11|17 — Restaurant in McKinney

I have been to this establishment a couple times post COVID and have always been somewhat pleased with the service and the food until yesterday.   As we entered the establishment we were greeted and seated immediately despite the blanket of heat in the building.  We were a party of 3 with one late arrival.   We communicated concerns for the heat twice and an adjustment was made on the second time.   We had a very pleasant server named Zita or Zeeda who took our orders for drinks of 1 water with lemon, 1 plain water, and a sprite.  10 minutes later the late arrival who ordered a coke made it.  Zeeda asked if we wanted appetizers and we decided on the Loaded Queso and Salsa.  It arrives to the table cold shortly afterwards.   We decided to send it back because it was cold and replace with the Mozzarella Sticks.   The cheese sticks come out shortly and tasted of old bacon and fried chicken.   Not the best but tolerable, we decided to leave well enough alone and didn’t send them back.   The server took our orders as follows: Philly steak and cheese without bell peppers with steamed broccoli, fried shrimp with fries and a house salad with blue cheese dressing, and fried shrimp with green beans and a house salad with ranch.   The food comes out shortly.  The same issue comes to table with the shrimp overcooked tasting like old bacon and fried chicken.  I decided to eat mine and my friend enjoyed the cheesesteak. However, my friend that also ordered shrimp decided that she could not stomach the after taste.   The server checks in with us and my friend tells her that she is not pleased.  Zita/Zeeda asks her if she would like something else and she responds no ma’am.  The server grabs the manager and owner to address our concerns.  The owner assures her nothing has changed and that the cooking oil is changed daily.  My friend says ok and the team leaves to bring us the cheques.  It is at this times things start to go left.  The other friend ordered a drink from the bar, while we are waiting the bartender proceeds to bring the drink, sets it down hard on  our table. He proceeds to loudly/aggressively tell my friend who ordered the drink (who had no complaints or issues) that every time she comes to the establishment she brings people and does nothing but complain. He goes on to say, you know if you keep complaining you’ll be banned. We all are surprised and perplexed by his outburst.   My friend responds. I won’t be back here. He replies good and abruptly leaves returning to the bar.  We are curious as to why he brings the drink to the table when he had no reason to be at the table as he had delivered no other drinks to the opposite side of the restaurant (including previous drinks). We immediately grab the server who grabs the manager. The manager communicates the incident to the owner and tells her we’d like to speak with her. The owner gives us the cheques and attempts to leave without addressing our concerns when I stop her to address.  Our discussion consists of her saying that the bartender came in to help her on his day off and is having a bad day.  She implies that we are trying to get out of paying for the food.  She does not address that the bartender was out of line nor welcomed feedback that the food simply sucked.  She makes a statement that she told him not to come over here. Which let us know there had been some discussion. If you want to be treated less than with aggressive staff telling you off about their inconsistent food because they are having a bad day on their day off where they volunteered to come to work,  I highly recommend 11/17.  If you desire a different atmosphere with similar cuisine do yourself a favor and go to your local BJ’, Chili’s,...

I don't know how this restaurant is rated 5 stars. I came in expecting good food, based on the rating and price tag. Boy was I disappointed. This food is upscale fast food, for anywhere from 1.5x to twice the price of comparable food elsewhere.

The french fries, that you will pay $4 for, or $11 for their "Loaded fries", that have an insulting amount of bacon and jalapenos, on a half plate for an appetizer. These french fries are battered, and I'm fairly certain these are from the same supplier as Golden Chick. Based on this, I can only imagine the rest of the appetizers are of similar quality.

On to the main course! I went with my family, and had the chance to try 3 separate items. I personally had the Chicken Fried Steak, which is my litmus test for how good a restaurant is. The menu states that the CFS is "double hand battered", and it came out with the lightest layer of breading possible, with a hint of pepper, and was practically falling off the steak, which was bland and not seasoned at all. It came with two sides, since I already had the french fries, I went with tater tots and green beans. First the tots. Sonic quality all the way around, and the amount was somewhere between a small and a medium. The green beans were stated to be with bacon. It did not have bacon, but no bacon could have saved this side dish from being as flavorless as it was. At no point did salt get added to the green beans, which ideally, is in the boiling water. Sides are stated to be $4 each.

I also had the chance to try their chicken strips, tossed in buffalo sauce. Both of which were massively disappointing. The chicken was unseasoned, and barely breaded. The buffalo sauce wasn't even buffalo sauce, it was regular hot sauce that was a heavy vinegar base, to the point it overpowered any flavor the sauce had otherwise.

Last up for the main meals was the patty melt. It was truly an affront to what a patty melt is supposed to be. Whataburger is better for cheaper.

Last overall, dessert. I had the chance to try the banana pudding and the fried oreos. The banana pudding was box banana pudding, with great value vanilla wafers liberally placed on top.

About the best thing I ate at this place was the fried oreos. Truly a Texas State Fair level.

TL:DR, the food is fast food quality for prices that are more expensive than Chili's. I will NOT...

on the advice of SO many people, my family went and gave 11 17 a whirl tonight. i'm so glad we did! i ate all of mine and sampled almost everybody else's just so i could give an honest review :D

we started with the fried jalapenos and pickles. i LOVE the fact that these two fried yummies come together as one appetizer! they were battered and fried to perfection. it comes with a side of ranch, but since i hate ranch, i asked for some thousand island for myself. my daughter ate all the ranch, but me, my husband and my son-in-law all thought the T.I. was an awesome compliment to the peppers. (note to owners, you might consider offering one of each with that platter! it just might become the next 'thing' :) )

i had the monterey chicken breast with hatch chiles, and chose the black eyed peas and asparagus for sides. the chicken was almost on the dry side, but was delicious topped with the cheese, onions and chiles. i loved the black eyed peas, and the asparagus is better than i've had at any other restaurant, ever.

i sampled the fries that came with my husband's pimento cheese burger. he was happy with the burger, and we both loved the fries. they must be lightly battered before frying because they have a wonderful crunch.

likewise, my daughter's tater tots had a nice crunch too. i thought the bite of her chicken fried steak with the gravy that i sampled was very good, although it was a little heavy on the black pepper for her taste. but then again, she is hyper-sensitive to pepper.

i also sampled the green beans. i'm not a huge fan of green beans, and really only like them prepared one way. but as far as green beans go, they were not bad. my son-in-law seemed to like them a lot, and he didn't leave any of his fried chicken for me to taste.

the prices were great, the service was excellent. i think our waiter's name was brad. not sure about that. it wasn't a particularly busy night, and before we left we were entertained by the bartender singing along with the music, which was an old paul mccartney song if i'm not mistaken. LOL, not a bad voice!

the only disappointment for me was that they didn't have any hot cocoa. i was really kinda looking forward to a steaming cup of chocolate with bailey's. i'm going to cross my finger that it gets put on the menu before...