Nowak's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Sandy Springs

I’m not one to write reviews, but I wonder how this place has all these positive reviews based on our recent experience. Maybe the people who usually visit have never been to a high quality steakhouse so they don’t have a reference point? Not sure, but here was our experience. I just want to make sure diners know what to expect before dropping $$$.

We had a 730 dinner reservation on a Saturday night. You’d expect a steakhouse to be busy and bustling on a Saturday night. Walked in and it was completely empty. About 5 tables were seated including ours. It was a ghost town. On a Saturday night!

Waiter was decent. Knew the menu but talked it up a lot. We placed our drink and app order. Drinks were good. We ordered three appetizers and two were ok. The fried artichokes were super greasy. Like grease on the plate and my hands greasy.

Soup and salads. French onion soup was above average. Salads were good but so small. The Jenni salad was our favorite. If you’re going to charge $15 for a salad, please don’t skimp on the lettuce. It’s stuff like this that drives me crazy. If you’re going to charge a high price then please provide a comparable item.

Then the main course, the famous steaks!! So let me just start by saying that we have traveled all over the country and I’ve eaten at a lot of steakhouses. This is the first one that served the steak in a pool of melted butter. Literally the steak was swimming in a pool of butter on the bottom of the plate. And you can see from previous reviews that this was not the first time this has happened. Not sure if they forgot to re plate the steak or this is the standard. But it sure did not make it look appetizing. We had to ask for smaller side plates for our sides, because there was nowhere to put the sides on our plate because the bottom of the plate had a thick layer of melted butter. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and think that just maybe they forgot to replate the steak after putting butter on it. Looking through that, the steak itself was cooked nicely and as requested and had a nice black char to it. Definitely tasted good. But if you’re reading this chef, please don’t serve steaks in a pool of butter, it’s gross. The steaks would have received a B+/A- if not for the butter situation. Have to bump them down because of that.

Now onto the sides! We ordered about five or six sides. Average at best. And again just like the salads, very small servings even though they were supposed to be shareable for the table. If you’re going to charge $15 plus for french fries or any side, please provide enough for more than two people. The two that stand out to me as being below average were the french fries and asparagus. The pomme frites were seasoned nicely but instead of being crispy and crunchy they were limp and mushy. Also, the asparagus were very small. From our experience, steakhouses serve large pieces of asparagus and a decent amount of it. This asparagus was small and looked like somebody went down the street to Publix and bought a bag from the produce department. Not trying to be cheap, but when you’re paying that much money, again provide the food.

Desset was good and would recommend it. We had a chocolate cake thing. I think the waiter said the desserts are made in house which is a plus.

Oh, one more thing. After we got home, we realized that one of the guests at the table was never served a salad that was ordered a bit later in the night. No clue if we were charged for it but the waiter never brought it.

So that was our experience. In summary, empty restaurant, good but small salads, decent steak if you can look past the butter pool, small average to below average sides, and good desserts. Hope this helps others looking for a steakhouse to visit or for a...

See the bottom of the review for a compliment sandwich. My wife and I went out for her birthday dinner tonight and tried Nowak's since they had just opened up and we were in Sandy Springs. Overall, great experience.

Longer review: My wife and I were the first to arrive for the day around 5:30 pm and the staff was very welcoming. Throughout the meal, our server Bill was funny, attentive, and gave great recommendations. Everyone who assisted throughout the meal was awesome and it was a really nice environment to eat in.

As for the food, overall really good. I ordered a Bone In Strip - med rare and my wife got the salmon. She enjoyed her salmon and asparagus a lot. My steak had really good flavor but the outside 1/4 was a bit unevenly cooked and was probably closer to medium, maybe medium well. I didn't try to replace the steak or anything because it wasn't the end of the earth. I own this issue because Bill had me cut the steak to make sure it was cooked to my liking. I got the impression had I said it was not, they would have corrected it. I say this to add, I tend to eat rare/med rare only and the flavor of the steak was good enough that I still enjoyed the medium parts.

The best part of the meal by far was the appetizer. Can't remember the name but it was crunchy lobster and crab. It's expensive for an appetizer but was possibly the most delicious appetizer I've ever had so definitely worth the cost. My wife ate the last piece and I feel like in some jurisdictions, this could be considered grounds for divorce. We also got a lemon dessert similar to a key lime pie and it was absolutely delicious.

Overall, really enjoyed the food, environment, and experience. Would highly recommend as a good date...

We’ve dined here a few times in the past & loved it but unfortunately our most recent visit will be our last. It was very disappointing! Our 8oz filets were way too salty. To the extreme that we weren't able to enjoy the au poivre that we both ordered as an addition to our steaks. It only enhanced the saltiness. We were told that we should've told them upon ordering. I didn't know that was something you need to mention when ordering a steak!?! My steak was way too charred, I was told that I should've mentioned that upon ordering my steak cooked medium!?! The final decision straw was when they said, yeah there’s nothing we can do about it. I don't expect anything for free, however I expect good quality and exceptional service when dining at a restaurant of that caliber. Our server was great, until he declined to rectify the situation. The only thing they offered to do was to take it back and char it more, that wasn't the point or what we were asking which was frustrating. The server mentioned that he’d have the owner/chef come to our table to talk to us, he then returned saying that he cant’t and that he’s already left. Funny enough, we see him as we’re walking out. So he opted to have the server lie to us than address us - that was very rude & insulting. Also, they’re definitely on the pricier side in comparison to other local restaurants in the area. There are plenty of other great options in the area for a great steak to support. This only makes me wonder as to why they only had 2 other tables on a Friday evening. It was very disappointing that we left feeling so dissatisfied. Will never go there again as...