Chillfire Bar & Grill — Restaurant in North Carolina

Let me start by saying we've been to Chillfire previously and had a wonderful experience. Thus, my request to celebrate my 50th birthday with our friends and family, many from out of town, at this establishment.

Unfortunately, after much hype from my wife and I regarding how wonderful Chillfire is, last night would prove to be quite the contrary.

Reservation at 6:45 PM for party of 13. Arrived at 6:30 PM. Told our table is currently occupied but should be departing soon as they has already been there for 2 hours. 6:45 passes, 7:00 passes. We begin asking how much longer. Response is "no idea". Ask if there is another option for our party. Response, "no, we are on a wait." Did not get seated until 7:45 PM. One hour after actual reservation.

For our delay they provided us with free appetizers. Very much appreciated and a kind gesture. Would have been perfectly OK had the night been a pleasant experience from that point on, but it only got worse.

Orders placed. We eat appetizers while waiting for meals. Appetizers were good.

Finally bring out entrees. 2 of the 13 orders delivered to us. My filet mignon, ordered medium, cooked well done, and delivered with cold asparagus. My sons filet, ordered medium, cooked well, with cold truffle fries.

We sit waiting for other meals to come, as we are there to eat together. Waited 5 minutes. Nothing. No server. No meals. No explanation. Nothing. Go find manager, tell him about what is happening. He goes to kitchen then comes to our table. Takes my meal, sons meal, and says "all other meals will come in a moment together and ours will just be right behind them."

Shortly thereafter, 9 of the remaining meals are delivered. Not 11, but 9.

Nieces filet mignon, ordered medium, cooked well done. Sister-in-laws meal not delivered. Dads salmon overcooked. Older sons meal, not delivered. Younger son and I still waiting as well for our re-cooked steaks.

Nearly every meal presented to wrong person. Including a waitress trying to present me with our friends ahi tuna. I explain it is not mine. It is for the person next to me. She tries to reach past me instead of going around to him. I lean back..... she continues to try and get across me but can't reach, to the point that I lean my chair back to let her put it in front of him as she is clearly not going to go around me and I fall. No apology. No "are you OK?"

Manager comes back to say my steak will have to be two(2) 8 ounce filets as they are now out of the 12 ounce that we all ordered. I say that's fine. They take my nieces steak back to remake. Deliver sister-in-laws meal. Filet medallions..... ordered medium, cooked well-done. Still no meal for my oldest son. Our replacement steaks not back yet.

Replacement steaks arrive.... mine finally cooked as ordered and youngest sons went from being well-done to rare. Still no meal for oldest son.

Replacement medallions arrive, finally cooked as ordered.... STILL NO MEAL FOR OLDEST SON!

His meal finally arrives, everyone has already eaten or given up. His steak is not even close to medium. It is rare. So rare he couldn't eat it. Took a couple bites, boxed it up to bring home and cook on the grill but too tired by then.

Reservation for 6:45, seated at 7:45, didn't leave the restaurant until 10:30PM. Not a multiple course meal. Not a dinner show. Simply trying to get a nice extended family dinner for my 50th birthday. Didn't happen.

Waiter comes with the bills to tell me they took off my meal, youngest sons meal, and sister-in-laws meal. While much appreciated, sorry... not enough. It was quite possibly the worst group meal we have ever had. My 50th birthday dinner was far from golden!

We will probably never return to Chillfire again. Had they comped the meal (would've gladly paid for the many cocktails and wine) I likely would not return but just chalked it up to a poor experience and not submitted a review. Considering I still paid over $400 for a group meal that was so far from acceptable, here's my thoughts, DON"T GO, especially if in a large group! Poorly executed and poorly...

We love to dine out and had been wanting to try this place for awhile and had finally gotten to it. We had a reservation for 8:15 and our table was ready at the time. We were sat in a corner and the room looked nice. The atmosphere was good. It was a little loud, but we were also sat next to a larger party. No big deal. We unfortunately got sat at the squeakiest table and any movement made it so loud, I couldn't hear my husband over it. We just tried our best to not touch the table at all so it wouldn't squeak. Our server was nice, but would frequently cut us off mid sentence and walk away while talking to us. She also mentioned several times how she was incredibly bored and how "they were trying to get her out of the restaurant on time" Which made us feel rushed. Outside of that, she wasn't rude and she made sure our order was right. We both ordered a cocktail. Both were equally gross. We are usually ones to get two or three drinks on date night, but tonight we stopped after the first one. Lastly, the food was not great. This review is so out of the norm for me. I used to work in a restaurant. I know there are some bad nights, but tonight was definitely a bad night. I hate adding salt to my food. Tonight, I had to add salt to everything. Our steaks that we paid $40 for, were incredibly underseasoned. The steak texture was cooked correctly, but I had to salt my steak. The creamed spinach was my favorite, but I still had to add salt to it. My husband got the pesto risotto and had to add salt to his and his steak. He also got the scallops and mentioned that those were cooked perfectly. I had a fried lobster tail that was all good too and wouldn't change that. Outside of our seafood, everything was very underwhelming and sort of made for a bad date night. I'm not sure if we will be back again. I'm hoping that if we do come back, we find that this was just a once...

Found this place by accident, but glad we did. Decided to have dinner and was pleasantly surprised.

The menu has some interesting preparations, including the angry lobster appetizer. I wanted to like this dish so badly and was really excited about the description, but the execution fell short. The breading was heavy and had a burnt flour taste. I wish they used something lighter like a panko breading, and didn't fry the lobster quite so hard. Also, the dipping sauce was rather bland. A spicy aioli would have been a better compliment. My niece had the Mountain trout dish and said it was just ok. Even though the trout was blackened, it was still under-seasoned and a bit dry.

Now, onto the good stuff. I had the premium aged ribeye topped with roasted garlic brie butter, and it was delicious! Perfectly cooked and wonderfully juicy and flavorful. I had the smoked gouda cauliflower (just ok, and no taste of gouda at all), and the caprese salad, which was great - very fresh and light. I'd probably recommend the mashed potatoes instead of the cauliflower in this case. The steak is highly recommended.

The star of the evening is definitely the bread pudding. They nailed the flavor and added the perfect amount of nuts to balance texture. The creme anglaise and bourbon caramel sauces are absolutely delicious and wonderfully topped the bread pudding. I could drink this stuff; it's that good! Topped with some vanilla ice cream, dessert was to die for!!! Definitely big enough for 2-3 people to share. My niece had the keylime pie. I didn't try it but she enjoyed it and it was also a mile high.

The atmosphere was really nice and casually comfortable, including covered patio dining. Service was really good and staff were friendly. Will definitely be...