The Republic Steakhouse — Restaurant in College Station

I had dinner here for my anniversary and the service was TERRIBLE. Our server, Kennedy, greeted us and seemed knowledgeable about the menu, but looked too preoccupied with cleaning her section over 2 hours until closing time and then was nowhere to be found. I asked for a drink menu, she brought it to me, but never circled back to ask if we wanted one. This wouldn't have been a problem, had she not taken our full meal order and vanished. She didn't drop off any of our food, but after waiting 45 minutes with the worst fried calamari I've ever had, she came to our table and asked if she could box it for us. I said it was fine, but we just wanted to know how much longer on our meals (pasta and a medium rare steak). After she collected our plate to box it up, she immediately turned around and asked another table if she could remove their dirty plates, while holding our food on the same tray🤢. You should NEVER have edible food plates and dirty plates on the same tray, especially not from 2 different tables, that's not health code safe, nor was it covid safe. The food finally came, delivered by someone else of course, my steak was slightly overcooked and the pasta was disgusting. We didn't see Kennedy again until we had to flag her down for our bill. She later came back with the boxed calamari. I informed her that she took my food to another table, had a conversation, and then put other people's soiled plates, next to mine. She just stared blank and said okay, and walked away. No apology. The oysters were good, the dipping for them was mediocre. The calamari was mostly crumbs because they were cut into half inch pieces and over cooked, it was like eating fried leather. The pasta was grainy and bland. The steak was overcooked.

I only gave 2 stars because I did notice that the other servers in the restaurant were good servers to their tables. But I...

Very disappointed with our entire experience, it wasn't just one factor either. We came in somewhat late around 9pm for a meal or quick bite. We didnt make it past the appetizers due to the quality of food and vibe of the staff. Seems as if it was either understaffed or maybe distracted by each other or with closing end of shift duties or with each other. It appears you may have too many of some staff standing around and not enough of other staff actually doing pertinent tasks. The food was not the caliber I expected for the restaurant that appears to be a quality high end restaurant. The Ceasars salad was a Soggy and odd tbo, I had to request bread bread twice (could have just left the a small bread basket), the Oyster Rockefeller seemed to be Oysters from a prepackaged shucked oysters placed in a shell it didn't seem to be fresh oysters and I waited 15 mins for my cocktail while it didn't appear very busy. I decided after the medicore food and service up to this point I wasn't going any further and we decided to cut our loses and leave versus ordrering the filet and having any additional negative experiences. Even as we left felt very disregarded and invisible as a customer. Maybe just because it was end of day but that shouldn't matter in a business trying to earn your patronage. Your place is so comfortable and appealing I do wish these other factors matched up. Ended up stopping at Micky D's on the way Home because I was still hungry and I know what to expect from there for my money. Good thing I'm just as comfortable with a $Hundred Dollar meal as I am with a $Ten Dollar meal. I will try Republic steakhouse one more time and hope for much...

I've been coming to The Republic for over a decade now for special events. It used to be my favorite "fancy" spot in BCS, but I'm pretty bummed out with our most recent experience.

My husband ordered a smokey old fashioned. There was SOOOOO much ice in that glass, no "smoke" at all, and no garnish. (Very bizarre to receive a cocktail at a higher-end restaurant without a garnish.) I had a gin martini and it was lovely. I requested The Republic's famous candied pecan and goat cheese olives in my martini, but got bleu cheese olives. Not really a big deal. Still delicious.

We had the steak tartare to begin with and it did not disappoint! There was some inedible tendon in the tartare, but it was so tasty nonetheless!

My husband had scallops with orzo as his main. The dish was so bright and flavorful. I ordered the short ribs (an upscale take on steak and potatoes, if you will) and it arrived cold. Our server could tell that something wasn't right and immediately took it back for me so it could be reheated.

Dessert was yummy and our lovely server comped my main course since it arrived cold. I didn't expect that but appreciated it.

Although the downfalls of our visit wouldn't normally be a big deal, I was just bummed because I expect a lot more out of The Republic. I am thankful that they tried to make up for my meal arriving cold, and because of that and knowing that they typically do so much better, we will go back for future celebratory dinners. I'm going to try and chalk it up to a new, bigger building (which is absolutely STUNNING, by the way), and COVID weirdness. God knows we're all pretty weird...