2 /5 Tim Wilson: I recently tried Dawson’s because I heard good things. My wife and I spent date night here on a Friday night at 8:30.
The place looks nice and service was friendly. Unfortunately, that was the best part of the night.
We spent $420 for 2 people and my review is based on that price. For that price, I expect to have a good meal, and this wasn’t that.
We received bread and butter promptly, but there was a coffee bean in the butter. Not disqualifying by any means, but a data point for the night. The bread was bland, kinda cold and seemed like a sourdough multigrain. Mediocre bread isn’t disqualifying, but just another data point.
We ordered a bottle of Prosecco, and it was served with filmy, dirty glasses. My wife noticed it right away and asked for new glasses.
The service was adequate/average for a mid tier steakhouse, not exceptional, but not bad.
We ordered the Crab Cakes to start. I liked the crisp of the crab cake, but the flavor wasn’t great. It tasted mostly of Old Bay and I couldn’t really distinguish the crab or crab flavor. We are used to crab cakes from another local steakhouse and they are infinitely better and cost less. Also, the hummus and pico de gallo seemed to be what they were relying on for flavor and taste. Side note, all the extra hummus/pico from the crab cakes did go nicely with the bread from earlier. Crabcakes - 2/10, have had better crab cakes from the frozen section.
For our meal, my wife and I both ordered the Ribeye (medium rare for me and medium for her) and added on the Lobster tail. We also had the bacon/bleu cheese jam, whipped potatoes, and mushrooms for accompaniments/sides.
The ribeyes were overcooked and tough. These are supposed to be Prime steaks, but they were not good. There was not a stitch of salt or pepper. It seems like they rely on the sauces/crusts/sides to provide flavor. I cooked Choice NY strips for my kids before coming out and I would have rather had that. Ribeyes - 2/10 - Not even salting steaks before cooking is an unforgivable sin.
The Lobsters were bland, like they were just boiled and put on a plate. Seasoning was lacking and a little color would have made it better, a little sear or grill or something. My wife didn’t even finish it. Lobsters - 0/10 Carnival Cruises has better Lobster.
We got the potatoes, the mushrooms, and the bacon and blue cheese jam. The potatoes were whipped decently, but average at best. Flavor was just meh. The mushrooms seemed like they were boiled, I expected more of sautee and a little color. They were also just meh. The bacon and bleu cheese jam didn’t add much and isn’t really necessary. Very forgettable. Potatoes - 5/10, Mushrooms - 3/10, Bacon/Blue Cheese Jam- 6/10.
We did get dessert (we weren’t going to at this point because of how things were going) and the restaurant gave them for free because I guess the time got away from them and the kitchen was closing soon. This was a nice point. I ordered the Chocolate Peanut Butter Molten cake and my wife ordered the Apricot Pistachio cake. The Apricot cake was light and airy, but the flavor felt basic and muted. The Molten cake was great because I’m a sucker for peanut butter. Apricot Pistachio cake - 5/10. Chocolate Peanut Butter Molten cake - 9/10 - This was the highlight of the night.
All in all I was very disappointed with this meal for the price, but also just in general. Even if I spent half, this still wouldn’t be a good review.
TL:DR - Overpriced, bland and underwhelming with a nice atmosphere and decent service.
