Chart House — Restaurant in Jacksonville

NOT WORTH $500 FOR A PARTY OF FOUR!!!

My wife, two adult kids, and I dined here for Mother’s Day 2025. This was our second time coming to the Chart House. I honestly don’t recall much about our first time, other than the pretty entrance and beautiful view of the water.

We had 6:30 reservations, and we arrived on time and were seated within about 5 minutes.

The view of the water is probably what I liked the most about this restaurant. It had very nice ambiance, and our server, Ian, was top notch.

We started with drinks. My wife had the Fleur D’ Lis, my daughter had the Pearfect, and I had the Chocolate and Bourbon. I very much enjoyed my drink. It came with a chocolate ball on a skewer, along with the usual cocktail cherry, which was nice. They enjoyed their drinks as well.

For apps, we had the Shrimp, Avocado, and Mango Stack and the Whipped Ricotta and Meatballs. I enjoyed both. My wife was not a fan of the former though. Nothing spectacular, but good.

For the first course, I had the New England Clam Chowder, and everyone else had the Chopped Salad. I enjoyed their chowder, although there was nothing remarkable about it, and no one said anything about the Chopped Salad, good or bad.

From here, it was probably a 45 minute wait for our entrees, which we noted, but it was Mother’s Day, so we allowed some grace on service time.

I decided to try the Tableside Torched Apple Manhattan which was $36 (not $26 which is what the online cocktail menu shows when I just looked). I enjoyed the presentation. Our server literally torched a small pile of applewood next to our table, covered it with a glass, then poured the mixed drink into that glass. It was very, very good. Maybe not $36 good, but very good nonetheless.

For entrees, my wife and son had the Filet Mignon with 3 Potato Mashed, and I had the Key West Spiced Halibut. Their filets were cooked to the proper temperature, but my wife noted that hers had a “gamey” flavor. My halibut was good, and I enjoyed the mango sticky rice and pineapple habanero butter, but it reminded me of what you might order in the Main Dining Room on a Royal Caribbean menu. Good but not great.

For dessert, my daughter and I had the Key Lime Pie, my son had the Mini Lava Cake, and my wife had the Chef’s Dessert, which was a cheesecake with mixed berries. The Key Lime pie was as good as any I’ve tried, but nothing special. My wife wasn’t a huge fan of her cheesecake for whatever reason, but my son really enjoyed the Mini Lava Cake, and my wife regretted not having that instead.

Our bill came to about $480 including a $63 tip. A bit steep for the experience as a whole.

We enjoyed our dinner, but we didn’t feel that this experience rose to the level of 5 stars. A fair comparison would be to the Main Dining Room experience on Royal Caribbean, just more expensive, and not quite as nice of a view.

We enjoyed the view and ambiance the most I’d say, however, the slightly above average food, the delay in our entrees, and the overall feeling that this didn’t feel like a $500 meal, were enough that we decided we probably won’t be dining there again. If you want to spend $500 on a meal for four, drinks and apps included, then I’d advise Ruth’s Chris in Ponte Vedre Beach instead. That Tableside Torched Apple Manhattan though? That was...

My fiancé and I came to celebrate our 16th anniversary. This was our second time at Chart House. The first time our friend invited us to joined them for dinner about 5 years ago. The service is great. Amber was our server for this recent dinner. She is very tentative and knowledgeable about the menu. We had Avocado stack and calamari for starter. For entrée, we have Mac Nut Mahi & Prime Rib Chart Course. We also ordered 2 sides: Sizzling Mushroom and Creamed spinach. The calamari was good seasoning and with added tempura style veggies batter fried which we didn't expected. The Avocado-Mango stack was ok not that great. The ingredients were fresh but the seasoning was plain. It was like a creamy potato salad taste. I was expecting a little punch and wow to such a beautiful presentation. I think the seasoning of this stack was on the safe side and not very unique in flavor. However, the one that I totally felt out of sync with is the Mac Nut Mahi. It was suppose to be a signature entrée for this Chart House but it lack any wow factor. The fish fillet was well cook and moist but the sauce is not great. It almost like my mom's peanut sauce that we have in Vietnam to go with our spring rolls. On top of that, the fish was pair with mango/tropical sticky rice in a pyramid shape which is kind of weird. Should have just use a smaller stack holder for the rice that shape would have been better presentation. The sticky rice is lean toward a sweet desert taste instead of savory. Almost like a Thai mango sticky rice. The whole combination is just wrong. The prime rib was ok not a good cut in for my taste. Now the sizzling mushroom is amazing. From the time Amber bring it out with the sizzling sound and the smell was mouth watering. The season soaked into the mushroom and little bit of the burn on the outside made this side is a must order!! The creamed spinach is also a weird one for a side because it clearly made for a dip with chips or something similar. For our 16th anniversary, we want to try something new. We was debating between Ruth's Chris, Morton and Chart. We had Three Forks for one of our anniversary and we love it but we want to try other places. If I can go back to that night, I think we should have gone to Morton or Ruth which is on the same area with same view...

Wife and I went to Chart House for the first time last night and it was a mixed experience.

We ordered the Oysters followed by Sea bass and lobster risotto for my wife and the filet with lobster tail and garlic mashed potatoes for myself.

Our oysters arrived in a timely fashion and were good, nothing special, but nothing wrong with them.

The server was friendly and knowledgeable but disappeared for long stretches of time with little update on the rest of our meal and why it was taking so long. We waited 45 minutes between finishing the oysters before our entrees arrived.

When the entrees did arrive they looked nice, but my wife said the sea bass tasted more fishy than normal. Her risotto was okay but nothing special.

My steak was wonderful. If looking for a good steak with a nice sear, mine was perfect. I ordered it medium and was not disappointed. My mashed potatoes were fine. Again, nothing special but not bad at all. However, the lobster was essentially inedible. It was rock hard, over cooked and under seasoned. I tried a couple of bites and offering one to my wife to get her opinion, we both agreed it was very poorly done. I left at least half or more of it on my plate after giving up on it entirely.

We did not choose to eat dessert as we had already been there for quite a while and the recommended dessert even comes with a note that it takes at least 30 minutes to prepare.

When going to pay for the meal, I alerted the server of the issue with the lobster and he said he would pass the message on to the kitchen. I did not demand any of my meal to be discounted, but would have expected some price reduction based on the complaint and the fact that I left half the lobster untouched. Instead, the bill arrived charging the full amount including the full market price of the lobster at $42 as an add-on to the steak entree.

My takeaway from this has been that I may return at some point specifically for the steak. It was very nice, but all the seafood related dishes were underwhelming or outright inedible. This is a real shame because the building and atmosphere on the water were truly very nice.

I won't write Chart House off completely, but I'll definitely keep future trips aimed purely...