Universal Joint Asheville — Restaurant in Asheville

Final update: U Joint, way to listen and react. Espresso martinis are back and delicious! Fries were crispy and perfect. I still think the Salmon ALT could benefit from some seasoning but nothing a little S & P shaker didn't fix and kudos on perfectly toasted bread. My husband was thrilled, as usual, with his Steinbeck burger and we are always thrilled with the service. So glad to be back here!

Update: Yep, the espresso martinis are officially dead here. I'm so sad. And the mango habanero wings have been discontinued and replaced with the most basic wing flavors ever...Buffalo, Teriyaki & Lemon pepper...Snooze fest. I tried the Salmon ALT. Bread was nicely Toasted and it looked delicious but it just didn't taste like anything. It was beggig for salt. Avocado & Tomato are desperate for it. My husband had the smoked Brisket dip and he thought it was very good. The service, as always, was excellent. I really want to love this place.

Update: I'm sorry to report that after several recent visits (all great) we had a different experience yesterday. The espresso martinis were missing a main ingredient. The color and taste was completely different from what we've had on all other visits. I believe it was the coffee liquor...kind of important. I followed it up with a special pineapple mule but it just tasted like pineapple juice and was really missing the ginger kick. My husband ordered the Wicked Weed Milk and Cookies (on the specials board) and it was unavailable. We just really struck out with the bar. Our server was also new (I assume, we hadn't seen her before) and she just has some work to do to perfect her skills, which is totally OK. The smokehouse burger was dry. There was hardly any BBQ sauce and no other condiment to help bring moisture and the fries which are usually fantastic and crispy were limp and sad. On a positive, we've now had the mango habanero wings twice and they are FIRE! This should be a staple on the menu. My husband also had the pork quesadilla special and was very pleased. I'm not changing our rating yet, as everyone has a bad day but this has become our Sat afternoon haunt and I just really hope the drinks and food get back to their usual. I heard a rumor that they are changing their menu to become more corporate across their locations. I totally get the operational benefits of this but the uniqueness of this joint is what makes us love it. I hope it doesn't change the vibe. If the cheese curds are pulled from the menu, there's going to be an uprising in Asheville.

The food, drinks and service were so fantastic 5 stars for sure! Fantastic espresso martinis, a good selection of beers and a great menu have made this a spot that we plan to return to regularly. The surrounding area on Haywood also makes this a great location to be part of a pub crawl, enjoy local shops or start the day with breakfast/coffee and come here for lunch after enjoying the local businesses. This...

I rarely leave reviews, but tonight was an exception and I feel something needs to be said.. The food is great at this place but we were honestly dumbfounded at the service that we received tonight. I have worked in the service industry for a while and never seen anything quite like the manner of our waitress tonight. We sat on the patio and upon sitting down we were handed menus and immediately asked to order what we wanted to drink. The waitress sat there tapping a pen against her notebook impatiently until we ordered. After sitting for a moment and realizing that the waitress never introduced her self or asked us how we were or greet us in a friendly manner, we decided that we would only have a couple drinks and an appetizer and not proceed to order a full meal. Upon the waitress coming back and asking what we wanted to eat we responded we will have a couple drinks and an appetizer and close out... all went downhill from here and we received nothing but short and rude responses and impatient poor service. We felt that we were rushed and not welcomed. We had to leave our table and ask for drinks in side because at this point our waitress had more or less abandoned us. We even watched another waitress at the table beside us huck a menu on the table in a frustrated fashion and not even introduce herself or say hello to the person she was waiting on and the fellow at the table proceeded to shrug his shoulders at how strange the interaction was. The waitresses were clearly done and had no interest in providing quality customer service. Unfortunately would have loved to try the food but we were so turned off by the service provided by our waitress and the surrounding waitresses that we will not be back to this Universal Joint. Sad because the universal joint in Clayton GA has always...

Edit * we have started going back to U-Joint in Asheville, seems like they have gotten their staff better than my below experience.* Let me start by saying this use to be my favorite place to get a burger (even voted for them ‘best burger’ in WNC); however, our past two visits have been terrible- especially tonight... Honestly I’m not sure who to blame, the kitchen or waiter? My votes for the waiter... For starters, he didn’t write anything down. Then we got another tables food, which normally wouldn’t be a huge deal BUT it was the people sitting directly beside us (who sat 10min after us,)... the food was taken to the back (after we had touched it not realizing it wasn’t ours), and redelivered to our neighbors not 1 minuet later. When we finally got our food (45-50min) it was cold and the sides were wrong. When they corrected the sandwich with the wrong side, I told the ‘food runner’ my fiancé burger and sides were cold/room temperature at best. She then proceeded to put her hand (glove free) over both sides and burgers and inform me that the ‘corrected plate’ was still hot, did we want her to “box it up for us, no charge?” ...um thanks but no thanks I don’t want any food who’s had people’s bare hands all over it. To tie it all off.. our waiter (who hadn’t been back since he took our order) hands is our bill and didn’t say a word about all the screw ups or cold food... I worked in the service industry for 10+ years, if this happens to one of my tables I would at the very least, try to apologize. Due to the fact that it was then 10:30, we resorted to McDonalds of all places - somewhere we haven't ate once In the...