Redlands Grill by J. Alexander’s

Love J. Alexander’s and when I travel for work, if there is one where I am, I’ll always go. This location is on par with all the rest. Great queso and ribs. The drinks are poured well and the service was great.

I’ve always like J. Alexander’s but I don’t get here often. I met two good friends here last night and it was truly an enjoyable experience. I know many people dislike «chain» restaurants but this one, like Fleming’s, has always been top notch. I love the atmosphere… it lends itself to intimate conversations but still a great place for large groups.
We had the spinach queso for an appetizer and it came with a side of pico. The chips were crispy just like I like them and they were not greasy. I can appreciate having the glass bottles of water at our table so we don’t always have to bother our servers for quick refills of water. I do miss having ice in my water, but I would imagine if you want ice just ask and they’ll bring some. I had the Thai Kai Chicken salad that came with peanut sauce and a citrus vinegarette. I asked for both on the side just in case they like to drown the poor lettuce leaves. The salad was hefty and the chicken was sliced thin and was perfectly seasoned. Lots of crunchy veggies. Good choice!
My friends both had steak and baked potatoes. The potatoes were huge! Both steaks looked delicious! Every plate we saw coming out of the kitchen looked really good. I will try to remember to come here more often. The only thing I miss is the croissants drizzled with honey. Years ago they featured these warm pieces of heaven but now they have warm, sliced sourdough bread instead. We had to ask for it though.
The wine list is a tad more expensive but they had one or two $ 8 a glass options. I didn’t try any cocktails but from what I remember the bartenders were always great!

The best crab cakes I have ever had. Steak was wonderful. Their salad was just beyond lettuce. It was great. Yes go, you won’t be disappointed. We sat at the bar and the bartenders/​waiters excellent & friendly.

I am currently eating the rattlesnake chicken pasta. It is my favorite dish here! I get it every time! I love the peppers and the Cajun sauce that’s in the pasta! It’s not too spicy and it’s not too bland. I Definitely recommend trying the rattlesnake pasta!

It was a good atmosphere. Wait time for food could have been shorter. The food is okay. Food could have more flavor. Great drinks. Price for food is a bit over priced for the quality.

My family has always enjoyed dining here. The food quality and service is top notch. One of our favorite items is the steak Maui.

Wonderful experience! I had the Steak Maui and it was absolutely amazing! A must have! At first it was a little overcooked, but the manager was kind and explained that a less than perfect experience was unacceptable as they hold themselves to a very high standard and replaced it with a perfect steak! Baylee was our waitress and she also did a phenomenal job! Thanks for a great date J.A.

I was visiting my mom in Birmingham and wanted to try a restaurant that wasn’t up north, so we chose this place. Surprisingly I really enjoyed my visit and would like to go back. The mac & cheese wasn’t good to me, but the burger was good/​juicy/​flavorful and my moms pasta was good too (gave a ample amount). The cocktails were impressive and the wait staff was attentive.

Food was good. Wait staff was off and not very consistent. Depending on which waiter you had they had different fish of the day, soups and even the offer of a soup or salad with your meal. The table next to us sat down after us and was on the 2^nd round of drinks before we got our 1^st.

My family has long since used this establishment as a venue to come celebrate noteworthy personal victories and birthdays at. I have dined here both as J. Alexander’s and as Red Lands Grill, and regardless of the name change, it has never ceased to impress.
The atmosphere is that of a dimly lit lounge featuring low hanging lights, nice leather and polished wood seating, and an open kitchen. The staff are all very friendly, from the moment the hostess greets you to the minutes of after-​dinner talk once the meal is completed and the check is paid.
I cannot speak for the menu as a whole, as I have consistently ordered the same thing since I began coming here, but the bernaise filet mignon with baked potato and Caesar salad is a meal that has my mouth watering just thinking about it. The salad is so fresh, with crisp leaves, warm croutons, delicious dressing, and however much fresh parmesean you want, as the server grates it for your salad in front of you. The steak is phenomenal. I always order mine Medium rare and it has always come out to perfection. They also use a wood grill for grilling and the flavor really comes across in the meat; the side of bernaise sauce is made in house and sets off an entirely new realm of flavor when dipping your steak into it. The baked potato is a standard loaded baker, but certainly accommodates the steak nicely.
The service was fantastic. The server was very knowledgeable about the menu and informative as to what we could expect from each item. The house sommalier even came to our table to guide us through the wine menu and allow small tastings of those which stood out.
I have always loved this spot for celebrations and fancy first dates, and will continue to come!

Our daughter loves a really good cheese burger. My mom really likes this restaurant as well. We are here to celebrate Tamika’s birthday the food was awesome and our waiter Lane was amazing!

Atmosphere: Excellent, similar theme and feel as others w/​leather and hardwood, dim yet comfortable lighting w/​high ceilings, and large welcoming seating.
Service: Excellent, very attentive, the waiter checks-​in as necessary w/​genuine conversation and knows the menu
Food: Excellent, great steaks from quality meat, Baked Potatoes are perfect w/​sides making them even more tasty, salads are full portions and can almost be eaten solo if you’re not super hungry, Caesar is top notch!
Local restaurants are great for Birmingham, but top quality chains like this keeps it on par w/​larger cities.

We had a good Valentine’s Day experience. The atmosphere and staff were great as usual. We ordered our usual spinach dip appetizer. It was good but the chips were a little too salty, I hope the next time we go that is not the case. The steak Maui was good as usual, I wish it was a little more on the medium side but the flavor was still good. I love this place and cannot wait to go back.

It’s still J. Alexanders. I don’t see much different now that they have rebranded. Nice mid range restaurant. The thing this place is good for is business lunches. I’m sure the dinner and dinner crowd is fine but when it’s dark and at this price point there are way too many better options. Appetizers, check. Tasty and well presented. Main course. Check. From burgers to pasta, some seafood to steaks and chicken dishes. It won’t blow you away but you’ll never think about sending anything back. Desserts. Don’t know. They have them but I’ve only ever been for lunch. Good lunch place, especially if someone else is paying. ;)

J Alexanders
3320 Riverchase Galleria, Birmingham, AL 35 244
(205) 733‑9995
Hours: 7 days 11am-​10pm
J Alex continues to be one of our go to favorites. The atmosphere, service, facility, and food are all top notch. Our experience has always been good and although it is a little expensive it is worth it. The bartenders know how to mix a perfect cocktail and each comes with a sidecar! The staff and servers are friendly, attentive and very knowledgable.
We’ve been patrons here for over three and have never had a bad dish. All the entrees are big enough to spilt between two and the salads are huge!
J Alexander sets a high benchmark for other restaurants to achieve.
Urban Cowgill
Jan 2016

Let me first start off by saying that the food was delicious as always! I have been visiting the Hoover, Al location for years & the service has always been exceptional until today. However, our waitress Natalie has selected the wrong profession and she gave this fine dinning experience a black eye. At first I thought it was a language barrier but I soon realized that she was just down right rude in every way of the word. Her tone was snappy & she was simply not nice at all. She was not attentive, so much to the point that others provides more assistance than she did. I ordered a glass of Merlot when we initially was seated & although I am over the age of 40, she carded me & then studied my license as if it was a fake before handing it back to me. I noticed I was eating my entrée but no wine. When I asked Natalie about the wine her response was, «It’s not like I can pour it myself, you have to wait until the bartender gets around to pouring it.» I was shocked! My friend ordered an entrée to go and I had to ask Natalie twice if she would box my leftovers. When she brought the to go order back to the table along with my boxed leftovers, I asked her if she would give us a bag to place our food in. She replied, «No, you will need to ask the hostess at the hostess stand for a bag on your way out.» I had to ask her to repeat herself because I was shocked and thought we were on the newest episode of «Punked.» I just knew Ashton was going to come running and laughing but needless to say, this was no joke. I then asked Natalie again if she would be so kind as to bring me a bag as she had done with the other tables who had their food boxed and bagged. She just walked off with no response. After sitting at the table for at least another 12 minutes (& counting) I stopped a waiter and asked him if he could bring me a bag. He was very nice and came back immediately with a bag. Apparently Natalie had no intentions of continuing to serve us. Yes, I could have asked for a Manager but I didn’t want anyone to assume we were trying to complain in order to get a free meal because that was truly not the case. Therefore I just decided to place my experience on social media because paying customers pay too much to eat out to receive this type of service. There are too many other nice places to eat for me to settle for this type of service. PSA… If you ever visit J. Alexander’s (Hoover, Al location), I would suggest that you insist not to be placed in Natalie’s station. This was by far the worse experience I have ever had in all my years of visiting this location. Everything else was superb!

Excellent service, but seemed expensive over-​all. Nice atmosphere — similar to a Morton’s. The filet was good, but didn’t knock my socks off. I would definitely recommned the artichoke appetizer — it’s nice to get three and be able to share (if you want!).

Love, love, love this place. We enjoy spending time at the bar then moving to our table after some appetizers.
Atmosphere–
So nice. Dimly lit so you and your significant other can concentrate on each other. Nice dress.
Staff–
We have had nothing but good luck. Our waiters and waitresses have always been that perfect amount of attentiveness without annoying me to death by constantly being at the table.
Food–
NOTHING is bad here. I have never ordered a single thing that I was un happy with. From appetizers to main entrees. And the dessert menu is amazing. I always get steak and it is always perfect. I have never had anything wrong in anyway. This is a must stop and try.

Amazing Amazing Amazing!!! Customer service at its best. Above and beyond the call of duty. Spoke with Manager Parker approximately 30 mins before closing. He allowed us to call our orders in and had meals ready upon our arrival. And then allowed us to enjoy our meal. Hats off to cooks, servers, and bartenders.

I always receive exceptional service at this location. This is a nice chain restaurant for a business lunch. The menu is diverse, the food is well prepared and the setting provides enough room between tables to be able to speak with your party without overhearing everyone elses conversation. I’ve had sandwiches, salads, steaks and seafood all items have been equally well prepared. The best item I’ve had would be the match stick fries served with the steak and fries. Not do diminish a perfectly executed medium rare steak but the cripsy match stick fries were awesome!

I’ve been going to J. Alexander’s for 15 years and the consistent quality of the food, service and ambience never cease to amaze me.
My favorite dishes are the crispy chicken fingers, Gruyère mac & cheese, crab cakes, white chocolate cheesecake and decadent chocolate cake. The waiters are unbelievably professional, yet not stuffy. Their transitions are seamlessly fluid and they are wonderful about making substitutes.
Restaurants in San Francisco and D.C. cannot compare to this perfect hybrid of upscale meets laid-​back excellence. The smooth jazz, exposed brick, glittering torch lighting and plush leather booths are reminiscent of New Orleans magic and create the absolute best dining atmosphere in Birmingham.

This place is deceiving as the sign outside still reads «J Alexander’s» but inside you learn from the menu that it has changed to «Redland’s Grill» so bait and switch! Being from New Orleans I’m very wary of chains and always prefer the local spots and was dragged here against my will by chain loving locals. The interior is nice enough and typical of what you would expect of a higher end chain restaurant. The beer selection blew monkey balls with your only options consisting of purchasing like a $ 14 bottle of beer. The food was decent while the service was inconsistent while trying way too hard when it was present as they described everything as «gourmet» and over-​hyped and oversold EVERYTHING. It really just wasn’t a pleasant dining experience.

First time here. We had the Prime Rib Sandwich, Steak & Fries for dinner & Crème Brûlée for dessert. Everything was delicious. Service was great. Don’t have anything negative to say. We’ll be back for sure.

Went on 4^th of July! Renamed from J Alexanders to Redlands Grill. The menu was the same, however the food very much not. I did like the Margherita Flat Bread however my rattlesnake pasta was gross. That’d what I always get but this time it was not good at all. There was oil running out of the pasta and the flavor was bland. The service was really good though. For the price, I expect much, much, much better food.

They have a good happy hour… the martini I had came with a little side kick, which was the remainder of what was in the shaker. It was like getting an extra drink. The crab cakes were very tasty.
The Chocolate cake was to die for and a good midnight snack… it is enough for 4 people.

Terrible experience for waiting/​reservations. First off, they don’t take reservations or call ahead seating. Second, they won’t even put you on a waiting list until «everyone is in the building.» So when I arrived here early to get myself and a couple of friends on the list, they made me sit there until all 5 could be accounted for. Their response was «we are doing the best we can.» I don’t believe they did. I get it, you can’t afford to reserve time that goes unused. I offered to give a credit card number, but nothin’ doin.

Went here for my husband birthday dinner all the food was amazing and the service exemplary. The reason I can’t give a five is my sons truck was damaged by someone trying to break in his truck. This has happened before according to the staff after letting them know what had occurred in the parking lot of there restaurant.
So be careful where you park if you have a F-​150. Make sure not to park in the back.
This is a problem all around Birmingham according to the Police Officer that came and made a report.

Read descriptions of our pictures– this place is second to none! First visit and SO glad we stopped here — would recommend to foodies and anyone in search of attentive service and extraordinarily fresh, well-​prepared American cuisine.

Can I really remember the number of people who stopped by our table last night? Wow, there were the 3 servers who greeted us and said they’d be right back to wait on us (2 were dirty liars and never returned… perhaps an alien abduction, dementia or they quit mid service?), the guy who took the drink orders, the guy who brought the water, the guy who brought the drinks from the bar, the runner who brought food, the second runner who brought needed condiments, the guy who brought a second round of drinks. I guess that’s 9 not including the pack of hostesses at the front one of which walked us to the table. That knocks it up to 10. Let it be said that I have very little love for the idea of table service that bears any resemblance to a NASCAR pit crew. J Alexander’s clearly rolls with the idea that the appearance of activity somehow equates to top level service and the results are a little mixed. Oh, crap… I think there was one more who grabbed an empty glass and another who poured more water. Can so many people really provide better service than one really good waiter? Not in my book.
We each had prime rib ($ 27) which was excellent. It was perfectly medium rare with a very nice salty crust. The loaded baked potatoes were a little less loaded than we like so we asked our waiter to bring «some additional sour cream for the table» and got one small dollop to share. I supposed two dollops would have been a problem. We would have asked for more but none of the dozen people who’d been to the table would slow down long enough to hear our humble pleas and that is my issue with J Alexander’s. They are great about watching your tea or water and you never have to ask for a refill. Any server on the floor will quickly take care of it with speed. This automatic approach is great but if they slowed down just a bit, they could get past attending to apparent needs they observe and actually deal with simple things like sour cream that they only find out about if they actually engage with the diners.
Since the store opened several decades ago, I’ve always gotten the impression that they were casual dining chain with aspirations or at least the pretense of fine dining. Yeah they have a $ 35 steak but they’ll pile a mound of fried shoestring potatoes on the plate 5 inches high as if they are a waffle house. It’s this collision of cultures that has always sort of mystified me about the place. Great, yet simple food prepared competently and consistently (albeit with a bit of a dated presentation) coupled with friendly service that tries to be great but falls shy of the mark with equal consistency.

Solid all the way around. I never post reviews of chain restaurants but this place is consistent, the people are friendly and the food is really good. We will be back!

Great décor! Great staff! The carrot cake is to die for!!! My steak and my husbands steak were ok, mine was a bit over cooked. The deviled eggs are ok. The Mac and cheese was phenomenal. The wine was great!

My overall visit to this restaurant was decent. The restaurant was packed on a Thursday night. I had the rotisserie chicken with the garlic mash. I didn’t really enjoy the chicken as much. It didn’t have any flavor and they served it with a side of stock that had no flavor as well. However the garlic mash was delish. If it wasn’t for the quick friendly service, I would’ve given a 3 star for the chicken. I enjoyed looking at the beautiful art on the walls. I would maybe give this restaurant another try.

This was my favorite meal in Birmingham.
I was here for a week for business and ate my way around most of Birmingham and yet it was this chain that served me the meal I loved the most.
This place was bustling on a Thursday evening. It wasn’t full enough that I had to wait, but it looked like it was almost completely full. Even though they keep the restaurant really dark, it is light enough right over your table that you could even read a book if you wanted to.
I ended up getting the Steak and fries and a side of mac and cheese. I know this is going to be blasphemous, but I didn’t love the mac and cheese. I thought it was good, but not oh my gosh I have to order it again. What was drool worthy was the fries. I absolutely adore those fries. They are thin cut and covered with some amazing seasoning. I almost ate all of them and the dish came with a lot. I ordered the steak rare and it was cooked perfectly. However, it had a little too much fat for my taste. I had to chew quite a lot. All those little critiques are nitpicky, because walking out of the restaurant all I could think was wow I loved that meal.

I had not been here in a while, and I forgot how good this place is! The food is always outstanding, and the service is terrific.
Our table shared the Roasted Artichoke and the Spinach con Queso appetizers. Both appetizers were excellent. One of the daily specials was a fried shrimp platter, and someone in our party ordered it. It looked delicious and I was quite envious. But, when my Prime Rib was served, I forgot about that shrimp dish. It was roasted perfectly to my liking, and the meat was so tender that it seemed to melt in my mouth. You can ask for straight horseradish as a condiment, and I always like that. I also substituted French fries instead of the smashed potatoes. They are fresh cut, matchstick fries, and they are awesome!
I ended this incredible meal with a very delicious crème brûlée.