Boy, look at that review down there! To save you some time reading it, ask yourself these questions:
* Are you trying to eat vegetarian, or just eating healthy in general?
* Do you get annoyed with small menus?
* Do you go out of your way to eat food that tastes a cut above the rest?
* Are you not willing to spend at least twenty dollars for something that you may end up regretting?
If you've answered 'yes' to any of these, skip this restaurant. For as expensive as it is, shouldn't it have a solid 5 star rating anyway?
I've been to J Alexander's a handful of times for business. If I were to rate the restaurant solely on service and atmosphere, I would undoubtedly give it five stars. The service has always been excellent in my experiences and the atmosphere is well put together. The parking lot is normally full of expensive cars and the customers are usually in suits. It's one of those places you take someone to impress them, if whomever you're trying to impress isn't all about small details like 'taste' or 'choices'.
So here I am, the type of guy who considers value before I buy it. Well the fortunate part for me is that I've never paid to eat at J Alexander's, but if you're one who's into choices and taste-to-dollar ratios, you'd be better off checking out someplace else.
Lets start with the menu. Have you been to a Denny's or a Big Boy? You open the menu and see a plethora of choices, along with some enticing pictures. You know what you don't like and that everything else probably isn't such a bad idea. At J Alexander's, you have the choice between this type of meat, cooked only this way, that type of meat cooked only that way, a salad or two, and ... more meat. The menu is only about 25 items long, while nothing screams "eat me". The descriptions of the food are a few words short of recipes, because they're just ingredients, and in no way enticing. The prices are amusingly high for what is being sold. Trying to eat healthy? They have salads ... and water. If restaurants had souls, this one would be atheist. There's no passion here whatsoever when it comes to food.
Oh, but a vegetarian item, the veggie burger! The burger was too large for the bun, overbearingly salty, contained some sort of faint burnt taste, and fell apart as I ate it. It literally fell into pieces from each bite, and I was left with a plate full of what looked like beans and random protein. And at $15? I've bought a whole pack of 'good' veggie burgers for a quarter of the price at Meijer. If you don't get anything else out of this review, just don't get the veggie burger. This was by far the worst burger I've ever ordered in my life. Oh sure, I've had their other random real meat items, but nothing else has ever stood out as "good", or better yet, "worth my money". I've had better food at a coney island.
Some people like the fries here. Me? I prefer not having to awkwardly grasp 5 fries at the same time while dipping them into a tiny bowl of ketchup. Maybe you're supposed to eat them with a fork? The fries are annoyingly small and a bit oily. They're alright, but such a pain to eat.
And to all of you corporate people driving luxury cars and wearing fancy suits, try something 'good' for a change. Go get some Thai, chili cheese fries, a decent pizza ... something, anything else! Stop going here for a few months and save yourself enough money to buy yourself a nice new Rolex, or throw some more cash toward your portfolio.
The bottom line? I've eaten at expensive restaurants before with superb quality, and this isn't one of them. Go here if you're rich and like wasting money. My apologies to those who genuinely like this restaurant, but this just isn't my thing. Give me a coney dog and I'll gladly keep the rest of those big bills in my wallet. read more