Diamondback Grill — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

After several trips to Winston Salem, i was excited and eager to come try Diamondback Grill. I have friends, knowing I have an extensive passion for the food industry, often remarked that i had to try this great place. After several visits to the area, my friend finally took me to Diamondback. We arrived Saturday night at 7:45. This seemed "the place" to be as the restaurant was packed. We opted for a quicker seating by taking a table in the bar in which i am often accustomed to doing at other establishments. No problem. The atmosphere was nice, somewhat welcoming, yet very dark and very loud. Still, no problem. Our server, a tad timid or distant, explained that they were extremely busy and running slow. Again, no problem. So, we placed our order and tried to talk, but hearing one another was not happening. Time passed, 30 minutes actually, and we were starting to hear our stomachs growl over the noise. Our server didn't seem attentive enough to suggest we have a basket of complimentary bread. However, another server did indeed stop and ask if we would like some bread. I'm supposing he noticed i had unrolled my silverware and was gnawing on the corner of my napkin. We eagerly accepted his offer, but he went on to clear another of "his" tables and knocked a vase into the floor, shattering it into a hundred pieces. But not a big problem. We finally stopped another server that was so busy with a party of 16, that i felt horrible for even interrupting her. But she politely and quickly obliged with bread. She probably noted that i had already eaten the flowers from our own vase on our table. After waiting for a good solid hour for our food, it arrived along with our bread. My buddy had ordered the tuna special and specifically and appropriately ordered it "rare." I ordered the crabcake sandwich. Both plates look like they had survived the holocaust, but were indeed hot...the plates were. Only the plates, themselves. The content on both plates were cold. Now, as a chef, I'd expect the rare tuna to be cool, by nature of the request. But the tuna was indeed overcooked to a well done texture, no sign of a rare request. The crabcake was no more than small 4oz medallion of a cake and served on what appeared to be an 8pm store run for a pack of Sunbeam hamburger buns. I wasn't as worried about my presentation as i was the quality of the $24 special my buddy looked so very sad, staring at. He called over the waiter and explained that it was overcooked and was cold. Our waiter had very little problem agreeing and whipped the plate back to the kitchen. He finally returned and said that was the last order of yellow fin tuna and couldn't prepare a corrected order. Talk about disappointment, 8:30pm, starving minus eating a slice of bread and a linen napkin, my buddy's eyes filled with aggravation. He opted to just leave, but not before i peeled the crab cake off that chewy hamburger bun and shared a bite with him. The waiter returned and said they had taken the tuna off the bill. Hell yeah, they better have!!! I paid for my deconstructed crab cake, leaving there very, very sad and extremely disappointed. If you became tired of reading and waiting for me to get to the end of this review, then you know how we felt waiting on our meal. But I'm figuring that you've gotten the point by now. However, i was completely unsure if the staff picked up on our full dissatisfaction, or was just too busy to concern themselves. I hate like crazy to be a veteran of the industry and leave such a critical review. But for what a $24 tuna and a $14 sandwich, my expectations were not met and the expectations were definitely not set too high. I left a note, "I hope things improve here. Really disappointed" and included my phone number for reference. Don't read me wrong, a Saturday night, a hip place, I expected busy. I just didn't expect the extent of the sub-par performance from the back of the house to the front. It seriously saddens me that I can not, myself, be recommending Diamondback at this time. I do hope your visit here is way more...

Well..... The atmosphere was pleasant upon arrival. We arrived an hour and fifteen minutes before posted closing time. I prefer not to bother arriving later to avoid slowing down the closing. We waited a bit for service, had decided on drinks and food prior to their return. Ordered 2 drinks from their speciality drink menu. Upon the delivery of one drink we were informed that they no longer make one of the drinks!? Ordered a second drink and a couple of appetizers. Second drink delivered, and they no longer make one of the appetizers! Ok! Ordered a second appetizer. Food delivered, and now they are closing the kitchen if you want to order a main dish. It's 915 and they close at 10, and they are not taking food orders now with a full bar and 5 tables. 1 table left after being told this. We ordered a main that came out as fast as our appetizers and appeared to be sub quality from what I was expecting. (Rushed preparation) Now as we are trying to eat, they begin to flip chairs and mop around us....... Not even 930. If you are going to close at 930, please advertise that! Don't make your guests feel unwelcomed or rushed.! We were not regulars, but we're looking for a great place to hit after work. The appetizers that we could order were good, but we were made to feel so uncomfortable, we won't be back. Upon leaving not a thank you or any type of acknowledgement, staff was hanging around the bar, and cleaning on our heals. I wanted to speak with a manager about all this but he remained busy with the bar regulars the entire time we were there.

Don't expect to enjoy your dinning experience! Food good. Service...

I would start off by saying this restaurant has a very nice atmosphere very cozy but very dark as well, for those 40 and over you should bring a flashlight and some glasses so that you can see the menu. Ideally the menu fonts need to be larger and more readable especially since it's dark in the restaurant. The service was definitely lacking and there wasn't much attention paid to making sure our water glasses are filled considering that was what we were drinking. We did have a half-filled overpriced glass of wine. My friend had the salmon salad which she enjoyed. I had the ribeye sandwich served with a dry hoagie roll and some arugula thrown over the top of it, very pretentious and not very tasty. I practically had to beg them to bring me some mayonnaise. On top of that they charged me $3 extra for some lettuce and tomato to actually make it some kind of sandwich!

The whole menu seem to be very pretentious and definitely overpriced! Seems like a lot of these people come here regularly and they come here because it's Diamondbacks not because the food is all that good. The only thing saving this place is is the atmosphere.

These folks are definitely interested in making plenty of money and I don't think they care about the food. I would not recommend coming here I certainly won't ever...