Ryan's Restaurant — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

TL;DR: Three-star food priced like it's five-star, legendary atmosphere, poor performance from our server...we won't be visiting again, especially at the current asking prices.

Visited on June 28 with friends, had last visited about 20 years ago I believe. Not much has changed with the building, which is good, because the look and feel of this place is wonderful. But the prices are higher, as one would expect with time and the excessive and (in my opinion) questionable inflation inflicted upon consumers since the beginning of the pandemic. I say questionable because virtually everything one can purchase has gone up in price, and I refuse to believe everything one can purchase has truly been impacted enough over the last three years to warrant high prices. Anyway...my partner and I ordered a 10 ounce filet and a 14 ounce ribeye, respectively. She ordered hers medium, and I requested medium rare--the kitchen mixed it up, and her filet was medium rare (that's generous, it was nearly blue in the middle), while my ribeye was approaching medium well. We elected not to complain or seek remedy (more on that in a moment). The steaks were tender and flavorful, but not so far beyond what I can achieve at home with a good hot skillet, butter, and herbs to justify the exorbitant pricing. My ribeye came with "buttermilk whipped potatoes" which, frankly, had the consistency and taste of instant mashed potatoes. That's not necessarily a knock, because instant potatoes certainly have come a long way, but had they been purchased a la carte, they would have been $8. At the supermarket, they'd be $2 and would serve four people. Her filet was accompanied by scalloped potatoes, which were delicious, and a brussels sprouts side that looked sloppy and unappealing but tasted okay. Circling back to the reasons for not complaining about the cook on the meat...our server was either (a) not very good or (b) normally good, but just not on her game during our visit. Either way, her performance detracted significantly from our experience, and at the "fine dining" level is completely unacceptable. We had another couple with us. We were asked if we wanted appetizers, and between the four of us we requested two she-crab soups, a phyllo brie dish, and an arugula salad. Not too long after that, one she-crab soup and the brie arrived. Our friends brought to the attention of the server one soup was missing, and it was brought out several minutes later. The arugula salad never arrived (we were not charged for it), and the next arrivals of food were the main courses. At this point, having little confidence that issues reported to the server would be resolved, we passed on complaining any further. The cost of the meal after all this was a bitter pill to swallow, one we won't be swallowing again. I have been to better restaurants closer to home, with more reasonable pricing, and will elect to patronize them more frequently...

One cannot believe that one would ever be treated so badly at a Restaurant - utter disbelief!!!!. We are in town for parents weekend for our son who studies at Wake Forest U. We invited his roommate to dine with us. When our entree’s arrived, a lobster tail had been added to one of the filet mignon orders. The lobster tail was put on the plate by mistake. When we pointed out this to the waitress, she said to go ahead and keep it bc it was her mistake and it would be thrown away anyway. About a minute went past and she then changed her mind and decided to take back the lobster tail. By this point our guest had already begun eating his entree. We told the waitress that we didn’t think that we should now have to pick the lobster tail up off the plate and put it on another plate and hand it to her (which is what she now was asking our guest to do) The manager was called over. He approached the table by saying “ I hear an extra lobster tail was added to an entree. I want you to pick it up off your plate, place it on the small plate, and hand it back to me. We responded by saying that we were not going to do such a thing. Our guest had already begun eating his dinner. This was their mistake, and he should have been completely apologetic and said, please keep the lobster tail and enjoy it, it was our mistake. The manager then proceeded to say that we would be charged for the lobster tail if we didn’t hand it back.. We said we would not be paying for it. The manager then proceeded to use fowl language directed to us, then said, “why don’t you all get up from the table and leave the restaurant.” We didn’t do such a thing. In hind-sight, we should have, honestly we were all in shock. We handed him the lobster in his hand. The manager then tried to shake my friends hand, and he said “ don’t you want to shake my hand, it’s a bit buttery.” Everyone around us was in shock, including our waitress who was brought to almost tears. She said “ I never wanted this to escalate to this point, and I am so sorry.” The manager then walked away with the lobster in his hand and said loudly enough for the other tables to hear “ you will never be allowed to dine in this restaurant ever again.” The tables around us were in shock…they couldn’t believe this had just happened and we couldn’t either. We have dined in the finest restaurants in the world, and we can tell you that we have never witnessed behavior like this and the most horrible treatment by a manager at a restaurant that one could ever imagine.. It’s important that people who come to Winston Salem understand the way a manager would dare to treat their guests, especially when we didn’t make the mistake. This was our 4th time dining at Ryan’s, and we were looking forward to many more meals there. After the manager walked away, we all felt sick to our stomachs and never really enjoyed our meal. Our ...

My husband and I chose Ryan's for our anniversary dinner, thinking that it would be a perfect place for a romantic dinner. I will say that our server was excellent. However, it was the server next to our table that ruined our evening. On several occasions, she slammed her food tray filled with old dirty plates literally right at our table. She would glare at me every time as if to challenge me. It was weird. I understand that there was a narrow pathway and she can't block it with her dirty food trays; but there is a much more discreet way of doing this without ruining someone else's dinner. She could also apologize for the inconvenience, and we would have totally understood. After the fourth time of looking at dirty plates being slammed down next to me, my husband said to her, "Do you have to slam these dirty plates down right next to my wife's food?" She got very irritated and answered, "What do you suggest I do?? I'm trying to serve my customers here." My husband asked her for the manager and she answered, "FINE!" and walked off. The manager and owner, Dennis Carter was the most disappointing part of the evening. He came to our table already on the defense. When we nicely explained to him that we were bothered by the way the other server was stacking her dirty dishes right at our table; he offered no apologies whatsoever. Instead, he spoke over my husband in a loud voice saying that it was basically our problem and we needed to be more understanding of the difficult layout of the tables for the servers. As Dennis' loud voice was starting to cause a scene, we were horribly embarrassed that he was publicly reprimanding us for being inconsiderate. He then stomped away; and the same server made it a point to slam her dirty plates even louder at my face for the rest of the evening. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. I will say that the only reason we stayed for the rest of the meal was out of respect to our server (who had no idea any of this went on). She was too good for that place. Even if we were total jerks and complained for no reason, the manager should have simply apologized if our dinner was less than enjoyable. Instead, we were shamed for expressing a legitimate grievance. Oh, and the food was barely average, at best. Of course that could have been because my nose was so stopped up from crying with embarrassment and disappointment. Thanks, Ryan's, for the worst anniversary dinner we...