O'Charley's Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Middletown

Full disclosure, this is going to be a long review. I don't even know where to start. We have always gone to the O'Charleys on Miller Lane, but it closed a couple of weeks ago. Before it did, we ordered the Monday carry out only Chicken Tenders and Fries for $5. We have done it many times before, but this time it took forever for them to bring the food to the car so we went it. Person at take out counter said it would be just a couple of minutes but 15 minutes later no food. Then she announced to the crowd of people waiting that someone forgot to take the tenders out of the freezer, so they were out. I had paid with a O'Charleys gift card so she gave us $20 in store coupons that she said could be used just like a gift card. Okay no big deal, but then a couple of days later received an email that that location was closing. So, that brings me to the Middletown store. It is about 30 miles so we decided to go there last night after coming back from Cincinnati.

First of all, the table we were seated at was completely sticky. When I asked the server about it, she said "oh the cleanser we used during covid took the varnish off. All the other tables were revarnished except for this one". What? Then maybe people shouldn't be seated there or better yet, maybe management should get it fixed asap. Before ordering, I explained to our server that I had a gift card, gift coupons and a reward on my O'Charleys account to use (all totaling $48). She seemed very flustered by that and said "she would try to enter them all in" (they weren't busy). Again, what? After ordering, the food took forever and one of the orders was wrong. She did check on us and made sure we had refills. I didn't even realize it was free pie night (since they did away with it for quite a while and then brought it back), so we ordered the pie and told her they were all to go. She brought the pies and the bill. The bill was incorrect with no discounts taken off. I got her attention and she said she gave me the original, not the discounted one. She brought the discounted one back, but it only had the gift card amount taken off not the additional $27. Finally got her attention again and asked her why and said the manager told her no other discounts were allowed on "free pie Wednesday". I told her the coupons were just like a gift card and she said she couldn't use them per her manger. Had I know that, I certainly wouldn't have gotten the pie! Had to get her attention once again to get my $20 coupons back. This was the most unpleasant experience I have ever had at an O'Charleys (I have eaten at quite a few locations in Ohio and Indiana), and I certainly would never eat at this location again. The two main issues I have with this experience, is her not communicating the situation from the start and the manager not coming out him/herself to explain their decisions instead of her. Beware...

The food is usually always good, that's not the issue most of the time at this particular location. But at least the last 3 times I've been, the service has been horrible! I used to be a server, so I'm very patient with service is isn't quite up to par, especially if it appears my server cares and is trying, but may just be having a bad night or is very busy. The last time I was there, our service was absolutely horrible. We went in on a Sunday afternoon, probably around 3pm, after the church rush, so they really weren't busy at all. We were sat right away by a friendly hostess, but then sat there for close to 10 minutes before we were even greeted. Finally ordered our drinks and an appetizer. Our appetizer came out fine, but our server didn't even take our order until either right before it came out, or it may have already been on the table. But obviously, it should've been taken way before that. We finished our appetizer, and then waited for close to 30 minutes. We ordered fried fish, and a medium steak. Nothing that should take that long to cook, and especially when the restaurant is currently slow. Even I was getting mad at this point. Our drinks also sat empty for over 10 minutes at one point, and although the server was in the section attending to his two other tables, and kept looking over at us, he never refilled them until we flagged him down. When he brought the refills, he brought us the wrong drinks back! Finally after waiting on our food for that long, my boyfriend got up to go find a manager. When he got up, our server was nearby, so he asked him where our food was, it had been a long time. To which our server replied, "Well, it's working. It's a 30 min ticket." And then my boyfriend said to him, "exactly! Where is our food?! We didn't order anything that should take that long!". At that point he was so frustrated, he was just ready to leave and didn't even want his food anymore. And this was all after seeing other tables in our section come and go, when they had been seated a good 15 mins after us. I will say that when the manager came over, she was very nice about it and did apologize to us. She even comped our entire meal, and gave us a gift card for our next visit - which, honestly, we'll probably go to another location if and when we do. I'm happy that the issue was resolved that day, but the service has totally suffered in that location. It's really not that hard to give good service. Even if you are busy, having a bad day, or whatever may be going on-don't ignore your patrons! Acknowledge them and let them know you're trying, but you haven't forgotten about them! We tip very well, and all we ask is for our drinks not to sit empty, and give us friendly and efficient service, which unfortunately didn't happen in the...

3/17/2024 We went to O'Charley's, the only remaining one in the local area, in Middletown. It meant driving a 40-minute round trip, but we love(d) their loaded potato soup and thought it was perfect for the Saint Patrick's Day holiday. Sadly, it is not the same. And pictures don't lie. The pic on the left is the cup of loaded potato soup served 3/17/24, and the pic on the right is a bowl of the loaded potato soup served 4 years ago and posted in an online review. Both are from the same Middletown O'Charley's location. The loaded potato soup used to be made from scratch, creamy, delicious, and cheesy potato soup. And it had a fair amount of potatoes in it. What they're serving now tasted and looked like melted Velveeta cheese with two or three slices of potatoes in it, and bacon bits sprinkled on top with some shredded cheese. Not even close. The cup of soup you see in that left picture is what my mom left behind because it was not worth eating. Sadly, our whole meal was a mixture of good and totally awful. My steak was cooked to perfection. It was juicy and delicious. The coleslaw they served was bitter and dry and had a funny off taste. It was not edible. I sent it back for some steamed broccoli, which was served completely plain: no butter, no salt, nothing. My mom's battered fish was excellent, she reported, and my sister tried a bite and concurred. But the tartar sauce served with it was nasty. It smelled like an old damp washcloth. Either it wasn't made fresh or wasn't made with fresh mayonnaise or something. The potato skins appetizers were delicious. But my sister's Cajun shrimp alfredo was another loser. She left the full plate of pasta and veggies with sauce on the table after picking out the few shrimp. Our waitress was very cheerful and friendly and wonderful until our food was served and then we never saw her again. We kept having to stop other passing servers four times for the problems with the food, to get the correct sweetener requested, to get boxes, even to get our bill so we could leave. It happened to be a manager (we think), we stopped to ask for a to-go box, and he noticed my sister wasn't boxing up her meal. When he realized she didn't like it, he wanted to send her with a different meal that she might like since we were ready to leave. That was much appreciated. But, literally for everything that was good, something was equally bad. They never cleared a single plate, cup, dish, bread basket, or anything the entire time we were there. So, our table was a piled mess of unwanted and undesirable food and dishes. When our local O'Charley's closed, I was dismayed. When I learned one remained in Middletown, I was so happy. Now I'm back to mourning the loss of...