Flask & Beaker — Restaurant in Raleigh

I usually don't write reviews, but for the health and safety of anyone who wants to eat here, I thought this was warranted.

Just don't. Not until they get a much needed rehaul of the kitchen and overall management. The 2 servers and 1 bartender, bless their hearts, had to take care of 20-30 tables by themselves on a Friday night. NEVER in my life have I seen a restaurant where a server has to take 10 tables on their own; it's just not possible. It leads to poor customer service. The wait staff did their best and were friendly despite what they were up against, but service was indeed slow. However, I don't fault them for the experience and they aren't the reason for the rating.

My biggest issue was the kitchen, which didn't look all that busy despite the number of tables. If you can't put an order up all at once, you need to retrain. I watched my shrimp and grits sit in the window for at least 15 minutes. The server, who'd seen it sitting there after several passes during that time, still brought it to me while my husband's steak sandwich was still being made. When the steak sandwich came out, it was well done and not rare as stated on the ticket, and included toppings specifically requested to be left off (was able to confirm with the receipt that the requests had been put in with the ticket, but not followed by the kitchen). Worst plate of shrimp and grits I've ever eaten in my life - swimming in grease, lukewarm at best, and not served the way the menu advertised. I couldn't get more than a few bites in before resorting to my husband's fries, by far the best thing we'd been served. Letting food sit that long in the window, especially seafood, and then serving it well under safe serving temp is how you give your customers food poisoning. In my hour there, I watched salads get put under the heat lamp and numerous other plates just sit there waiting for the rest of the order to come up before getting picked up. It's clearly not safe to eat here.

To make it worse, the prices are ridiculous for the quality of food you actually receive. And they have no drink menu, so you don't know what you can actually order unless you sit at the bar and inspect their inventory.

For the appearance of the restaurant, I expected more. Honestly just went and grabbed food...

wow. just wow. I'm only here for 3 days of school and this is the hotel that the school was booked for. I decided to stay in and eat here with a friend for dinner and I'm just speechless. I got the brussel sprouts and my friend got the shrimp as our "Savory" starters and then got the salmon and chicken pesto pasta as our entrees. the glaze on the brussel sprouts was delicious. the shrimp had the perfect level of spice where you could enjoy the heat, yet still realize it was shrimp. entrees were delicious as well. our server talked to us about how she adds her own little spice to the food (mixture of ghost reaper pepper powder and thai chili powder) and brought it out to us to try on our own food and wow it just took it another level. topped it off with a slice of the most AMAZING strawberry cheesecake I have ever had and all I have to say is I'm about to sleep like a baby. thank you Vonny for being such an amazing server and thank you to the chefs for making some of the most delicious food I have ever...

This place is a sad excuse for a hotel restaurant. I eat in hotels at least 3 times a week and this was by far my worse experience. I was offered free breakfast due to my Marriott status. I wasn’t planning to take it, but I woke up late. I walked downstairs and saw a complete mess. First I stood there for a while waiting for a hostess to seat me. Finally a waitress pointed at me and told me to come in. I walked up to her and asked “can i sit anywhere?!”. She said “What, What”. I finally figured out it was free seating. It would have helped to have a sign.

So I look for seating and every single table is dirty. I finally saw a man leaving the bar. I stood around for 10 mins waiting for someone to clean it off and no one dead. I finally said “screw it” and ordered door dash. I went downstairs and the bar was still dirty!!! Yuck! I can’t suggest this restaurant until it is fully staffed. You can’t expect two waiters to keep the...