404 Celsius — Restaurant in Hogansville

This was our first time dining here.

So let’s talk about the good. The environment was really cool. They have done a great job creating what looked more like something you would see in a larger city like Atlanta. Comfortable seating. Tables are a little close together and our table was a little uneven and maybe a little dark but overall I was impressed with the overall theme and vibe they put together.

The waitress we had was super nice and helpful but I did feel like things moved a little slow.

Now on to the menu. Some of the meals are cooked by the kitchen and then there is a selection for the lava stone meals. They include a salad and French fries.

The lava stones are a cool concept that I feel is still being dialed in. They are a newer restaurant and I feel like the feedback they are getting is helping them to see what their customers want.

If I could provide some feedback for the owners it would be to provide more seasoning options for the meat. Both my wife and I felt like our steaks were very much under seasoned. Providing some options already on the table would help for those who like heavier or lighter seasoning on their protein of choice. (I did have to ask our waitress for salt) I would also suggest giving more options for making modifications without the need for charging. Salad and fries are the two sides. You can change fries for a loaded baked potato but it’s a $5 up charge which is fine but it would be nice to switch out the salad as well if you aren’t a salad eater. We ended up splitting one of the larger salads (which was delicious) so we were able to get an extra side of fries instead of our salad. I did appreciate that but our waitress let us know that was not how they normally do it.

On to the dinner. We got 2 filets with the fries and an extra side of Brussels. The Brussels were a little under cooked but they had a great sweet sauce they were tossed in. Both steaks were described on the menu as 7 ounces and I felt we got at least that much if not more. They were Both a good size. It took a little time to figure out the best way to cook the steak. The lava stone is so hot when it comes out that cooking the steak like you would on a normal grill is not possible. You would end up burning the steak on one side if you left it for too long. We figured out about half way through the meal that cutting the steaks in thin pieces and then cooking them bite by bite was the best method. Do yourself a favor and keep your plate they give you at the beginning. It provides a place for you to pull your steak off the lava stone, cut it into small pieces and then put it back on the lava stone to cook it. The steaks come with steak sauce, a compound butter and a chimichurri type sauce (however you’d spell that) and all of them were great. We had to ask for more butter (which was an extra charge) and we needed every bit of two helpings of butter for the steak. The one thing I can say that I loved is that by cooking this way every bite of steak was piping hot. The lava stone started to cool down by the end but was still extremely hot to cook your steak.

The final verdict. I love to see new restaurants take a risk and do something different. For a small town this place is pushing the limits and I think they do a lot very well. I feel like they need to go all in on the cooking your meal theme if that is the goal. To me that is the gimmick that sets them a part, much like a Korean bbq or melting pot type restaurant. Prices are not cheap, but I feel it’s justified with the added experience of you getting to cook your steak yourself.

If they can figure out a way to communicate “their system” for cooking the best steak possible I believe they will have a formula for a winning restaurant. My wife and I had a great time out and I think if you are up for trying something new you would enjoy the experience. A few tweaks and I would have been 5 stars all the way across. I think they have a bright...

I really hate to be the one to do this, but as a traveler who is a big carnivore, I had high hopes that the town I live in was opening a steakhouse. I will start with the premise, I don't mind paying for quality food, whether it is Bones in Atlanta or Smith and Wollensky's in Miami, I don't mind paying for quality steaks or food. Today was their grand opening, so first called to try to make reservations, after several tries with no answer, we decided to just drive up the road. Upon arriving and asking for a table for two, the hostess asked us to go to the bar while they prepared our table. When we get to the bar, we were greeted by a very nice bartender and she provided us a drink menu. When we looked at it, immediately both noticed "None Alcoholic" drink section. This to me immediately told me, the management was not detail oriented, which gave me pause and lowered my expectations to this experience and I was correct. We were shown to our table, the atmosphere was nice, with a slight trendy vibe. We waited for the better part of 10 minutes before our waitress came by and provided us with water and took our order. We ordered the charcuterie board and two 10oz ribeye steaks which come with salad and fries. We also ordered a gouda mac-n-cheese. We asked the waitress if she was going to ask how we wanted our steaks, she explained the steaks came on a lava rock which was at 404 degrees Celsius which cooked the steak and stayed hot so to please be careful not to touch the rock as it would stay hot even after an hour. Our charcuterie board came, it was a couple of cubes of salami, two types of chesses (cheddar and Swiss I believe), some olives, a couple of gherkins two pieces of cold focaccia and an assortment of water crackers, Nothing really special, actually really looked like the cubed salami which comes packed in Boars Head packages, not worth the $25 price. Not more than 2 minutes after our appetizer arrived our entrées came out.... Presentation looked good, a 10oz steak which had nice grill marks on a lava rock. Unsure how long the steaks had been on the rock we kept them on the rock and tasted our sides. I had gotten balsamic vinaigrette dressing and my girlfriend got the ranch, both were supposed to be fresh made. The balsamic vinaigrette had a good taste with shallots in it, the ranch just tasted like sour cream with not much other flavor. The fries were crispy but little to no salt and were not very warm. The mac-n-cheese had a good gouda flavor and very creamy but again not very warm, so we removed the steaks from the lava rocks and used it to warm mac-n-cheese and fries. Now to the steak, when I cut my steak it was at a medium-well. My girlfriends steak was almost well done (not her preference), but it was tender. But the flavor, there was NONE, not one bit. They had put the steak to cook with absolutely no salt. The sauces that came with the steak were good, a compound butter and a variation of chimichurri with cilantro. But again you couldn't taste the meat just the sauce. Now, this is where it got concerning to me... Here comes the owner asking how everything was, I explained about the temp of the food AND the lack of seasoning on the steak, and she says "Oh we have salt and pepper", this tells me she has no concept on the importance of seasoning before cooking. To finish off, if I am going to pay upper mid pricing for food, I expect the service to be at that level as well. The wait staff has not concept of how to serve outside of an Applebee's, they reach over and across table to pour water, no idea of when to bring food. All-in all, we paid $125 for a meal which Texas Roadhouse could do better for half the price. Unless this places shapes up I do not see...

Good food, incredibly slow service. Not worth the price.

I made reservations online several weeks ahead of time to ensure our party of 8 could be accommodated. I even received a text notification that it had been confirmed. The night of, we show up and they have no record of our reservation. We got the excuse that their online system messes up sometimes. Luckily, they had space because there was hardly anyone else there. Another party of about 8 that had been there for a little while, and then later a party of 2 came in. It was a very slow night.

The staff were very nice but the drinks were slow and the food even slower. We had to ask for more water multiple times. We had 4 people in our party order steaks on the lava rocks, and the other 4 ordered food made in the kitchen. We should have all ordered food made in the kitchen because they received their food 30 minutes before the rest of us. The lamb chops, pasta, and sides all came out and we were expecting the steaks to be right behind. Nope. 30 minutes later they come out. My fries were ice cold and I had to warm them on the stone next to my steak. Our side of mushrooms we ordered were ice cold too because they had been sitting on our table for the 30 minutes. The chimichurri sauce was inconsistent between orders. Only one of us received an actual chimichurri. The rest of us received a dark green chunky sauce that looked like the start of a chimichurri. The compound butter tasted like weird chocolate butter and the “steak sauce” was just peppered ketchup. The steak was good and everyone found the food to be very good overall. But having half our party eat 30 minutes before the rest of us was ridiculous. I took a peek into the kitchen when walking to the restroom and there were at least 5 people in there just hanging out. Two were behind the grill. At the time there were only 10 patrons in the restaurant. 4 of us were just waiting on some seared steaks so we could cook them the rest of the way ourselves. So I don’t see any excuse of being understaffed in the kitchen. It was my husband’s birthday and he did get a brownie for dessert, but even that tasted like a cosmic brownie from aisle 10 in Kroger. The atmosphere is really cool and that was the best part. Word of warning, I don’t know if they have handicap parking or parking that doesn’t require you to go up and down some very treacherous stairs. They are like the original ankle-breaker stairs going down to River St. in Savannah. Overall, the night was only saved due to the good company. Sadly, we will not be returning. For the price they charge, I expected more than...