Eddie Merlot’s

Had dinner at Eddie Merlots on January 3 and must say it’s the third time in a row we’ve had problems with food and service. My Dover sole was served cold, the calamari was very chewy and tough everything else is With the exception of the service. Waiter was very kind and apologetic and said he’s been there for eight or nine years and never experienced such for management there until this past year. What used to be one of my top 3 restaurants is off my list and I won’t go back for a long time!

New Year’s Eve dinner was a smashing success thanks to the impeccable service and delicious food at Eddie Merlot’s. I whet my whistle with a strawberry martini, and while a tad pricy, it was super potent and tasty. For appetizers we had the smoking shrimp cocktail and tempura green beans (I wanted a bucket of the wasabi cream dipping sauce), all delightful. Even the bread (topped with a dash of red pepper season) was outstanding. Though I was already full, I turned my attention to the well-​prepared filet mignon. It was seasoned to perfection and melted in my mouth. My husband had the sea bass, which was flaky and delicious, but my steak was the belle of the ball. The staff was friendly, attentive, and were just the icing on the cake to an already fabulous experience. I was way too stuffed to try dessert, but there’s always next time.

Eddie Merlot is one of many excellent high end places for steak and seafood in the greater Columbus area. I love the ambience if this restaurant. It is a great place for a party or a romantic night out. The service is also generally very good from the hostess to the servers.
The one problem with it is that the quality of the dining experience is very inconsistent. In fact I started by giving it three stars because while at times I’ve had some of the most fabulous Wagyu steak here absolutely mouth watering and cooked perfectly. And then at others, the steaks have been mediocre — stuff that you’d expect from a longhorn steakhouse. The ahi tuna is usually pretty good. The steak Diane has been usually good as well.
So all in all, it’s worth trying again but unless they become more consistent I’m more likely to return to some of the other outstanding restaurants for steak in Columbus. If we had 3.5 stars this is where I would rate it.

Delicious dinner with serious portions. We brought home enough to feed our voracious son.

Tough filet and the salmon tasted like a frozen piece of fish that was dried out. Both covered w sauces that made them taste even worse. Not worth finishing my food. Could have got better meal at Applebee’s for ¼ of the price. Not worth the money. Should have known better by the lack of patrons at a prime dining time. Very disappointing.

My experience with Eddie Merlot’s was top notch, and I’m very particular, especially when I’m paying for excellence. We had the filet minon and salmon combo (3 course meal) with a butter lettuce salad and the gnocchi appetizers, a bottle of Wente Chardonnay (Riva ridge?) and champagne for dessert! The filet was so flavorful and done to order (perfect medium rare); salmon fantastic with the most elegant sauce, the salad was huge and absolutely delicious, and the gnocchi was the best I’ve ever had — a unique homemade tubular shape, with braised mushrooms and a soft basil-​brown butter pesto. Truly a dining delight! Loved the décor/​ambiance; our wait staff was there at every turn and very pleasant and attentive. I’d go back in a heartbeat!!!

Having just returned to Columbus from living in Indianapolis Eddie’s is just the same… perfect.
Great service, food prepared perfectly, great cocktails, and wonderful atmosphere.
I only write this because if you want to go somewhere special and know that you will be treated as such this is the place.
Thanks again for a wonderful evening.

Greg the bartender is fantastic. Love the steaks, salmon, hummus, wine list, atmosphere. Wonderful place!

For a fine dining restaurant, our dining experience was not what it should have been. Our meal felt rushed from the minute we were seated and our waiter barely said five words to us. The restaurant was pretty full at the beginning of our meal so we felt bad for our waiter as it seemed he was over extended. He asked if we wanted bread while we waited for our salads and we replied yes but never received any. By the time we saw our waiter again, we had already been served our steaks and no longer wanted the bread. The same thing happened with our drinks– we would have considered another round but by the time our waiter asked if we wanted another, we already finished our entrees and no longer wanted one. Even if our waiter was extremely busy, he was not apologetic or professional in any way.
Overall the food was still good but the ambiance and fine dining experience was very disappointing for the evening we looked forward to.

They take reservations for the lounge. Might be good to publish that somewhere. I guess when you make a reservation you have to specifically request it? It has a different, more casual menu that we were looking for. We were notified that reservations were needed for the lounge by a very snobby hostess who made us feel unwelcomed from the moment we walked through the door. Smile, lady! It’s your job!
We were seated in the main area and were able to order from the lounge menu. Our party of 4 started with the filet pot stickers and they were good. Not amazing, but good. Three in our group got the Wagyu burgers and sliders and two up’d there sides to fries, which was $ 2 extra according to the menu. They all loved their burgers and said the fries were good. I ordered the short ribs from the main menu. What a disappointment. It was texturally mushy and tasted like a poorly cooked pot roast. It was surrounded by a huge portion of mashed potatoes, which normally would make me happy, but as with the ribs, they were completely under seasoned. I ate a little less than half of it and was done. The server, who was a very quirky man, offered to box it up and I declined. A few minutes later the manager approached me and apologized for the short ribs not being prepared or cooked properly… which I had not mentioned to anyone at that point. he told me they were not prepared properly that day and they had already taken it off of the bill. Class act, finally!!!
I think their prices are WAY out of line. I will pay top dollar for a great meal, this just wasn’t worth it. There are a few other steakhouses in C’bus that way out shine this at similar or less price points. The staff here, while efficient and professional, are just really snobby and didn’t make us feel welcomed. No matter how high class a restaurant tries to be, if the customer doesn’t feel important there’s always other places that will do so… we almost walked out before ordering our app because of the attitudes. Oh, and that $ 2 up charge for the fries? Our server tried charging us $ 9 because he voluntarily brought them a basket of fries to share instead. That’s not cool at all!

For a first time dining experience this easily was one of the best. A new favorite for our family ! We celebrated a birthday at our table and everyone, from hostesses to the manager who tabled touched, made sure to wish my other half a happy birthday which really made him feel special.
The food. Oh my gosh it was delicious. The filet was incredible. Cooked to perfection (I added the blue cheese/​bacon combo which I highly recommend) my parents got their cuts Oscar style, a fantastic recommendation by our server, Keri. (She was amazing by the way. Very knowledgeable about the menu for first time diners and very charismatic)
We even were convinced by Keri to join the Eddie Merlot reward card program. So it looks like you will be seeing more of us! Thank you for making this evening so special and memorable for my boyfriend and our family. It all around was a lovely experience :)

Wonderful experience! This restaurant is top notch and the food was divine. Definitely worth the money. Both myself and other half choose seafood entrees and they were delicious.
We will surely return to try the steaks.
Staff was very pleasant and on their game, so refreshing in this age of non-​customer service.
Highly recommended!

Food is simply delicious. Service is of extremely high quality. Atmosphere is nice too. I recommend the calamari to start. I am a huge scallop fan and theirs was heaven in my mouth. My dad got the lobster tails that they personally de shelled for him. Nice touch. When ordering apps be a are that they are shareable.

Went for Easter brunch and oh my was it some kind of tasty! Compared to a dinner here with almost any kind of steak, the brunch wasn’t as hard on the wallet. Adults were $ 39.95 which included goodies like a killer fritatta, smoked salmon, mac n cheese, sweet potato casserole, bacon, sausage, salads, veggies, carving station with ham and beef, their oh so tasty meatloaf… and deserts. Non-​alcoholic drinks were included in the price but I had to have a mimosa for $ 9.
My only gripes were that you had to order an omelet from your table and they would bring it out to you, the price of the mimosa, and the service wasn’t as top notched as for dinner because it was so busy plus it was a buffet.
We figured out how to eat «cheaper» here by ordering things that aren’t steak (some might argue why go then but WTH) but the next time they offer a brunch I think we will be right there!

Eddie Merlot’s is a prime steakhouse next to the Polaris Mall. I’ve dined here on several occasions in the past, but my most recent experience was for a work related dinner earlier this month.
Compared to the other steakhouses in town, the thing that really sets Eddie Merlot’s apart in my opinion is the interior of the restaurant. It’s spacious, airy, elegantly decorated, and is lit very well. Most steakhouses are super dark and almost dingy at times, so kudos to the way Eddie Merlot’s decorates the interior.
Their steaks are good… but I’m not sure if they’re necessarily worth the price premium. I’ve had their filet mignon and their prime NY strip, and wasn’t exactly blown away. They’re generally seasoned well and cooked well, but I’ve just never been wowed. Add that to the fact that on my most recent trip, they gave me a filet mignon cooked to medium well when I ordered it medium rare… and you might see why I’m apathetic about their steaks.
I’ve never had their Greg Normal signature wagyu steaks, but I’m not sure if I should pay $ 80~$ 100 for a single steak meal just because the cattle is genetically Japanese wagyu and a retired Australian golfer attached his name to it.
Finally, I should touch upon the service here. By most restaurant standards, the service here is ok. But since we’re talking about prime steakhouse service, Eddie Merlot’s needs to step it up a notch. On our last outing here, it took my colleague 20 minutes to get his drink order in. He arrived late, so everyone else at the table had already gotten their drinks… but our server simply would not make eye contact with us for us to wave him over for that one extra drink order! In the end we had to grab a different server to place our drink order.
So overall, not a bad steakhouse, but also not a great steakhouse. For what it’s worth though, they are the better of the two prime steakhouses in the Polaris area (Mitchell’s steakhouse is not good in my opinion). So if you need steak while at Polaris, go to Eddie Merlot’s. If you’re willing to go elsewhere in Columbus, I think there are better options.

This place is obviously on the pricey side– it is a steak house. It is definitely worth every penny! I highly recommend the smokin’ shrimp cocktail, it is yummy and really fun with the dry ice (I’m assuming)! They even do a complimentary cupcake for birthdays so don’t be shy. It was delicious!

Haven’t been here to eat in two years decided it was time for a revisit to celebrate my husbands certification. We ordered drinks mine a pomegranate martini and my hubby got a Stoli up on the rocks with bleu cheese stuffed olives. We ordered the smoking shrimp cocktail and I really like their horseradish in their cocktail sauce and the shrimp were nice and fresh. We both ordered the bison filet and shared the lobster mac and cheese. His filet was cooked perfectly but mine was ordered medium and was rare ewww. They took it and cooked it longer and it was much better. Now we love lobster mac as we’ve had awesome ones at Ocean Club and Hyde Park and we were very disappointed in the amount of lobster for the price… however we had very good service from Brett. My mother and son also joined us and both of their steaks were undercooked. Our server brought out new sides and my Moms cauliflower gratin was really good. Kudos for doing this as I’ve never had a problem before with my steaks. We will be back I just think this was a blip for the back of the house tonight but I won’t get the Mac again.

After our last meal, I sent the following letter via US Mail to the management. I wasn’t looking for anything other than an apology or an explanation. I’m very disappointed that my letter was ignored.
–snip–
Dear Sir or Madam:
I’m writing to you about our meal at your restaurant on the evening of Sunday, May 11, 2014. My family dined on at your restaurant for Mother’s Day. The food was excellent as was the service by, Blake. I would, however, like to bring one matter to your attention.
The actions by other guests in your restaurant was simply ridiculous and completely inappropriate for an establishment like Eddie Merlot’s. A very large party (of approximately 14 guests) was seated directly next to us. Their numerous children were constantly out of their seats, running around, disturbing us, and causing distraction to numerous other guests. Had I not known better, I would have expected them to be in a gymnasium. Their actions caused a great disruption to our meal and I am very disappointed with the inaction of Eddie Merlot’s management in this matter.
While the quality of food is certainly a factor in our decision to dine out, the service, and atmosphere do play their part. We will be hard pressed to return to Eddie Merlot’s provided that this behavior is being tolerated by management. I urge you to reconsider the patrons and behavior that is welcome at your establishment.
Thank you,
–snip–
I’m only writing this now because I’ve received a junk email reminding me to make my valentine’s day reservation at Eddie Merlots… No thanks.

The bourbon marinated ribeye steak, try it for God’s sake. Try it! Nice caramelization on the outside and tender on the inside. Portion was kinda huge at 16oz, and after a couple of bites, I was full and let not forget there was this huge sides with that too (get the sweet potato). But they were excellent.
That being said, our dinner was splendid. Came here Sunday night and wine was half off. Ordered the shrimp cocktail, but they were out of the dry ice so it came out as a four piece of boring shrimp being served on a plain plate. The taste was great though. The escargot was creamy and delicious. The calamari has a nice texture and was not overly oily and really delicious too. Too full for dessert although would love to try the flaming thing they have. Coffee was outrageously expensive at $ 10.

This past Saturday we went to Eddie Merlot’s for the girlfriend’s birthday dinner, and it was nice, because I haven’t had the chance to go to a nice, upscale restaurant in awhile. The space inside is pretty nice, and the hostess’ were very gracious and seated us promptly, as I’d expect at a restaurant of this sort.
Our server was very friendly and helpful as well. This place is known mainly for their wine selection, but I’m not much of a wine drinker, and the beer selection is pretty much limited to a few bottles of Great Lakes (I guess it could be worse).
We started off with a 6-​piece Charcuterie and cheese plate, and it was fantastic. The pig and fig, and the duck prosciotto were so tasty. They brought out their house bread as well, and we really loved that. Next came our salads; I had the chopped salad, and the girlfriend had the Caesar. Mine was very good, but she said hers was just OK.
We decided on splitting the Wagyu Tomahawk Ribeye, and it was definitely a great cut of meat, and it was cooked perfectly, but I don’t know if it was worth the price on it. For the size alone, maybe, but for that premium cut of steak, I’ve definitely had higher end steaks with a better taste. We definitely enjoyed it, but I just think they could do better for the price tag. The mashed potatoes that we ordered with it were infused with garlic and delicious.
By the time we were done with the steak, there really was no room for dessert. One of the managers had come by earlier to ask if we were out for a special occasion, and I told him that it was my girlfriend’s birthday, so they actually sent us home with a little chocolate cake dessert on-​the-​house. That was pretty nice, and the server actually packed us up an extra loaf of their bread as well. Great service.
I’d definitely return again, if I can fit it into the budget, but I think I’d definitely try a different steak the next time around.