Twisted Liquid — Restaurant in Blacksburg

Usually when I spend in excess of $150 on dinner and drinks, I leave full and satisfied. Unfortunately, after "dinner" and drinks at Twisted Liquid, we left to go get dinner somewhere else because we were starving. We enjoyed the friendly staff and the presentation of the unique cocktails, but the food leaves much to be desired. We were with a group of 8 and no one was satisfied with the portion received. I even asked our server at the time I ordered whether I was ordering enough food for dinner. She responded that I would feel "fed." When she put down my plate, I was honestly shocked. The potato was as big as my thumb and had been thinly sliced 10 times to appear bigger and the foie gras portion so small I was able to eat it in one bite. For $27, I was feeling pretty hosed. My wife ordered the "lipstick on a pig" that we had seen posted on their instagram account. Not only was it not presented in the same manner as the picture, the pork was dry and the portion ridiculously small.

In my opinion, there is no way this place will survive unless they do something about the food. No college student is going to be able to afford this place, and all the young professionals out with us last night also felt it was incredibly overpriced. I am ok going back to have a starter cocktail or maybe a night cap, but will never buy food here again. Additionally, we were charged a "service fee" of $4.95 on top of our meal price and the automatically added 20% gratuity. This was on everyone's bill at the table. I'm sorry, but if I pay an outrageous price for very little food, adding a ridiculous service fee without explanation on top of it is an insult. I hope the owner makes changes to keep the business afloat because we need more restaurants in Blacksburg. It would be ideal to have lower cost small plate food to compliment the higher end cocktail prices. A business model like this may work in a large metropolitan area, but I don't see locals paying these prices to leave with an empty stomach.

Edit: The owner's response is nonsense. Not only did our group order almost every food item on the menu, as we all wanted to try different things and potentially share, we even sought advice from the server about the portion sizes. Not one meal that came out of their kitchen was something that could be considered an entree. I would argue it was not even an appetizer portion. I understand that foie gras is a savory menu item and was not expecting something "piled high," as you suggest. I was expecting a portion size similar to what I would expect for the price paid. I've never considered myself a glutton, but apparently the owner has a different opinion of my physical appearance given her response.

I also apologize for our group inviting two additional people to come sit at our table with us-who both ordered high dollar cocktails I might add. We didn't think you would mind since there were only 4 other people in the entire place that night. I also was not upset about the added gratuity. I would always tip a minimum of 20%-no matter how dismal the experience. I was upset you charged a fee that I now understand is for using a credit card at your establishment. Despite your claim that "the majority of restaurants" have this practice, I have not personally seen it employed in the manner you have chosen anywhere that serves food. Maybe I'll look for it next time I'm eating at my favorite booth with the peasants of Blacksburg. Those eateries apparently can't hold a candle to your...

New favorite food and drink location in Blacksburg! Over the course of two nights we sampled 8 cocktails, and 7 of the starters, small plates and entrees.

I want to give Twisted Liquid 5 starts, but it's not quite there. Several cocktails were outstanding. Many others show so much potential, but need to be tweaked for balance. Flavor profiles tend toward very sweet. None are classically boozy. Almost all are tasty, but dialing back the sweetness would bring them into balance .

For food, the Pub Burger, the Blue Crab Donut and the Truffle Mac and Cheese stand out. The Duck Bao would benefit from an actual steamed bun. The Hunters Pie, oddly, would benefit from more vegetables. The pork pizzella was quite good.

Service was friendly and attentive!

Overall impression: like almost any restaurant, there are hits and misses. Here, there are plenty of hits, and even the misses show lots of potential! Twisted Liquid is pretty unique in Blacksburg, and absolutely worth your time. It will be our favorite haunt...

We ordered several items, including the burnt ends, the Smashburger, and the ahi chimichurri. Unfortunately, the Smashburger was overcooked and was not prepared as a true Smashburger—it was just a regular-sized burger, maybe even thicker. It was not “smashed” at all. The burnt ends were truly not edible; they were hard as rocks with almost no sauce. It honestly seems like the food has gone really downhill. I also asked if they could make a Bloody Mary, and it’s totally fine if they couldn’t—I don’t mind—but it was just weird how the server responded. She seemed very impatient overall, and the food took a long time to come out. When it finally did, it just wasn’t what we thought we were ordering for the price. This place is advertised as fine dining, but given all of this, I don’t think it qualifies as fine...