NanaSteak — Restaurant in Durham

1 hr 26 minutes between ordering entrees to receiving them.

With 379 Google reviews and an average of 4.6 stars, this review may not reach anyone, but there's a reason why the most polarized views tend to be the loudest (and why this is my first posted review).

Dinner reservation was at 8pm. My party of 8 was seated at 8:05pm. We ordered appetizers and drinks first (which did come out in a timely manner), then placed our orders for entrees and side dishes at 8:25pm.

Almost an hour and a half of waiting.

In that time, the service was mainly good, but our table had to ask 2 times for refills on water and sodas. You'd think (or hope) that with such a long wait, we'd be attended to more proactively.

The food itself was mostly good, but when compared with the pricing, should be considered average; when compared with the wait, should be considered mediocre, if not outright disappointing.

Food notables:

Crispy pork rib appetizers were overcooked and the 3 rib bones had not much meat on each. Miso-ginger glaze was overly salty without much depth beyond an initial impression of standard teriyaki flavor.

Filet of beef tartare was the best of the appetizers. Nice creaminess in the natural fattiness of the meat. House-made potato chips were an odd pairing because they were cut too thinly to hold any decent amount of tartare.

Steaks (of which we ordered filet and NY strip) were disappointing. One NY strip ordered at medium rare came out much bloodier than the other order of the same temperature, certainly grounds to be sent back to the kitchen.

Pork chop was, by far, the fan favorite of the table. Great juiciness in the meat and the tartness of the vinegar sauce and collard greens provided a delicious contrast to the subtle sweetness of the pork.

Salt-crusted prime rib was true to its name. The sample I tried was deliciously bold, but I could anticipate tiring of the flavor in just a few more bites.

Beef fat French fries were savory and each order was a veritable heap, suitable for sharing.

Asparagus was lackluster; better off with the broccoli + cauliflower side. Additionally, sides are described as being portions fit for 1.5 diners, but this was certainly not the case for the asparagus (sizeable for 1 only).

Not nearly enough bearnaise sauce in the dishes that included it (filet mignon, prime rib, French fries). Served in small tin containers, each was filled about 2/3 full, not appropriate to the portions of meat or fries they came with.

Creme brulee flavor was to be expected, although I personally felt the caramelized top was not crystallized enough. Garnished with just 2 raspberries, this also came out as a tremendously small portion.

I would like to provide much more details about the food, but unfortunately, the online menu is out of date (and riddled with formatting issues). Sloppy, for a restaurant that purports to be of this caliber of excellence.

The restaurant gave us an extra side dish of collard greens. No mention if this was accidental, or intentional as way of appeasement/apology for the 86 minute wait.

But I would certainly not spend the $556 on this check for a similar experience again. Doubtful that I would return with even 1-3 other diners.

Since restaurants began to reopen for dine-in, I have been tipping between 20-30% as way of gratitude for the habitual undervaluing (and often underpayment) of restaurant staff. I am glad that the server automatically added a 20% gratuity charge to take that question out of my hands because I would otherwise have been faced with a moral dilemma with wondering what percentage to tip for an overall unpleasant dining experience, salvaged only by the company (and the pork...

Overall, great experience. Made an outside reservation for 2, and service was great, considering we were the only ones dining outdoors. We were not forgotten about.

To the food: everything was great. I had the strip, spouse had the rib-eye. We shared the fries and charred broccoli/cauliflower. We both agreed my strip was the hands-down winner and better of the two cuts. I asked for it medium rare and it was a little over done. Ribeye was cooked spot-on. Both our steaks came cooked in a steak sauce, which we were a bit surprised about, especially that she came here for a work dinner a few years ago, and confirmed with a colleague that their steaks did not come sauced, so maybe they changed it up over the past few years, would be good to know beforehand though. That being said, I’m not a big fan of steak sauces but I actually enjoyed it as it wasn’t very sweet. I read a review that said the steaks were under seasoned, can’t be that sauce is a bit salty. If you’re here to eat steak, eat to taste the meat. Fries were salty and charred veggies were ridiculously salted. You’re not missing anything if you don’t get those two sides. We also had dessert, we got the ice cream brownie and the strawberry sorbet. Skip dessert. The vanilla ice cream tastes like eggs and the strawberry sorbet had a mint flavor in it that overpowered the strawberry and I didn’t realize I was getting mint. Overall, I think the best steakhouse I have tried so far in these parts. Cuts were excellent. 205 tab for above and a beer and a sangria. My only gripe is that, other than an excellent, thick cut of strip and a pretty good cut of ribeye, what it this restaurant doing that I can’t do at home if I have the right cuts? Give me a giant porterhouse for 2, and we’re really talking. However, I don’t think It is unreasonably priced for what you get; it’s quite worth it. I think you would spend almost the same amount at some chain steakhouse that is ripping you off. I also think it is way better than some high end and more known...

My husband and I came here last night for the first time and were mostly impressed but I'm not sure we'll make a point of coming back. The service was good and prompt. Most of the food was very good but not quite perfectly on point for the price.

For appetizers we had the house-made focaccia, the beet salad and the fried pork ribs with quick kimchi. The focaccia was not the best I've ever had but it was nice. The beet salad was very good and the ribs with the quick kimchi were also excellent. All the flavors worked really well together.

For my entree I got the Scottish salmon with curried lentils and celery root puree. Parts of my salmon were just a bit undercooked for my taste but it was mostly very good. I could have done with a little bit less of the lentil mixture, but the celery root puree was wonderful. But unfortunately I did find almost the whole dish to be a little over salted, the sides especially. That's becoming one of my main measures for good restaurants now, as I frequently go to nice and expensive places where the chefs/cooks are clearly just a bit too heavy handed with the salt. Season within reason! Don't rely on salt, it just ends up ruining a good dish.

My husband had the lamb shank which was the special entree of the evening, and that was very good too. For dessert we had the creme brulee which was pretty perfect.

We weren't that impressed with the interior. The decor could definitely be dialed in a bit and made more cohesive and sophisticated. There are some really weird, random paintings on the walls. One in particular that was inside the side dining room we found oddly unsettling and it just didn't make sense in the space. Decor matters in a restaurant. The combination of lighting fixtures (i.e. the kitschy huge chandelier) looked pretty odd to us too.

Overall it was a nice dinner but improvements could definitely be made. For how expensive it is, they didn't quite nail it enough for a...