St. Charles Station — Restaurant in Fitchburg

We ate here on 8/23 and sent this in an email to Chef Dave, but never heard back. We were hoping to hear from him and not post here, but we don’t want people to have the same experience we did. The last time we came to the restaurant (about 2 years ago) it was a really beautiful experience. The food, drinks, and the service were top-notch. We even saved our paper menu as a momento of our night!

When we arrived for our 6:30 reservation, we had to wait a while to be greeted and eventually seated because the two wait staff were also hosting and bussing tables in the restaurant. It became clear throughout the evening that while they were hustling, they were short-handed and found it difficult to keep up. They were very kind and friendly, but spent a lot of time apologizing to us and to all the tables within earshot about the delay on the drinks and food.

When we were seated, the first thing we did was order our drinks. About 20+ minutes after we ordered our drinks, my drink was ready and delivered to the table. It had a bug in it. The waitress took it back after we pointed this out and it took another 25+ minutes for the remade drink to make it back to our table. We overheard the waitstaff mention the delay was because the bartender had messed up making it again and was trying to figure out how to salvage it to serve to a different table. By the time the correct drink came, we had almost finished our meal and it was the first thing we ordered. We were disappointed to see this drink was still on our final bill at full price as I would think a restaurant of this caliber would not make a customer pay full price ($14) for a drink they brought out with a bug in it to begin with. Additionally, we ordered a sidecar which came to our table about 30+ minutes after we ordered. I have never had a sidecar served in a tumbler over ice so I'm not sure if that drink had been made correctly, but with everything else going on, I didn't want to be a bother to the wait staff who were clearly trying their best to put a good face on the situation.

Our soup was the first dish to come out and it was a touch over lukewarm. No big deal, but when our meals came out, my partner's red beans and rice with tofu dish was also served at basically room temperature. The rice was tough and the beans lacked a strong flavor which was disappointing since this was the dish we came to try.

I had the shrimp and grits and they were great, but overshadowed by all the other issues going on. At the end of the night, our bill was nearly $100 dollars and we were so disappointed in the meal and the experience we had. We would have loved to have had a second drink or a dessert, but with the pace of the service and the quality of the items we did have, we opted to call it at that point and head someplace else for another drink.

I would have spoken to a manager but there wasn't one in the restaurant from what we could see. We decided to walk out the Ollie's side to see if maybe that restaurant was slammed to explain what we had experienced on the other side or if we could see a manager. There wasn't an obvious manager and there were two couples impatiently waiting by the host stand already, so we opted to just head out for the night and send this message later.

Again, I want to say that we have had a beautiful experience here in the past and it appeared the service was understaffed/under-experienced; however, this experience really let us down. We love what Chef Dave does in the community and we are big fans, so this was incredibly disappointing for us to walk out thinking "We won't come back here." Head to Ollie’s instead - hopefully that side of the building will be a...

Wow, where to begin? How about here: disappointing. I'd been a fan of the former Liliana's, so had high expectations for this new incarnation.

Things started well -- the atmosphere is upscale and inviting. The appetizers (gluten-free deep-fried cheese curds and deviled eggs) were excellent.

We did have to wait a while for the liquor in our cocktails to be distilled. An odd little glitch -- I was carded. I'm 58 years old. The server said she had to ask because I "looked under 40." Um, thanks?

Things went downhill from there. The service was halting, lacked confidence and was extremely slow. Don't get me wrong, they tried. But they're obviously poorly trained.

Entrees . . . my pork porterhouse was a generous portion, reasonably well-seasoned, but overcooked and dry. Edible, but nothing I couldn't have accomplished at home. My companion ordered the braised short ribs. A good ten minutes later, the server returned to tell us they were out of that entree. That's noteworthy -- the menu is limited, the scallops (which I wanted) were crossed off the menu, and now this entree was out, too.

So she ordered the filet mignon ($46). What she received was not recognizable as a filet mignon. It was 3/4" thick (I brought the leftovers home for the dogs, and measured it), seasoned with an ocean's worth of salt, and gray. She was disappointed with her Mac & cheese side (I thought it was ok) and the extra side we ordered -- a sweet potato -- never came out.

I mentioned this disappointment to the server (after another long wait for a second round of drinks) and we were comped two desserts.

The Bananas Foster tasted good, but it was not served flambeed (isn't that the point of Bananas Foster?) and was served in a deep, narrow glass that made eating it very messy. The Pumpkin Cheesecake was excellent.

I should mention that it took us nearly two hours to get through our meal, in spite of the fact that there were never more than six tables occupied. When we left shortly after 8 pm on a Saturday night, there was one table remaining.

The bill came to $201 (even though the desserts were comped), including a 20% "servic charge," essentially a mandatory tip. We didn't receive 20%-worthy service, but the bill still asked for another tip at the bottom. Um, no.

Sadly, I doubt this place will be open at this...

My husband and I came here for restaurant week. We usually use restaurant week to try new places we haven’t been. SO good! Will totally be back! They actually also give you full servings, unlike some places for restaurant week, so that was awesome and worth the money. The physical place is so dark cute! I love the vibe. It’s small-ish but intimate and I love that. The waitresses seemed to actually enjoy their job. We were the first table after they opened that evening and I remember hearing a waitress say to her coworker behind the bar “our first table!!!!” And was so excited. They gave us complimentary corn bread to start. Will definitely order this next time we come. Both my husband and I got the French quarter, this meal had an appetizer of shrimp and grits. 😩🤤😮‍💨 next time I come, this will be my whole meal cause, whew!!! Then we had a trio of jambalaya, gumbo and shrimp something rather. My husband really liked the jambalaya and gumbo. And ended up taking mine home for lunch the next day. I was already full after the shrimp and grits, and also didn’t love the main but that could just be my spice tolerance. We were way too full for dessert but , of course, ate it anyway! We had the banana foster and it certainly tasted fresh and homemade. They automatically charge 20% gratuity, which i don’t mind especially if they enjoy their work better and it shows. AND they highlighted the 20% on the bill and didn’t ask for more. Some places don’t do that, hope you don’t see it, and then give additional on top. So I appreciated their...