Calamity J Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Huntington

DONT LET THIS REVIEW PREVENT YOU FROM TRYING CALAMITY Js. I used to really like this place. Just stopped in tonight 2/20/2024. It was about 7pmish, the downstairs bar area was slow. Maybe 20 customers in the whole building. The host took about 3 minutes to even notice 3 adults and a toddler standing at the host stand. Then he proceeds to seat us, upstairs in spite of the whole restaurant being nearly empty. (Terrible logistical idea to even seat people upstairs during non peak hours and very few actual dining customers.) Most of your people were at the bar not eating. So why seat us upstairs? We went anyways because we aren't the type to cause a scene over a seating arrangement. Who knows maybe there's something interesting up there. We get seated and the order some drinks. The beer we order on tap was flat and that keg was milked to make those 2 tall glasses. Horrible pour. The poor waitress had to go downstairs to even retrieve the drinks and I wasn't about to send her back for another. Those stairs are steep. Two of us in the party ordered new York strips 8 Oz. a medium rare one and a medium well one. We all ordered a side salad. When the salads arrived we had a fun time just staring at them for a minute or two before the waitress realized she never set the table with silverware. She promptly left to gather the utensils, downstairs once again. (Terrible logistics) Next the 3 entrees arrived, we waited to touch our food while the toddlers meal was still being sorted out in the kitchen, because Mac n cheese and fries are complicated. (By the preparation of the steaks, apparently that statement is factual.) Finally her food arrives about five minutes later and that's when we realized there was no silverware for the toddler as well. Luckily we carried a toddler fork in her diaper bag for such occasions. Now back to those steaks. Each meal was order with a potato prepared differently. The first steak was served with a baked potato, the second steak was loaded fries and the third entree was mashed potatoes. The "medium well" new york strip steak was actually medium rare with a barely warm red center. The steak was roughly 3/4 of an inch thick, the heat only penetrated about 1/16th of an inch into the surface on each side. The cut was awful as well. Huge pieces of gristle all the way through what should have been the best part of the strip. At least that steak was edible and possibly the actual 8oz as advertised. The other steak, the really bad one, was the real nail in the coffin to that service. What should have been an 8oz medium rare new york strip steak was actually about a 4oz 1/2 inch thick, completely ruined, over cooked shoe sole, leathery tough cube steak cut. Complete garbage execution by the chef. Luckily the other 2 meals were good. Unfortunately my picky toddler does not like your white cheddar Mac n cheese, but she's only 2, she doesn't know how good cheddar cheeses are yet. She prefers a Velveeta type of cheese finish to her Mac n cheese. (No slight towards your Mac n cheese, it's delicious to me) The last piece of my mind I have to give is about the sheer lack of common sense logistics for the wait staff upstairs. With the space that's available up there. You should have a small kitchen installed for peak demand hours and at least have the ability to make salads and small appetizers to save your poor waitresses legs. Again as I wrote on the receipt, great flavors, poor execution all the way around. I didn't complain in the moment because I find that offensive. However this review will remain until you change my mind upon the next visit. Please do better with your service execution and peak time/down time logistics. I used to like this place when Eric was serving a few years ago, It's lost a step over the...

It breaks my heart to have to be negative about a local business, but I've had too many bad experiences here to let it go. The main female bartender has been rude and dismissive to me as a lone female patron several times, treating me as though it's an inconvenience to serve me. I've had dietary restrictions be consistently disregarded and misunderstood by waitstaff that don't write down the order and then are surprised when they forget the details. However, the last straw was being served two burned plates of wings, and then having the waiter take our card, disappear for over 10 minutes, and then be visibly unsure where he put our card when I asked for it back. At the same time, he had just given one of his other tables their cards/change, and he almost gave our card to the other table rather than back to us. This is why waitstaff should be trained to cash out each diner and table individually, rather than waiting until there are 10 checks to cash out and doing them all at once "to save time." I really like a lot of the menu items here, but seeing the service be consistently terrible, forgetful, and haphazard makes me not want to come back. There are a handful of servers here that are great, but the ones who are not should really be retrained until they improve.

Edit to add: I am not comfortable with publicly listing contact info. I will say these issues have all happened during the...

OK, I’m going to preface this with the fact that I am old school patron of the old Calamity’s since the early 90’s. I write this review after giving this place two chances. The first time we had a large party and it was already very busy so I will dismiss the first one as being mediocre. But today’s visit was beyond abhorrent. I would first like to say service was excellent. I sat at the bar and order 10oz sirloin, loaded baked potato, and a side salad. First, the steak was the toughest steak I have ever purchased in Huntington. I felt like Charlie Chaplin cutting up the soul of his shoe. It was unseasoned aside from being on a grill. Grill marks were not even diamonds, but a linear grid. The loaded potato was way under cooked and was missing the bacon as requested. Side salad was fresh and actually really good. But believe me, I speak from the heart. If you are looking for the old Calamity experience, this is not the place. And believe me, it pains me to write such a critical review about a beloved place. But this was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. Did I complain to the Bartender… no. I was just trying to take a friend out after a funeral for a good meal, only for it to have...