2. Magnolia Grill

CMH
This restaurant came recommended by the owner of another restaurant. There were three of us celebrating Father's Day. The menu is pricey but we expected that. One in the party asked our server what she would recommend between the pork and the lamb. She highly recommended the lamb from Australia, stating it was so tender you could cut it with a fork. The other two dishes ordered were fish. The lamb was extremely tough, chewy, and unedible. Three quarters of the meal was untouched. At the end of the meal the server was advised about the problem and her response was, "Oh!" She walked away and brought the check. I went to the manager on duty and he offered to "buy us a dessert". I told him we don't eat dessert but to ask my husband, whose meal it was. He asked him, and my husband had the same response. The lamb was one of the most expensive things on the menu and there was no offer to take anything off our bill. We had two drinks each, which if they don't have a policy of comping the meal, they could have comped a drink or two. We are not in the habit of complaining and in fact, it was my husband's first time ever doing so. We travel a lot and eat out often and they did not know we were not from the area. Our daughter was with us, who is in the restaurant business in Durham, so word will travel quickly about this experience. To top everything off, the service was awful, as our server was not knowlegable in the least and never checked back throughout our entire meal. We have another daughter who lives in the same city as us and she owns three restaurants. She was appalled by the attitude of both the server and the manager.