. The blond server that was taking drink orders was very nice and generous with the honey mustard and she is the only reason this rating received above one star. The brunette working the register seemed very annoyed and agitated. The food: the two chicken tenders and french fries that I paid $11+. The chicken tenders were over fried and too much breading. I wanted restaurant quality because I though it would be meatier, I was wrong they were very flat. The fries had a strange taste that I can only described as tasting like ammonia hydroxide smells. I ate one thinking is was a fluke I tried another but spit it out since it tasted the same. I would have been better off going to Bojangles. Do not go here this is an old Shoneys and has not been remodeled since they stopped smoking sections in...