Jack’s on Main — Restaurant in Clayton

So, I've given this place two tries thus far and I just don't understand the hype.

My first experience was dining in for lunch. Growing up down the street, I've seen this building become many things over the years. It's very small inside, which is fine for back when it was a coffee shop, but it's a bit cramped for a restaurant. It took about 3 tries to order something on the menu that wasn't sold out. When I finally got my $16 beef dip, I was disappointed. It was cold, there wasn't much meat on the sandwich, a whisper of horseradish, and the saddest beef water for dip I've ever had in my life. Completely unseasoned and cold - tasted more bland than Schwan's beef stock out of the carton.

I went back this week, drawn in by the turkey and brie sandwich. Better than my experience with the beef dip, because at least my sandwich was hot this time. Packed full of turkey, but not enough condiment to balance out the sheer volume of meat, thus making it fairly bland. Ordered the strawberry shortcake and it was abysmal. The "shortcake" was more like a dry golfball you had to chip away at until you got to the mildy undebaked middle. That, coupled with the bright red, fake strawberry syrup was just... disappointing.

I had high hopes. I was so sad when coffee shop (not if Heaven Had a Flavor, the one prior) closed, because that was truly good. The menu here looked promising, the renovations looked nice. But between poor table management, high prices for the quality, and underseasoned/cold food~ I'm just horribly...

My husband and I came here for date night and we were blown away by the quality dining experience. The atmosphere is small and cozy, and there were maybe 10 total tables in the restaurant. There was a steady stream of diners, but service was efficient and everyone we encountered was kind and accommodating.

We started with the mozzarella and tomato appetizer and the appetizer special for the night, which was a giant pretzel with a crab fondue. My husband also had the cream of crab soup which he loved. Everything was so good! For our entrees, we enjoyed the scallops and short rib, both of which were served with a baked potato and vegetables. Omg the scallops were so fresh and delicious, and the short rib was cooked perfectly. For dessert, we had a crème brulée which was good, but the salted caramel cake was to die for!!! It was so yummy, and even though they were out of bananas to flambé, they substituted ice cream and it honestly felt like an upgrade because it paired so well with the warm salted caramel sauce. We can’t wait for the restaurant to get their liquor license because that was the only thing that was missing for us. We loved that the restaurant offers an open air kitchen type experience but be prepared to smell like your dinner after you leave. It’s to be expected, but we went for a drink elsewhere afterward and could definitely smell it on our clothes. Don’t worry- it was so worth it! This place is highly recommended for a date night or...

Wanted to love this place so bad, read most of the reviews, saw the Facebook battle a few months ago, and wanted to support a small business. Maybe the hype set my expectations too high. Don't get many nights out with my wife, and I've been wanting to get here for a good while now. So let me get a few things out of the way, the atmosphere cozy is the word I remember the most in the reviews I've read and if you are thinking small space then your right, if your thinking quite comfort you'd be dead wrong. The entire operation of the business is in the dining area, I can still hear the beating of dishes and pans in my head over the roar of loud conversions from very direction trying to talk over the kitchen. My food was ok, the app special pretzel with crab dip came out late and to close to our dinner and was very $$, it tasted good but not that good, imho. My prime rib was unevenly cooked, and the flavor was ok, the crab cake well on the menu it says "best I've ever had" well it's definitely not even in my top 10 and for it to add pretty much $20 to the regular prime rib price for one small cake well it was pretty much the nail in coffin of my experience. My wife said her salmon was very good. For the money, I would've spent not much more and went to Ruth's Chris. I'm happy that it was busy and hope it continues to be, but I'm one and done here. Hopefully, you can go and have the experience I was...