Oak Steakhouse — Restaurant in Raleigh

Honestly, I was feeling pretty ok about this place until it came to dessert. The service was good, but incredibly slow (which is somewhat expected with a party of 8, but we waited 40 minutes after sitting to order our entrées). The bread was good, but salty (which I prefer to underseasoned bread, so ok). My lamb chops, which I ordered medium rare, came out medium well, which is criminal, but they were edible. The sides were good except the carrots were way undercooked for my liking.

But then we got to dessert.

When they put the dessert menu in front of us, I got so excited because there were two things on the menu that you generally can't find anywhere and that are some of my favorite desserts - a baked Alaska, and a pavlova.

I agonized over this choice for some time, even chatting with the waiter about it, but ultimately decided against the baked Alaska because for some reason there was foie gras in it. I understand well the combination of strawberries and foie gras, which is delicious, but I do not understand the combination of foie gras and a cake-and-ice-cream dessert.

So I ordered the pavlova, which was on the menu as "Kiwi Pavlova." In all honesty, I should've questioned the description of this pavlova (which included the phrase "meringue shards") as much as I questioned the decision to put foie gras in a baked Alaska. But surely, I thought, they would not call this a "pavlova" if the "meringue shards" were not a significant part of the dessert itself?

Alas, I was woefully incorrect. I ordered a pavlova, but what I got was a scoop of kiwi ice cream with perhaps half a dozen tiny (quarter-sized or so) "meringue shards" floating in some sort of citrusy ...sauce? curd? I don't know what? that surrounded the scoop of ice cream like some terribly cold and pungently tart bath water. My husband was smart enough to pull the "meringue shards" out of this liquid before they became totally soggy and awful, but I was not.

Anyway, I took one bite of this dessert (with a "meringue shard") and decided it was way too tart to be a dessert and very much NOT a pavlova at all, and I ate no more of it.

Sadly, I did not take a picture of this travesty of a dessert (although I am happy that I will have absolutely nothing to remember it by). The picture I've included here IS NOT of the dessert I was served last night, but of an actual pavlova that I made during the height of the pandemic. My hope is that with this picture, the restaurant's management will come to understand just how far off the chef's take on "pavlova" was and either 1) serve actual pavlova (my preference), or at least 2) stop billing that kiwi ice cream dessert as a pavlova, which it absolutely is NOT.

We won't be coming back...

Update 3/16:

Decided to give Oak another try, and they did not disappoint! To start Serene, our waitress, recommended the house rolls. They were phenomenal. I'm not huge on bread, but woah they were good. The butter was purely whipped and fresh, and the bread you could tell was also freshly made. 10/10 - I would order a full platter for catering if I could lol. Next, I had the "LOCAL BIBB LETTUCES" salad and swapped the goat cheese for the pecorino cheese (HIGHLY RECOMMEND IF YOU DON'T LOVE GOAT CHEESE). Next, my partner and I both got NY Strip steaks cooked to perfection! Literally melted in our mouths like butter!! Table sides were the "BONE MARROW FRITES" those were really good as well and we got "CRISPY BRUSSELS SPROUTS" by mistake, but I completely get why they are a top fave at Oak! We were definitely full halfway through our NY Strip, and the service was really great. Serene was amazing, and so was everyone else who helped out. We had our waters refilled, sauces and my salad brought out by a gentleman (really wish i got his name) he made such an impression with his personality! They customized our menus and we just basked in the experience because that is what they curate here. Nick I am grateful for you and your team for making our night special, and having us back. Highly Recommend :)

First time visiting. It was a beautiful restaurant and the staff was friendly. We ordered steak and the bartender asked us how we would like the steak cooked. My friend and I both said Medium well. The bartender let us know that it would take a bit longer the cook the steak at this temperature, and we said that would be fine. Around 45 minutes later we were brought our food (I opted to get mine to-go due to the wait) and the steak was rare/medium rare at best. Which was super disappointing, and we would've mentioned it to someone but we already paid the bill, and didn't have the time to wait another 45 minutes (kiddo at home). We didn't want to cause a fuss, but ultimately the food was not eaten and we decided we will not be back. The silver lining is that the aesthetic was...

Not my cup of tea! I read a review that suggested eating here if you loved Flemings and Sullivans. In all honesty, I wish we had just went back to Flemings or Bin 54. We had a reservation for 8:30pm but we had to wait about 25 minutes before we were seated. We were celebrating someone special’s birthday. The ambiance was nice but it did get a little loud in there towards the back were we were seated. No major problem with the noise level. It’s just not as intimate. Now about the food, we ordered the NY Strip and the Filet. Both were cooked Medium Rare as requested but some both were extremely charred (of course it plated on the bottom so we didn’t see it). However, we could taste it along with the all of the SALT on it! I ordered two sauces to add a little flavor to my Filet Mignon (Hollandaise/Béarnaise). We ordered mash potatoes as they were just okay, nothing to brag about. The Mac-n-cheese was so salty, I couldn’t eat it. It tasted as if they boiled the noodles in a ton of salt and didn’t remember if they had salted the water so they put more salt when mixing it up. The sautéed mushrooms were a little different, came across as canned mushrooms. I could be wrong there. We ordered rolls and they weren’t complimentary. 🤔 They were just okay, I for sure wouldn’t pay for them again. Maybe they probably could use a different kind of butter (a creamy butter perhaps) to add a little taste to them. The appetizers we chose were the deviled eggs w/fried oysters and Oyster Rockefeller; both were tasty. We spent $220, not including the tip. Oh we did receive a complimentary slice of cheesecake. It was different but again, just okay. My margarita was just okay also. The price was okay as it is considered to be a high end restaurant, we just wished the taste matched the price. I do not recommend this restaurant if you’re celebrating a special occasion. But if you’re looking for an upgrade from the Outback maybe…this is just my honest opinion. And NO we didn’t send anything back nor did we complain. We simply noted, not to...