Bush Farmhouse — Restaurant in Black Mountain

The food is a solid five but they need to work out a few issues with service.

First, what a unique experience. The farm-vibe is not for everyone, but, as the tagline of my old school used to say “you’re not everyone’.

If you’re sitting outside, you need to know that you will dine close enough to animals that there will be farm smells. It’s not overwhelming, but every once in a while, if you’re sitting outside, you will get a bit of a barnyard whiff. That said, it is lovely to be around the animals which included a very friendly goat who seemed quite interested in my cocktail.

There was also a live band playing, which was delightful. They have an outdoor band stage area. There is also a fire-piit, so it feels a bit celebratory, like you are hanging out in a best friend’s yard, who also happens to have animals. That said, this outdoor party-vibe led to more than a few free-range children. Some children were running around the fire pit and dancing around to the music and not particularly well-attended, so they were a bit underfoot if you’re trying to have a romantic meal. But again, if you’re there as a family and just wish a joyful outdoor/barnyard/fire-pit/musical experience, that feels like you’re camping with some friends, then this is the place for you. On to the food. The food was excellent. And really unusual. I’ve never had some of these dishes, and that is unusual for me, because I have a really large palate and love to try different cuisines in different countries. Certainly I have had peri peri chicken before, and this was a excellent version of it, the wings were really very large. But I had never had my main course, (bobotie) which was sort of a meatloaf situation. My husband had one of the meat pies. We would absolutely go back for the food.

On to some of the issues with service. I knew we would potentially have a problem, because when we arrived, even though we had reservations, we waited at the host station for about 15 minutes. Someone did acknowledge us, and say that they would be right there, but we waited for a substantial amount of time. They were having an exceptionally busy night. Because of this exceptionally busy night, the service was a bit lacking. It started off excellent! The server was personable. She took her time, she knew the menu items. But then... she sort of disappeared. My husband's app came, but I never recevied mine. I asked about it, and was told it was on the way. Our main course was brought out, but I still had not received my appetizer (the chicken wings) and the person who delivered the main course to the table was not the same as our server. I asked again about the app, and asked for a drink menu (I wanted another beverage) and this new person said he would get on that right away, but that was not the case. We kept looking around for our server, but we did not see her. My server knew that I had a coconut allergy, and so, instead of the rice (which contained coconut) she was going to substitute a side of beans, the UMNGQHUSHU. When my main course arrived, it had rice. I wasn’t sure if it had coconut in it, or not, so I did not eat it. The drink menu and missing app were still not here, but someone plopped down a dessert menu. When our original server came back to the table, I told her that I was missing the side that we had substituted and that I had rice instead, so she brought out the side we agreed to when I first ordered. I also reitierated that I was still missing the appetizer and that I wanted a drink menu but that I was brought a dessert menu. She looked at the dessert menu and said "oh gosh that’s not the wine and beer list." So then she brought me one, but that took some time. I finally was able to order a drink, but, by the time it actually arrived, we were done with our meal. The appetizer finally came, but I was no longer hungry. We took it to go. Bottom line: I will go back for the food, which was quite delicious, and the festive atmosphere, especially on a beautiful night. But I hope they have worked out some of the server...

This place is an experience that I do recommend. It's a dinning experience for sure, laid back and chill. With a lot more tables outside than inside, it sits the mood of almost a fancy catered BBQ, that just happens to be South African themed. The menu also takes its theme from the same area. I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, the steak. As you can see from the pictures, my steak plate looks delicious. As far as the cook of the steak goes it was almost perfect, at medium. I knew, that with most steaks, if thick, the edges will be medium if ordered that way, but the inside will be medium rare. The thing is, I understood that. The flavor of the steak was delicious. It appeared that they flash grilled the exterior of the steak to help trap in its juices. I'm not totally sure about that though, but the exterior surely seemed to have a sear on it. This technique worked well, but it also brings me to my only complaint with the steak. When it's seared there's a risk to burning the fat. Unfortunately a lot of the fat was rendered uneatable because I couldn't chew it. All in all the steak was something I would order again though. The salad on the plate was probably the most risky for a restaurant, with there being so many different interpretations of how to fix a particular style. Yes, I think everything on the plate is important. The salad was very simple, but I have to say, it was fresh and very delicious. The potatoes were the only disappointment on the plate. The good news is, that even as they were burnt too much, they were still mostly edible. My wife ordered the half chicken and my daughter ordered the spinach pie. Both reported that their food was good, but not great unfortunately. Their big disappointment came from the mashed potatoes and gravy. I did try that off of my wife's plate, because neither one of them ate theirs. The gravy wasn't a traditional gravy, it seemed to be homemade, but the flavor was different. Perhaps it was something to do with trying to stay on the original cuisine, and we simply found it not to be a favorite. Either way, I didn't factor that into the rating. I do want to add that my daughter said her dessert was delicious. The last bit is kinda funny, with the rather exotic menu and a large bar, the sweet tea came out of a gallon jug from the grocery store. Yep, no homemade sweet tea was a bit of a surprise, but it still tasted good. Our server was really nice...

We were a party of 3 visiting for the first time on a Saturday night. We were seated nearly 20 minutes before we were given one menu to share because they didn’t have enough. Then the waiter approached us and his first words to us were something along the lines of “what’ll you have”. No “Hi my name is _, I’ll be your waiter” or any niceties or even a smile. My first word to him was a cheerful “Hi!” expecting a response and he just stared at me blankly. He had a hard time answering some of my questions about the menu. Our drink order took another 20 minutes to arrive. Two of our meals took over an hour to be served. The appetizer came after the two meals arrived. One meal never came which was strange since it was exactly the same as one of the other meals, so you would think they would get put on at the same time. Our water was never refilled although we asked for it. When we asked for the check, the waiter said “oh but your other meal is almost ready” and we said we were done and to take it off. He said he would, but didn’t. Prices were outrageous, which might be justifiable in today’s crazy supply market if the service was good. We paid just so we could get out of there because in addition to the unreasonable wait (almost 3hours beginning to end) and unfriendly service, there was excruciatingly awful live music. The instrumentals were passably mediocre, the vocals were too loud, off key, and terribly grating on the ears. Ambiance otherwise was fine and fortunately it was a beautiful evening. The food and drinks we did get were delicious, but maybe seemed so because we were so hungry by that point. I thought maybe it was “growing pains” of a new place, but I see from other reviews that it is more than a year after opening now and has not improved. We are local to the area. There are better options nearby. We will...