Nick & Sam's — Restaurant in Dallas

Tuesday, October 22 after debating on what steakhouse to eat for my birthday I choose Nick and Sam because heard great things. On our way to dinner, we did get stuck in some bad traffic, but we called the host and they were so nice & pushed our reservation back and even when they gave us a table after I requested a booth they changed us with no problem 10/10 for the host!! So dining that night was myself my daughter 12 years old the only kid in the restaurant and my boyfriend and was hoping that wasn’t one of the reasons why our service felt so rushed. At first, the was service seemed very promising. He was knowledgeable. He explained the menu . We were even given free caviar for me, dining there on my birthday, so it felt like it was gonna be a great dining expedience. He even gladly changed my drink to another drink since I didn’t like the one I first ordered but after we ordered three appetizers, a tomahawk to share for the table, king, crab legs, and three sides I felt as if he judged us that we were sharing a steak mind a big platform steak that we still had to wrap up to go he aka the server wanted to push us out the door! While still enjoying my appetizers literally still had the tuna tartar in front of me & my side plate with oysters on it they started bringing our food we weren’t even fully cleared. I can understand if this was the outback steakhouse or longhorn but I’ve been to many upscale steakhouses & until everyone is cleared no mains should hit the table so we had them send back the food so I could finish enjoying my meal. After I was done with my appetizers we told the server we were now ready for our dinner whenever it’s ready no rush since we sent it back. So the food comes none of our plates are hot which usually if sharing they would bring out hot plates ok no big deal but everything was just warm not hot( a manager did come by and ask if everything was ok and we just said yes because we were hungry and didn’t want to send any food back again) I meant everything except the king crabs that never made to the table. I asked the sever 10 min later I’m still waiting on my crab legs & he didn’t even seem to care much just said ther coming I was like oh. So after another like 8 min we stopped a manager to asks where were our crab legs the gentleman was very nice & attentive and asked if wanted to cancel or still have done and right when he went to go grab them they were walking out. The only thing I would say about that was that I’m just shocked. The manager wasn’t aware of the situation that was going on before because the server clearly either forgot to ring it in or the kitchen forgot to make it and it just seemed like nobody knew what was going on. So finally after getting all our food it felt like every five minutes were asked if were still working on our food or if we wanted it boxed it was crazy we just got the crab legs. We finally after feeling rushed again had our food boxed. So after being presented with a dessert menu, we decided on there 12 layer birthday cake & I ordered a glass of sparkling rosé. Her birthday presentation was nice and the cake and and sorbet and candy was yummy my daughter loved it. So again we were asked like 3 times if were done or needed our dessert packed up mind you I still haven’t even gotten my rose & they are trying to kick us out if was crazy like can I enjoy my birthday. So we asked where is my wine and the server was like omg he was more concerned about getting us out of there instead of a great dining experience then he brought out 2 glasses one for me & my boyfriend which was nice but my boyfriend Doesn’t drink wine & I felt like I had to chug my glass of wine. Because at that point we’re pretty much done with the dessert. My boyfriend then asked why we were being rushed the whole time we were dining & the server I will get a manger. The manager was nice & offered to discount a few stuff on our bill but we said we were there for experience & we let him know he wanted to pay the bill in total but take that discount money to use it on training...

So these fine dining places are keeping Dallas alive because this city struggles with good food! After three days of being unsatisfied with multiple places we went to we decided to step it up to attempt to get something in our bellies because like general cuisine just wasn’t cutting it. So that leads us to why we chose here. Our Uber driver recommended this place and so we went! Upon walking in one would expect a vibe, I meant dim lighting, greeted immediately then shortly seated thereafter. Now after this part there was a hiccup in our service where we were like where’s our server…but after my coworker voiced her concerns we noticed an immediate improvement. Now drinks, are pretty solid. I got the bouton iced teacher but honestly tasted like just peach tea soo I wouldn’t get again because it wasn’t worth the price at alll. But my friends liked the margs and the old fashioned. I just ended up getting Jameson neat because you can’t go wrong with that. So that’s that was that. So I love how they come out and do the whole meats situation. They explain all their types of cuts, prices, styles, etc- if you look at my face in the picture you can definitely see me trying to digest it all! But I loved it! We ended up getting steaks. Staff here makes you cut your steak while they are around so that you can ensure it being cooked the way you went it. I had to send mine back because it was a little too red but it was quickly fixed- my the other three steaks at the table were perfect. The creamed corn was also good. Also! When they ask about allergies please be honest! All ingredients aren’t listed! So my friend ordered the Brussel sprouts and they had like some kinda nuts on them and it’s not listed on the menu but the server did ask did anyone have allergies… so we had to send them back to be remade but we blame my friend! So please be honest with things you are allergic to. The green salad and the Cesar salad was good as well. They enjoyed the calamari and these rolls things as well. The bread is also fresh, and we were also brought an app at the beginning that the table loved i just didn’t try. I also love how they celebrate birthdays! A cute dessert and little show! None of us got dessert because we were too full so I can’t comment on that. The bathrooms were clean but just like the rest of the restaurant dim lighting. So clearly, expect to pay… lol. Two drinks per person plus dinner and a side can easily run you over $500 (four of us) but we all agreed that the food was worth it and was the first time in like three four days we had anything good in Dallas. Bill came and co workers said it looked good so we closed out. I looked after closing out and saw we had been charged for an extra glass of wine. I think because there’s sometimes more hands on deck than one our server stated that he thought we had ordered another glass but we didn’t… so he ended up comping some dessert for us to take bc it would be too much to redo the bill after splitting it so make sure you double check your bill before paying! Other than that! All is well! Dalton was an amazing manager and kept checking on us and made us feel welcome. I think our server name was Iam? Idk- but he’s pictured and he was great so please shout him out! One last slight negative was this girl who was serving the table next to me and kept bumping me. After like the third time of her knocking me i adjusted my seat but I felt as though she needed to adjust her path… but that’s that :) Got a cute picture taken orr my request by the lady at the front to wrap up the night and I finally went home full and satisfied for...

Barbara made the best of a very bad situation.

This restaurant has a systemic problem with their reservation process. Everyone had to wait more than an hour after their reservation to be seated. More on this later.

Barbara is a very knowledgeable and calm server. In addition to the menu items, she presented and explained to us in great detail the different steak cuts and specials of the day. She had a couple of tables close by and one more in a completely different room. Her only mistake was that she failed to ring in some appetizers. From our perspective that was ok, no big deal. We already ordered a ton of food and there was little to no room on that table for anything else. We were fine with not getting those appetizers.

What followed was a gross over reaction from management. All of a sudden, we had people we’ve never seen before checking in on us and acting like they were our best friend. We noticed that Barbara wasn’t coming by anymore. When we asked what happened to Barbara the manager said there was an issue earlier so we’ve reassigned staff so that we finish strong and that you have a good experience. We said no thank you and insisted that Barbara return. She eventually did and served us until the end. Our group was stunned that management would respond this way over two appetizers, but there was no acknowledgement or apology for making us wait an hour and fifteen minutes before getting seated. Our dinner reservation was for 8:30 and we were seated at 9:45.

We made our reservation in September for Saturday December 9th. We weren’t squeezed in at the last minute nor were we a walk in without a reservation. Our plans were confirmed months in advanced. But it made no difference as everyone had to wait at least an hour past their confirmed reservation time to get seated.

The team working the host stand did as good as a job as they could. Despite the tension in the waiting room, the main host was all smiles and reassuring diners that it was only 20 more minutes or that there were only 3 tables in front of them. This seemed to calm people down, but it wasn’t accurate as this is what she said to everyone. I stood for the entire time within earshot of the host and heard it every time. There were a few times when a different host was on the verge of tears but she managed to keep it together.

I’m not blaming staff. They all worked really hard. The blame lays with management and the owners. First for allowing this to happen. The entire reason why you take reservations is to understand how busy you will be and then staff and plan accordingly. Once you reached your capacity limit then you no longer take reservations. Sadly, this did not happen, blinded by greed they just kept on confirming reservations.

The second disappointment was that people were waiting for hours with no acknowledgement, apology nor gesture of kindness to atone for management’s gross mishandling of the situation.

I will finish my review by asking management what they plan to do to fix this so that other patrons are not subjected to the same mistreatment?

My guess is that they will do absolutely nothing because they don’t care. The restaurant was packed and they made a lot of money that night so in their eyes nothing went wrong.

There are many restaurants in Dallas to choose from. As a patron, if you value your time, I suggest that you consider other...