Brass Lantern Steak House

Traveling on business and staying at a hotel in walking distance… I looked at the reviews and said ok. I was delighted with the setting, service and food. Everything was great. Well prepared, well presented and very tasty. I look forward to coming again.

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner! Our waitress, Emily, was a real joy and put up with four crazy Texans with grace and style. I’d go so far as to say that in the two weeks that we’ve been in NC, we have only experienced the famous «Southern Hospitality «twice, once with Brittany at Cracker Barrel and now here! I recommend that if you try this establishment, ask for Emily!

After hearing nothing but good reviews on this restaurant, me and the Missus went here for our anniversary meal. They didn’t disappoint. We got the steak which was cooked perfectly and my twice baked potato was a little crunchy just the way I like it. The salad bar had exactly everything I wanted on it even though it wasn’t super huge. Sam our waitress was on point. Oh yeah that bread and butter was awesome too. See you New Year’s Eve!

Everytime we come it is an enjoyable experience. Great bang for your buck. The atmosphere is always pleasant and comfy and cozy. Our waitress Dawn was on top of our drinks and making sure we had everything we needed despite all of the tables she had!

Very good for a stop on rt 95 north Carolina. Had the burger to keep it simple. It was pretty good. Seems decent in general. It was for a quick stop and as fine. Wine was not too good.

Looking for that cool local find along the highway? This isn’t it. I have been driving past this place for years and love myself a local place so I finally stopped by … wow, was I underwhelmed.
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front), for a place that brags about their steaks they fall woefully short. Ok so here is the deal…
Visited on a Friday evening around 7pm. They were busy but we were seated promptly. When we arrived at our table we were all taken back at the openness of the restaurant. It was like eating next to 150 of your closest friends. The décor was a very well maintained 1970s Holiday Inn restaurant style complete with the glitter popcorn ceiling.
The highlight of the evening was our waitress. Although she had 8 tables she was very attentive and you could tell that she genuinely wanted to do what she could to make your visit pleasurable. Kudos to her! Very good job.
The bread, which was rather nice, was served with butter … ok so really margarine. Our wine, another nice find, was Black Ink, and for the price was rather tasty. All entrees have a visit to the salad bar included. The salad was ok and was exactly what I remember at my moms Holiday Inn Restaurant in 1979. Good but nothing to write home about. Ok. so the meals.
My wife had a small sirloin medium rare with baked potato. The steak arrived cooked more in-​between medium and medium well. She liked the baked potato but left half of the steak on the plate at the end of the meal. No to go box desired.
My daughter wanted pasta with butter. She was charged nearly $ 16 for a chicken parmesan. Her meal was a dish of way … WAY … overcooked pasta. I cooked for a number of years and believed that the pasta was cooked at least one day prior, stored in a tub of water, then put into hot water to warm. It tasted very watery to both of us. Most of her meal remained untouched.
I had the regular size rib-​eye. It arrived cooked properly in the middle but do to the odd shape of the cut was well done on the sides. Check out the picture I had of this.
Overall, an ok place at best. Dunn, if this is one of your better restaurants … I’m going to keep going down the road or up the road to find better. Waitress? Very good. Establishment? Medium. Food? Marginal.

Always good food and customer service.
The prime rib blackened with twice baked potato is always the bomb !!!

BEST PRIME RIB IN THE AREA! I love this place. They have the most wonderful Prime rib though it is slight underseasoned. A nice steakhouse atmosphere. Always a pleasure to eat here when I am able too. I recommend this place to anyone passing through!

I heard about this place numerous times before finally visiting for the first time last year. I’ve been back twice since then and I only have one complaint, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
The three times that I have been here, the service has been excellent and fast. Their prime rib for two, which used to be $ 25.99 was quite excellent. The salad bar is great and fairly inexpensive to add to a meal. I think it’s like $ 3.00 more.
The children’s menu is much more nutritious than most. The pizza is home made and the spaghetti fit to feed an adult. My children enjoyed both of these items and shared with each other. Both of these meals were huge serving sizes, more than you’d expect for a children’s meal. My daughter who can be a bit picky, loved the pizza.
Back to the prime rib. It melts in your mouth and is very tender, though the last time we ate there it was not as hot as I would have liked it. Still, excellent prime rib. The sides were excellent as well. Have I said ‘Excellent’ enough times yet?
So here is my one complaint, and this are rather small complaint. The price of the prime rib for two has gone up ten dollars, but now includes the salad bar. I’m not a big salad bar person, so I would rather the price had stayed the same and that be an option.

I loved how attentive the service was! I felt like the décor was a bit like a step back to the 80s, but the food was great. 3 kids meals, 2 adult entrees with wine for $ 70 – really can’t go wrong! It was pretty packed for a Friday evening – that tells you that you’re in the right place. :)

Except for the lettuce the salad bar was far from fresh. Boyfriend ordered the filet and said it was cooked properly and was flavorful. I ordered the fried shrimp. The shrimp could have been found in any frozen section of a grocery store ! And it was undercooked. So for a high price meal one gets salad bar, potato and entrée. I was very disappointed and we will not return. I wouldn’t recommend this place either.

Have been going here over 9 years. I can say I have never had a bad steak here. I could graze at the full salad bar, but then I would not have any room for my nice dinner. Have only had dessert here once, as we are always too full to order any. The décor has a Grecian flair, and the booths are very comfortable. Price wise, you are gonna pay a little more than if you go to Outback, but it’s nice and quiet and I have special memories from years ago coming here. My BF loves their Prime Rib, so this is where he wants his birthday dinners. The staff is always attentive and your glass will not be empty…

This place was recommend by some locals and it was really an enjoyable experience. The décor is definitely dated, but it’s a place to eat, not look at the surroundings. The salad bar was up to par, the usual stuff. I ordered the sirloin and shrimp combo, as it was the same price as the sirloin alone. It was cooked to ordered and I enjoyed the taste of it, usually places require me to use A1 sauce but I didn’t need it here. The shrimp were good sized and tasty also. I ordered the twice baked potato, it was a bit dry but add some ranch and butter and it will be perfect. Our waitress was great always checking on us and kept our glasses full. If you are looking for a nice meal, check this place out. It can be pricey ($ 15-​$ 20/​person) but it was worth it

Salad Bar: Standard, Clean, Stocked Well
Bread: Are you kidding? It was bad. Cheap, nasty, gross – yucks.
Potato: Awful. Unless you like play-​dough.
Prime Rib: Cooked as ordered, not too fatty. NO SEASONING AT ALL. Very bland, huge let down.
Clean.
Good Service, bad décor.

The food was outstanding. Home made bread. Salad bar with good selection. The Prime Rib was perfect. The service the best. And a nice atmosphere. Perfect place right off ext 72 on I 95

Not sure what others see but the prime rib was not very flavorful in fact it lacked. The side of bake potato was OK not sure how you could mess up a baked potato. The salad bar was fair. The pizza my kids hot was fair as well not great. I be live it’s more for the elderly crowd as that is what we encountered just no flavor anywhere.

The service at this restaurant is amazing! I felt welcomed from the moment I walked in. Everyone was really sweet and attentive but not overly so. I ordered the prime rib and it tasted like it wasn’t seasoned at all. It was medium rare just like I asked for and it was more rhan 10 oz. They were very generous with the servings. It was ok once I added salt and pepper. The salad bar was ok. No complaints there. I had chocolate cake with fudge sauce for dessert and I loved it.
Overall the food was average but the service made me smile and also made me add another star. I’d go back if I were in the neighborhood but I wouldn’t get the prime rib unless I bought some seasoning in my purse. :-D

Nothing special at all, but perfectly serviceable. The décor is very 1980s (my dad just got rid of some sofas from my senior year of 1986 upholstered in the exact same fabric of their booths). Very shiny brass light fixtures.
Waitress was very nice, but overworked and not as attentive as I would have expected. When asked for a recommendation between the Ribeye special and the prime rib, she informed me that all they had left was well done prime rib, which is the same thing as saying this is the leftover from yesterday we reheated.
Salad bar was kind of sad. The boiled eggs were store bought and lousy (how hard is it to boil eggs?). They had some liquid in the bottom of the pan that had turned some of the yolk into a grotesque paste. The block of cheddar on the cheese block was not good enough to highlight like that. I don’t know what that green, semi-​translucent picked fruit or vegetable was, but I would not put that out there without an explanation.
The steak itself was a very thin cut, about a ¼ inch. It was cooked well though and was of a decent quality. Underseasoned, but very tasty with a light application of salt and pepper. Did not need sauce and saved the entire meal.
Clientele was interesting. One potbellied guy walked by my table wearing a Hawaiian shirt, long denim cargo shorts, black reebok walking shoes with white socks and a long, unkempt rug that not only didn’t look like the rest of his hair, but may not have been intended for human wear. Remember when Moe would awkwardly push a bad toupee back onto someone’s head after giving them a slap? Like that.
A little pricey for the experience. I’d eat here again alone if on the expense report, but wouldn’t go out of my way for it and certainly wouldn’t pay for it out of my pocket.

We ate here for a friends engagement announcement. Overall we were happy with the experience.
The Good:
Food–
The food was above average for the area. We got the prime rib for two for $ 25. In that two people get a 9oz cut of prime rib and a potatoe done the way you want it. I highly recommend the «stuffed» potatoe which is what they call their twice baked potatoe. You almost never find a restraint selling these anymore, and wow was it good. They actually cooked the prime rib right for me and my wife. I almost always end up sending a steak back as I’m picky about how I want it. The drinks were kept full and I was asked if I wanted another beer right when my glass was about empty, but not quite. Speaking of which…
Service–
As mentioned, glasses were kept full and beer was always offered at just the right time. The champagne and wines were chilled just right and not overly so. The food came rather quickly considering there was about 12 of us at the table and it all came at the same time and was all hot. This is often hard to manage, and surprised they pulled it off. The waitresses were very friendly, chatty enough to come across as friendly, but not obtrusive and annoying. They were definetly one of the highlights of the evening.
The Bad
Atmosphere–
This is the few things holding back the last star. It’s kinda dim, which isn’t really a bad thing, but when combined with the dated décor, it just set a bad tone to the evening before we even sat down. No place that sells Prime Rib, steak, lobster, and so on should ever consider having a plastic table cloth in the entire establishment, so very very tacky.
Beer-​The evening would have been better if I had been able to have a good draft beer and not just bottled, but as their clientel seems to consist of mostly 60+, there may not be much demand so I can’t really fault them for smart business moves so no one wants to drink old beer from dirty lines caused by a keg lasting way past its prime.
Overall a good memorable evening and a place we’ll probably revisit.

We were in the mood for some beef so we decided to try the Brass Lantern when we saw he reviews here on Unilocal.
The Interstate exit location might give you a negative impression to start off with but be brave, the food is pretty good. The building seemed a little rough around the edges and the décor was a little on the country side of 80’s style. The hostess was friendly but the waitress seemed a little on the abrupt side. Her attitude was more New York city than Dunn NC, it seemed really out of place.
My wife and I both ordered prime rib and our daughter ordered the fried shrimp. All meals come with a help yourself salad and fresh bread. The salad bar is just ok featuring 25 – 30 items. The fresh bread was very good. For the main course the prime rib was very good and my daughter’s shrimp were large and plentiful. I always love when I ask for horseradish and I get a cup of it just fine chopped, without mayo or other mixers. Along with the au ju It is the perfect addition to prime rib. We tried baked potato and stuffed (twice baked) potato side. The stuffed potato was great but the baked potatoes were a bit dried out.
I was torn between 3 and 4 stars on this one. Call it 3 ½ stars. The food is good and is also reasonably priced. But I think the waitress’ attitude and the dried out potato pushed my rating down a little. I’d go back to the Brass lantern but I won’t be telling my friends that they have to try it.