Epicure and Jacks Tavern — Restaurant in Millbrook

My friend and I were 1st time visitors to this restaurant for brunch. It was our first and last time we’ll be patronizing them mainly due to lack of professionalism, horrible customer service, and distasteful food which was all addressed with one of the owners who was totally disrespectful and argumentative because he was absolutely confident his restaurants’ food was outstanding due to senators and legislators dining at the restaurant.

I ordered Steak N’ Eggs. The menu described the dish as a 14 oz. NY strip steak, sherry peppercorn sauce, matchstick fries, and 2 eggs. As pictured, you can see there’s no sherry peppercorn sauce and the potatoes are not matchstick fries. My friend and I ordered the same exact dish. Our steaks were requested to be cooked medium well. Although the steaks are blackened on the outside, they were completely raw on the inside probably due to the thickness of the steak and they were cooked too fast on the outside.

I cut the steak and take 1 bite and see the extreme redness and blood releasing from the steak and inform the server it’s undercooked. He asks if I want them to cook it more. I stated no, I didn’t because I don’t like my steak taken off the grill, it cools down, and then recooked. It never turns out right and ends up tough and overcooked, especially considering how dark it was on the outside. I knew it was going to be a disaster. Therefore, I asked for them to just give me the chicken parmesan dish.

Shortly thereafter, a gentleman comes to the table who I initially thought was a manager, but he tells me he’s one of the owners. He literally starts the conversation with he can’t take the steak off my bill because that’s what he makes his money on and that if I ordered a new dish, I’d have to pay half price for the steak. I tell him how the steak was tremendously undercooked, flavorless, and tough. He’s absolutely appalled by my comment because people travel far to eat at his restaurant, he ages his steaks 30 days, legislators and senators eat at the restaurant, and no one has ever said that about the food. Yet, my friend and I are both showing him the undercooked steak and have the same opinion about the steak had absolutely no seasoning. Then he tells us that they don’t cook steaks past medium and it’s written all over the menu and how it destroys the meat. First of all, there was nothing written on the brunch menu about steak temperatures. It’s on the dinner menu. Therefore, I wasn’t aware because it wasn’t on the menu and it was my 1st visit. Secondly, if they’re not going to cook it at the temperature I requested, I should be informed when I made my order and I would have chosen something else to order. If the server knew it was going to come out medium, he should have told us. Also, I told him if the cook knew what he was doing, he could cook the steak to medium well as so many other restaurants within the area. He proceeds to insult other businesses and says restaurants like Perry’s Steakhouse steaks aren’t good and that customers drive from Birmingham just to eat their steaks.

Clearly, we saw we weren’t going to get anywhere with the owner and told him no one was looking for anything free, we ordered what we wanted, and came with the intent of paying for our food. Therefore, this was not anyone trying to get a free meal. Besides, he clearly saw I sent the steak back at the beginning of the meal. The resolve was they reheated the steak, it was overcooked, tough and unseasoned, I requested some au jus to give it some flavor and moisture since I hadn’t eaten anything prior to visiting the restaurant and was hungry, and I was paying $50 for the meal. Therefore, I ate it, made the best of the situation, and told the owner I’d never come back again, which he agreed he wouldn’t go back either if someone messed up his food. My friend and I literally laughed about the situation and said clearly they don’t know the best form of advertising is still word of mouth and personal recommendations and reviews. They will not stay in business long treating customers in...

I’m disappointed to be leaving this review since I really appreciate the goal of this particular restaurateur. He’s taken the location through a couple of transformations; “Epicure” being the newest.

I convinced my mom to take me here for my birthday steak instead of Longhorn. We walked in and the place was empty except for one table of 6 who were finishing up. Our server was also the one to seat us. We just left (it’s now 3pm) and we were sat just before 2pm. The lunch menu is from 11-4 - my mom was happy to see a lunch meat and 3 on offer and ordered the pot roast with sides. I ordered my steak off the dinner menu, compound butter on the side, subbing the baked potato and adding broccolini.

Tap water had a funky taste, like dental impression compound. Our server came back to let my mom know they were out of the roast but had pork chops. She can’t have pork and there was nothing else on the lunch menu that wasn’t fried or a sandwich so she ordered the scallops with baked potato off the dinner menu.

Fast forward, mom’s plate of scallops was brought out to the table first. No cutlery or sides yet. Server let her know the baked potatoes were just being made for dinner and suggested the mashed potatoes before asking if we needed anything else - we had to ask for cutlery. -_-

A few minutes later mom’s side came out and we had to send the scallops back because they were still clear gray! Barely opaque on the very edges - the server took it back no questions. Mom sat with her side of potatoes while I continued to wait for my food. Mind you, we were now the only patrons in the restaurant.

When my food came out, the steak and broccolini were swimming in the melted compound butter I asked for on the side, which was annoying. Although the steak had a great char on it, it was a touch too done (I always order medium rare.) The attached photos give you an impression of the upscale look the owner is going for.

Mom’s scallops came out again and they now had an extra layer of cheese, which was suspicious. Why add more cheese? What were they hiding?

Since we both ended up ordering off the dinner menu, a bread basket or something would have been nice but it was, understandably, still lunch.

Our server apologized for all the hiccups and was sweet, however, the owner, the guy I had put my faith in, commented “ya’ll get enough?” as we were getting up to leave. I was off-put by the question, but replied that the portions weren’t the problem.

Mom let him know he should speak to the kitchen staff because her scallops were raw (he seemed to already know and was about to say something) then I added that she wanted the pot roast but they were out. He snapped back with “they eat that up quick! We only prepare so much by design. You gotta get here early. That’s how we keep our prices down.” Still not acknowledging my mom’s raw scallop issue, she added, “and my daughter asked for butter on the side of her steak” to which he justified with “well that is on me because I don’t allow them to put the butter on the side.” Whaaa??? Mom was quick with “of course not, that’s where the only flavor of the steak came from.” He didn’t like that and touted how the steak is a favorite and it is what pays the bills. How egotistical to assume you know better on how I should eat my steak!

We turned away to walk out and he said “well thanks for checking us out” which is a defeatist attitude if you ask me. He’s not trying to improve his offerings or cater to the community who is apparently paying his bills.

Oh, they also didn’t offer us the dessert menu despite mom clearly mentioning my bday to them….a very unhappy birthday to me, I guess.

I will be sure to let my family, friends, and colleagues know how disappointing our...

We live local and love to Support the Locally owned restaurants. However I hope we just picked a bad night as we chose this past Saturday (8.17.24) we were promptly greeted at the door and within a few minutes sat at a table. We were sat at a low and long rectangular table with 4 chairs ( party of two ) in the bar area . No other tables were in this area and the Bartender was our waiter. Our Service was Horrible, I think the bartender kept forgetting about us. he was much more of a bartender than a Server. He took a long time to get our drinks ( 20 min at least ) and never asked if he could get us anything else anytime he came to our table. I feel like because we were at a low table in that section that we kept being overlooked. Our Cocktails were empty my husband has to stand up and go to the bar to get a refill on his Old Fashioned. When another 20 min went by he brought his drink, we had finished our meal . I sat with a empty glass too, as we were never offered any refills . We were not told about any specials. I even mentioned it was our 1st time there and no response or action to that. No Recommendations for anything from our Bartender / Waiter . For the prices at Epicure , which is well over $60 minimum Per Person, we would have expected MUCH MUCH Better Service. I would recommend putting High top tables in place of the Low Long Rectangular and if possible , have a Server not the Bartender for those tables. On a Friday or Saturday night the bartender should probably just make drinks only , because his Waiter service is extremely sub par. I don't really know what you need to do differently but we left very disappointed after all the great things we had heard about this place and I felt like you should know. I will have to really think twice before we go back to...