Ember Modern American Tavern — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

We arrived for our reservation at 1:30 p.m. for a nice Father's Day lunch to a nearly empty restaurant and no table for our party of six. Dariel, our waiter, was timid but seated us quickly.

We ordered three waters, which contained many "floaties" as if the glasses hadn't been cleaned or, perhaps, the napkins were being stored in them, and three teas, which were refilled on occasion.

Next, we ordered an appetizer, a charcuterie board for the table that cost a whopping $24 and included prepackaged, processed meats and cheeses that one might buy as a matter of necessity, not luxury. The charcuterie board also featured tomatoes, celery, and carrot sticks, which were the safest and hardest to mess up. (Thank God!)

The table ordered a burger, two entrée salads, tortellini, and two chicken sandwiches. The burger (Mind you: this is a "tavern"!) was nearly raw, with seemingly bloodied, stringy entrails falling out of the middle. This, of course, was sent back, comped, and resolved, though to no real satisfaction because the new burger came as everyone else was finished, without pickles or seasoning.

The salads included added shrimp and chicken, respectively. The shrimp seemed to have been precooked who knows how long ago, if not prepackaged cooked. The chicken was dry as a bone, sapping the saliva out of one's mouth and replacing it with a powdery sandstorm my floaty water couldn't sate. Nevermind the portion of chicken was hardly worth $2, let alone the $7 they charged. A $21 salad that was no larger than the average side salad. The tortellini and chicken sandwiches were fine, albeit pricey.

Dear reader, I'll bet you're wondering why we chose this place. The menu on Google Maps posted by the restaurant looks phenomenal and was easily half the price of the meal we got. Everything seemed prepackaged, processed and badly prepared. We saw several couples enter and leave as they were not being helped, and those that did get help were met with a litany of caveats (bar is closed, no chilled glasses, one kind of fries, etc.).

Our waiter, so timid, is not to blame for all of this, though his confidence would have made the experience palatable. Instead, we debated walking the tab because of the poor quality and several (7-10) minutes between when we'd ever see the server again.

You need not test the waters, dear reader. There is no water worth...

This might be my first bad review of a restaurant. Normally if it’s not a 5 star experience I’ll keep it to myself, but this entire experience was just disappointing. I was truly excited when I happened on this restaurant scrolling through google. I have lived in the area for quite a while, so finding a restaurant with good reviews and an interesting menu had me quite intrigued and wondering how I had not heard of it before. First off the menu I found online is not at all what was in the restaurant. Very very limited menu, literally 3 entrees to choose from. I went for the chicken Marsala, and almost started laughing when he dropped my plate off. The chicken was the size you’d expect if you added grilled chicken to a small salad. Maybe 5 ounces, and this was for an entree. It actually tasted pretty good, would’ve been a lot better if it was served right after it was made. It had clearly been sitting before coming to me and was just warm at best. Also the entire experience was incredibly slow, and I was literally one of 3 people in the whole restaurant. I had one drink (which was way overpriced compared to anywhere else) and their cheapest entree, and it all cost me $50 to still leave hungry. Well at least I can cross this one off my list, as I certainly won’t be...

My friend & I ordered spinach on our omelets. Server said "we are out of spinach." Just like me, my friend ordered a sde order of bacon. The server heard & listed, but when my friend's meal was served, there was not a single bacon in sight. I ordered a CUP of grits, came was a BOWL of grits. Lastly, I ordered (regular) COKE. Our server served me PEPSI in a PLASTIC CUP. And this is at Waterford! ...