O'Charley's

Asked for Louisiana Ribeye, cooked medium. Served VERY rare. Broccoli side dish nearly raw. Tartar sauce with catfish way too spicy. No one ever asked how the meal was. Decided to take steak home to complete the cooking process. Had to ask four times for a "to go" box. Check out took 20 minutes due to credit card reader failure. Will NOT go back.

Health Department needs to kick it up a notch.



I have been privy to the Pensacola O'Charley's kitchen for over the last year. There are some things that guests going there need to know at this point because as far as I know, these things are still going on.



First and foremost, if you have ever eaten at O'Charley's and wondered why your table was grimy, it's because they only use sanitizer to wipe down tables, so grease just gets wiped around the table, and that's if you're lucky enough to have the rag be from a fresh bucket. The buckets are supposed to be changed every two hours, that never happens. They really should add in a degreaser.



At O'Charley's, you may notice your server carrying around lots of dirty dishes. They are supposed to do this. They are also supposed to wash their hands for 30 seconds afterwards and then immediately pick up some clean dishes and take them to the cooks. A shame that hands almost never get washed, certainly not for 30 seconds, unless their hands are caked in condiments. This is because there are so many servers in a rush and the area is so small and only has one sink and a constantly empty paper towel dispenser.



After your server carried clean dishes with their dirty hands, they are likely working on the drinks from their latest guests. In over a year at this O'Charley's, I could count on my hands the number of times tongs were actually used to handle the lemons.



If you're drinking tea and it tastes a little funny, here's why: bleach is hardly ever used. In fact, if it weren't for ants being a problem around the urns during the summer, the urns would be even dirtier. I guarantee you could take a rag right now and wipe the inside of a "clean" urn and come up with a good amount of brown.



This next problem got fixed I believe, but until they recently fixed their roof, the leaks were so bad and in such bad areas to be leaking. The main area that comes to mind is the leaking near the salad area. There is no way that the leaking water from the roof was not getting into things like lettuce or completely prepared salads.



So, I don't know about you all, but I would be so happy if the health department could have independent cameras focused on the dish and beverage areas. There should always be a camera on the dish area considering company policy is to carry a bunch of dirty dishes right after you take your new table's order. At least at a place like McGuire's or Bone Fish, I don't see my server carrying a bunch of dirty things and then a moments later serving me my food.

I have eaten at O'Charleys' many times over the years and have always enjoyed the

food. If I was ask what my favorite restaurant was, I'd say O'Charleys'.