Gershwin's — Restaurant in Norfolk

I unfortunately cannot in good conscience recommend Gershwin's for dining. Last night, my family and I went to the restaurant for my sister's birthday celebration. She had picked it out and all week would call us and let us know how excited she was to dine there. The day of, my brother in law and I spoke of how excited we were to enjoy the smoked old fashions. The expectations were high but unfortunately Gershwin's dropped the ball and brought a shovel to reach new levels of underperformance. Our reservation was 6:30 PM, we dropped the girls off 15 minutes early then my brother in law and I went to park down the street. We arrived 7:00 PM/7:15 PM and found that no drinks had arrived, despite being sat next to the bar. This continued for another 15ish minutes where we finally met out waiter, Justin. Justin made it clear from the start that we were not a priority, I'm unsure if we intimated him or if he didn't like us, I have no idea. But the night took a nosedive from here. Around 7:30 PM my mother received her first drink, a flat Diet Coke (again we have been here for an hour) and my siblings received their drinks within the next 5 minutes. 10 minutes later, Justin came back for the smoked old fashion show, only to depart for 20 minutes while the drinks were smoking for what should have been 2 minutes. We had to flag down another server to retrieve Justin as we did not feel comfortable grabbing the drinks ourselves. Again, not to beat a dead horse, but things only got worse. Appetizers and salads arrived around 20 minutes later. The escargot had baguettes burnt to midnight, but were good otherwise and the Onion Soup was gross and off. Crab dip, fried shrimp, and Crab bisque were all great, I highly recommend with the note that this restaurant is mainly for date night, their plates do not do well with 4+ people sharing and this was not something noted ahead of time. Now we get to the salads, two Caesar salads that came out brown and resembling something that was cooked in a car after being forgotten. Disgusting and sent back to the kitchen. Justin returned and informed us that the Cook had noted the dressing uses an ingredient that causes the salad to appear brown. My counter to that is, even if the dressing uses 24k Gold Leaves, if it looks like garbage on a plate and if it looks like garbage under the yellow lights in the establishment then it should not leave the kitchen. We were given house salads as replacements, and they were delicious according to my family. My brother in law was getting on edge due to the very poor performance we were seeing from the restaurant, so he stopped drinking around this time. My sister said the wine she had (apologies I forget the name) was very good across the night. My brother enjoy a Chocolate Martini, which was amazing, and a White Russian that was very good. At this point, I switched from the Smoked Old Fashion to Whiskey Sours. I personally would not recommend these, for a restaurant that prides itself on displaying various high end whiskey bottles to its patrons, it was really low effort and very much seemed like the Bartender had never made one before. Entrees arrived, my sister needed to return her steak to the kitchen as it was under cooked, and it truly hit us at this moment as to what a mistake we made coming to Gershwin's to eat. I will say, no one else had any issues with their food. We realized that we wanted to get out of this place as quickly as possible, so we got the check from Justin and promptly left. One note I did note include earlier was that Henry on the piano was magnificent. A great part of the night was listening to him play and sing some unexpected songs, he was an absolute joy to watch perform. I think Gershwin's might work on a date night, but most likely would be best just heading to the bar. We had heard such amazing things about this restaurant from other friends, this cannot be the norm. However the failure we experienced from the restaurant was such a high magnitude dumpster fire, I cannot recommend it and I will not be returning...

Gershwin’s is a dinner spot my wife and I had made a yearly tradition since December 2020. We skipped on it this December, but decided to make it our Valentines weekend dinner for this year. I took a look at the reviews beforehand, and was a little anxious about going back after patterned reviews of delayed service. I tried to locate a menu and could not find a current menu (I think last one was posted 2018?). The website itself lacks detailed information on the food and drinks provided and their prices.

As always, the environment of Gershwin’s was warm. The live music and ambiance is what brought my wife and I to this restaurant a few years ago, and they continue to smash this aspect of their dining out of the park. We were sat fairly quickly, and unlike other times where we sat upstairs, we were sat in the downstairs back corner. It was a unique perspective on the restaurant, however, I felt we were isolated from the atmosphere, and not in a good way.

We started with a couple cocktails and a Buffalo chicken dip. The Buffalo chicken dip was good, with the Buffalo not overpowering as it can be. The serving size to me was a bit small, however, I understand this is typical. My one comment about ordering drinks as that I felt as though a bourbon menu by glass pricing would be beneficial. Our waitress was running back and forth trying to answer my questions about their pricing, and so while their bourbon selection is extensive, more information regarding their pricing would be appreciated.

My wife and I both ordered the Filet Mignon medium rare. The taste and tenderness of the steak was perfect. My biggest critique of the night was that the steak did not have a sear, just a couple light grill lines. With the best restaurants that I’ve had steak at, and when I cook my own steak, the sear is one of the most flavorful and impacting components of a steak. It was disappointing that this steak had no sear, which I felt could’ve made this steak from good to great.

We ended the night on crème brûlée and chocolate mousse cake, which there were no comments on. The desserts were perfect and arrived in timely fashion.

Overall service was fairly pleasant. Our waitress worked hard to serve my wife and I throughout the night while being triple sat right after we were sat. We were also told that our waitress was sat at the front and back of the restaurant, which was impressive on her end at the level of care she took to making sure we were taken care of. The waits were a little lengthy, but this was to be expected with the volume the restaurant had for a Valentines weekend dinner. She was very apologetic, but my wife and I were very understanding of the situation, and really, it could’ve been worse. Another comment is that we were advised that they no longer served the ribeye. I thought the fact they were providing an out of date menu was interesting.

Gershwin’s used to be worth the cost for my wife and I, but I found that the cost of dinner did not match the quality/quantity of food that we received. It almost feels like you’re paying for the experience itself rather than the food. Atmosphere-wise Gershwin’s is perfect for a date night. I would just look for other options...

What a joke. Think you have a reservation? Don’t be so sure. This could happen to you. I made a reservation for dinner on my one night visiting Norfolk. I showed up on time after dropping $17 on parking across the street. When I gave the hostess my name, she said breezily, “We don’t have any tables, so it’ll have to be at the bar, is that OK?” The bar was swamped, shoulder-to-shoulder. Really? You expect me to sit and enjoy a 3-course dinner at an obnoxiously crowded bar —and when I made a reservation? So I say, “No, that’s not OK. I want a table.” “I’ll see what I can do,” she said. Then a man I perceived to be a supervisor offered to stick me upstairs, “but it’ll have to be at a high top bar table, or along the bar rail.” I find that kind of seating uncomfortable. So that was a no-go. I was told, “We don’t know why Open Table let you reserve, because blah-blah-blah.” Not my problem, friend. Meanwhile, ALL of the tables in the entire front dining room were unoccupied and set!!! What kind of clowns are running this circus? What kind of call was that? Oh, and did I mention the guy on the piano was AWFUL? This is supposed to be a piano bar and the guy on the keys sang like ME, and trust me, that’s bad. Overall, a crappy, clumsy, and unsophisticated experience. So I left and wound up at a depressing chain restaurant instead. I think Gershwin’s should refund my freakin’ parking. Yeah, I’m ticked off. UPDATE: You will see that Gershwin’s posted a response to my review. They’re lying in an attempt to save face, which means management is even worse than I initially suspected. Their response states, “Open Table shows that you had a reservation and cancelled…”. Yes, I had a reservation, but I never cancelled it. As a matter of fact, Gershwin’s cancelled it after I arrived. I can prove it, because after leaving Getshwin’s I received an automated email from Open Table saying, “Gershwin’s cancelled your reservation,” then suggesting I call the restaurant directly to find out why. The email was clearly timestamped after my departure. I immediately thought, “Why would you bother to cancel the reservation you refused to accommodate, unless you were trying to clean up evidence that you screwed up?” Funny that the next day they would post a lie in response to my review, claiming that Icancelled my own reservation!! Why am I bothering to document all of this? Because I’m sick of businesses not holding up their end of a deal. I’m also sick of businesses that are too weak and whiny to own up to their errors, so they try to deflect the blame onto the consumer. I’m willing to bet any reader of this review has experienced something similar in their day-to-day transactions. The facts are plain: Gershwin’s refused to honor my reservation. They refused to seat me when there were many available tables. (I can’t help wondering why.) Then they got caught in a public lie after cancelling my reservation and then blaming it on me. You’ve got to be kidding me, Gershwin’s. Gershwin’s of Norfolk should be avoided for dining, and should especially not be relied upon for corporate or special events. You’re just asking for problems. I will be reaching out about reimbursement for my parking. I work too hard...