Butcher & Bull Steakhouse — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

I'll start right off and say that we enjoyed the prior occupant of this space, Graze. Upon our arrival to B&B, we had high hopes as well. They expressed no concern when we showed up a bit after our reservation, having left church later than we expected. The redesign is nice, and the space is contemporary, sharp, and spacious. We also liked the touch of having a complimentary photo booth (with props) for our Mother's Day brunch. However, things were headed downward almost as soon as we looked at the menu. The prices were quite high ($39 for a prime rib, $21 for a chicken and waffles that had about a six-ounce portion of chicken?), though that could perhaps have been forgiven. There was the (expected) hotel-restaurant markup included, and there were ambitious touches like the variety of premium spirits on a diverse list of craft cocktails and food offerings like the pickled blueberries with the chicken & waffles and the complex fashion in which the chorizo omelette was to be dressed (tomatillo, poblano pepper, verde mole, AND queso fresco!) However, by the time the food arrived, it was...adequate? We weren't upset with anything we ordered, but we probably wouldn't return for anything we were served at the prices we were charged. The worst part was the service. I'm not sure if our server was very new, or perhaps had one foot out the door. She was apologizing for issues we probably wouldn't have noticed right from the start: "These glasses are way too hot, they were just washed..." "I'm sorry, but those drinks take a while to make..." "I hope I can get your check here eventually, but it's really backed up..." All of these things were explained by way of noting how slammed they were...except the restaurant wasn't even half full! How strange, to have our waiter stressing US out as diners about things we wouldn't otherwise have been...

Came here on New Years Eve to celebrate my sisters birthday. Going to give details so if the owner cares at all - they can read these to understand the issues and why they will be out of business soon if they don’t correct things. 1 - the hostess is not greeting, not communicating and when we tried to flag her down because she was the only employee around - she pretended not to hear us and avoided eye contact. We waited for 20 plus minutes and had to flag someone down to try to find our server. Dinner took 3.5 hours- that’s an issue. We had 1 alcohol drink - because our server was barely around so there wasn’t really service. Our orders were all wrong sides- the food runner asked me to take my side off another persons plate- what?! I couldn’t believe that. “Oh, looks like they put your side on her plate- can you just grab that? “ So I grabbed a dirty appetizer plate and said sure… then everyone’s side items were wrong- but ok. Food is ok- you would expect half the price for the quality though. Server disappears for over 45 minutes. We ask to speak to the manager. The manager is the reason things are so bad I assume. He sees we are upset and we say - we are not paying 22% for terrible service - he doesn’t ask how the meal was or take any action except agreeing to remove the gratuity. The waitress then argued it was automatic and can’t be removed, after it was removed. We are sometimes 50% tippers for awesome experiences- because it was new years we left 10% but honestly the whole meal should of been comped with how the dinner and service just ruined our whole night with how bad it was. This was an experience so frustrating it ruined our New Years Eve and my sisters birthday. To the diners reading this - Don’t spend your money here - terrible experience. To the owner - you have a serious staff issue through the...

An Applebees had better service than this “steakhouse”… I took my family here and it was a disaster. We ordered two bottles of wine and the servers don’t even bother to pour the wine into your glass, simply give it to the person that orders it and walk away, keep in mind this is a “steakhouse.” I also had to remind the server to bring us the bottle we ordered after waiting for what felt like an eternity.

We waited over an HOUR for our food (half the plates to came out cold), in the meantime our entire table was dying of heat which we asked multiple times to turn down. My wife is constantly cold and never complains about the heat, which in this restaurant she did. While waiting and dying of heat it was extremely difficult to get the servers attention for a simple glass of water to parch our thirst from the heat (wish I was exaggerating) Once our entrees finally got to the table we were extremely cluttered as they did not even bother to clear our appetizers, keep in mind they had an hour to do so. They never changed the silverware nor the glasses of wine when they brought a different bottle.

When we finally got our check, the server had quietly slapped an auto-gratuity of 22% on the bill! Industry standard is 18% for auto-gratuity and you must let the table know. Even after we finished all of our food, the plates from all the previous food were still on the table and were never bothered to be picked up. Would honestly expect better service from an Applebees and not a “steakhouse”. Wish I could give this restaurant 3 stars and at least say the food was good, but half the plates were cold and the warm ones were decent at best. The one thing that was good was the lobster dip, everything else was pretty average, but way too expensive for what the reality is.

NOT...