GrillMarx Olney Steakhouse & Raw Bar — Restaurant in Maryland

It's taken me a week to write this review, mostly because I would have liked to write something nice, but unfortunately, we did not have the greatest experience. BLUF: Remember that purchasing gift cards puts all the risk of redemption on your friend/family, and not on the restaurant, which benefits from immediate cash flow; if there's an issue, you're at their mercy. The sad part of the story below is that I'm sure the restaurant/manager feels like they were being cheated, but ironically, we were the ones short-changed. I suppose I'm grateful too that my wife's colleague didn't go through this gift card snafu instead.

My wife had purchased a $100 gift card parting gift for a work colleague about 1.5 years ago that we never gifted (I know...very bad). This was his favorite restaurant. We found the gift card and decided to go on a date night on a weekday evening and try out the place. At the end of the meal, we presented our gift card, the waitress checked on the balance, and came back saying it was at $0. My wife is meticulous with these things, and gave them the original receipt. Oddly, when they pulled the transcript of the gift card, it had a different gift card number, purchased on a different date, at a different time than the receipt, with an original balance of $0...the manager came by and took a quick look, but I don't think she noticed the discrepancy (they pulled the wrong record, perhaps). She offered to comp the meal, $71 and some change, and let us go. Upon pushing on it, she also offered a new $20 gift card, which still left us short-changed about $8 and change. I understand their perspective, but they were clearly wrong.

Needless to say, we'll return to redeem our leftover balance as we hate to waste money like this, but not likely on our list of places to revisit.

The food is good, but perhaps tastes better as they keep you waiting for some time before it comes out (when you're hungry, everything tastes better -- I know, I'm being cynical here). I definitely saw grill marks on the steak :) Service is okay as it took a while to get our water and to get our order (waitress was chatting with co-workers), but the waitress was friendly and professional. Ambiance is great and seating was very comfortable. Great place to gather with friends and family, if you don't mind the noise due to openness of the...

It’s 3:00 pm Sunday: appetizer 4 oysters with some kind of sauce. Oyster meat was nowhere to be found in that cream sauce except for one there was something gray as big as a nickel mixed into the filling in two of them! Crab dip mostly the similar sauce with hardly any crab meat! Seasoned shrimp ordered and was not served until we asked why we haven’t received the order! It was 4 medium size shrimp that had be rolled in seasoning. At about $4.00 per shrimp. At the least should have been either large or 6 or. More or both, the biggest problem with our order was suppose to be : beef 14oz prime boneless medium rare with mushrooms and onions on top and mash potatoes!! And asparagus. What came well after the other two guests got their order was the following: a maybe eight or nine ounce steak with no seasoning whatsoever, medium, in the plate with a blob of mashed potatoes ! No mushrooms no onions no seasonings, no AU jus , not even butter or anything for the mashed potatoes! I did eat the asparagus which was on a separate dish and sent the steak back told the server it wasn’t what I ordered and I do not want it at all . My other guest had lamb chops which was very good and the third guess had bacon cheeseburger with potatoes I will never re visit your or recommend it restaurant to anyone. it also took forever to even come to take our order and then from appetizer to main course there was errors which just should not happen. The young lady from the kitchen came out and apologized and said she was going to make another order free to take home! I told her I didn’t want it but she brought us a bag that was suppose to had another steak what I ordered in it. And she took it off the bill! When I got the check I did not feel that I should blame the waitress even though the service was absolutely not what it should have been!! And I added an additional tip for the young lady that included what was taken off the bill and basically gave and extra $40 + 20% of the bill to the waitress And the real icing on the cake that free order that they gave my guess to take with us was still not what I had ordered ! it was a piece of steak with no Aujus , no mushrooms , no onions , no butter for the.mashed potatoes. But one improvement: they put salt! Pepper! And looked like oregano on it!! Guess ...

Round 1: Ordered: Filet Medium-Well, Yukon Mashed Potatoes Received: Filet Rare and delicious spuds that are about to change from a white/yellow to reddish pink. Informed server... Plate taken back.

Round 2: Received: Filet Rare, what happened to my spuds? Informed server...asked to speak to manager Manager(Owner) inspects. Debates my classification of steak as Rare. Insists it's Medium-Rare. Do I care since it's nothing close to what I ordered? NO. A 3rd steak will be prepared.

Round 3: Received: You guessed it. Rare, sans spuds. All 3 steaks have now been Rare. Yes, I know what various "doneness" levels should be. Bloody when you cut in is Rare (see Round 1- Spuds changing color). That's what I was being served. Did the server or manager participate in serving me Round 3? No. When I asked to speak to the manager (owner?) again another debate ensued. SERIOUSLY? You screwed up 3 times and were notified twice. I ask them to tell the chef not push their meat cooking likes on to patrons as I am well aware of many so called "Executive Chefs" that like to decide how others should eat their meals, especially when it comes to cooking steaks. If there was another explanation it was never forthcoming.

Conclusion: I was asked if I wanted another steak (#4). Is Grill MarX also a comedy club? I was also asked if I wanted to take steak 3 home in a To-Go bag. No Thanks! I put GrillMarX instead in a Don't-Go bag and have never returned. For my trouble I was comp'd the steak I never ate. How is that a comp? My dates meal was left the on bill at full price. REALLY?

Please remove the word STEAKHOUSE...