Oak Steakhouse

Reviews

• EW

  Emily Welborn

  3 days ago
  3.0
  We came in knowing that the service would be slow due to it being a new restaurant. Our waiter was fantastic and drinks came out quickly when needed, but the food was Ridiculously slow. They need to not fill the restaurant if it’s going to take over an hour between appetizers and entrées. Our food tasted delicious, but beware that all of their shareable sides are not shareable sized. we ordered the jalapeño cheddar cornbread, thinking that it would be a basket with multiple pieces since it’s a shareable side and it came out one single square. $15 for one piece of cornbread that we are supposed to share so everyone got to take one bite. Cornbread is like $.90. We asked the manager, and he literally didn’t know what to say when we asked what kind of family is supposed to share this. We also ordered the french fries as a shareable side, which weren’t anymore than a single serving size as well. Every upscale steakhouse we’ve ever been to gives you overflowing baskets full of fries when it’s considered a shareable. Especially for the price that they were charging. We ordered a 8oz filet and a 12oz filet and they were the same size, the 12oz even looked a little smaller. We wouldn’t have even noticed probably if we didn’t order 2 different sizes. Again the manager just kind of stared at us when we asked about it. The bartenders could also do some work as well. The drinks tasted OK but again for the price they could be better. $500 and 3 hrs later , we won’t be back until they figure it out!
• LS

  Leigh Ann Sedlock

  6 days ago
  2.0
  They have a lot of kinks to work out with the amount of money you spend here. We ordered Parker House rolls and a wedge salad. Took way too long to serve these simple items and the rolls were warm on the outside but almost somewhat cold on the inside? We both got filets and shared the potato puree. They brought our steaks out and not the potatoes. By the time we got the potatoes they were lukewarm and there is nothing special to them. They say they are shareable but the portion is really not that large. My husband had a $3 steak sauce and they don’t give you much. We opted not to get dessert which seemed to disappoint our server. She brought the bill and it took over 20 minutes for her to come back and get our credit card. We won’t be coming back anytime soon. Service needs to improve if this restaurant wants to be successful. It’s way too expensive not to have top shelf service.
• SB

  Stephen Baynham

  Sep 25, 2026
  1.0
  The restaurant has a prime location and is beautifully done inside . That’s the end. The drinks were 15 dollars each and were terrible. Compare that with the last resort, 5 bar and porterhouse and it was 1 star. The bartenders are obviously not experienced and the taste of their drinks was marginal. It took literally 50 minutes for the appetizers to come and compared to other similar Athens establishments it was 2 star quality. We Ordered the oysters and they served them without any crackers, horseradish or cocktail sauce. the restaurant does have all of the above but it seems they have never served raw oysters so they don’t bring any of it without asking for it . It takes so long to get the condiments that the dozen oysters were eaten before it came . The other apps were just basic taste. The main course took 2 hours to come from our time of arrival. The Portions were wrong. We Ordered a lobster tail add on. It Was expensive like fine dining but again the server brings zero condiments. no drawn butter or sauce. The lobster tastes good but it was lacking the things that you expect when you pay a premium price . The oaks expects a high price with a very basic presentation. No sauces no anything. Just a slab of lobster . The Steak we ordered had a good taste but we ordered a 12 oz to share and the cost was almost 100 dollars . We were served an 8’oz size .The restaurant Would have charged me the 12 oz price if we didn’t get the manager come look to show him they served us incorrectly. he seemed lost and not prepared to be a manager for this premium priced establishment. The “table Sized sides “ We’re anything but. We Ordered the cornbread for 15 dollars and it was listed as a “table share size “. When it came it Was a joke. Literally it was one small piece of cornbread! I laughed at how ridiculous that was . Cornbread is like 16 cents a slice and they market it as a share side for table. It would be good for a table of one. It Should have been at least a few pieces to be marked as a share size and for 15 dollars. This place will Fail if better management does not come. I 10000 percent blame Managament. The Kitchen is super slow, And the food was wrong. Appetizers had no condiments, and the Bartenders were not competent to serve fine dining. It is also a bit long for a 2 hours wait to get served dinner when It was just 60 Percent full . I guess the last resort should and porterhouse should rest easy . This restaurant so far is not even close right now
• MP

  Megan Powell

  Sep 24, 2026
  2.0
  I LOVE a fine dining experience, and for $550 for three people I expect perfection. Let's start where every good dining experience begins: cocktails. We all ordered off-menu, I just didn't think the cocktail menu was very inspired, and for the default martini to be vodka... I have no words. I ordered a Corpse Reviver No. 2, and before you think that order is insane, it's a well-over-100-year-old drink. It was made with super juice rather than freshly squeezed lemon juice (that was obvious). For $18, I think you can squeeze a fresh goddamn lemon. It had too much lemon juice, and I got very little gin from it, they did get the absinthe right, though. My friend ordered a Paper Plane that seemed to be missing some alcohol, and my other friend ordered a gin martini that was served with no olives, where were they? We looked over at the bar and there were only two bartenders, both seemingly very young. Do with that what you will. The cocktails also took forever to arrive. My friend ordered a second martini that never came. We'd already been perusing the menu, and the waiter gave a funny little speech about ordering everything all at once. I don't know if they'd spent the evening serving people who'd never been to a nice steakhouse, but we know how to order. It was funny, though, because the point of the speech seemed to be to emphasize the well-timed expediting of our dinner — ironic, given what happened next. We started with bread and steak tartare. The bread was fine, slightly dense in the middle. The tartare was good, no egg (it didn't come with one; that's just a preference of mine). It was served with homemade potato chips, which I think were too flavorful to be served with tartare, they competed with it. I did like the addition of the thinly sliced red pepper. We also ordered a Caesar salad to share, which was actually delicious. It was served with a slightly different lettuce, the anchovies were whole, and they used pecorino instead of parmesan. I would have preferred the anchovies pureed, but that's just me being picky. For entrées, my friends ordered a filet and a strip, and I got the steak frites. For sharable sides we got mashed potato purée and mushrooms. There was no green side option, unless you count green polenta, which I don't. Where was the creamed spinach or haricot verts? It was like a picky eater built the side options: cornbread, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, green polenta, and mushrooms. Holy beige, Batman! There were some green items among the starters, it would make more sense to move the cornbread to the starters, move the okra to the sides, and not fry it. Also, per Google, there's a vegetarian option, but I didn't see one on the menu, not an entrée, anyway. Perhaps they could turn the mac and cheese into an entrée? We spoke to the sommelier and ordered a Beaujolais, chilled. We'd finished our starters and were waiting on the wine to chill when suddenly our steaks arrived, but we hadn't had our salad yet. I mentioned that, and the steaks were taken away. A minute or two later we got our salad, which we were then rushed through because our waiter let us know our steaks were "ready" early, no shit, they'd already been brought to the table once. They didn't remake the steaks, nor were they held under a heat lamp, they were served to us cold. My friends' steaks and mine were all cold. Oh and while we were eating the salad we told the waiter he didn't have to keep chilling the wine but he said it had a literal minute left and it would be right out, 8 to 10 minutes later and half way through our steaks we got the wine. The sharable sides weren't served with a serving utensil, so we all used the forks that had already been in our mouths to serve ourselves fromt the dishes, same with the salad. That seemed strange, not to provide a serving spoon. The makeoever the bank got was good but the ambiance felt off and the music was weird. Also there was a gaggle of staff grouped together doing nothing meanwhile our waiter was rushing around working hard. One of them could have gotten our wine.
• ML

  Melissa Lee

  Sep 20, 2026
  2.0
  We were excited to try Oak Steakhouse and were looking forward to having a quality steakhouse option in Athens after Slater’s closed. The space is beautiful, the hosts were warm and welcoming, and our server was genuinely polite and professional. The menu is also impressively robust! Unfortunately, there were several things that made the experience fall short of what we expected for a restaurant at this price point. First, if you’re vegetarian, there isn’t a meal for you. Every entrée contains meat, and many of the sides include bacon or another meat component. Of course, it’s a steakhouse, but I was surprised to see no vegetarian dish. The cocktail menu has some creative options, but there aren’t many classic cocktails listed as specials, which I would expect to see at a nice steakhouse. We each ordered a classic cocktail that we thought would be a standard for an any bartender. The dirty martini was good, although it didn’t come with an olive garnish. My paper plane mostly tasted like lemon and Aperol, and I couldn’t really detect much bourbon or amaro. The appetizers were good, and the Caesar salad was excellent! But our steaks arrived at essentially the same time as our salad, which made the meal feel rushed. Our bottle of wine also took quite a while to arrive, so we had already been eating our steaks for some time before the wine made it to the table. The steaks themselves were cooked well, but they were served without any au jus. We don’t typically order steak sauces, but we did expect some jus with our steaks. We ended up dipping the steak in the whipped potatoes instead. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t quite the experience we were expecting for the price point. One of the more disappointing things was the amount of staff standing around the kitchen and gathered near the wine cellar while we were waiting on drinks, wine, or food. Our server was attentive and lovely, so this wasn’t a criticism of him personally. But as a former casual restaurant server, I don’t understand why there seemed to be so much staff standing around while tables were waiting or glasses were empty. I would say that the service just wasn’t quite coordinated yet, but this is a problem at their sister restaurant, Osteria Olio, as well. Ultimately, dinner for three came to about $550 (including tip). That was for three steaks, bread, one shared appetizer, one shared salad, three cocktails, one bottle of wine, and one shared dessert. We knew Oak wasn’t going to be inexpensive, and we were happy to spend for a really good steakhouse experience. But at that price, we expected the food and service to feel much more polished, intentional, and knowledgeable. I really hope some of these things are simply growing pains. But as of today, the price feels out of step with the level of service and execution. Athens has a lot of restaurants where you can spend that kind of money and receive extremely attentive service, knowledgeable bartenders, well-timed courses, and much more food that feels worth the splurge. For now, I’d choose to spend my money at those other restaurants.