Storie Street Grille & Sidecar Bar — Restaurant in Blowing Rock

Ordered takeout today from there. Was really excited about the vegan menu options as it wasn’t just fake meats. Unfortunately I have to give the overall experience 1/5 stars.

I ordered 4 menu items for take out. The Thai Fungi $27, Baba ganoush $16, herbivore flatbread $17, and Vegan Fritters $22. Online time said it was going to take 30 minutes but when I pulled up 10 minutes after ordering, I got a call saying they were super busy and the pick time needed to be in an hour which is fine, I am on vacation so I drove to drop of the family and I drove back. As an added bonus, I got to have a drink at the bar for some me time. From ordering online to picking up was 1.5 hours. Despite this, I was still looking forward to dinner, especially seeing people with the Fried Asparagus because they had huge pieces and it seemed like a good portion size for $12 and I had some pretty expensive items so hopes were high.

The baba ganoush was really good. I usually am not a fan but my wife loves it. Kudos.

The Vegan Fritters were good. Two pancake looking things with a salad and dressing. Would I want to go back again for them? No. They are fine to eat if you are going there with a mixed group of people. If you need to eat vegan and you are not with a group of people, take your $22 and get a large pizza down the street at mellow mushroom.

The Thai Fungi BBG was a lions mane mushroom with Thai curry BBQ sauce. That’s it. For $27. It was fine but no rice or noodles or other veggies. Nothing to write home about and I wouldn’t suggest getting it for the price because you will still be hungry.

The Herbivore flatbread was a joke and since seeing what was actually supposed to be on it makes it even worse. First, the outside was label Steak & shrooms. Luckily enough, it was not steak and shrooms. I know it was a to go order but the presentation was a joke. First, It was 5% toppings and 95% flatbread. There was little pieces of asparagus, little chunks of mushrooms, and little bits of vegan cheese. I would be embarrassed if that left my kitchen and it was priced $17. It was inedible basically so I put pieces of my lions mane dish and my wife was using it to dip baba ganoush. I thought it was missing some toppings when I was looking at it. Upon looking at the price for this review, the description reads as mushrooms, asparagus, and vegan cheese but it also lists caramelized onions, olive oil, and garlic, which were no on the flatbread. Mellow Mushroom

Huge disappointment. I know this will sting reading and I hate to tell people just go to Mellow Mushroom instead of a nice local establishment but I don’t think I ever felt more robbed in my life. Just remove the flatbread and the lions mane completely from your menu. You are obviously too busy to support the items. Unless there is more kitchen than was was showing, it is obviously to small to handle your menu based on my experience and the wait...

We drove in from Atlantic Beach and found a lot of other people taking in the weather and scenery in Blowing Rock. We wanted a quiet place to eat dinner and relax. Storie Street Grille seemed to fit the bill. We had a quick 1 hour wait to get seated, which was great in comparison to most other restaurants 2 hour waits. After getting seated the waiter took our drink order and appetizer order within 5 minutes.

The drink menu is well written and it seems there was a lot of thought put into the trendy mixology of drinks. However for the premium drink prices the drinks were lacking in flavor and alcohol. I ordered a Fancy Old Fashioned and was brought a drink lacking in taste or alcohol. Not ot be discouraged I asked the waiter for his recommendation. The waiter recommended the Lime in the Coconut. Strike 2 on drinks. Maybe it's time for a Coors light.

Dinner arrived fairly quickly. Picturesque and perfectly plated. I had Chicken Picata. You can see by the picture how well prepared the meal looks. The chicken was cooked perfectly with a nice even fried breading. The noodles were al dente and perfect temp. I think the chef was a little conservative on the lemon flavor. Chicken Picata with a lemon caper sauce should hit your palate and wake up your brain to the fact that you have something citrus and tart in your mouth. I just didn't get that with this dish. Overall the menu item was good. The 8oz beef filet was absolutely perfect. Being from the midwest and eating at many steak houses all over the country, this filet stood its ground. Aside from the conservative lemon flavors on my Chicken Picata I was impressed with most of the food items we ordered. I would definitely stop in again with friends and family.

As we finished our meal a storm blew in and we had to move our table in towards the middle of the patio. The weather in Blowing Rock is awesome. It couldn't have been a better end to our restaurant experience than finishing up dinner while the cool air and storm rolled in through...

This was one of the most underwhelming meals I've had in recent memory.

The ambiance and decor of the restaurant, plus the generally positive reviews online led me to believe this would be a decent place for dinner in Blowing Rock. I mistaken.

The service seemed reasonably attentive at first, but after placing our orders, the meal started going south. Our waitress didn't give the table any bread to start. We thought at first that there just wasn't any, until we noticed that every table around us had a bread basket. Not sure if this was relevant, but we were also the only table with POCs in the restaurant. After catching our server's attention, we finally got a bread basket (no apology from the waitress, and her tone implied that she was doing us the favour) She also let us know our dinner was also coming soon.

Once my food arrived (I ordered the Salmon Piccata), I noticed immediately that my spaghetti was woefully overcooked. The noodles were severely swollen as if it had been sitting in the water for too long. The texture was reminiscent of spaghetti from a can, and not at all what you expect from a restaurant that claims to have "Mediterranean Specialties". I tasted my father's plate, which was the Pasta Inferno. The penne had the same overcooked texture.

I have nothing bad to say about portion sizes, since there was a massive pile of noodles on my plate. Unfortunately, the pasta lacked any semblance of seasoning. It wasn't even salted. The sauce on the salmon barely seasoned the fish itself, let alone the pasta it sat on top of. There was no taste of lemon, and the capers were barely perceptible.

Giving credit where credit is due: the salmon itself was tasty. A nice, crisp crust on the fish the salmon tasted fresh and tender as well. Basically, it's the only reason this isn't a...