Chophouse — Restaurant in Cary

Usually I’m not the person to leave reviews but I feel like it is needed in this case. The experience started out when we called the restaurant and asked if there was a wait. The host did not tell us if there was a wait although he did tell us the restaurant was slammed and he could possibly get one or two people in the bar area. When we got to the restaurant it was not crowded AT ALL. Tables open everywhere with very few people. Pretty sure we were lied to.

When we sat down the waitress was very underwhelming and seemed like she was in a bad mood. She asked for our drinks and when we selected a red blend wine, the wine that we wanted was not available. Out of a list of about eight red blend wines there was only one that you could get a glass of. The other drink we ordered was a Kentucky mule (Moscow mule with whiskey instead of vodka). All 3 were not in a copper mug and all three tasted different. There was zero consistency.

We went to order an appetizer we got our “go-to” steamed oysters. When they came out they were “slightly steamed“ because the waitress didn’t want them to look too small….even though we ordered them steamed. Basically, they were raw and they were not good. We tried to dress them up with the vinaigrette they provided on the side, lemon, cocktail sauce, etc. but nothing could mask this taste. When we brought it to the waitresses attention she was extremely passive aggressive about the feedback that we were giving. Like it was our fault that their oysters were not good.

For the main courses, we asked what the “catch of the day” was (it stated they had a catch of the day on their menu). The waitress informed us that there was no catch of the day because they hadn’t gotten that far yet in their new menus. But she said if we were looking for seafood the Seabass is really good. There was two on the menu and she was unaware that there were even two options. We ended up going with the ponzu sea bass and this was probably the smallest $40 seabass steak you’ll ever see. We also ordered the filet mignon with blue cheese on top. We ordered medium and it came out well done. We sent it back and they fixed it and the steak was great. We were approached by the manager after the filet was sent back even the manager was passive aggressive about the feedback.

In no way were we trying to be rude but the staff acted as if we were trying to steal from them. They were extremely passive aggressive to our feedback and would not except any negative comments… They only came back with excuses.

They do not offer a military discount either. They did offer a complementary dessert in which they thought would make up for their poor food and poor service. We ordered the crème brûlée and it came out very cold.

Overall this restaurant was not good, did not have good service from the start, and the food was mediocre for the price that you pay. By the end of the night we had an almost $200 bill between two people and we were extremely disappointed with the entire experience. Definitely not worth it and do not recommend...

If you would like to get steak and you can not get reservations at Angus Barn, Sullivan's, Capital Grill, or Flemings; If the Peddler is too dark for you; You are looking for an atmosphere that is a bit more high end than Outback, Texas Roadhouse, or Longhorn; If you need to have a quiet business meeting over food; Or if you're staying at one of the hotels in walking distance.... then this is the spot for you.

Let's start with the arrival, we walked in and the hostess immediately sat us down. We noticed that there was not another person in the restaurant that wasn't on payroll. We were left in the back of the restaurant with enough time to make all of our food selections, have a conversation about our selections, and make new selections, and talk about those. About 10 min after that I got up to find staff. It's Important to remember that we hadn't had water at this point. However, someone did come over immediately and take our orders. Still with no water. Continuing on about 5 min after we put in our order a new waitress came over to ask us what our order was. Never had a server change like that, but she came with water so that was appreciated.

Let's progress to the food... The salads we ordered came out pretty fast. One of the salads was a Caesar salad that had tomatoes, strange but whatever. The other salad was a house salad that had an impressive amount of cheese. Again not bad just kinda unexpected. The steaks came out pretty quickly, but the doneness of the steak had been mixed up. They were quality steaks so it wasn't bad, just more so disappointing than anything else. We both got mashed potatoes as our side and one of 2 things had to be true about these potatoes. Either they were boxed powdered potatoes or these potatoes were old and reheated. So much so that they were salty and buttery almost as if they were trying to cover up that one of the above was true. Then came dessert. We ordered cheesecake and creme brulee. The cheesecake was good, but the whipped cream tasted like Cool Whip. The creme brulee was covered in blueberries, strawberries, and white chocolate chips. This would have been great had the dish actually been warm. I would classify it as barely warm enough, but like I've said before. It wasn't bad just unexpected and disappointing.

The overall price is what I expected to pay for a higher end dinning experience, but I've had better steak at lower end restaurant chains.

Overall, This was a disappointing experience. We will likely give this place another try after we forget what this experience was like, but that will not be anytime soon as we had a very memorable experience due to the level of...

Trapped in the sterile RTP corridor. Hoping to find a meal on a rainy night close to the Sheraton in Durham. Had a bad feeling about this place but reviews were decent so I have it a try.

Cutting to the chase - for $38 had a very sad thin gristly rib eye. A poor rib eye is a sad sight and taste indeed - they are generally so hard to do badly. This was just salt, pepper and oil on a tough thin slab - a little thicker than a minute steak, like 1/2-3/4". Half of it was unchewable.

I picked the side of asparagus with bearnaise. I have never seen thinner smaller more flavorless asparagus. I didn't really need the bearnaise, but for the record it wasn't even close to a facsimile of that sauce.

You could pick any salad you liked - on paper they all looked great and healthful. So I picked one with apples (pears?), cranberries, arugula and a tangy lite dressing. Again a total miss.

I can see the wait staff works very hard and is very friendly, no question. The food is not their fault. I don't mean to offend these hard workers. Though I did ask about the flounder but my waitress assured me they "really do steak right" (no!). So I trusted and I was wrong. I do wish she could have some how clued me in in advance - she can't be serious about the meat quality and preparation.

Net net this place feels like a slightly bumped Friday's or Friendly's, many large business groups who may not have been so discerning. I should have followed my instinct - there were warning signs. But everything of quality is 7-9 odd miles in the rain, and that distance can kind of be torture at dinner time in RTP.

What really kills me is comparing this dreadful showing with the spectacular and well-priced meal I had the night before at Bida Manda in Raleigh. By comparison I feel like such a fool trusting this "steakhouse".

Don't go here. They MUST first improve their quality and adjust down their prices to match.

Oh and the service was very very slow on a Tuesday night to boot - but OK they were crowded (who likes eating...