Tom B.
Yelp
This is an upscale steakhouse/American food restaurant in downtown Carmel. This was my first visit.
Overall, I'd say the experience was good, but not great.
Ambiance: I give high marks in this category. You can't beat the location, and the interior design & decoration are very modern and trendy. I liked the upstairs private room, enclosed in glass, with its own bar. The ambiance matches the expectations that come with a prime section of real estate such as this. The noise level upstairs did get a bit intense at times - my Apple Watch gave me several high decibel warnings. As I sat, eating my meal and looking out the window at the Monon Trail, I remembered that this building sits upon what used to be a lovely little grassy knoll, directly across Main Street from Bub's. They used to do summer concerts on that lot. That's not Anthony's fault, but sometimes I wonder if this really needed to be built....
Service: Service was good, although not necessarily great. Our server did his best to up-sell us on a variety of menu additions that he had obviously been coached to push that night, such as the addition of side scallops and making my Old Fashioned "smoked". I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I get it. The use of 'suggestive sales' techniques usually results in higher sales, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood to be sold-to that night. When asked if we were celebrating a special occasion, I mentioned that it was my wife's birthday (which it was), although that didn't seem to get us anything special. Considering this was a $200 meal, I guess I was expecting maybe a complimentary cupcake with a candle on top, but ... nope. Maybe that was retribution for not upgrading to the scallops...
Food: So, here is where I'd say Anthony's got the lowest marks. My Old Fashioned was definitely done properly and to-spec, so kudos for that. The food was perfectly fine and was presented in a way that suggested fine dining. But, when the star of the show is the wedge salad, that leaves me re-thinking whether I should be settling for middle-tier fine dining restaurants, or if I should have just upgraded restaurants instead.
I'm sure we'll come back here. Like I said, this experience was ... fine.