Rye Knot — Restaurant in Asheville

Main idea: Incredibly mediocre basic Sysco bar food at high-end fine dining prices, located in a junky strip mall. (Note: The cute goth servers were NOT the problem. They were great.)

I come from a family of restaurateurs, and my first half-dozen jobs were in food service. And I can count on one hand how many times I have been so offended by my experience at a restaurant that I felt the need to leave a bad review. This is one of those very, very few times.

I had never heard of Rye Knot when my in-laws suggested it for dinner with our party of 6, but my partner and I went with an open mind. We ordered some house brews while we waited, which were just ok, but I understand it's really hard to stand out in Beer City USA. The cheap, rusty aluminum table on this open strip mall sidewalk where we sat kept wobbling enough to spill a lot of my beer anyway.

The pretzel knots were hard and gritty, and the naan looked and tasted exactly like the pre-made kind at the grocery store. (Toppings on that dish were well-done, at least, but it definitely wasn't $17 good.)

As I searched the unremarkable menu for any reasonably priced meat entree, I kept coming up empty. Nearly everything was over $25, and even all the sandwiches were around $20, despite the very basic pub menu. I thought, "Hey, maybe it looks basic but will actually blow my socks off in its execution." So I finally decided to swallow my scruples and give a TWENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SALAD a chance, since a Caesar with friend chicken seemed difficult to mess up. It can't be too bad at that price point, right?

Wrong. The fried chicken was under-seasoned and over-breaded. The "focaccia croutons" were obviously from a bag and served stale. The dressing tasted exactly like fast food salad dressings. In short, Zaxby's $9 salad with fried chicken is significantly better than my $25 salad from Rye Knot.

I tasted my partner's (similarly expensive) fish and chips. Fries were fine, but the fish was totally overpowered by dense, gummy, greasy batter. My FIL's risotto tasted like microwave boil-in-bag rice slathered in half-melted cheddar.

By the end, with no more than 2 drinks for each of the 3 people who had something besides water, our bill for this extraordinarily disappointing meal was nearly $250 before tip. I wouldn't be writing this if it had been $125, because that's the high side of what the meal should have been worth, even accounting for inflation.

Don't waste your money on this late pandemic disaster of a restaurant. If you want a comparable menu with (much) higher quality food, reasonable prices, and better atmosphere, go to Homegrown, less than...

I heard the fries were good but unfortunately didn't get to try them, despite ordering them, when I went. Ordered poutine appetizer, entrees and teas while we looked over the drinks menu. Didn't see the waitress for 45 minutes. Drank all our tea and ate the ice cubes while waiting. She finally came back to let us know our steaks would be out shortly. I asked about the appetizer and she seemed surprised and demanded to know what appetizer we thought we ordered. Told her and she said she didn't remember that but could go put it in. I told her not to bother at this point if the food is coming out soon. We had to ask for drink refills despite our empty cups being the only thing on the table. She brought me my salad, which was warm and mushy on a warm plate. At that point I asked to speak to a manager. He came over saying "So my waitress says you're mad she forgot your appetizer?" Uh no, I'm upset that I was given potential food poisoning on a plate. I asked if it was a normal procedure for caesar salads to be served warm on a warm plate? It was warmer than room temp as if it had been sitting for a while on or near the food prep area. He did apologize and get a new salad but overall I didn't care for his attitude either when he just went straight to assuming it was about a missing appetizer. I can overlook that. The empty drinks thing sucks. We both had mixed drinks picked out to try we didn't get to order cause the waitress never came back for 45 minutes. But potential food poisoning is where I draw the line. I haven't been back since and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

A review from an in-law, its enough to keep me from visiting and wasting my money. I am also sad with the management team and lastly the owner seems to need an attitude adjustment before his business and reputation tank any further. (Or whoever reads/responds to these reviews from said "rye knot" restaurant.) Asheville has a huge foodie community! Trust me when I say you don't have to settle for what's listed above! Look around, do your research and you'll find...

We came here as for our date night dining adventure, which we do so rarely, and it was nothing short of a wonderful experience! We had the nachos, artichoke quarters, and Buffalo shrimp as our appetizers, then the fish & chips, and beet salad as our entrees, with ginger beer and a liquor flight as our drinks. The food was all so flavorful and beautiful, the attention to detail in the plating was fantastic, and everything arrived quickly. The apps were amazing, the batter on the shrimp was fantastic, the artichokes were scrumptious, and the nachos were loaded and wonderful, larger than expected! The sauces served with the apps paired perfectly with them,and I'm already craving the artichokes again, just writing this! The salad was a perfect balance of sweet and savory, as the spring mix was tossed in a vinaigrette first, then topped with the beets, goat cheese and candied pecans, which gave it a perfect amount of sweetness. The fish & chips were amazing, the cod fillets were perfectly battered and fried, no fishy taste at all. The tallow fries were delicious, and reminded us of how yummy fries used to taste, when tallow was the norm. My husband declared these to be the best fish & chips in Asheville, and he's a tough critic! We ended up getting a bottle of the Rye Whiskey to take home, as that one really stood out on the liquor flight. Since we bought a bottle, the price for the liquor flight was comped, which we thought was a very nice touch. The service was impeccable- our server, Lauren, was calm, friendly, informative, and was there exactly at the right time, for every interaction. We went at 6:30 on a Saturday night, and our table was ready with waters waiting for us as soon as we walked in- I felt like royalty! The atmosphere was perfect, classy but casual, the kind of place that you could spend a lot of time in, and at no point did we feel rushed. The prices were very reasonable for this level of dining, and we will definitely be back- I think we found a new date night place- and a good reason to do...