Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Raleigh

Update: The owner called and invited us to return and give them another opportunity - I was touched by his gesture. We finally went back for another visit in March. And I must say our experience and the food was much better. We did not reveal our previous experience as we wanted to kind of secret shop the place. Overall, I would give it a very good! I would return for special occasions. I updated my rating from a 2 to a 4/5. No one is perfect, right!

Quite Disappointing on Jan 16! First visit and last! We went there for a special birthday celebration of a dear friend. We were a party of 12 so we were quite patient, as we understood. Our 4server, Robert, did not seem well trained or not interested in providing great service. He chastised us a lot about straws, and how we wanted our food prepared, or maybe he thought he was just explaining things. So when you get not so great service you at least hope that your food will be stellar, especially when you spend on $150 for 2 people before tip. Well, it was not the case - my spouse ordered the 14 oz ribeye - it was tough and had no seasoning. The server badgered my spouse in to getting medium well so it would be juicy - but that did not help. I brought it home, seasoned it, and slow cooked about half of it in the oven, in an attempt to tenderize it, but no such success. My conclusion is it either was not a ribeye, or it was a horrible cut of meat for $50 - absolutely shameful. The server also told us that the sides were enough for 2 people to share (especially since they are $15-18 each) so we got the potatoes and spinach, and my spouse also got the wedge salad for $15 - it was literally a wedge with about a cup of bleu cheese dressing. The Fleming potatoes, which were good, can easily be shared between 2 people but the spinach was no where close. We proceeded to advise the manager and he gave us another portion to make it truly shareable. One other positive is that my salmon was pretty good, but it's a steak house, so I would expect the steak to be topnotch! I also spoke to a manager (black female - don't recall her name, and she never gave it) early on about our friend's birthday so she said she would come over and check on us, and bring him a complimentary dessert. She never came by to check or bring a dessert. So we asked another manager (white male - again, didn't offer name but it was the same man who helped with the spinach) and he offered our friend a dessert or a glass of champagne. This experience was like pulling teeth. My spouse and I were just 2 in a large party, but I can assure you that everyone at the table felt this was a very disappointing experience as that was what we discussed during dinner, and I highly doubt any of them would ever go back. Also, we were told only one reward account could be used per table, although we had separate checks and several people with their reward cards. No heat in the bathrooms - Hey, maybe they are going out of business soon - if so, they will not be missed. Pretty...

I've always loved coming here. However, after last night, I'll probably never go back. My friend and I went to celebrate my birthday. They were busy, which is normal, but we sat at our booth for 30min before anyone came to say hello. When he came he had waters and the bread basket ready to go to save time. He apologized, explaining he had the private party and this table and they were short staffed. We completely understood and had no issues. We gave him out full order from drinks to meal to help him out. That was 1 of the 3 times we ever saw him. Our alcohol drinks were brought out pretty promptly. Our appetizers took longer. The soup was so hot from sitting under the warming lamps it burnt my throat. When the sides came out you could tell they sat for a very long time under the lamps, the asparagus was wrinkled and ends were too hard to chew. The mashed potatoes were hardened. My steak came out well done when I ordered medium well. You couldn't chew it. I sat there waiting for him to come ask how it was but he never showed. Being very hungry I tried to eat the steak and an hour later with him still not stopping by I got a hostess. Prior to that we didn't get water refills till flagging another person over. The coke I ordered never came. I get it, your busy and over staffed but we still were customers. The manager showed up, she took the food and got a steak made correctly for me and replaced the sides. After she and the hostess came, our waiter shows up. He's funny and nice but full of excuses, and no accountability at all. Everything was someone else's fault. This is the 2nd time we saw him. The 3rd time was him dropping the checks off saying he took our drinks off as a favor. It was to my understanding the steak and sides were also supposed to be removed. At this point I'm just ready to get out of there. He didn't box up my food either, I just happened to find a box sitting near me on the wooden rail by the seasonal display and got up to get it. He came back to bring us our cards, he took my lemon drop glass and set it on the tray, put the tray on the wooden seat back right behind me. When he rush off grabbing his tray he dumped the remaining drink down my back and a Blueberry landed on me too. When I go to spend that kind of money, I expect it to be worth it. I chalked this experience up to being like I ate at the Applebee's. Save yourself the headache and just go eat at the Capitol Grill in North Hills. That's the kind of service Flemings used to have but seem to no longer have. The photo is of the drink spill on the wood above where I sat. I was wearing all black so thankfully nobody could see it going down my back. Oh and he said on his 2nd visit he'd bring the dessert menu but never did. The table beside us also had an issue and got their steak comp. Again I get your busy, it could have just been a cook issue but the fact the waiter never showed his face when it mattered it becomes an entire restaurant issue. So disappointed and what a horrible...

I made a reservation at Fleming's for our company Christmas dinner celebration. It was our first time dining here, but given the great reviews and fine dining status, I expected a wonderful experience.

Upon arrival, it was a solid 15 plus minutes after being seated before we were even addressed by a server. Looking around the restaurant, there seemed to be plenty of servers given the number of seated tables at the time, but certainly understand that sometimes things are happening behind the scenes that can slow things down. When our server did finally come over, she was lovely and very kindly let us know that things were a little slow that evening so being a table full of people who had previously worked in restaurants and understand how that goes, we were more understanding than most. We proceeded to order drinks from the bar while we were still perusing the menu.

Another 15 or so minutes goes by and we still have no drinks, no waters, nothing. Our server comes back, explains that the bar had a mishap and had broken a glass in the ice and the ice had to be burned and the cooler cleaned. Again, bummer, but we understood. At this point, we did receive a round of waters for the table. We finally received our drinks from the bar and many in our party would have ordered more drinks but simply didn't want to have to wait again due to the extreme delay in getting them initially.

Then it took quite a significant amount of time for our food to make it to our table. When the food arrived, most everything was great except one person in our party received a steak that was not cooked to proper temperature, it had been ordered medium rare and was cooked medium. Again, could have been a mistake, maybe the server misheard. It was promptly addressed by a manager and a new steak was put on. Unfortunately, this steak too took a long time to come out, the rest of the party had finished their meal. This steak also came out incorrectly, rarer than rare. It was put back on the grill a third time and still came out incorrectly. At this point, the party was completely finished eating and the person declined to have any further remedies for his meal. Yes, the manager comped the steak and their drinks and offered gift cards for the mishap, but at the end of the day this person still did not get to eat their meal and it is not encouraging that a steakhouse would have such trouble managing to cook a nice steak to the correct temperature. Especially after it had come out incorrectly one time, it should have been assured to have been correct the second time. I was very disappointed with the experience overall considering this restaurant has the status of being a fine dining establishment and it certainly put a damper on our celebration (which was mentioned in the reservation notes but was also not acknowledged like many other tables who were also celebrating...