O’Charley’s Restaurant & Bar

When you first come in the restaurant it’s filthy the bathroom is nasty, the waiter told us that they on served «tap water» and we had to buy bottled water… The sad part is this is just the beginning we haven’t even ordered yet…

I’ve just been to this O’Charley’s for the last time. The only thing consistent about this place, is the bad service. I’m not really even sure why I keep going back (probably the Potato Soup) but I’m done. Staff is usually unprofessional, the restaurant is dirty and I’ve had slimy lettuce there more times than not its just gross and I’m done.
ADDITIONAL UPDATE: This place can’t even get carry out right! Thought I’d avoid the restaurant chaos and see about carry out — nope, another fail.
Utterly ridiculous. I’ve never been to such a poorly run restaurant. Never.
I’m done with you, O’Charley’s. Get your stuff together.

I’ve pretty much given up on this location. After multiple visits and complaints regarding service, I’ve seen no change over the last couple of years. It is shame because I usually have no problem with the food. Waitstaff is slow and seemingly uncaring no matter when I come. I’ve even ordered to-​go and I usually have to wait to get that as well. Sometimes it’s ready but it takes forever to simply pay and leave.
If you must have your OC fix (hey, the potato soup is GREAT!), try the fultondale location. I usually have less issues there.

One thing you’ll ever hear anyone say about this place: wow what great service! Getting the bartender to get you a drink is like trying to pull a tooth out of a toddler. Come here if you want to avoid tip cost.

Service was very slow by waitress, as she blamed a lot of things on the Kitchen. Other tables, not ran by her, got their food in a decent time and they came in after us. It literally took 15 mins for her to get my girlfriend a bottle of mustard and nearly 20 mins another time for our friend to get a refill (of course blamed on the bar). If this is the case then the service is just slow. If this is not the case then the waitress really made this an unenjoyable meal for me. Fist time coming/​last time coming. Food was cold after 45 mins of waiting on meal. Mind you once again, it took other tables 10 – 20 mins to get there food around us.

They don’t serve prime rib less than medium, chicken fingers were served cold and the waffles were probably good when prepared last month.

Balls of mold floating in 2 waterglasses, service veeery slow, food ok. Will not be back

Well, let’s just start with the service. I cannot honestly rate the service, as we did not actually receive any. We were seated rather quickly on a Friday evening, and that’s where it ends. I believe that we saw our server, not one of the 5 employees who walked by our table in the 20 min we were there, but upon exiting the restaurant we noticed her her in the parking lot arguing with a few patrons who exited prior to our departure. I’d shy away from this poor excuse for a dining establishment and venture to the Chili’s just yards away where we enjoyed fast and friendly service.

I would give zero if I could. Love O’Charleys but this location sucks. Got there on a Saturday around 6p and was told 30 minutes. Asked to sit at the high tops near the bar and told section was closed. In fact, a good ²⁄₃ of the restaurant was closed due to server shortage. Everyone who runs this location should be fired for incompetence.

It seemed pretty quiet here. It took a little longer to be greeted, considering they weren’t busy. Once we were greeted we were immediately seated. We had our drinks within 5 minutes of seating, and appetizers a few minutes later. The appetizers were good. We had tater tot fondue which was simple yet satisfying, and a sampler thing with potato skins that seemed a bit dry, cheese triangles that were too cheesy (what my husband said, I didn’t have any), and some chicken strips that were perfect! The rolls that came fresh out of the oven were the best part of the meal! Had we left after the appetizers this place would’ve gotten 4 stars! The server was very friendly, but didn’t come by very often, we are very low maintenance so it didn’t bother us, but may be a problem for others. Our dinner was less than memorable. I ordered the pretzel burger and there was a thick layer of turkey (lunch meat style) that kinda ruined the burger for me, the fries were great! My husbands medium steak was overcooked and not great quality, his ribs were good and the mashed potatoes looked/​tasted like they’d been sitting all day. We ordered an apple pie to take home that was no better than any other pie that we could’ve bought a store for ½ the price. All in all it wouldn’t be our first choice for another visit, but far better than the service at Chilis down the road!

Seated immediately.
Ordered promptly.
Food arrived in reasonable amount of time.
I had the Chicken Tenders and Twisted Chips. First time trying the chips. Very good. I wish I had additional sauce for the chips. 1 serving of honey mustard not quite enough for both the chicken and chips.
Wait staff not as attentive as would have liked. It is a pet peeve of mine for my glass to ever get empty.
By the end of the meal it seemed as if wait staff wanted us to leave sooner than we were ready.

Drove around the area a bit looking for something to eat and settled on O’Charleys. Big mistake! At 8:45 pm, not that many tables seated but there were 2 groups of people waiting to be seated. No one at the hostess desk, phone ringing made a young man appear & answered. While he was discussing something to a person who obviously was not a customer, another young man, without acknowledging us, seated one of the two groups waiting. Young man on phone finished his conversation then disappeared, without acknowledging as well! Left & went to Chili’s where it took less than a minute to be greeted & seated. O’Charleys needs an under cover boss show!

Waitresses poorly trained. One was chewing gum and another came to the table giggling «I just burped when I walked over here!» Our drinks took over 30 minutes to arrive. We were told the bartender thought we left, then that he forgot us, that he was overwhelmed by a party of 25 and then the drinks were wrong when they got there. There was plenty of staff milling about but customers were filling their own drinks. The food was good. The waitress apologized saying they’d just had a fire. All in all a disaster!

I came here for dinner on a Saturday night. The place was super busy at about 6 pm but I was able to snag the last spot at the bar. When I was finally able to get the overworked bartender’s attention, I ordered a beer and their chicken fried steak with bacon mashed potato. It was so busy that it took about a half hour for the food to come out. Did I mention that it was busy? :) There were so many people there either waiting for a table or for their to-​go order.
The chicken fried steak was okay, it’s not something that you can really mess up. Having said that, I’ve had better elsewhere. The bacon mashed potato was good… anything with bacon is good! :)
If you come here during peak meal time, pack your patience… it’s going to take a while. Service will be slow! If you’re in a hurry, I would advise going someplace else. The food here just isn’t that good for the wait.

You have to know what the order at this restaurant! The tenders, salad, and the salmon are my go to options. The service has always been really good, so quite surprise by the reviews. Give the place a try you might surprise yourself!

If all O’Charley’s are like this location, then I will never again eat at an O’Charley’s. The person who sat us seem utterly disinterested and displeased in having to do any work. The waitress didn’t show up for 10 minutes, despite getting a drink order, and a drink for a table that was seated 5 minutes after us. After that she wasn’t a terrible server, but I also would not want to be seated in her section again. The kitchen was slow, as it seemed to take an extended period of time (25 – 30 mins during a slow time) to get our entrees. However, the quality of much of the food is no longer very good.
First, the bread is different, this is half the reason I love O’Charley’s. The rolls used to be light and fluffy, now they are denser and smaller, perhaps they were cooked incorrectly by the kitchen at this location, they tasted ok, better than bread at some chains, but not what I love. We got the appetizer combo, and the chicken fingers and honey mustard sauce are probably the only reason worth going to O’Charley’s now. The potato skins were good, but the fried cheese was not. I was expecting fried mozzarella, but I’m not totally sure what cheese was in there but it was not very good, as it had a pasteurized processed cheese taste. Both me and my girlfriend ordered some form of chicken and pasta and each dish was drowning in oil. She took one bite and pushed it aside. She had the Caroline Chicken, and after tasting it, I could not stomach it either. I had the Tuscan Chicken, and whatever cheese was on top of it also had that same pasteurized processed cheese taste and really ruined the chicken (which was the only tasty portion of the dish considering the dousing of oil (mine might have been a cheap butter or margarine, while the Caroline Chicken tasted like bad olive oil – though I could be wrong). Apparently Wednesday is also Free Pie Day, and the pies we got were good, though they were out of the promoted chocolate mint pie that I would have loved.
So the reasons I gave this place 2 stars instead of one: chicken fingers and honey mustard and the pie.
Things they should improve: entrée quality, speed of service, bread, and pleasantness of the staff.
I would love to be able to go to this place again, but I think this last experience was so bad that we will not.

O’Charley’s pick up ordering process IS GARBAGE!!! There HAS to be a better way! What’s the point of calling it in and still having to wait 20mins FOR TWO ORDERS OF POTATO SOUP???

Wow. Don’t go here. Waited over 30 minutes for a table when over half the restaurant was empty. The staff was full of hood rats and we wound up leaving before we even got seated. Utterly horrible place. Worst experience with a chain restaurant ever

Nothing necessarily wrong with the servers, but my actual service? Horrible. Continued to get my order wrong, steak cooked incorrectly. The manager was very nice and helpful though. Maybe tonight was just an off night

O’Charley’s is usually my preferred fast casual chain restaurant because you can usually depend on the quality and variety of items on the menu and actually their steaks and prime rib are pretty good. The Homewood Wildwood location is probably one of the poorer examples in the chain. Your dining experience can vary greatly here depending on who’s working on the floor and in the kitchen. The exterior of this location looks dated and needs freshening. Usually the host/​hostess is very vivacious and friendly. In my most recent experience, the hostess let me stand in front of her for over a minute while she was reading through some papers before acknowledging me and then acted like it was a bother to set me in the near empty restaurant. Some of the waitstaff are very good – but others, while they seem very sweet, are inattentive, slow and forgetful. Menus are often outdated or missing the pages containing new items and special promotions. As for the food, here’s my take on some of the menu items:
Chicken Pot Pie – very good, flavorful, nice chunks of chicken
Cajun shrimp pasta – good seasoning and flavor – sometimes pasta is lukewarm
Cajun chicken pasta – seasoned well but again pasta can be lukewarm
Chicken Fingers – these are consistently good
Fish sandwich – Surprisingly good – slaw is tasty
Steamed broccoli – simple dish, good side choice, hard to mess up
Southern fried chicken sandwich – way too salty!!!
Cowboy sirloin – steak was tough and mashed potatoes were lukewarm
French dip – too salty.
Any Hamburger – patty and bun aren’t good
Chicken fried steak – over-​fried and too crunchy
French fries – decent seasoning but frequently served cold
Double bacon Mac & cheese – this was decent, but was overpriced at $ 10.99. $ 7.99 or $ 8.50 at most would be a fair price
Yes, it seems like I’ve gone there a lot for a less than stellar place; however, it is one of the few restaurants near my office. Plus it seems like every other time you go they give you a survey coupon good for a free appetizer (get the chicken fingers and you can’t go wrong!)