Jack & Charlies — Restaurant in Visalia

Update:

Greg, the owner, called me immediately after my review and invited me back for another chance to experience his restaurant.

Tonight: 9/23/19, we returned on a Monday night. Our server was Jeremy. He was polite, courteous, funny, and made our experience at the restaurant exquisite. He was timely with our drink orders, and made it a point to ask us if we wanted water, down to bottles or tap, and what kind of bottled. We didn’t expect that at all, but that was really nice. Afterwards, we had their Mac N Cheese again, and everything was delivered on point. My wife and I both had their Filet Minon. I had their four-course meal, all of my servings was outstanding, as well as my wife’s.

We had the pleasure of meeting Greg, and it was an absolute pleasure. We will be back in the future, we really appreciated Greg and his restaurant.

Original Post: My wife and I came here 8/9/19, excited as we had tried Vintage Press and The Depot, both were terrific. We arrived around 7:15 PM, and were seated in the bar area because it was pretty busy. It took at least 10 minutes to get drinks ordered. Then after we had our drinks for another 10-15 minutes, our waitress came and took our order, she had intended just for us to order an appetizer, however we wanted to our food ordered since we could see things were taking a bit longer. After we waited for another 20 minutes, our appetizer, MAC and cheese was delivered, which was delicious. After we had finished, we waited another 30 minutes for our dinner to finally arrive. We were offered another round of drinks after our appetizer was finished, which we agreed, however those didn’t show up until after our dinner had been served. That was another extended length of time.

We understand a popular restaurant being busy, however the main reason for the 1 star rating was that my wagyu beef had terrible texture, firm on the outside but very rare on the inside. Also, there were pieces of fat bordering the edge of the cut. I found it pretty disappointing I couldn’t fully finish this $65 plate. Also, my wife’s chicken had blood in it. We had to google to see if it was even safe to eat. She ate very little in fear of food poisoning.

We also found it incredibly rude that our waitress had time to talk to people she knew personally, talking about texting them and going on about their personal lives, as our service had been pretty poor, along with our food.

I asked for the check and feared waiting any longer. Before tip it was $145. For the price of our drinks and meal, we were extremely disappointed.

We enjoyed the atmosphere and the appetizer, however I don’t think we’ll be back for a...

I can't believe there are no reviews for Jack and Charlie's!!! This is one of our favorite restaurants in Visalia. Classic, but basic, art nouveau design. If you are looking for true exciting, creative, market-fresh bistro-syle food, this is your place. Think Wolfgang Puck in the early days. I could go on and on about favorite dishes we have had there--unique appetizers that you won't find anywhere (I don't care where you go), foie gras, great fish dishes (depending on what is fresh), beef stroganoff made with steak and fresh noodles, steaks, fabulous bread pudding. Specially selected wines, unique bar drinks and a specialty in absinthes. Great bar scene. I hesitate to tell you how good this place really is as I selfishly don't want everyone to go.... The only disappointment about this restaurant is the menu sometimes changes---as it must---but the excitement of trying new dishes typically...

This was our first visit to Jack and Charlies and it was good, and bad. The food was excellent, presentation was beautiful and the atmosphere was nice. The night we were there, they were slow, with only 3 tables occupied. After bringing our salads, they decided to send our server home. The service had been good until then. We heard from our server (before the service stopped) that they were owned by the Vintage Press. We told her that we had given up on going to the VP because the service was so bad. She said that she had heard that before, and ironically that's when our service stopped too. It was a full 30 minutes from the time we finished our dinner until our table was cleared. We ordered desert, which arrived 20 minutes later, and ordered another glass of wine, which never came. Give it a 3 star, which is average between excellent in presentation and flavor, and terrible...