LP on Main — Restaurant in Banner Elk

I have been going to the Louisiana Purchase for 25 years. It had always been consistently top notch and each time I would leave looking forward to my next visit. The menu offered a wide variety of cajun and American dishes that were all excellently prepared and served in a wonderful atmosphere by an outstanding staff.

When I heard they were moving to a new location, I was excited to see what the next chapter of this great restaurant would hold. My wife made reservations a couple of months in advance for the day after Thanksgiving. We arrived to find they had no reservation for us. After a few moments, they said they could accommodate us once they prepared a table and after mentioning somehow this was my wife's fault for not receiving a conformation. That felt quite unnecessary, but ok, we were still going to get to have our much anticipated dinner.

The first thing you notice in the new space is it is larger, brighter, and louder. The size is nice with a large single open room with a vaulted ceiling. The walls and ceiling are all in white and all hard surfaces with nothing to absorb any sound. Add this to the over lit room and you end up with a loud, sterile dining hall feel with no ambiance or character. But we are here for the food and although the atmosphere is lacking we are still looking forward to a great meal. This is for me where things really go awry.

They have completely gutted their long time menu. Gone are the mussels, the pate, the shrimp remoulade, the bisque, the gumbo, As well as the jambalaya, the étouffée, the pork, the trout and the lamb. The coached response from the waiter was "we have streamlined and modernized the menu". Ok, so what is left? Five entrees, three red meat and two seafood. Yes, five entrees down from twelve with little variety and strange incoherent sides.

I ended up ordering the crab cake starter and an arugula salad. Both were good but nothing outstanding and small portions for the price. The consensus was the same for the rest of the table. The deserts were equally middle of the road and lacking in variety. In the end, for two couples and a child, we paid over $400 and were disappointed. The wine selection, food options, service and atmosphere were middle of the road at best.

The bottom line is LP on Main is not the Louisiana Purchase and is just another over priced mediocre restaurant in the North Carolina mountains catering to tourist that do not know there are better options out there. I hope the owners realize they had something special and the old menu worked for so long because it was great, not tired and needing "streamlined". They can save this icon and I for one hope they do, because for the first time in my life, I left not looking forward to...

My wife and I were so excited to go out to dinner tonight at LP, we had been here several times before and were looking forward to a nice relaxing evening. We arrived for our reservation and immediately noticed friends of ours also there and this seemed to be a start to a great night, once we were seated we noticed how loud the music was that was coming from the kitchen. Our waitress came to our table to take our drink order and she asked if we needed anything, I asked her if the music was not very loud and could she possibly have the kitchen personnel to turn down the music . She said that she was aware that the music was loud and that she had already asked them to turn it down. When she came back with our cocktails I again asked about the loud music, she said that there was nothing she could do. I asked her to have the manager come over to our table. The manager arrived and immediately apologized for the loud music and said that the chef had been asked to turn the music down , but he was busy and did not have time, she asked us if she could pay for our cocktails, I told her no and that we would prefer to have the music turned down so that we could enjoy our evening. I told her that the music was very loud for such a nice restaurant like LP and that I would appreciate it if it was turned down, she said there was nothing more she could do, she had asked the chef and he was the owner and he did not want to turn it down. I told her that I was very surprised to know that the owner/chef was not willing to accommodate his guest and paying customers. This is completely unacceptable, and I will do my best to let all of my neighbors and friends know how terrible we were treated by the chef/owner. It is so terrible to see in todays world that a person that chooses to go to a local restaurant and spends their hard earned money gets treated so poorly by the owner , and the staff acts as if this is normal . This evening was a total waste and huge disappointment thanks to the chef/owner. I will ask all of you to take your money and your business to another restaurant that will appreciate your business, there are a lot of other restaurants in the area that do care about the customer. But, unfortunately after tonight , LP has lost me as a customer due to their...

I would describe this place as pretendcious. Thats not a misspelling. In order to be pretentious you need some idea of what you are trying to be. They seem to be attempting to be a fine dining restaurant but fall ludicrously short of the mark. To begin we were there in February with 8 inches of snow on the ground and the front door was left open the whole time. IT WAS 18 DEGREES OUTSIDE! I believe this was supposed to be about coronavirus prevention, maybe because unlike most restaurants they have the tables very close together...no social distancing. They didn't even have a heater in the doorway, people were eating while wearing outdoor coats. The food was so so, the waitstaff indifferent. Was told no substitutions when I wanted cream corn instead of brussel sprouts. They offered to sell me other sides at $8 a pop. The silverware was wrapped in paper napkins. The tables are small the plates large so we were juggling dishes moving things from one plate to another. We had the shrimp and grits appetizer the shrimp were a bit tough but the grits were good and the sauce was excellent. I asked for bread and they kindly sold me a small loaf of mediocre bread for $6 but took so long to serve it that the sauce from the dish was ice cold by the time I got it and was served with an olive tapenade which would be great if you like olives, but I don't and there was no butter. The entree was served before we finished the appetizer and more dish shuffling occurred. The short rib was ok not great. I asked for salt and pepper they served them together on a small flat dish with a debutante spoon you couldn't get the salt or pepper on the spoon Ihad to sort of push it off the side onto the food. I had the pecan and choclate pie for dessert served with a small spoon, the pie had a hard crust of pecans over a soft center of chocolate and a hard bottom. The spoon had great difficulty getting through the top crust and the chocolate squirted out the side, it was a mess. In addition the served my wifes drink over ice instead of in a martini glass as it should have been. All in all with a bill of $129 for 2 people it wasn't the most expensive meal I've ever had by far but for the price I have never had such a miserable experience. My advice...