The Back Burner Restaurant — Restaurant in Macon

Our friends, another couple, asked us if we wanted to try this place and we definitely did after hearing such good things about the food here. He made reservations for a Thursday, which is Lobster Night.

We had trouble finding it, even though the GPS took us there correctly, but the sign is at the bottom under other business names so we didn't see it before we passed it. Also the building is at the back, behind another larger one.

But don't let the modest outside put you off; from the moment we were seated, this was an elegant and classy dinner.

Our server Dustin confirmed that we had also made reservations for a lobster for each of us, although we didn't have to order one if we wanted something different.

Our friends ordered a bottle of wine, which was served iced in its own bucket on a pedestal, and placed tableside.

We were also brought chunks of bread with dishes of cold butter that were presented in such a way that I thought it was sliced cheese at first, LOL!

For starters I had the Escargot de Bourgogne, which is snails in a garlic butter sauce, served with crostinis. Mark got the special, Coconut Encrusted Shrimp, and our friends shared the Pan-seared Scallops. Everything was outstanding. The shrimp were huge, the size of a large chicken wing, and it took three bites to eat just one.

For our entrees, everybody but me had the Lobster Special which was served split, in the shell, and stuffed with Avocado Salad. They were humongous! The plates must have been 14 inches long and the claws were the size of my hand. The avocado salad was delicious, creamy yet crunchy from celery and cucumber. There was clarified butter on the side.

I ordered the Spanish Paella which came in its own little paella pan, and had a baby lobster (a big baby), mussels, clams, shrimp, fish, and sausage, cooked with rice. It blew me away.

Dessert was a Twelve-layer Caramel Cake with Caramel Sauce, and a Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake drizzled with Strawberry Preserves. Both decadent. My friend asked if they had Crème brûlée, but Dustin said if we call at least a day ahead, the chef can plan for it.

We all had leftovers, which were packed up for us.

We expected the bill to be high, but on Lobster Night it turned out to be about twice what we expected. It was well worth it, though, when you consider the overall experience. From the impeccable service from Dustin, to the size of the portions, the presentation of the dishes, and the perfectly-cooked meal, this a occasion dinner, and definitely a place for a special night.

If we'd had white napkins, we would have have waved them in surrender, because they won us...

I want to like this place, still want to like it, hoping this was a one off but honestly I hesitate to go back in case it wasn’t. I ordered the Chilean sea bass nicoise , nice concept but I couldn’t finish it. First of all it had a “very strong fishy”smell. Chilean sea bass is a mild fish and should not have a strong smell. Because of the accompaniments(nicoise) and my husband ordered fish plus, I didn’t want to believe they would give bad piece of fish, it honestly was hard for me to tell so I took a few bites but again the nicoise made it confusing but the more I ate it become clear, this was a a bad piece of fish. I told the server and sent it back. I wound say about half was left in tack plus some I had spit out. I ate the potatoes and green beans just the fish was left on the plate. Server said she would tell the chef… 🤷🏽‍♀️, I was hoping they would do the right thing and offer me another protein since despite not being able to finish it I didn’t ask for my money back. I was still was charged for the dish. We ordered dessert. They competed it “because it was our first time there. “ our bill was almost $100. For the price of the food serving bad fish and stilling making a customer pay is ridiculous. The hostess asked how everything was on the way out and I also mentioned it to her🤷🏽‍♀️. Would have given them 1 star but my husband finished his food so I guess that counts...

I am HIGHLY APPAULED at the customer service I experienced tonight. My husband took me out to Back Burner in Macon, GA and ordered Ossobuco, which we have had in the restaurant before under the previous management. The Ossobuco we ordered this time came out EXTREMELY salty. At first we tried to ignore it and see if we could chuck it down, but by the third bite, we couldn't endure it anymore. We made the situation known to our waiter, who apologized and took another order. But the manager came by our table and said that they couldn't take another order, that the chef can only fix the very salty dish. We told her we just wanted a new order, that we didn't want it fixed, so she went and called the chef, who also insisted that he couldn't take a new order, he could only "fix" the very salty food. At this point, we were just fed up and wondered how he would "fix" this food, would he wash the meat and make a new sauce or what?? We couldn't even begin to imagine what could happen behind those kitchen doors. He said he could only take a new order if he charged us for the old order that was messed up. He told us that we could leave and not pay for the appetizer we already had, but we insisted on paying, which we did and got up and left. I have never in my life experienced such a thing from a restaurant, talk less of a so called "high class" restaurant. WHAT A POOR DISPLAY OF...