old hickory steakhouse - the gaylord texan

i was in dallas for work and i stayed at the gaylord in grapevine. great hotel by the way. i asked the hotel where i should go for dinner with coworkers and they recommended the old hickory steakhouse and made a reservation for 6 people.

we arrived 20 minutes early and when the hostess greeted us she said she thought it would be best if we "waited until our reservation to be seated." the restaurant was empty and we had our entire party there so we found it strange, nevertheless we abliged.

when we finally were seated at a table we were not given menus. we had to request menues from waitress who finally came to our table after another 20 minutes had gone by.

a gentleman also approached our table and asked us for our drink order. he said he was an expert on wine so we told him that we would like a bottle of cabernet in the 50 dollar range. he told us that he had the perfect bottle in that range. we ordered 3 bottles for the table.

after dinner we received the bill and it was very high. we split the check and were in shock that we spent that much. gratuity was included. after further review of the check we recognized that we were charged 255 for the wine alone not including the food. we ordered 3 bottles of wine so the bottles were 85 each.

after investigating this wine price at the sister restaurant we found it was a 40 dollar bottle of wine!!!!!! this made sense because the sommelier or waiter that we ordered from said that it was a great bottle around 50 dollars.

when i called restaurant to let them know of there mistake they said they would call me back. they never did. however, they called back my coworker who had also complained and they said they did not carry that tier of wine in their restaurant. i guess that wine in beneath them

does anyone have integrity anymore????

clearly this wine was not beneath you when you served it to us in your restaurant. but i guess it is beneath you when itstimefor your customers to pay the bill. all of a sudden you dont have that wine, you have a bottle for double the price!

i just want to make sure the next customer does not have the same experience.

after all... "its not how we make mistakes, but how we correct them that defines us."

expensive hotel food. expensive hotel food! went with a group of twelve for friends birthday. when we arrived at the hotel and requested valet parking we were told that valet was full. although, cars that were pulling up beside and behind us were still getting valet service. once inside we asked the other people in our party about parking and who had similar stories (side eye). after being seated we were immediately greeted by our friendly waiter who took our drink and appetizer orders. well that was the only thing that was immediate. once we placed our food order we waited 45 minutes to receive our main course! by thistimeit's 9pm and we are all starving! i ordered the lamb chops cooked medium topped with jumbo lumped crab. the lamb was over cooked and i was told by the waiter that they forgot the crab topping. i was then handed a small saucer plate to top my own lamb chops. everyone that ordered steak did not get it cooked as requested. medium steaks came out rare and well done steak came out medium. i don't understand how a steakhouse doesn't get the concept of perfecting a steak. i've seen better steak at i-hop! for those who did order risotto and lobster bisque, i didn't hear any complaints. then again, i don't go to a steakhouse for risotto, i go for steak and expect for the steak to melt in my mouth! our table had to ask two different servers for drink refills, because our waiter was non existent once he dropped off the dinner plates. so imagine trying to gag down a dry lamb chop! a nice birthday dinner that was over-shadowed by mediocre food and service. very disappointing!

best restaurant experience in quite a while. i can't stay quiet about this restaurant. if you want some of the best food in texas, in a beautiful atmosphere, with a level of service that can only be found in the world's elite restaurants, give old hickory a try. i ate here for the firsttimelast week with two of my work colleagues. i can't wait to go back.

atmosphere: descend the circular staircase to enter the wine-cellar-themed space that houses old hickory. stop for a drink at the giant fireplace next to the bar with its over-sized leather couches and chairs--or stop by after your meal for a nightcap. you'll feel like you've been momentarily transported to cozy a german hunting lodge.

food: executive chef, joanne bondy, is truly a master of her craft. the crab cakes were amazing, with a scrumptious remoulade. try the cheese platter too--a selection of delicious cheeses from all over the world. i ordered the harris ranch bone-in filet paired with a 4oz lobster tail. i highly recommend it. just ask your server, because this particular combo is not listed on the menu. unfortunately, none of us had room for dessert, but if the desserts are anything like the rest of the cuisine, i'm sure they're incredible.

service: in my opinion, the service was the best part of our experience. general manager andrew morrison ensures that every single guest feels right at home and has an outstanding experience at this restaurant. and his personal attention was not just given to our table. he spent the whole night going from table to table to welcome and chat with each of the guests. i can't compliment his service enough; you have to experience it for yourself. i need to sign off now. quick shout-out to steven our server, javier our server assistant, anthony our sommelier, matthew our bartender, and michael our cheese expert. you guys made our visit outstanding. thank you.

david coakley
via real restaurant

good food but poor hostress. we have been to the old hickory many times and have always enjoyed our experiences. last night was very disappointing. we arrived early then our reservation so we offered to wait at the bar and were hoping we were notified when our table is available. while we were having a few drinks we were ignored by the hostesses the entire time. after 45 min, we went back to ask for our table and was offered to a table right next to the bar that was available the wholetimewe were there. we declined and asked for a table on the side of dinner room. we waited for another 25 min. not only we got our table way past our reservation time, the hostesses were not professional and came across unfriendly and inconsiderate.
i must say the food is again outstanding. fresh and delicious salad and the steak cooked just the way we like. however, the nexttimewhen we think about coming back we will have to convince ourselves that if we could enjoy our experience by by-pass the hostesses

go to kirby's. between business dinners and family outings, this is probably the sixthtimewe have eaten there and after similar experiences eachtimei finally felt compelled to write.

service: attentive to overly attentive to pushy. quit trying to hurry us through the bottle of wine so we'll order another one to have with our meal. asking us four times during the meal if we are done with our bread is aggravating. removing my plate as i am trying to eat the bread that you just tried to take away is at best inpatient if not rude.

appetizer: $18 for a selection of three arty cheeses is okay but not when the total volume of the three together appears to be less than 4 oz.

dinner: $62 bone in strip, good flavor but tough. some of you might say "send it back". you shouldn't have to send anything back to the kitchen that costs over $50 by itself. inconsisent small pieces of meat that are tough is a recurring theme for at old hickory

conclusion: good atmosphere, good bartending staff (mark). but the restaurant does not meet expectations. the competition (kirbys) however consistently hits the mark with food and service that exceeds expectations at prices that aren't cheap but proportionate to the value of whats on the plate and how it is served.

terrible service!. the food is mediocre (at best) and the service is highly disappointing and terrible!! we went to old hickory as a group of 12 people to celebrate a birthday. when making the reservations, they were told it was a birthday celebration. we got there exactly at thetimeof our reservation and our table was not ready. i was sure to mention we were celebrating a birthday again! when we finally got our table, we waited 15 minutes for a waiter to come get our drink order. we all had cocktails and no wine and yet our wine glasses were still left on the table. it took another 20 minutes for our drinks to finally come to our table. we didn't even have our menus yet to look at during this time. when we asked for the menus (35 minutes after we were seated), our waiter proceeded to tell us that "he was busy getting our drinks" (nice touch, waiter...time for another profession, perhaps). he didn't come back to take our order for another 20 minutes. so now an hour after we've been seated, we still haven't even had the chance to place our order. we finally order, starting with the appetizers and additional drinks. the appetizers come without utensils (no soup spoon for the bisque - is this standard??). the drinks, of course, don't appear till much later but at this point, we're getting used to that. the food comes out and half the steaks at our table are not cook the way it was requested. we don't even bother sending it back because (1) it'll take too long and (2) our waiter can't be found. our waiter doesn't even come back to check on us to make sure we have everything we need until we're through with our meals. we finally speak to a manager, and he proceeds to tell us that people made reservations and they were overbooked (as if to tell us that we showed up as a big party with no reservations when indeed our reservations were made over a week ago). the manager thanks us for our comments and tells us he'll work on the service. there was no further effort made on the part of the manager or waiter!!!!!!!!!! the waiter comes back and i now have to blatantly tell him it's a birthday and we want dessert -- he hasn't bothered to ask for dessert for the birthday (this is of course 20 minutes after we've finished our meal). we then also have to ask for the bill -- the restaurant only has 2 tables left at this point - and we have to ask for the bill -- really, are you that busy with 2 tables left in the entire restaurant that we have to continuously ask for everything hours later. the entire dinner process took 2.5 hours and made us late for our night out. this is a terrible, horrible and inconsiderate place---not to mention that you can get better food for the price somewhere else. we expected high quality and service from a place like this and were left quite disappointed!