Evoke

Very well done at each course, the drawback is small plates are spendy. Start with Ceviche, it was awesome and completely different that what I’ve had in California, David had a petite filet which was petite. They serve «flavored salts» on the side which were a local treat. I had medallions in Madeira wine cream sauce over linguine. It was very good. We topped it off with a dark chocolate brownie and an Irish Coffee. Dinner for two was $ 150 very good service.

Pretty much sucked. If were to rate it relative to the price it would definitely be just 1 star.
The place was as bright as an operating room. So that atmosphere was definitely not enjoyable.
The service was really, really bad. Not rude mind you, just comically bad. The place had recently opened so normally I’d cut them some slack. But it was as though the apex of fine dining that the waitstaff had previously worked at was Bojangles. Trying to ask for suggestion from the wine list was nothing short of absurd. They could not have had less knowledge.
Fortunately when the very high bill arrived (this was expected), I threw this sub par meal on the expense account. There is absolutely Zero chance that I will ever come back here.

Perfectly cooked wings, badly seasoned, the honey whatever sauce is not better than buffalo, so theres no point to it. $ 12 for 8 wings, too much for scraps. Crab lump deviled eggs, good idea again, nice ingredients, bad execution. Watery deviled yolk, the egg white texture was too hard and the lump of crab should be a few smaller pieces instead of the big lump. I could make better versions of each of these dishes for ¼ the price. Maybe ill come back and try menu items with more Unilocal mentions.

We came here for Valentine’s Day dinner and I usually don’t like prefixed menus. However, the food was fantastic. Great blend of flavors! I cut my steak with a butter knife. AMAZING! Our server was great and suggested one of the best wines I ever tasted! I can’t wait to go back.

I was really excited to try this restaurant after getting all the awesome reviews. This is definitely a place to bring your expense account though!
Went on a Friday night and it was slow. The service was attentive. The décor was nice and modern.
Started off with the frisée salad, which was not bad, little too much dressing for my taste. I moved on to the squid ink tagliatelle which was very good, had a nice hint of spice which was surprising. Moved on to the crown jewel: the 21 day aged strip… and it was very good! The server gave us four different kinds of salts for the table and it was fun to play around with the tastes.
I was extremely disspointed with the wine by the glass. I think due to the fact that there isn’t a lot of table turnover, I think the bottle was opened for a few days. It’s was not a good experience.
I found the sticker shock to the a downer, there are plenty of options at that level in Charlotte that I would go to instead.

As one of ‘CLTs to 50 restaurants’, I expected a little more… maybe it was the lack of patrons (pretty empty for a Sat night, most likely since it’s in a hotel a little off the main beat and path?), or the cold treatment from the restaurant manager when seating us and addressing one of our concerns, but overall wasn’t the great/​fun night we were hoping for. Overall, the food was good (I definitely recommend the Peruvian ceviche), but nothing else really stood out as a show-​stopper. Agree w/​other comments that portions are small (I actually like that — get to taste more without over-​induldging), but the lack of up-​beat atmosphere, location and patronage does not inspire me to return.

2 stars is generous
Over priced food
Mediocre service at best
Venture out of the hotel. Next time i will for sure. All this place has going for it is convenience.

The décor in this place is gorgeous!!! It is straight out of a «Mad Men» set as others have said before me. The flavors in all of our Restaurant week were EXCELLENT but the portions were super small… even for restaurant week. Our waitress was polite and sweet but the kitchen was extra slow on getting our meals out. We will definitely come back but might have a snack at home first ;)

We were lured to Evoke by their rating in Charlotte Magazine and Restaurant Week was an added carrot.
Since our reservation was at the tail end of the great snow of 2016 they called to confirm our reservation– very thoughtful!
The lobby is gorgeous — very relaxing to hang out before or after dinner. Evoke is tucked in the back left corner at a kinda awkward host stand.
Service was divine– we were seated quickly, greeted warmly and educated on the menu. I loved that they offered wine, beer and whiskey flights. Our table tried a cocktail, wine flight and OMB beer flights.
Food was executed well in maybe the most well timed dinner I’ve ever had out. Why only three stars? Nothing felt innovative, special or surprising. Do all three of those words mean the same thing?
Yes the salmon crudo was lovely, if tiny. Sauces were also quite nice.
Proteins were cooked well, apps were delicious and I was the lone person to love my dessert (brown butter cake with Nutella gelato — amazing!) The gelato and sorbet assortment wasn’t served on a chilled plate and melted quickly. And at a several hundred dollar dinner it’s those things that make a difference.
In a sea of fine dining options consistent is good, yes but there are so many choices in Charlotte now and I want see something on a menu in a new preparation.
This wasn’t a bad meal — just not worthy of a top five restaurant in Charlotte. Come here for a solid meal and great service– plus it’s a terrific deal during Restaurant Week. Save your special night out dinner budget for Passion 8, Fig Tree, Customshop, Wooden Vine or Carpe Diem.

I will not be going to The Palm, Ruth’s Chris, Mortons, or Del Frisco’s, anymore.
This place is a gem! Wow. Tuna crudo was amazing. Steak crudo was delicious. Steaks were cooked to perfection and worth every penny. I’d skip the rosemary butter next time.
The best creamed spinach in town, bar none. Brussel sprouts pancetta were great.
Awesome service, generous, perfectly made cocktails. Coolest steakhouse vibe in Charlotte, for sure!

This place needs to do work. First of all no valet on Saturday evening. The door doesn’t even open correct. Seafood wasn’t fresh and service was poor. Don’t waste your time or money. This restaurant is running on borrowed time!

Our family enjoyed our Christmas luncheon at this restaurant. Tasty beef tenderloin and the wild mushroom is really good

Overrated it’s very Fu Fu if you want to be full this isn’t the place to go and only have a app, main course and dessert. The courses are baby sized, my newborn eats more than what’s provided on the plate.
If you are looking for a very intimate and upscale looking place to go to this place is the place as long as you are not to hungry.
The 3 stars stem from the flavor of the items we tried in conjunction with the ambiance of the bar area and restaurant. Honestly if I was only rating in flavor and ambiance I would have to give this place 4.5 stars.
We had the Peruvian ceviche as an app and it was AMAZING. We moved to our main course and I tried the Crab Gnocchi which was delicious but extremely small. My husband had squid ink pasta with some type of meat I’m not sure if it was seafood or poultry. All in all the food was tasty but the portion size sucked.

I give three stars. Mainly because my two experiences here were SO vastly different. And if all came down to the service.
I went one night for a late dinner. I had been working all day and my coworker and I wanted a nice meal. We were staying at the Le Meridien so decided not to travel to far.
I had the afternoon on the grass cocktail which was fabulous and then we had a bottle of Malbec between us per he suggestion of the bartender bill. Bill did a fantastic job of keeping us fed and watered.
I started with the ceviche and it was delicious! Followed that with the petite filet with the frites and brocolini. And all of that was absolutely delicious. The frites were AMAZING. and for dessert we split the espresso torte. We asked for an extra scoop of ice cream to try the gelato flavored and Bill hooked us up! Dinner was delicious and I also got it for room service another night while on the trip.
…but breakfast was a different story. It took 20 minutes just to receive waters and orange juice! And an additional 20 to get our order taken. The food was good — I had the mini waffles. But nothing to write home about. And then we were left waiting for about 20 – 25 minutes once we asked for the check. And the worst part is there were other tables who got their food before us. Leaving us to believe our server just bit off more than she could chew that AM.
Also every table we sat at wobbled. Not sure what that was about.

A hidden gem of a place for Restaurant Week! The food was absolutely delicious. The portions were very generous. And the service was great as well. The place had been remodeled and looked very modern and nice.
Logistically this place could be a little better with the parking for those that do not stay at the hotel. Also the seating along the back — the chandeliers did not line up to the tables. And someone in our group hit their head as we got up to leave.
Parking was also very confusing as the elevator in the garage took us all the way through the conference center and the adjacent hotel. This after paying for parking on the non busy 2^nd Ward of Uptown.

So many things can be improved on and some things I don’t think they can do anything about.
First off, the food was good. Although my steak came out a little overdone I still enjoyed the mushroom side as well as the yellow fin tuna appetizer I ordered.
The décor looks good if you don’t look too closely. What I mean is the ceilings look damaged in spots and the space has a general feel of trying really hard but the cracks still come through. It is a trendy spot but until they figure out how to create a separate entrance it will always have a hotel-​restaurant feel to it.
The staff was pretty good, stumbling a bit but nothing critical done wrong.
The real kicker for me was the beer selection. The selection was fine actually but the pricing was WOW. $ 19 for a 12 oz. bottle of a decent Stone beer? Come on, that’s a bit much. I think the cheapest bottle of an IPA beer was $ 11. In general, it is a pretty expensive place to eat and with all the other places to choose from Evoke is going to have an uphill battle finding patrons outside of those that are staying at the hotel.
PS. $ 5 to self park or $ 10 to valet.

So… if you are looking for an elegant, cosmopolitan locale with a fantastic mixologist who is fun to talk with (Xavier), then this is your place. We drifted through the evening with Jefferson whiskey infused with mint (me) and lavender infused cosmos (her). It was the perfect evening!!!
Ask for Xavier!

We checked out EVOKE recently at the Le Meridien hotel and absolutely loved every bite of our exotic salt covered NY Strip Steak. Le Meridien recently sank $ 20+ million into the former Blake Hotel and although it doesn’t look much different on the outside (yet) the interior décor is straight out of a Mad Men episode. Equipped with 1960’s era Donald Draper modern glam, floor-​to-​ceiling windows, posh seating areas, and pops of yellow accents are featured throughout the predominantly earth tone inspired interior.
EVOKE is chasing an Italian-​Mediterranean «New-​Age Steakhouse» approach by offering dry-​aged prime cuts of steak, exotic salts, house-​made pastas, and… crudos? I’ll get to that later.
We started off the night by getting the Sweet Gem Lettuce Salad and the Baby Romaine Salad. The Sweet Gem Lettuce salad was equipped with tender greens, avocado, tomato, blue cheese, quail egg, bacon, and was covered with a champagne vinaigrette. The salad was a great (light) way to start off the night and the champagne vinaigrette paired perfectly with the quail egg.
The Baby Romaine Salad came with radicchio, vincotto, croutons, and shaved parmigiano reggiano. Again… a great salad with a light touch to start off the night but the croutons we’re WAY too big and near impossible to eat.
Next up was the Hamachi crudo with avocado, crispy shitake mushroom, and black hawaiian sea salt. For those that don’t know what a crudo is… think carpaccio, sushi, steak tartate, etc… I didn’t think I was going to like the Hamachi, I was definitely wrong. The Hamachi crudo with its shitake mushrooms that somehow taste like bacon we’re one of the highlights of the night :)
After the Hamachi came the sweet potato and ricotta ravioli with bourbon butter. This dish could easily be eaten as a dessert thanks to its incredibly sweet flavor profile.
For the entrée’s we sampled the 16oz 21 day Dry-​Aged NY Strip Steak with a side of Truffle Pomme Frites, Truffle Potato Purée, and Grilled Asparagus. At this point in the night my partner had already eaten above her weight class and I was just getting started. The steak was perfect… in every way… nothing else to say… just plain perfect. Four exotic salts (Hawaiian, Volcano, Spicy, Smokey) accompany the steak in tiny dishes that allow you to pinch and sprinkle just the right amount for each bite.
The Truffle Pomme Frites we’re delicious… as should everything thats been fried and topped with Truffle oil and grated parmesan cheese.
The Truffle Potato Purée was extremely delicious but also very heavy. Just make sure to plan on sharing this dish with someone else or plan on bringing some home.
The Grilled Asparagus was… well… grilled asparagus, enough said.
For dessert we wen’t the the Pine Nut Tart and the Berry + Ricotta. The Pine Nut Tart was a fancy version of a pecan pie and was paired with a mascarpone ice cream and a cranberry chutney.
The Berry + Ricotta came with Lavender Honey, Mint, and Biscotti Crumbles which was great, but I felt myself wishing I had went with the Chocolate Cake instead.
We’ve eaten our way across Charlotte, through Charleston, in and out of D.C., etc… and have eaten at plenty of Steak houses. EVOKE stood out to us as a favorite for its perfectly prepared NY Strip Steak, bacon flavored shitake mushrooms, and selection of exotic salts. Whether you’re from out of town or living right down the street, EVOKE should be on your short list of restaurants to check out very soon.

Just amazing! Perfect place for an anniversary dinner. On the pricey side but so worth it. First, it seemed as if I reserved the entire restaurant for hubby and I @ 7. But it just wasn’t crowded on a Friday night. Its located in a hotel so most of the clientele are travelers. I loved that because of the type of location. Plus, the attentiveness of the hostesses, bartenders, and servers were amazing. I think at least 5 different people came to us in the first hour.
To start off, the drink was delicious! We got a recommendation from the bartender who’s a certified mixologist, who infuses his own Vodka. Just amazing. Name has escaped me but just ask for a «sweet, STRONG combo» and you won’t be disappointed.
Now on to the food… sides and apps are definitely enough to share, so we got a little of everything. We got the Filet, Creamed Spinach, Gnocchi (Daily Handmade pasta), and Truffle Fries. Between 2 people we had leftovers. Truffle fries should be sold in stores or home delivered because they were that good. And now that I’ve tasted homemade pasta, there’s nothing like it. To top it all off, we got our anniversary dessert comped, a Butterscotch /​Caramel melt with Shortbread Cookies.
From walking in the door to leaving, everything was great. Definitely a great, new local gem. Needs more advertising to the locals to keep it around. I would come back for sure and bring others.

Got the rib eye, creamed spinach and brussel sprouts! AMAZE BALLS!
Bill and Stacey are the best!