Sullivan's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Charlotte

I recently dined at Sullivan's Steakhouse in Charlotte, NC on the evening of June 29th to celebrate a friend's wife's 40th birthday. My fiancé and I excited to celebrate this milestone with them and were excited about dining at Sullivan's for the first time.  We had semi-large dining party of 8, the hostesses at Sullivan's-Charlotte were great and accommodated us right away. Our party arrived by 7:45pm and were seated immediately. The experience began on a high note, but definitely deteriorated as the night progressed.

We were greeted and given a round of water when we were first sat down at the table. Our waiter, Darryl, gave us a thorough run down of the menu options. We placed our orders for appetizers and drinks, and patiently waited for those items to come to our table. Once we received our appetizers, our party placed orders for our entrees. We placed our orders around 8:15pm, not too long after we were originally seated. After we placed our orders for our entrees is where the evening took a turn for the worse. Several guests ordered meals that came with a salad (myself included), did receive their salads within a reasonable amount of time. However, my salad had entirely too much salad dressing. One of our guests specifically asked for no tomatoes on her wedge salad as she is extremely allergic, but received tomatoes on her salad anyway. Another one of our guests didn't receive salad dressing with her wedge salad and ended up waiting for over an hour to received salad dressing from another waiter who happened to be passing by our table.  Pretty much after we placed our orders, our party was forgotten about...left to fend for ourselves while our food was being prepared.

I want to emphasize our timeline of events just to show how patient our party was that evening. We placed our orders around 8:15pm; salads were brought shortly thereafter, and then no customer service from anyone until 10:00pm. It took over a hour for eight entrees to come out to our table. I had ordered a 12oz New York Strip cooked medium and what I received, to be honest, was horrendous. My steak was extremely overcooked, charred on the outside, and tasted horribly. I only ate about half of it. My fiancé commented on how his entrée barely warm and how he didn't receive part of his order. He had to wait almost another 20 minutes for the side dish. Another one of our guest ordered the filet mignon and what she received is best described as a semi-edible "hockey puck", and she had to wait another 40 minutes for a replacement steak. No one should have to leave with a filet mignon in a to-go container at 11pm.  Being candid and brutally honest, I have had better steaks and service at big-chain restaurants such as Applebee's, Chili's, or Outback. In no way was my meal experience synonymous with a high-end steakhouse such as Sullivan's.

I am honestly disappointed in my experience at Sullivan's Steakhouse in Charlotte. My fiancé and I had such high hopes about dining at Sullivan's for the first time. On top of a truly abysmal dining experience that spanned over three hours, the only compensation for this was the removal of side dish and an  "upcharge" for the 12oz New York strip steak off our ticket. Disappointed, disgusted, and honestly exhausted by the experience, our entire party paid our tabs and left at 11:15pm.  The only positive aspects of this entire experience at Sullivan's was the original greeting from the hostesses and valet parking. As someone who has worked in both customer service and food service, I completely understand the challenges and nuances that accompany busy eating establishments. Our experience on June 29th was truly a disappointment, especially considering the amount of money that was ultimately paid for...

Sullivan's Steakhouse is a decent place for a fancy meal and a good drink in a classic steakhouse environment. The place has a really nice feel to it and we had a really enjoyable time with the four of us there on a Friday night.

I'll start with the food, which I was disappointed in. I started with a spinach salad, with some minor modifications. I ordered it without mushrooms or onions, and it arrived without those, but it also lacked the hard boiled eggs it was supposed to have on top. The salad was great otherwise, with fresh greens and tasty ingredients. The bacon was cooked perfectly, which is typically a challenge for a salad. The highlight was the bacon dressing, which was simply amazing. I kept it to use as a sauce with my meal!

On to the meal, I ordered salmon that comes with asparagus. The salmon was cooked perfectly, so that was great as far as texture goes. Unfortunately, the fish was severely under seasoned. It really lacked flavor and I was glad I held onto my dressing from the salad.

As a side dish, I ordered sauteed baby spinach. As much as the salmon was under seasoned, the spinach was over seasoned. It was just way too salty, which took away from the garlic oil it was dressed with.

My wife ordered a filet and absolutely loved it. She was so happy to only eat half of it at dinner so she'd have half a steak to bring home for leftovers. So maybe my mistake was ordering seafood at a steak house! But I should be able to order something on the menu and expect it to be prepared properly.

As for libations, I drink wine, and they had a really good selection of wines by the glass. My wife enjoys Old Fashions and ordered two, one regular and one smoked, and she loved them both.

Service wise, our waitress was fantastic. She was engaging, conversational, and made sure our party of four was enjoying our time here. However, our waitress did not write down our orders when she took them, relying on her memory. Sometimes that's impressive, other times it causes problems. On this visit, there were some minor problems, which I think would not have happened had our order been written down when taken. I already mentioned the missing eggs from the salad. The other mistake happened with the smoked old fashion that both my wife and her friend ordered. The table next to us got a small show with their smoked drinks. When ours arrived, there was no presentation, which made us question it. Turns out the drinks weren't smoked and the bar had to remake them. It was corrected, but it didn't have to be that way.

The atmosphere is good at Sullivan's. The interior has a nice steakhouse feel. There's valet parking right out front. And the bar at the entrance seemed pretty cool too (and my wife and I could watch baseball there while waiting for our friends). The downside was that the AC in the main dining room seemed to be out or weak during our meal. The valet warned us about it, as when I got out of my car, he commented that I probably wouldn't need my sport coat inside as he heard the HVAC was broken that night. It seemed accurate! It was quite warm inside, but I did keep my sport coat on.

Overall, Sullivan's was an okay restaurant for us. The food and service were just okay, but maybe if I ordered what they're known for (steaks), I would have enjoyed it more. But it's still a great place to just sit with company you love, have some drinks, and enjoy being in a great environment like...

My husband and I had been to Sullivan's before over 10 years ago. We were living in PA at the time and went often. When we saw the restaurant in North Carolina we just had to bring our family to taste it. Tonight we took our niece and family to celebrate my niece going to college. We had 11people in total. I had raved about the food to them and service. We ordered quickly with our waitress. Our drinks came and our appetizers soon after. Our salads also showed up in a timely manner. We enjoyed our apps. We finished eating and the food was good. Our waitress checked on us and cleaned up our plates. We then waited. Our waitress came out once or twice saying our meals were about to be out. However, we waited over 1 hour and 30 mins. Now I know we had a larger party but I have been to other restaurants and high end without issue. The longer we waited the more hangry we became. My husband asked our waitress and the manager about our food. The manager disappeared my husband was told that he went to speak to the kitchen. When my husband was back at the table the food then arrived. We were asked how everything was going. We let them know not well we have been waiting a long time. They said nothing. The manager came out and we told him about our concerns. He assured us that he would help us due to the delay of our food. He gave an indication he would do something. When we started to eat one of our family members baked potato was cold. I found out my lobster tail was cold. I let the waitress know she took it back to the kitchen. By this point, the waitress was annoyed with the kitchen. I get it this would effect her tip. We ate what we could and hoped some of our bill would be comped because of these issues. When we received the bill only 5 percent was taken off of each bill. We told the waitress this is unacceptable. When she went to get the manager he would not come back out to talk to us. We had to further argue to have a better deduction. We ended up getting 8 percent total off our bill. Honestly, I have never been to an upscale restaurant with their prices and received such terrible, incompetent service from the kitchen staff. The waitress I do not hold fault with she tried to get the meals out and felt horrible. The manager that would not come back out was named Adrian. My husband went back in since he wouldn't come out. Come to find out he went home 😆. Lord you can't make this up. My husband spoke with a co-manager named Steven, who said we didn't book ahead for a party of 11, and that with a party that large we should know the meals would take that long. Honestly, I have never had this happen with parties our size ever. Also, usually there is more accommodations made when the restaurant has made a mistake. I think if their policy is that you need to call ahead for parties that size to get your food in a timely fashion, then they should say that when you ask for a table with the hostess. Now I cannot set foot in a Sullivan's restaurant . I am appalled at the behavior and disregard my family and I received tonight. Do not go to this restaurant 😒. You have...