Char Restaurant — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

I had dinner Friday evening with a guest, and in general, I was very disappointed. We arrived at 4:55 for our 5:15 reservation, and the hostess offered to get us from the bar when our table was ready. A young man approached us with water and after a few minutes returned with menus. I asked for the happy hour menu, and he said he didn't think the restaurant has happy hour on the weekend. I was puzzled after reading about it online, seeing the sign in front of the restaurant about it, and discussing it with the hostess; he said he would check on it. After a few more minutes waiting for confirmation, he was out of menus and could not say with any specificity what the specials were. I ordered a cocktail and my guest ordered wine. While waiting, a nearby couple, who arrived after us, receive both beverages and food. At 5:25, the hostess approached, and when I told her that we were still waiting for our drinks, she advised me to let her know once we had closed out at the bar. Our beverages arrived at this time, and she agreed to have our tab transferred to our table at my request. Within a few minutes, we went to the host stand to be seated, and she did not look at us or speak to us; she only spoke to her coworker for our table assignment. At the table, a young man silently appeared at the table and began filling water glasses. He only spoke when I thanked him for filling my glass and then was gone. When he returned several minutes later to take our order, I was shocked to learn that this person who did not greet us or introduce himself was, in fact, our server. While placing our order, he did not offer any upgrades (steak sauces, etc.) or options (e.g. baked potato toppings) or share information about the menu. The server assistant, Kylan, checked on us and offered bread while we waited for appetizers and he, aside from a brief exchange with the young lady who sat us, was the only positive interaction at Char. Kylan was polite, accommodating, and far more professional than our server, whose name I learned only on my receipt: Nathan. I worked in a white tablecloth steakhouse myself, so I'm familiar with the standard of service in an establishment of this sort, and our treatment in the bar, at the host stand, and in the dining room was woefully sub-par. We saw our server enthusiastically welcome the pair of women at the next table. We saw servers warmly introducing themselves to patrons. We saw what appeared to be shift managers (women in green tops and black blazers) visiting tables to chat with patrons. Despite debating leaving various times before our meal, we had hoped the food would redeem our experience. The crab cakes were good. The wedge salad was normal. The steaks were overdone (we ordered medium rare; one was medium and the other was medium well; we declined to send them back at Nathan's offer). The creamed spinach was salty, overcooked, and cheapened by a sprinkling of melted cheese on top. The red wine mushrooms were vinegary. The food in no way redeemed the level of service and overall experience. Having been the only African-American patrons in the dining room, I'm compelled to wonder whether our poor service was racially motivated. I honestly hate to say this, but what I hated even more was how a night we had looked forward to as a holiday celebration for business was ruined by the awful service at Char. Kylan was the sole highlight. Uninformed and rude employees on top of aggressively average food; this was a deeply disappointing experience. I would not recommend Char...

Last night my Foodie Buddy and I went to Char Restaurant. when we entered we were warmly greeted and seated immediately. The menu offers a variety of dishes that include some Cajun flavors along with an interesting mix of ingredients. We started with a couple of beers from Grayton Beer Company called 30A Beach Blonde Ale. This is a slightly sweet Ale but very crisp and refreshing, I will be searching for a six-pack of this beer for the weekend! When asked if you would like bread…say yes. The warm baguette with soft butter is really good!

Appetizer: There’s a lot to choose from here and you could design a meal just around appetizers. We shared an order of Crab Claws and I must say TOP 5 of appetizers I have enjoyed! You can get them fried or sautéed or a mix which is what we ordered. Now the fried are good…but the sautéed are incredible so I would recommend ALL sautéed. Don’t be shy…scoop some of the seasoning on the little claw and enjoy. You’ll get a slight amount of heat, but the combination of seasonings with the oil is exquisite. While the rest of dinner was exceptional, I could have done a couple of orders of these with a beer and considered Char to be Heaven on Earth when it comes to appetizers!

Dinner: We selected the Tuna Nicoise…a salad that has crisp baby greens, PERFECTLY seared Ahi Tuna, artichoke hearts, tomato, egg, haricot verts, capers, with a honey white balsamic dressing. OK…it’s a salad BUT hands down the BEST salad I have ever enjoyed. The Ahi Tuna filets could have been a meal all to themselves they were that good!

The 8oz Filet with a green peppercorn sauce, jumbo lump crab cake, and a loaded baked potato was so darn good. The steak was cooked perfectly and the seared butter crust helped this steak to melt in your mouth. Adding a dollop of the green peppercorn sauce really put this steak over the top and is highly recommended. The crab cake didn’t have a bunch of fillers, mayo, seasoning, or sauces…just pure jumbo crab meat with some herbs and a drizzle of lemon tarragon butter. This was one of the best crab cakes I have had in a very long time and it paired well with the steak!

Unfortunately there was no room for dessert but they have some yummy looking offerings. Service was impeccable and overall cost to the enjoyment of the meal…well worth the price...

**edit: Char has been wonderful in receiving our feedback. I had a call from the manager and even received a generous gift card in the mail! We plan to give them another chance, and I hope I can provide a positive update! Thanks for so generously receiving our feedback and for the gift card!!

We had a terrible experience at Char this evening. We arrived for an 8:00 reservation for a party of 4. We ordered cocktails (delicious and the only reason this review gets 2 stars instead of 1). Our appetizer came out a little slow, but we didn’t think too much about it, and it was downhill from there. We ordered entrees, salads and a bottle of wine to pair with our steaks. While waiting for salads bread was delivered. Nothing to write home about, a baguette that was warmed and butter that was frozen. Our wine came out next, and salads were slow to be delivered. They tasted okay, again, nothing too exciting and not anything I couldn’t have made at home. When our server came out to clear the table, she left the dirty salad plates on a concrete barrier next to the table for at least 30 minutes. From there our steaks (which we ordered around 9:00) didn’t come out until 9:50. At this point, our bottle of wine was gone, and our friends (regulars at this restaurant) who have children at home and a babysitter had to cash out before our food was even delivered because they only had a babysitter until 10:30. During this exceptionally long wait we watched the table next to us receive their salads, entrees, and dessert, all while our table sat and waited for steaks. Our server only came out to our table once to refill water. When our food finally arrived, all of our steaks were under cooked and our twice baked potatoes were hard and inedible. We had also ordered Brussels for the table but they didn’t come out at all. When we asked what the delay was on our food, the server didn’t seem to think it an issue. We were comped our Side salads ($5 each), a sad repair for a disastrous experience. Terrible service, mediocre food, and not at all worth the...