Bullwinkels — Restaurant in Beech Mountain

We decided to eat here on November 5th, at around 6:30 pm. As we were approaching ,someone came out and was shouting" I have no food, we got slammed and ran out of food...try another day and call in a reservation." We were disappointed but things happen, we understood. We ended up eating at Mi Jalisco Mexican grill, about a minute away. They seated us right away, and their food was delicious! We decided on Holy smokes BBQ on Friday and were seated fairly quickly, and once again food was great! Tonight we called Bullwinkels at 4:30 and made a reservation, as instructed to do, for 6:30. We arrived and were seated. We were given our drinks and placed our order...one pizza, cheese sticks, and chicken tenders. About 15 minutes the waiter came out and said they were out of pizza dough...we could order something else and he would comp us cheese sticks for our trouble. We looked again at the menu and decided on chicken tenders, 12 piece wings and a lasagna dinner. As we were placing the order, he interrupted us saying he's out of pasta dinners too and if we wanted something we could order something off the appetizer menu only, "something like cheese sticks" he said. This was a Saturday evening, not late for a place that's only been open for 2 hours at that point. There was only 3 other tables occupied at that time. If this is a commen problem (and I'd say 2 out of three days is business as usual) then they shouldn't have taken our reservation, absent that they shouldn't have seated us without telling us they only had appetizers....shouldn't have given us menus without telling us that their pizza place had no pizza, or anything else but the small sections of appetizers...in short, they should have just told us they only had $3 sodas and couldn't take our $55 order. That is not a typo. 3 sodas, one pizza, cheese sticks and chicken tenders would have cost $55. However, the cost wasn't the problem..we were hungry and once again turned away, only this time after wasting 40 minutes of our time. We ended up going to Bella's in Banner Elk, food lion shopping center. Good news is Bella's was delicious, we didn't get pizza there, but they serve pizza and it looked amazing! The staff at Bella's was awesome, and made us feel like we were truly appreciated, even though they were definitely not hurting for business. I suggest you avoid trying to eat at Bullwinkels, even if you do happen to get the food you want, I'm not sure you should consider yourself lucky. Don't give them your money as there are better places who deserve it more. Don't help them stay in business so that they can do this to other people over...

My husband and our 4 teens visited on Christmas Eve while on a trip to Beech Mountain. We were glad they were open on Xmas Eve and we arrived about (6pm) 2 hours prior to closing so we would not be holding them up from leaving on time for the holiday closing. Tables were full so we had to wait, but only about 15 minutes until we were seated. Nice atmosphere. Two kids ordered subs. Two shared a pizza. Husband and I ordered pasta dishes. Drinks brought out quickly and order taken quickly. Pizza brought out about 20 minutes later (6:45). The order was wrong but the two teens sharing it ate it anyway and we don’t complain about it. 15 mins AFTER they were completely done eating, the rest of the table still didn’t have food. Server said it would be about 20 more minutes as the kitchen was backed up. Mind you, we were the only patrons in the restaurant except a table that was already there when we arrived and was now finishing up and preparing to leave. When asked how the kitchen was backed up since the restaurant was empty, we were informed the restaurant and the adjoining steakhouse share a kitchen. In other words, the steakhouse took precedence and we were forgotten about. Maybe 10 minutes later, (approx 7:30) our two pasta dishes arrived (shrimp carbonara and shrimp Alfredo. Both were tasty. Both had tails still on shrimp which is annoying. When we were halfway done with our pasta dishes, the subs finally arrived (7:40pm). Subs were mediocre at best. This was one of the poorest dining experiences we’ve ever had.

The restaurant did nothing to compensate for the incredibly bad service and had the nerve to still add an automatic 18% gratuity. We plan to make more trips to the area but will never go back to this restaurant and will encourage friends visiting the area to dine elsewhere as well. It’s clear from other reviews this is a...

The only redeemable thing about our experience at Bullwinkel’s was our waitress, Danielle. Our whole visit lasted over two hours. We waited over an hour and a half to receive our food. When the food was brought out, we were missing 3 dishes that took about another 10-15 minutes to receive. A burger that we waited an hour and a half for was undercooked. Danielle was the only server covering the entire floor and it was only her second week of working. She was very apologetic for our wait time and did her best. When it came time for the checks, our bill was split multiple ways. We recommended that every item on the bill be printed out individually and we could put what was needed together in order to make it easier on the staff. A man from the back came out with a printed receipt of everything our table ordered and asked us to write corresponding numbers by items that were together on the bill. Even though we didn’t see how this could help, we complied. When the checks were brought out, 3 of them were wrong. Instead of offering to fix them, the man argued with us that he printed them correctly and walked away from us mid-sentence to bring out the original itemized receipt, in which we showed him where he was wrong. To be fair, we did have 14 people in our party. However, we go out to eat often and have never experienced such a long wait for mediocre food. Save your money and your time by trying another restaurant...