Drift on Lake Wylie — Restaurant in Cramerton

GREAT dining experience! This was our first time here. I took my wife and teen sons for my wife's birthday. It did not disappoint at all. It's relatively new, so everything about the facility was new and clean. There was ample parking for a Sunday evening crowd. I made my reservation from their website. From the moment you walked in, the staff paid good attention to us. We were immediately greeted and seated shortly thereafter. Our waiter (Jarod D) was pretty quick to come to our table and greet us, give us menus, explain a few things, and take our drink order. Jarod was incredible. He definitely knew the menu, was very courteous and personable, and was quick to check on us and address any needs in a timely manner.

We did not order any appetizers or soups/salads but instead went right into main courses. All four of us ordered filet steaks and several sharable sides (truffle fries, mashed potatoes, roasted mushrooms, and brussel sprouts).My sons and I ordered the steaks with crab cakes. Even with a good Sunday crowd, we didn't have to wait long for our food to come out, maybe 10 minutes. Everything came out hot. All steaks were perfectly cooked....and incredibly good! I font think my older son chewed much at all. His plate was clean in record time. The sides were enough of a portion where all 4 of us could have an average sized serving with some leftover. All of the sides were great, very well made, and tasty. I must admit that the roasted brussel sprouts were some of the best I've ever had! So overall, I would say the food itself was excellent.

As far as the menu itself and its variety of options , there is something for everyone. There are good selections of steak/beef, pork, lamb, seafood, and pasta. There are many gluten-free options, too, but none of the pasta is gluten-free, though. They do not have a kids' menu. They also have a very good wine selection as well, with a range of prices to accommodate any budget, and offer a decent selection of beers as well as a full service bar for liquor/cocktails. The bartender working that night made me a most excellent old fashioned! I got a second they were so good.

The facilities were great and atmosphere was wonderful. It is versatile enough to host a very romantic evening, a gathering of family or friends, or a business dinner. There is ample seating, tables, booths, and bar seating. There is outdoor seating with great views of the lake but we stayed inside, it was cold and rainy. Decor was contemporary with a modern touch, but overall it was warm and inviting but light and airy enough to take advantage of the lake setting. Large windows emphasize the lake-side setting and views.

Staff was amazing. I've gushed enough about our waiter Jarod, but everyone there was courteous and personable, quick, and professional.

Prices are not cheap, but on par with all the higher-end restaurants in the general York county / Charlotte area. With drinks, food, and tip we had a $400 evening but the overall experience was incredible and well worth it. We will definitely return for special occasions.

Overall, Drift on Lake Wylie is a great place for fine dining. It is a stroke of masterpiece planning and execution. Most fine dining in the general area is in Charlotte, but with the addition of Drift to the growing list of fine dining in York county, I say fine dining has found a good home there, and can compete head to head with...

Medium rare. I expect a “higher -end” restaurant that charges $68-90 for a steak “ala-carte” can get it right. I like Medium rare. And I said “more rare that medium please” .. Warm dark pink center! What’s difficult about that when they charge around $70-$90 just for the steak?? One would expect it to be on point. And any side or salad is $15-20 extra per side. Of course I wasn’t sending my steak back. I knew they would just throw it in the trash. What a waste. So I tried to enjoy it. No flavor. Overcooked for my taste. So I ate a bowl of mushrooms. I then go to a local Brewery/restaurant a week later, $14 steak entree and I told the server- same. It was PERFECT!! And includes a beautiful salad ( not a half of head of cheap iceberg lettuce -ugh) and the brewery offered a side w their entrée as well.. Moral of the story… More expensive doesn’t equal better. The steak at the brewery melted in my mouth! The $70 steak at the other restaurant was like a rubber shoe w a ton of fat. I ate maybe 3-4 bites just not very appetizing. So disappointed at #driftlakewylie and we went for Prime Rib- was told they serve it and arrived w a reservation ( not seated immediately) but the prime rib was confirmed again by the server when we sat down- then told they didn’t have any. Should’ve went to the grocery store and bought a Rib Roast and made it at home and save $100. Dinner was about $300 at Drift. . I hated that ridiculous “ wedge” salad. What a joke. A head of lettuce cut in half w a drizzle of some sugary salty soy base w a pinch literally a pinch of egg and a sprinkle of blue cheese . Just a joke. That’s not good! Who thinks anyone wants a half of head of iceberg lettuce to eat? Like $15 😂🙄 Copper in LW for passionate cooks or try ThePumphouse- excellent chef there a few years ago- not sure now. puts them to shame. I wish I had Gordon Ramsey sitting next to me when I went to Drift- I know what good food tastes like- and they missed the boat. I’ve eaten many times at Chima uptown, RuthsChris and Morton’s once and Capital Grille a few times. But my dinner a few weeks ago at Drift was - No passion or flavor. Best thing was possibly the asparagus and/or the button mushrooms side (expensive as well). But I’ll pay $12-15 for a side .. a tiny bowl of mushrooms or several stalks of asparagus when they are delicious. And they were. The piece of chocolate tarts or cake or whatever was gross. Hard and cold but bitter. Not good. But gosh! They need to pay attention to who they hire or who is in charge of the steaks they charge so much for. It’s not somewhere I look to return to. And that’s disappointing. Our server was great. He was busy but attentive. The seating wasn’t what you’d expect for a reservation in a nice restaurant. Our table was reserved for 2. We arrived a few minutes early, waited then we’re sat at a booth for 4-5 place settings facing the loud bar and tvs … wth!? Like sitting at PapaDocs with a modern sterile/style decor.. except Papa Docs has excellent sitting on their deck just fyi.. I had looked forward to returning to Drift- our clients treat us often but. Oh well. I...

For me, this was only a 3 star experience. I will break my review into 2 parts, the good and the bad.

The good: I was able to make a reservation, we got seated right at our reservation time, my pin-no-colada moktail was great (not too sweat, not too heavy, light & tasty) and I like that they have no alcohol cocktail options, the beef tartare was amazing, my husband liked his calamari and his Creme brûlée and I enjoyed my side of spinach Mac. The atmosphere was nice & I liked the view & the indoor/outdoor vibe. Our waiter Jeremiah was nice & friendly, along with the rest of the staff.

The bad: I had requested a table outside upon booking and when we walked in were asked if we wanted inside or outside and we stated outside, but were sat in an area that could’ve been outside, but the plastic curtains were down (even though there were tables on the deck that were completely outside), it took 20 minutes for us to get acknowledged by our server (but it was a busy Fri night), the chairs were uncomfortable braided rope that dug into my legs, the chips with my beef tartare were very salty, the veggies with my husbands calamari were very salty, my filet was literally rolled & crusted with salt & inedible, my husbands sea bass was a small portion and one 1/2 had no seasoning and the other 1/2 had too much seasoning on it so he had to literally pour his water over it to rinse it off. We never had our water refilled through our entire meal and were dying of thirst from the salty food & could never find our waiter or anyone to refill.

The waiter brought me another less salty steak (that was still pretty salty) so I scraped the outside off and dabbed it on my paper cocktail napkin before eating and it was tolerable, but not cooked as rare as the first one and I was only able to eat about 1/4 bc it was still too salty. Our waiter seemed noticeably annoyed esp when I asked him for more napkins to wipe my meat off, which he never brought. They did remove the steak from our bill but I would’ve rather had an edible steak then to go home hungry after paying $180 which is what our bill was without the steak. Heck we could’ve cooked dinner at home for all the work we had to do to make our entrees edible here.

I really wanted to like this place. All in all I think this could be a good restaurant if the chef stops over seasoning/salting and if there were some plants or something throughout the interior to help with the acoustics (it was incredibly loud) and if maybe the servers were given less tables so they could be more attentive.

I don’t mind paying $$$+ for a good meal, but was underwhelmed here and to me it was a $100 meal at best, not the $200 it was. I know this restaurant is still new so hopefully they can work out the kinks and expand the menu a bit and maybe we’ll come back in the future.

I would like to also add that we drove 3 hours round trip to eat here and our dinner took 2.5 hours. A little too long of a night for me. We didn’t get home til...