We arrived at Sullivan's for our 8:00 reservation right on time. Sullivan's has a great atmosphere, based off of a turn of the century boxing theme. The name, I can only assume based off of all the photos and championship belt on the wall, comes from the boxer John L. Sullivan who was the last bare-knuckle heavyweight boxing champion. So does this boxing themed restaurant have what it takes to knockout the Angus Barn from the title of Triangle burger champ? Let's find out.
We had a party of 6, which wouldn't seem to be that big of a party, but it was a busy Saturday night so it took a little while to get our table ready. A little over 20 minutes, but at least we were in good company. Might have seemed a lot longer if you were on a bad date, but if you were on a bad date you probably wouldn't be waiting in line at an expensive restaurant now would you? We took our seats and our waitress came over and explained all the options and gave us our menus. Two of our friends are wine connoisseurs, so they brought three bottles of wine with them. Sullivan's allows this, but charges you a "corking fee". They take your wine and put it in a decanter, or a canter, or whatever you do with wine. I don't really know, all I know is that they charged each couple $25 for this service. I am not positive that this is a flat fee or if it is per bottle or what. We drank three bottles of the wine, so maybe it is $25 per bottle. I looked at their website and couldn't find any info on this. All I know is that K and I normally drink $8 bottles of Pinot Grigio at the house, but our friends brought the wine so we were fine with it. Thanks guys! We definitely won't be bringing our own bottles of Sutter Home with us if we come again, that is for sure. Sullivan's is definitely on top of things though, they handled the wine great, made sure we had fresh glasses for the different wines, swapped out clean plates and silverware, and just generally gave us great service. K and I also realized that we actually like red wine as long as it isn't the cheap stuff that we normally buy. Who knew?
So on to the menu. Sullivan's has an extensive menu, with several different items to choose from - salads, steaks, seafood, and many appetizers. K chose to go with what Sullivan's calls "The Sure Thing" which includes an appetizer, salad, and an entrée. She went with the Crispy Shanghai Calamari, Caesar salad, and the 6oz Filet Mignon with a baked potato. I, of course, ordered the American Burger. My friend D also got the American Burger once we verified that we would go down together if we were going to do this thing. I got fries with mine. He may have gotten vegetables. I am not positive, but I know he asked about them, feigning some form of healthiness I guess. The calamari arrived first and K shared hers with me. It was quite delicious, very similar to the Bang Bang Shrimp at Bonefish Grille. Sometimes calamari has the tendency to be rubbery, but this was cooked perfectly and it had a little spicy kick along with the sweet fried sauce. Definitely recommend this starter menu item. Afterwards they brought out the salads for those who ordered them. D and I did not get them, as we were the lone burger eaters in the group. K did, however, give me a taste of her salad and it was also quite delicious. Only complaint I would have is that the croutons were about the hardest crouton I have ever eaten. I was half questioning if they accidentally left one of the display croutons on the salad or something. It was like I was chewing stale sourdough. Maybe that is trendy, and I am definitely not. I just know I didn't like them.
After this delicious appetizer and salad, I must admit I had some high hopes for this burger. Maybe that set me up for failure. Or maybe the burger just failed. I think it is the latter. They brought out our entrees, and everyone's looked quite tasty. D an I got ours, and it was just a basic burger on a normal looking bun with some fries in a little metal cup and a little tub of ketchup. No real fancy display, but what do you expect, you just ordered a burger in a steak restaurant. I lathered some ketchup on my bun because I like condiments on my burger. I know what some of you so called "burger connoisseurs" are saying - "ketchup on a burger? Travesty!" but I like a little bit of something on there like the normal population. I am glad I did too, because the bun was drier than a Depression era wheat field. It was like they toasted the bread in the oven, forgot about it, then scraped off the burnt and used it. Guess what I am saying is, the bread was NOT GOOD. D backed me up on this, as his bun was dehydrated equally. I also removed my tomato and onions, the tomato because I just don't like them and the onion so K would want to kiss me later in the night. The burger itself was unimpressive. I normally order my burgers medium, a little pink in the middle, even a little bloodiness is ok with me. This was well done. Not overdone, but there was definitely no pink. Not medium at all. This is a usual occurrence and I'm not sure why I don't just order them medium rare, but that is my mistake. It did have enough juice to make the bun seem less dry, so that was a good thing. K asked me how the burger was and I told her that it was ok. I gave her a little bit and she responded that she wasn't sure why I said it was ok, because it was just not good. I agreed and said I was just trying to not be negative. D promptly responded that we were eating off of the kids menu. That is exactly what this burger was like. Totally unimpressive and something that was hastily thrown together for some kid to eat a quarter of, so that the other three quarters could be taken home and fed to the dog after sitting in the fridge for three days. The fries go along with that, they were overcooked and equally unimpressive. Just for comparison though, K did give me some of her steak and baked potato and it was fantastic. I would definitely highly recommend this restaurant for the steak, which quite honestly would be the normal sane person's real reason to come here. So final conclusion? Sullivan's has a fun atmosphere and great food. Other than the burger. Would I recommend Sullivan's? Absolutely, just not the burger. See a trend here?
So on a scale of 1-5 Angus Barn Burgers........I unfortunately have to give Sullivan's a ONE Angus Barn Burger rating. Just not good. Sorry guys, stick to those delicious steaks!
Sullivan's Steakhouse
410 Glenwood Ave Ste. 100
Raleigh, NC 27603
For more info - Sullivan's website
