Charleston's Restaurant — Restaurant in Kansas City

(**UPDATE: No one from management responds to emails sent to the "Contact Us" page. This is a shameless attempt to look conscientious without actually being accountable.) (I see that the proprietor monitors this review page carefully, so yes, I will submit my review through the Contact Us page on your website.) Like many of the previous reviewers, the hopes of finding a "casual, upbeat restaurant with a modestly priced menu featuring traditional American classics" that was worth visiting often. Haven't found it yet. My wife ordered the special - ruby red steelhead trout. Delish. 4 stars (but at $29, kind of missed the modestly priced level). As a life-long aficionado of the chicken-fried steak category, I chose that and that's where the fail came in. Actually the fried steak was 4 star good, but... The gravy and the mashed potatoes (the essential ying & yang of chicken fried steak-dom) were the exact same consistency and I find that to be a grave mistake. 1 star bad. (Usually I don't count sides heavily against my ratings, but CFS is so universally paired with mashed potatoes and gravy, I have to consider them all together.) The gravy was thick as school paste and had a slightly sweet, rather than savory after-taste. The mashed potatoes were creamed to within an inch of their precious lives, thin as... school paste. If it weren't for the occasional texture of the few skins (which I appreciate) left in the taters, they would have been completely indistinguishable from the gravy itself. Terrible. I swapped out the glazed carrots side for fried okra. The breading on the okra was not crisp and the okra itself was not especially hot. Just seemed like the side was not fresh. I ate less than half... and THAT has never happened before! Last point, and this is more than just being nit-picky. It is clear the staff has been drilled routinely on being "unobtrusive". Besides walking in to our table and walking out, I had to make a couple trips to/from the bathroom. Every time I was walking in the aisle between tables, any wait-staff present would snap to razor-straight attention and press themselves up against the wall or divider and ensure I had the most possible room to pass along on my journey and they offered smile or acknowledgement. They acted like I was a field marshall in parade review. Very off-putting and quite the opposite of the first word in Charleston's description - "casual". I appreciate when staff is self-aware and make a point to not obstruct a passage way, but to do it with such officiousness and militarism made me think there was nothing casual about this place at all. I do give Charleston's 5 stars for the artwork. Nice hodge-podge of Midwest...

Was invited out for my birthday, by my brother and his wife. They went recently and loved it. Server was nice enough.... Inexperienced, maybe? We asked for straws more than once. Lemon in the wrong drink more than once. Had to flag him down to take our orders. Had to ask for drink refills several times. Since we celebrated a birthday, there was wrapping paper on the table... Finally removed it ourselves when he nudged it out of the way to try to set our food down and walked away. Never came back to see how the food was.... Had to flag him down to tell him it was way undercooked. He offered to have it cooked more, but wanted the whole plate which would have left the diner with nothing. (The diner asked to keep his plate so he could eat the side dishes.). Several minutes later, a manager came over and asked to take the entire plate back. At this point, there were five empty glasses on the table and two people were finished eating. The diner asked if the manager to just remove his meal from the ticket, and she agreed. Several minutes later, we flagged the server down yet again, this as time to get our ticket, and asked him to remove the five empty glasses, and the two empty plates. He took one plate! Honestly, it was almost laughable.

We will not return. My husband and I were first time diners. He truly enjoyed his meal. But my shrinp scampi tasted like shrimp in lemon juice. (I did not say anything as I didn't want to use up more time having it remade. But I took most of it home to fix and eat later.) The service was worse than I would expect at a cheap restaurant. Overall, it was a poor experience. Hopefully, the young server, manager, and cook will receive training so that Charleston's will earn a 4- or 5- star rating again... Just...

I placed a to go order, paid for it, and added a tip of more than 20%. As zi sat there, I watched others come in after me in groups of two and four. I ordered soup and a salad. The server checked in with those around me refilling water and suggesting appetizers as they waited. She never returned to me. I noticed the manager come over and look at me with the receipt in hand and speak with the server. She then turned and looked at me. A few moments later, I noticed the couple across from me ( that were seated more than 15 minutes after me seemingly be served the same soup and salad I ordered. A few minutes later, one of the tables of four received their food. This caused me to call the server order and ask if that was my order She said no, there was an error with my order, and the manager was working on it. minutes later, the manager came over with my food. No explanation nor apology. I had to ask him to come over. I asked why I was ignored and served after others. He said there was a problem with my order. I asked why I wasn't given an explanation and apology? Only then did he apologize. Never did the server. He attempted to offer something. I explained I had not come expecting anything free. What I wanted was my food and customer service. What I got was the realization that I was served after the people who did not look like me, and I was expected to just sit there and take what they felt I deserved. To boot my oder was wrong. I paid for the large bowl and received the cup and the wrong...