This was my second time eating at Angus Barn and, frankly, my first time paying. We arrived at the restaurant and valet parked, more on that later. We were about 15 minutes early for our reservation on a Friday night and there were three of us. It took about twenty minutes to seat us but we didn't really notice because it gave us a chance to look around the lobby and the gift shop. There are lounge areas with comfortable couches and chairs around the reception area and an impressive collection of antique firearms (this is the South) in one of the lounges. The hostesses were busy but still very friendly and when asked, checked our coats. Our waiter was very nice but not very knowledgeable about steaks. When asked if their steaks were wet or dry aged he hesitated and said they were wet aged but added that if they were dry aged they would be ""beef jerky."" While amusing, the comment did show a general lack of knowledge about meat. Our orders took about 30 minutes to arrive. I ordered a New York Strip, medium rare, with a baked sweet potato and French onion soup. The soup was very good, as was the sweet potato. The steak however, left much to be desired. It was the right temperature but the meat was flavorless and apparently unsalted. It also didn't attain a good level of browning on the grill and while it has grill marks I suspect the didn't pat if dry before grilling. All in all, I could have made a better steak at home with a steak from Harris Teeter and saved paying 40 bucks for a ten dollar cut of meat. The other people in my party had the baby back ribs and the fillet mignon. By all accounts they were very good. Dessert for me was the blackberry cobbler which was good except that they placed the vanilla ice cream right on top of the crust inside the ramekin. Basically what I got was pie under melted ice cream. When we left, the waiter went outside to see us off and the valet had brought our car around by the time we got to the door.
Pros: Impressive Service, waiting area, valet parking, appetizers, non-steak entrees
Cons: Steak (for the money they should dry age)
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