Lilyann's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Rocky Mount

Quick Family Date Night

To start out my review I must first give kudos to the owners and visionaries for bringing "fine"dinning to Rocky Mount. Besides prime Smokehouse and Jacks in the Mills you'd be hard pressed to find elevated eateries in Rocky Mount. So thanks for upgrading the pallet of many around. The owners stated they wanted to make it so people would not have to drive to Raleigh for a great meal at a nice steakhouse and they delivered in decor, setting, and menu options however after dinner we have concluded they may need a little more to help keep us from traveling to capital grille lol.

We will approach this review from the perspective of local and someone who enjoys fine dinning a steakhouses.

Our meal : I ordered the 12oz choice Ribeye cooked medium and added the brussel sprouts and Midas Mashed potatoes. The steak was cooked to PERFECTION, I would have like a bit of a sear on it to add to the flavor. I appreciated that they cut the steak for you. Made me feel just like a cute little baby , nah but it was cool frfr. The Mashed potatoes were decent, not sure if they are house mashed or powder, sadly I could not tell, which from a fine dinning standpoint I felt I should have been able to differentiate. The brussel sprouts much like the steak was cooked to perfection however they were borderline hospital grade in flavor. I would have liked to see some sort of sweet soy glaze or bacon tossed in them to enhance the dish. They were simply not worth taking home unfortunately. We also got the bread service and man that bread was COLD and flavorless. Any warm butter would have helped however it came with an oil basalmic dressing to dip. Just not my preference.

Ambiance : Y'all did the dang thang with the decor, the special touch of lighting, seating, and even the bathroom decor all came together and gave fine dining energy. My only issue was the men's restroom door. I took my son for a potty break and an older gentleman walked right in. The door locks from the inside but people are still able to open in from the outside after the lock button is pressed. Y'all gotta fix that asap.

Service : we used opendoor and requested a booth in hopes to get one however the hostess sat us right by the kitchen at a table by the back door, when we saw much better booth like seating on the other side. We didn't complain as we like to be authentic in our dining process. The space was not that busy for a cold Tuesday night so we felt they definitely could have sat us elsewhere. The seating at the tables are very close however the space isn't the largest so I get them trying to maximize dining seating however we were close enough to the table behind us that our seats were almost touching. Our server Jessica was very accommodating and you could tell she knew how to serve families with little kids. It meant a lot.

Overall : Overall Lilyanns saved us a drive to Raleigh and time which is so important for us, however in the end we felt our meal was lacking enough to truly keep us outta Raleigh. It's an upgrade for Rocky Mount for sure and definitely good enough to pull some dollars from the mills however for us we wanted more. The small details as it relates to seating, bathroom door, cold bread, and flavorless brussel sprouts have left us with no choice but to give a 3.5 outta 5.

Best of luck to the new establishment. Welcome...

I'll give it a solid 4.5. We made reservations for 7:15pm, got there a little early, but our table was ready. It was a table right at the entrance. So, every time the door opened, a cold breeze came in because it's winter. So I would not recommend that particular table. The setting is very nice with low lighting. Reminiscent of a fine dining restaurant you'd find in a larger city. Our waitress was very nice and did a good job. The restaurant provides warm bread with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dipping plate. The bread was soft, warm, and delicious. We started dinner with an appetizer of Cheshire Farms Pork Belly and Bleu Berg. They both had wonderful flavor and were well portioned. The pork belly was nicely cooked with a crunchy exterior and creamy layer of fat., however, it was not hot. Actually, it just was warm. I don't know if that was because it sat on a DELICIOUS bed of cold slaw, but I wish the pork had been hot. The salad came with a blue cheese dressing. We are used to this type of dressing having large chunks of blue cheese in them and being of a thick consistency. What we received was a thin dressing, in our opinion, with no chunks of blue cheese. So that was a little disappointing, but the flavor was fantastic. For the main dish, I ordered the Beef Tournados, and my husband ordered the 12 ounce boneless ribeye, with sides of caramelized Brussel Sprouts, salted Haricot Vert (green beens) and creamy pecorino risotto. Again, the flavor profile on each item was delicious. The risotto was not overcooked, thank goodness. The green beans were firm, but tender and the brussell sprouts were perfectly cooked, full of flavor and not greasy, as I have found at other restaurants. My husband said his steak was seasoned well and had a nice flavor. However, it was cooked more medium well than medium, as he ordered. It was also on the thin side, in our opinion. My two 4oz. filets were perfectly medium rare and tender, so good! No sauce was needed. We ended with the Pomegranate Creme Brulee for dessert. I have to say we were not fans of this. We knew that it had pieces of pomegranate sprinkled on top, and what we thought would be a small amount of pomegranate syrup swirled into the creme brulee, but that's not what were received. The pomegranate syrup is actually fully incorporated into the creme brule, It was just overpowering. Will we return, yes. I just hope on the next visit the meat items are appropriately hot, we sit in a different location and we will choose a different dessert. But all in all the place is...

Finally, an amazing steakhouse in Rocky Mount! We don’t have to travel to Raleigh or Greenville anymore for a nice date night.

Our server, who told us she was new, was fantastic. Super friendly and attentive, but not too attentive if you know what I mean. The food was amazing! We had the Beef Weldon appetizer, the NY Strip (with the garlic and truffle butter), the Filet Mignon (with Oscar), shared the rainbow honey carrots and asparagus, and shared the peach cobbler. I can say the NY Strip was cooked to perfection with a tasty sear on top. It didn’t need the butter sauce but I’m a sauce fanatic. We did have a little mishap with dessert. We ordered the crème brûlée, but unfortunately it hadn’t set properly. No biggie, we told our server and she suggested the cobbler as a replacement so we rolled with it. That was literally the only downside to our evening and they made it right with no hassle.

The house manager stopped by the table and seemed a little awkward. I’m not sure if he’s new, was distracted or just not a personable type of person. I’m not one that needs them to stop by, so it wasn’t a turnoff.

When we were leaving our server told us she wrote us a love letter and gave us a postcard with a nice little message. We had been joking with her throughout the dinner, so I appreciated her quirkiness.

It’s not an overly big establishment, but they do a good job of maximizing their space while still leaving room for comfort. The ambiance is nice. I do recommend reserving a table ahead of time. They were packed at 8:00pm on a random Tuesday night. We made a reservation and our table was set up and waiting for us a few minutes before our reservation. It was nice to not be told that even though we have a reservation we have to wait.

We will be back! (Unfortunately, I failed...