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| - Just mention the name of this restaurant and my hunny immediately starts making noises of pleasure. NOM NOM NOM he says. He loves this place. I have been eating here since the 80's. It hasn't changed much. Baseball & sports decor literally covers every square inch of wall. Still inviting and comfortable. The menu hasn't changed much either. Ribs, steak, prime rib and a few comfort foods. I always say I am going to order something other than ribs next time I go, but I just can't get past the deliciousness of their ribs. I always order the char.
This last visit started like any other. My hunny was having a birthday and he wanted Don & Charlie's. I invited my sister and her husband and we went on a Weds night. They can be very busy any night of the week, but we had reservations, so getting a table wasn't a problem. We were seated right away. We ordered drinks and I was disappointed to learn that they no longer served the complimentary chopped liver. After decades of being free, it is now on the appetizer menu. I know alot of you are thinking "liver, eww!", but it was one of the things I loved about the place. I went ahead and ordered it while everyone decided on meals. Our side of the table was a no brainer - RIBS. It was my sister and BIL's first visit, so they took a bit longer. They settled on a small filet for my sister and the larger filet for my BIL. He added the shrimp appetizer to his steak for a surf & turf. As we all wanted salad, we had to add that to the order. Last year they stopped serving salads with the meal and made them an additional cost. You can have cole slaw for free, but it's just not the same. There is nothing special about the side salad to warrant charging for it over the slaw. Their blue cheese dressing is exceptionally good tho. My appetizer came and my BIL and I shared it while we waited for the salads. After apps & salad we got our meals. Service had been uncharacteristically lax up to this point. Drink refills and such were slow in coming and more than once we had to get someone to find our server for us. The ribs were delicious as usual. My sister's filet was overcooked and needed to be sent back. It was returned to the kitchen with her sides as well as the mushrooms she had ordered. It was sent back without the sides or mushrooms she was paying another additional fee for. We had to ask the manager for her sides. He very graciously brought them out and apologized for the lack of them. My sister still wasn't happy with the steak. It was rare as she preferred, but there was no color to the exterior. She ate half of it and then cut the rest into small pieces for her dogs. Yes I know GASP! My BIL enjoyed his steak & shrimp. The appetizer he had added to his steak was excellent and went very well with it. They should consider making it an option!
As with most dinners, I could not finish mine. I had only eaten 1/3 of the rack and I asked to have it boxed. I learned later that the server had tossed everything on my plate into one box. Normally this isn't so bad, but at Don & Charlie's, the baked potatoes are covered on the outside with coarse salt & pepper for baking. The result was that my leftover ribs were far to salty to enjoy and ended up being thrown out.
We ordered dessert and then waited for the check. The server had failed to seperate the checks as requested, so we had to wait while she re-did them. She brought them out and they still weren't accurate, but we didn't want to wait any longer for it. She told us that they had a new system that she hadn't figured out yet. We went ahead and paid. Debit card for us, cash from my BIL. We discussed the tip. Normally when eating here, the service is excellent. This night I think our server had other plans because she definitely had her mind somewhere away from our table. We ended up leaving 15%, which still amounted to about a $30 tip. My sister was very disappointed and has said she won't go back. I tried to explain to her that normally everything is much better, but she is stubborn. Later we learned that the server had swiped our debit for both meals. After several phone calls and conversations with management, it was resolved. They were very apologetic about the service that night and made sure the debit was voided. They mailed us confirmation of the void as well as complimentary certificates for dinner. They wanted to make sure all was well.
This is the first real issue we have ever had here. After 30 or so years of dining here, I'd say one bad night is allowed. We would be going back for dinner whether we had the certificates or not.
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