Dressler's — Restaurant in Charlotte

My daughter took us to Dressler‘s for Easter this year. It was the first time I’ve ever been, it will definitely not be the last!

First of all the staff is excellent and well trained, the food was fabulous! Portions are generous, seafood is fresh, the mix of flavors and ingredients is creative and wonderfully done.

We had the fixed menu, opened with appetizers then a salad, our main dish - fixed price menu for $75 per person, then we paid extra for dessert. Wonderful mocktails. Highly highly recommend Dressler‘s for a special occasion.

I didn’t see the regular menu to comment on whether or not that was affordable. The $75 was well worth it in our opinion and after our experience.

We had the homemade pimento cheese, excellent by the way. The calamari with peanut Thai sauce was PHENOMENAL! No legs, the body sliced and lightly dusted/cooked - almost melted in my mouth, it was so tender! I easily could have made a meal out of that. Ahi tuna was fresh and very flavorful.

The lamp chops were cooked perfectly, seasoned beautifully and tender without the heavy Haney taste lamb can have. The piece de resistance were the potatoes!!! I’m not a fan of the Pomme de Terre, I dislike au gratin. However…..these!?! Loved them!!!! Just incredible, their chef knows his ingredients and how to make them shine!

My son had the shrimp and shucked clams linguine, it was fresh, light and excellent as well.

My daughter had the frittata which was fabulous! It came with small lobster tail, and a flavorful dressing that I could tell had fresh cilantro in it. Let me tell you, their frittata was wonderful. The lobster? It was small and ok, it paired okay with the frittata, but the frittata stood on its own and didn’t need the surf side.

The desserts? All I can say is you can make a meal out of the desserts as well lol!

I can take or leave crème brûlée, but this had to be the most amazing crème brûlée I’ve ever eaten.

Their cheesecake? I make my own, these are even better so that’s saying a lot!

The dark chocolate cake was moist, not too sweet, and rich.

The carrot cake is really really good however, I feel like it needed more cream cheese flavor and less sugar in the icing.

My daughter told us that they have other restaurants as well, I would highly recommend a visit to Dresslers and can’t wait to try some of their other locations. I may be mistaken, but I think someone posted about Finn and Fino? I believe that is also owned by John Dressler! Definitely looking forward to trying the seafood there.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

• I edited this to add that the seating outside is really nice. Right by the Greenway, the stairs are painted by an artist my son had heard of. Colorful! Then there’s a statue though sadly I didn’t know of whom. Really easy to get in and out. We parked right by the Trader Joe’s and ended up going shopping after dinner....

I just thought about the terrible experience I had here on my 22nd birthday and I realized I never ended up writing a review. But it was so bad that it needs to be posted... I called this restaurant beforehand to make a reservation and chose one of the times they offered me. Unbeknownst to me, the reservation they offered and confirmed with me was near closing time. So immediately we were met with unfriendliness from our waitress because, again, unbeknownst to us it was near closing time and she was upset about that. She had a really nasty attitude with us before she even had the chance to interact with us. We were a group of black people & it was clear she had preconceived notions about us. She had no other reason to be so incredibly rude. My best friend ordered an entree and she wanted the side to be mashed potatoes. The waitress said that they were out of mashed potatoes for the night and that she had to pick another side. Simply opting out of the side apparently was not an option. She expected my friend to either pay for a side she didn't want or no side at all. Lo and behold there were more mashed potatoes so it turned out she was lying anyways. Moving forward we got through the meal with no hiccups, just dealing with her attitude and thats about it. Until the check came, and some of my friends were inquiring about the charges on their bill. They had their cards out, ready to pay after the bill was sorted out. But instead of explaining, the waitress decide to snatch one of my friends cards out of her hand and run to the kitchen with it. Undoubtedly an act of theft- to which my friends reacted to in the manner that some might react to having their property stolen. It was not pretty. And while my friends may have reacted explosively, this was a result of the horrible service and disrespect we endured the entire night. And their reaction does not in any way, shape or form excuse the way we were treated beforehand. If the experience wasn't bad enough, I then get a call from the manager trying to tell me off and doubling down on their terrible service. He used the excuse that it was a late reservation as to why we received the service that we did. But they just simply shouldn't allow reservations after a certain time, if there is a time limit for them to deliver good service. He also brought up race out of nowhere, even though I never even accused them of being racist in the first place. I didn't bother because I don't need to state the obvious, especially when I know only gaslighting will follow & I will be accused of pulling the race card. He goes "well the waitress is also a woman of color, so she wasn't being racist." (She was a white hispanic woman) Talk about a guilty conscience. While I can own up to the fact that we could've handled the situation better, they created the fire and...

We were very disappointed with our experience. Our server, Joe I believe, was barely at our table and had minimal conversation or effort. When we arrived, he greeted us briefly then talked to his other table for 10-15min. He eventually came over and was very brief, but did tell us they were going through beverage changes so they didn’t have a few of the cocktails. They didn’t have many options for tequila, so I went with a margarita and my fiancé’s bourbon drink wasn’t that bad. I have worked in the service industry for 10-15 years and was disappointed of the mediocre service at an establishment who’s been around for a few decades. As for the food, the ahi tuna wasn’t bad but I personally felt that it had too much sesame/poopy seeds. The short rib was the highlight of the night though, which drove the 2 star review. It melted in your mouth and had a lot of good flavor, even though the risotto was a bit bland. Now for the steak…..the main reason why we came. The first time was overcooked and the second time was a little under. I had to flag another server down after 10-15min of not seeing our server, to say that we needed to send the steak back and get a new one with the appropriate temperature. If you sell steak, especially at a “nicer restaurant”, the server should always check back or wait until we cut into the steak to make sure the temperature is to our liking…….which never happened with both steaks btw. When the second steak was brought out, he immediately left and didn’t come back for another 10-15min, then asked if the steak was “better.” I said it was, but still not the appropriate temp and that I would bring it home to cook it correctly. He had no remarks and didn’t even try to make the situation better, nor even try to take it off the bill. Not that I cared but it would’ve been a good gesture in customer service. Nonetheless, we were not satisfied with our experience and unfortunately will not return.

P.s. the sides are more family style so be aware when ordering, because...