The Icon Restaurant and Lounge — Restaurant in Richardson

I’ve gone to this place for dinner and it truly exceeded my expectations. I told my girls this place was a MUST and suggested it for brunch on yesterday as I was also excited my bro would be DJing. The 4 of us arrived 5min before our 2:30 reservations and was told they didn’t really have the space to accommodate us. We were given 2 choices… dine in the Red Room (which is secluded and ducked off in the back of the restaurant or to dine outside. We chose indoor dining over outdoor because it was cloudy and had already been drizzling. Nobody wants to eat brunch in the rain! I asked if the long empty table in the middle of was room was available and was told a larger party was coming about 3:00. I asked why they couldn’t make space for THEM in the “Red Room”. I mean typically large parties are loud, why not give them their own area and make space for small reservations scheduled first? Eventually a nice manager came over to the host station and agreed to put 2 of the 4 available 2seated tables together to accommodate us. Very nice!

The wait… The food took TWO HOURSSSSSS to come out.

The food: amazingly seasoned as I’d remembered from the night I came for dinner. However, the food was extremely cold. Literally the butter would NOT melt on the pancakes of 2 friends. The pancakes appeared to be wheat or possibly full of cinnamon as I’ve never seen them that color before. They were ordered with a side of sausage and a side of eggs however, the sausage came out 10min after the cold pancakes and the eggs came out about 30min later. The 2nd order of cold pancakes came with cold chicken wings (please don’t mistake cold for room temp.) Meanwhile a friend and I ordered the fish and grits. COLD! The fish had good flavor but is not real catfish and was soggy although we both asked for fried hard. I figured I could make my meal work if I just asked for a hot order of more of the Cajun sauce that comes on it. Because we came here to EAT. Not leave hungry or with intent of free food. After 30min the Cajun sauce was headed to the table so I just knewwww this would fix everything. No, it came in a cold bowl and was also cold. ATP MANAGER PLEASE. We were given 2 choices: reheat in microwave or wait another hr or so for food to be remade (insert mouth drop here). One friend gave up on the pancakes and asked to purchase a new order of hot chicken wings, one friend sent pancakes to microwave and of course they were spongy and a mess and all I wanted was hot Cajun sauce. The 4th friend gave up at the initial soggy fish.

Long story short I paid for the $35 soggy fish and grits that I didn’t get to eat, one friend payed $75 for 2 drinks, 1 cold soggy pancake (did not eat) a side of 2 sausages patties and a side of eggs (she ate both) and the salmon bites (very flavorful but a little too thick), the other friend paid for soggy fish and grits she did not eat and the last friend paid for a hot steaming plate of delicious chicken (andddd waffles) that she shared as we were actually getting ready to leave after FOURRRR HOURS OF BRUNCH.

The waiter and manager was very apologetic and did what they could I suppose while COMPLETELY overwhelmed and trying to explain there were only 2 cooks as SEVERAL tables were PISSED, asking for refunds and leaving. Overall the experience was HORRIBLE in such a BEAUTIFUL establishment with great vibes.

I...

Every year, I try a new location for my birthday, and I make it a point to support Black-owned businesses—especially as a business owner myself. This experience had its ups and downs from start to finish.

Reservation Process:

I called on January 25th and spoke with a gentleman named Harold, who took my name and number and told me the manager would call back to assist with my reservation. By Sunday, I still hadn’t heard from anyone, so I followed up myself. Harold finalized my reservation and sent a text confirmation.

Fast forward to Wednesday, I received a call from Tori confirming my reservation and requesting a $200 deposit. Excuse me?! At no point during my initial booking with Harold was this mentioned. Tori said she would check with her manager and call me back. A few minutes later, she informed me that since the deposit policy wasn’t disclosed at the time of booking, it would be waived.

Arrival & Ambiance:

Upon arrival, we checked in and were directed to the bar while waiting for our table. We purchased Drizzle cheesecakes for the entire party (one of my favorites!), and the staff kindly refrigerated them for us.

The ambiance of the restaurant was breathtaking—sophisticated, upscale, and rich in culture. I was pleasantly surprised by how clean, spacious, and well-stocked the restrooms were, even offering feminine toiletries. I haven’t seen that level of care since my clubbing days in the '90s. The table settings, décor, and overall aesthetic were beautifully done.

They also offer mimosa tower service, featuring ladies waving light fixtures as part of a performance. However, their enthusiasm was noticeably lacking, which took away from the experience.

Food Quality:

Oxtails: A Slow-cooked, fall-off-the-bone tender, and flavorful. However, the menu advertised andouille sausage, which was completely absent from the dish.

Grits: C- The portion size of the grits overshadowed the oxtails. While I understand oxtails are a delicacy, for $25, the meal should have included more meat.

Catfish: F Overly salty to the point of being inedible. We sent it back and informed both the waitress and what seemed to be a manager or hostess. Neither offered to replace it or remove it from the bill, so we ended up paying for something we didn’t eat.

Shrimp: A Large, succulent, and flavorful. The demi-glaze was rich and creamy, but once again, the menu listed andouille sausage, which was missing from the dish.

Scrambled Eggs: B- Overcooked and dry.

Fried Chicken: B- Freshly prepared but inconsistently seasoned—some pieces were flavorful, while others were bland. A letdown overall.

Salmon Bites: A Well-seasoned and tender.

Jollof Rice: A Fresh, fluffy, and well-seasoned.

Cocktails:

The drinks were refreshing, potent, and well-made. The bartender kept up impressively with the high demand.

Blueberry Lemon Drop: A+++

Mimosa Flight: A

The Iconic: A

Final Thoughts:

While the restaurant’s ambiance was stunning and some of the dishes were excellent, the inconsistencies in service and food quality were disappointing. The handling of the catfish situation left a bad taste—both literally and figuratively. If they could improve on consistency and customer service, this could be a standout...

This place has a lot of potential, but is not currently living up to it. The atmosphere is very nice, the staff friendly and attentive (overly so, in fact...but more on that later) and the food very flavorful. But there are a few things that need improvement before I would recommend The Icon to others:

1. There are no physical menus available, and you're required to use your phone to scan a QR code at the table with your phone to access their website's online menu. This is becoming more common and is not itself a problem. What IS a problem,however, is that neither of us could read the menu on our Android phones using Chrome browsers. For whatever reason, attempting to zoom the menu in order to be able to read it causes the menu to enlarge, but then lock into place so that it cannot be scrolled in any direction, so that you're stuck being able to see only one tiny part of the menu. We ended up having to use the server's iPhone (on which it worked) in order to read the menu. In spite of them having been made aware of that problem several days ago, the problem has still not been fixed.

2. It was -6:30pm when we ordered, and in spite of that falling within their dinner service time my first two choices for an entree (the Oxtail and Jollof & Asu) were not available...not because they were out of supply, but because they were not done cooking yet.

3. I ended up settling on the Lamb Chops with asparagus and mashed potatoes and, while the flavors were all quite good the dish was grossly overpriced at $35. The "chops" consisted of four rib bones, each with a tiny and extremely thin-cut piece of meat clinging to it. They pretty much amounted to four decent bites of meat. And in spite of being offered a choice of doneness (medium or medium well) the meat was so thin as to make anything less than well-done virtually impossible. And, oddly, when they brought the entrees to our table we were informed that the serving of mashed potatoes on my plate was smaller than it should have been, and they would be bringing me some more. Them correcting that issue after the fact was nice and all, but it's an odd error for a kitchen to make. And if they were going to make up for a shortage of portion on that plate it should have been the lamb.

4. As I said, the staff was friendly and attentive...to a fault. We were interrupted every couple of minutes by different staff members who stopped by to ask us how everything was, with one even asking my wife if she didn't like the bread that came with here shrimp dish because she hadn't eaten all of it yet, while we were still only partway through the meal. I appreciate being checked on regularly to make sure everything is OK, but that can be overdone, and was.

As I said, there's definitely potential there, but improvements need to be made before...