Halls Chophouse — Restaurant in Charleston

Overall, dinner was a mixed experience for us.

Pros: The hostess group was responsive and friendly as soon as we walked through the door. They were efficient in checking everyone in and making them feel welcome. We did arrive a few minutes early for our reservation and we were asked to wait near the bar until our table was ready. Our table was prompt and ready 2 minutes before our reservation, again an extremely efficient operation. They also remembered us on our way out and that we were in Charleston for our babymoon. Several made it a point to wish us congratulations again and a good evening, which was appreciated.

Our server was phenomenal. I cannot emphasize this enough. He was on top of everything including my dietary restrictions and very friendly. He helped talk us through the menu and make sure that I knew what would be acceptable for me to eat. I have two food allergies and I'm 7 months pregnant which can make it difficult for finding menu items, but this was not an issue at Halls. The options were plentiful. Our server was detailed and thorough in walking through what would work so that I was able to find items that not only worked for my multiple restrictions, but also made sure that I was able to get a memorable dinner as well. The staff that supported him were also top notch. All the servers were attentive but not smothering which is such a fine balance and they did it perfectly.

The food was excellent. We had the jumbo shrimp cocktail and fried green tomatoes as starters and both were perfectly cooked and well seasoned. My husband's dry aged ribeye is one of the top 3 steaks we've ever had. It was perfectly cooked and full of flavor. He also raved about the corn side dish. I wasn't able to eat this due to my allergies, but he said it was amazing. I was extremely impressed with the sautéed mushrooms. They were some of the best mushrooms I've ever had and paired perfectly with my entree. My mocktail also is the best mocktail I've ever had and kept me from being despondent over not being able to have a glass of red wine with dinner. Overall, the food was impeccable and more than lived up to the high expectations I had going into the meal.

Cons: Unfortunately, while we were waiting for our table and I had stepped away to the ladies room, a staff member behind the bar decided to very aggressively ask my husband to move out of the server path, including physically pushing him. My husband knew that I was extremely excited about this dinner. Halls had been recommended to us by numerous friends who visit Charleston regularly and locals who did nothing but sing its praises. For this reason he didn't tell me about this occurrence until after our first course to try to preserve our evening. To say I was livid is an understatement. We've never been to a fine dining establishment anywhere in the world where a staff member physically laid hands on us as patrons. This is completely unacceptable. Groups of people were surrounding both bars while watching a baseball game and I didn't see any of the other staff needing to resort to such behavior to ask guests to move for them to do their jobs. What's really astounding to me is that my husband was less than 2 feet away from where I left him, so this individual physically accosted my husband to move him a minimal distance. This situation impacted our ability to relax and enjoy our evening to say the least.

Additionally, the restaurant was extremely loud. My husband and I were shouting at each other to be able to communicate even though we were about a foot apart. I'm not sure if it was just an off night or if it was because of the baseball games being on, but it was overstimulating and quite frankly took away from our overall experience.

Edited to add: The restaurant reached out to me after this review. I very much appreciated them taking the time to follow-up and do the due diligence to understand the situation. I think it speaks highly about their institution and reaffirms the positives we experienced while...

Our night was a mixed review. I'm being picky with things, but this is a high end place so the smaller details that went wrong largely shouldn't have. Starting out, things are all going good. Decor is nice. Wait staff and hostess are friendly, etc. Bread was very tasty and butter was perfectly softened. Water was filled quickly and often as needed. She crab soup appetizer was tasty, but my wife and I got a bowl to split and they brought it out in two smaller cups. Ok, but we didn't ask for that. We were sitting at a round table even though it was just us two and clearly sitting closer to each other, so the single bowl fit our non verbal better. Again, just ask if 2 separate cups is preferable. Side note, one cup had all the lump crab, the other had nearly none. She had a gin cocktail which was good but not great, I had a glass of wine which was good although a bit pricey for a basic pinot noir. We had the 26 day dry aged porterhouse cooked medium with brocolini side. The steak was appropriately priced for the type of place and dry aged, had a nice dry aged flavor, but just a smidgen too much fat (a few lines of sinew here and there). Was a bit undercooked for medium but we did not complain. Our waitress fumbled around a little with putting the individual pieces on our plate vs leaving cut on the cutting board, at one point asking if we even wanted to leave the meat on the wooden block vs having the slices transferred onto our individual plates. (No, don't do that please). I was ok with the fumbling around up to this point because those things were pretty minor and just showed a server who probably doesn't have tons of experience at high end restaurants. But now, the other server assistant putting the broccollini on our individual side plates kind of ran into the main server trying to reach around her to plate the side dish and in the process, kind of dripped some of whatever the broccolini topping was onto the outside of my wine glass, where a bit of a small blob was near the rim and onto the side. They tried to wipe it with a napkin but it just smudged the glass. Then they proceeded to leave it like that rather than immediately getting a new cup of wine for me. A) I was not expecting that kind of pickled taste as a topping and I simply didn't line the taste (others might, I just want expecting it and then didn't like the flavor). B) I barely ate the side because I didn't like the flavor. C) I lost my appetite and relaxed feeling because my wife glad sat there a good 5 minutes before I was able to flag the waitress down and ask for a new cup. D) it looked like the same wine just poured into a clean cup E) why not bring a new glass, do a new pour at the table and proactively comp the glass of wine? We don't complain about this type of stuff usually because something like this wine situation should have been noticed in the first place, as a sign of attentive staff. We asked to have the steak boxed up (not the brocollini) and she says, "not the bone too, right?" So actually, yes, the bone too. How about, "would you like me to wrap up the bone as well for you?" With desserts, we got a few to go. Thank you for including plastic cutlery but no thank you for giving us and charging for an extra cheesecake. I could have used that $15 for something else.... So, in the end, a few small but significant fails that could make, or in this case break, the experience of the night which for us started at 10pm. To note, my wife and I made sure to dress by the dress code. Half way through dinner, a table of 5 or 6 were put next to us... 2 guys with baseball hats, sandals, etc.... kind of wish they simply sat those folks at the bar area of the dining room where that would be more acceptable. So I guess that's another fail. Very easily could have been a near perfect 5 star night. We didn't short the tip terribly or anything, just not that extra % for when you really appreciate the service-- hopefully it was noticed and 2+2=4...

This review is really going to bother me because I hate the feeling like I am trying to attack a business or restaurant, but my experience was in such a way to where it has to be mentioned. I have gone to Halls Chophouse (alternating between Charleston and Summerville locations) about every 6 months over the last 5 years… This is the first time I left hungry. I took my girlfriend there Saturday night as we were celebrating her Birthday in the city. When we walked in, everyone was super friendly as expected and I really appreciate the host/greet staff because they do a wonderful job making sure you feel invited at these establishments. My girlfriend mentioned she needed to use the bathroom as we were waiting for our table. We were taken to our table 5 minutes later and in turn, when i saw our waiter I said “Hello, we are looking for the closest bathroom.” And his response was “Well, no one is stopping you from using it.” My jaw almost bounced off the table. My girlfriend looked at me and I retrained myself from my gut reaction and let him know that my pregnant girlfriend needed to go and he said he would take her there. It put such a bad cloud over the night, to be disrespected before even being able to sit at the table. I tried to calm down and think, maybe he is having an “off night” or if I stay relaxed he will calm down….nope. He returned to take our order and asked if we knew what we wanted. I proceeded to order for my girlfriend first stating “We will start will the 6oz fillet mignon” he stops me, “You want that to come out as an appetizer or something?” I was so confused because Im clearly trying to order our entrees from the entree portion of the menu. I didnt quite know how to respond so i went with “uhhh, no, this can all come out at the same time, thanks.” “Well yeah, but you said ‘start with’ so thats what you say when youre ordering an appetizer.” Ive never been lectured on verbiage when ordering my meal by wait staff but hell, here we are so I tell him, “Im saying start with because that is the first item in the list of food that will be coming to the table.” Honestly… we should have left at that point. Waiter was being argumentative at every opportunity he could be and to be honest, he wasnt even great. He misspoke and stumbled over his words frequently. Ive been in F&B for over 20 years and even owned my own restaurant. (5.0 google rating, not bragging) but even if I didnt have all that experience, Ive been out to eat before and know how I want to be treated and spoken to. Our meal came and I could tell he wasnt happy or excited to be there. We started eating what I promised her would be a very very good meal…only to realize quickly that it would have just been better if we stayed home and cooked. The steak had NO seasoning…. Not salt, pepper, garlic powder. Outback does a better job of seasoning their steaks. My girlfriend told me my worst steak ive ever made for her was 5 times better than this. It was fatty and filled with tendons. We moved on to the A5 Wagyu (which Ive had before and also cook with regularly) we couldnt even finish it… in fact, we couldnt finish anything. We had the entire meal boxed up and agreed to never come back. I will try the Summerville location next and I just hope and pray that this snobby pretentious attitude isnt being taught to all of their wait staff. Its a shame to see a place you e enjoyed so much go downhill. I hope thats not the case and we were just disrespected on purpose as an isolated situation. I hold high standing in my circle of friends as to where to go to eat and whats the best of the best and I now have to find a new steak house. Overpriced food, old and dated building space, pretentious wait staff. Ill just save my 400 for something else. (2 star instead of 1 because the host...