Charcoal Grill — Restaurant in Oak Creek

We arrived at 8:15 and the restaurant was noticeably slow. We were seated and greeted quickly. We gave our drink orders, which came back wrong (and bud my bottle and a coors light draft). They came reversed, coors my bottle bud light draft. No big deal, they switched the bottle and I kept the draft. We ordered our food. Appetizer of boneless chicken wings were good. Buffalo sauce was not spicy but had a good flavor. Definitely not from scratch. Our entrees took almost 35 minutes to come out, 20 minutes after out appetizer. We had specifically asked the server not to hold our food because our child was hungry and it was getting late. My 3yo ordered the kids rotisserie chicken and fries. Chicken had an odd color and flavor so of course she wasn’t in to it, but she crushed her fries. I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich with crispy chicken and onion strings. It came out with rotisserie chicken which was super chewy and barley warm. The onion strings were very soggy and greasy. My husband ordered a medium bacon cheeseburger, which he described as flavorless and charred. I sampled he bacon and it was exactly that. His tator tots were also over cooked and greasy. We asked for another beer, but we’re told that the bar closed at 9 and there was no one to get a bottle of bud light. Our server told us the manager apologized but that soft drinks were still available. The server came to ask us how food was and we told her the chicken was off and the burger was sub par at best. She apologized and said she would get us the check. No manager was called, no chance to order dessert, which my husband was still wanting to order since he didn’t get to eat his dinner. We paid the check and were standing to leave when the dishwasher came out of the kitchen, leaned over the booth wall, and asked if that was the last of the dirty dishes.

One or two of these I can totally understand. I have worked EVERY position in the restaurant business. I want to be understanding, but this was an awful experience. The positives I can say was that my server was at attentive, although not great at ringing in the correct order. We were seated and greeted promptly. The place looked cleaned, especially the booths they were sweeping out right next to our table. We...

Charcoal Grill always holds a special place in my heart, as I used to work at the Franklin location for 5+ years, before it suddenly closed. I've always tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, as I've always found their food to be good, BUT they have barely changed their menu in YEARS (90% of their menu is the same, along with the weekly specials). I've also found that they've always seemed to attract a portion of terrible servers/employees and their food is generally inconsistent - depending on the head cook of the day/night.

I was so excited to hear that CG was coming back to the Oak Creek/Franklin area, hoping that they'd revitalize their menu and seek better employees. I've tried this location a couple of times now and have found their staff/customer service to be terribly lacking and find myself so frustrated that I can't wait to leave.

The one manager I seem to encounter each time appears less than enthused to be there - not very welcoming by any means and the staff always looks confused, inattentive and pre-occupied with everything else but their customers.

I learned how to serve, deal with customers and truly took pride in it, because that's how you make a living. There is nothing more frustrating than your server not introducing themselves, so you can look obnoxious by waving your hands to get their attention because they forgot your silverware, don't refill your beverage after they JUST delivered your food and saw that you were nearing the bottom of your drink and eventually have to get up to find them for extra napkins, a side of sauce they forgot or your bill to finally leave.

Charcoal Grill-OC, you have a beautiful venue and such great potential, but you need to TRAIN your staff! "Serving 101"/"Customer Service 101" is certainly not taking place and you will continue to lose business if these experiences keep occurring to your customers.

Good food is always a great component, but consumers are dining and spending their money at your venue for the service and experience too.

In my opinion, its about quality over quantity- and that holds true for...

We were promptly seated on a Sunday afternoon, a little past 4. There were just a few customers inside, pretty quiet. After our host took us to our table, we waited a good 10 minutes before our server came by. She apologized after asking whether we were being helped by anyone. She was very nice about it, but I did wonder, since it looked like she was the only server working at the time, so who else would be helping us? It was fine though, since we weren't in any kind of a hurry and overall enjoying one another's company.

The Traditional Long Island - $8 menu says "keep the cup!" In case you're wondering, it's a plastic cup, not a glass. Hubby said the drink itself was ok. Whether I can keep the cup or not, though, I don't like to drink alcohol out of a glass glass, so I'd rather just get the drink in a glass cup that I don't get to keep.

Chopped Cobb with Petit Fillet - $20 The 5 oz fillet was pretty good and cooked to a perfect medium, though they could have eased up on the salt a bit. The veggies weren't the most fresh I've seen, some wilted, and some with brown spots.The avocado tasted funny. I don't know how to explain it, but it felt more rubbery (?) than I'm used to, and had a tangy flavor. Overall, disappointed for a $20 salad. (I've found a local restaurant that makes a mean steak salad for $14, with an absolutely heaping mound of fresh greens. I don't like to compare, but I couldn't help but do so)

Charcoal Burger Not the best thing out there, but tasty.

Sunday Rib Special - $10 Ribs were OK, and the onion fries were also tasty. Great price! Four pieces are not enough for a grown man, but perfect for me.

There is a sign at the front desk: "we impose a surcharge on credit cards that is not greater than our cost of acceptance." There is another one that says "We impose a surcharge of 3% on the transaction amount on credit card products which is not greater than our cost of acceptance."

Lingo sounds very legal, but basically means they will charge you 3% for using a credit card. Pretty cheap for a restaurant of this size...