Oak Steakhouse — Restaurant in Highlands

If you like spending $300+ on a dinner for a family of five and being sadly underwhelmed, this is the place for you.

Let me list the ways this dinner went wrong:

Arrived at 7:27 for our 7:30 reservation but sat in the lobby and seated at 7:45 despite our table being set for almost 15 min and sitting empty before they finally sat us.

*They put 5 of us at a table for 4 up against a wall with one person squeezed onto the open end of the table. Had to request that they pull up an extra 2-top so that we wouldn’t be sitting on top of each other with place settings overlapping. They did this once we asked, but why would they think people about to drop some good $$ on dinner would want to sit on top of each other? Get it right before you seat people.

Entrees came out and 2 of the 5 steaks ordered were served cold. One of us cared enough to send it back and have it heated.

I follow this restaurant on social media and a month ago, they posted a photo of their desserts, which included a soufflé. If you care about soufflés, you know it’s a fairly rare offering on a dessert menu. When I saw that a soufflé was on offer, I decided to book this restaurant for our son’s farewell dinner before leaving for college. We could’ve spent our $300+ at any number of restaurants in town but I chose Oak Steakhouse because they had a soufflé for the dinner finale.

So imagine my shock upon ordering the soufflé for dessert, at 9:15 p.m., and being told they were sold out and we were welcome to anything else on the menu? Sold out? A soufflé is eggs, sugar, maybe a little milk. Seriously? In a finer establishment, the sever would’ve notified us when ordering entrees if there was a forecasted menu item shortage and given us the standard warning about needing 20 min to prep for the cooking of the soufflé, which is expected. Not a word.

Our server saw our disappointment and was very apologetic and said the manager would be over to address our concerns. A few minutes later, a man in a jacket came over and asked if our drinks needed to be refreshed. We were done with our meal so obviously they didn’t. Didn’t introduce himself or identify himself as the manager, did not address our concerns, nothing. Apparently he was the manager.

*This man would eventually make his way back to our table (after we informed the server of his failure to introduce himself) where we expressed our disappointment with the sold out soufflés. He never even apologized. He actually suggested it was our fault for not informing their staff at the time of reservation that we wanted a soufflé. Seriously? That’s something people specify when making a reservation? Go ahead and order your dessert when booking? Didn’t offer other desserts on the house, didn’t discount our check, nothing. Shamelessly presented our $300+ check shortly thereafter.

The Highlands/Cashiers crowd is a fairly sophisticated bunch accustomed to dining in quality establishments. This kind of service shortfall and patron disrespect won’t fly. Try it and see. And while you wait, maybe order a few more dozen eggs so you can have enough soufflés to last a single night’s dining service.

We intended to purchase a gift card tonight as a thank you to friends whose home we stayed in for this trip. After this experience, that $$ will be spent elsewhere.

P.S. The bartender on Saturday night, August 14, was the bright spot. Do what you can to...

We had a terrible dining experience due to how the server “Brooke” treated us. From the very first interaction of her questioning if the day of our dining was my “actual” birthday, and a flippant comment of “we have no specials today, I’ll be back to take your order”she continued to be rude, dismissive, and made us feel unwelcome throughout the meal. Her attitude overshadowed the entire visit and left a very negative impression.

As we sat, we listened to the servers around us ask if it was guests first time dining in (which it was for us), offer explanations of where the produce comes from, how the steaks are cooked etc. Exactly what you would expect of a high-end steak house. Interaction we never received.

Yet, I asked Brooke a simple question of the difference between blue cheese crust and blackened seasoning on a steak, and her response was a sarcastic tone “One is blue cheese, and one is blackened”. My boyfriend looked at me in shock at how dismissive she was. I ignored it, and ordered my steak medium (which I heard the server next to us explain to guests it’s a steak best ordered medium-rare). My steak showed up over-cooked, but I was uncomfortable voicing it based on Brooke’s treatment of us.

As she dropped the food off, she literally slammed the plates on the table, turned her back, and never asked if our $100+ steaks were cooked to our liking.

She asked if we wanted a birthday dessert, dropped off the dessert menu and turned her back before we could even ask a question. In our 1.5hrs at this table, Brooke never once offered any explanations, recommendations or interacted with us over the menu. Due to this, we had no idea when we ordered dessert that she would also be bringing an on-the-house ice cream as well. So now we had TWO desserts dropped off at our table with zero interaction. Very off-putting.

My boyfriend was so upset at how she treated us on a special birthday dinner we planned weeks in advance, he spoke a manager before we left. The manager asked for my contact information, but I never heard from him.

While the food was decent, I would NEVER recommend this place due to how poor the service was. It absolutely dampened our experience, but we did our best to not let their server Brooke ruin our time.

Oak Steakhouse Management - I suggest you help Brooke find another career, and have a higher sense of urgency reaching back out to guests who make reservations weeks in advance, spend $300+ on a meal, and notify management of such terribly poor treatment of guests.

And btw - we still left a generous tip since I’ve worked in the industry and would like to believe this young woman took her bad day out on us. Do better Oak Steakhouse...

I would NOT recommend Oak for Saturday/Sunday lunch/brunch. We were the only patrons in the Resturant and had reservations. When we arrived, the "fella" asked if we had reservations, I relied, "yes," and he replied, "let me get your table ready." My guests were alarmed as they felt like the table should be ready since I had a reservation and I Las confirmed the reservation. From there our experience deteriorated including poor service, limited menu, and expense of the meal. We were the only patrons in the restaurant and 2 male servers were on site. Unfortunately our server was sub-par; his service was poor; the young "man"---(honestly we could not discern if he was "high" or if his problem was inexperience as a server in "upscale Resturant." I am health care provider and felt that it was most likely a "high.") We did not appreciate his lack of respect when replying to us: "yeah" vs. "yes m'am or no sir;" when we requested something, another reply, "cool beans;" failed to follow protocol and take the ladies orders before the men...and my guest having to correct his behavior; and walking off as we were trying to finish our order. I ordered a French 76 that tasted like cough syrup. I explained to him that Oak bartender In the past made the drinks with precision, however, this young "man" was obviously not a bartender. I requested a twist of lemon and witnessed him walking from the bar to our table "giggling and laughing to himself" as he twisted the slice of lemon w/ his bare hands. When he reached out table, he reached over my guests to drop the lemon twist in my drink - I quickly held up a plate the lemon twist---I did not use it. My friend asked about wines and he could not answer her questions nor did he offer to ask anyone with knowledge; we inquired about the internet code, his response, "I have been here about 6 months and I've wondered the same thing." My son and his wife alone her parents were my guests--this was their first trip to the Highlands/Cashiers area. I was embarrassed, apologized and deeply regretted that I cancelled the reservation at Old Edwards-- Roof Top Resturant, Madison’s or the main dining room. I don't know if the weekend brunch/lunch is new and experienced staffing is limited but I do know that I will not return with guests until I am assured that the service has greatly improved. Our experiences at the Charleston Oak have been impeccable...service, food ambience, as well as...