Vidalia — Restaurant in Boone

Posh & upscale decor/appearance/attitude (*sadly and WHOLLY reflected in the attendant menu and bar prices but NOT, in either my opinion or experience, balanced out by a laudably curated selection of food and/or beverages, culinary excellence in the preparation of the comestibles/potables that ARE on rather limited offer, exemplary table or bar service, or execution of overall vision and the successful attainment thereof).

In each of these indisputably important areas, I found the establishment to be sorely lacking.

The bar selection was unexpectedly sparse - I asked for three different Scotches, four different bourbons, and a range of domestic and in-state brewed beers...none of which they had. In fact, despite the pretensions made obvious by the decor choices and general air of haughtiness, the alcohol selection was decidedly geared towards satisfying blue-collar tastes (*though, once again, the prices charged for their run-of-the-mill products certainly aren't meant to cater to those same working-class customers).

The menu items we chose to try were generally uninspired and plated and served in the wrong ratios. Despite the attendant elevated price point for each, there was an obvious (*and seemingly purposeful) lack of the more expensive ingredients and an unnecessary & palette-displeasing abundance of the more common and accordingly less costly ingredients to give the initial impression of good cost/value exchange.

This is NOT, however, the case.

Each shortcut and "adjustment" to ingredient portionality and their carefully considered ratios to one another only succeeds in compounding previous errors and further detracts from the intent of the recipe - which is, of course, to TASTE GOOD, please the customer, and be remembered fondly by said patrons upon departure.

Our menu items did none of these things. In fact, it almost seems to have gone out of the way to effect the exact OPPOSITE result - it did not taste good (*it was, in fact, greatly subpar); it was entirely a disappointment; and it has ensured that we will never again tempt fate by patronizing this...

Came here on a recommendation from the Chamber of Commerce. Made a reservation for 7:15 on Friday night for which we were promptly seated. Taylor was our server, and was nice enough I suppose, but didn't seem to go out of his way for us at any point. We ordered drinks (water and a draft beer) browsed the menu, and ordered our entrées. Pot roast crowned with carmalized Vidalia onions, steamed vegetables, and mac and cheese, $18. The second entrée was the chicken pot pie, $19. Plates were served fast, in only about 10 minutes.

The pot roast was perfect in every way, tender and juicy, nice gravy, wonderful flavor. The veggies and mac n cheese were also cooked nicely, but lacked much if any seasoning. Thank goodness for great Ash Co cheese topping the mac. This entrée was nicely portioned.

The chicken pot pie was delicious as well. Pulled chicken with mixed vegetables, potato dumplings, all in a wonderful white wine and butter reduction. All this is topped with perfectly crisped bits of chicken skin. However, for the price, this entrée was way under portioned. Should have been twice the serving we received. Fortunately there was sufficient portions from the other meal to share so neither of us were left with too little.

We were disappointed that bread or salads of some sort did not accompany the meals as the prices were certainly enough to provide at least a roll for each plate.

We were offered a dessert menu but decided to venture elsewhere for cheesecake, although there was a nice selection of sweets here. Shortly after declining any dessert or server abruptly left our bill and was not to be seen again. I was able to finally catch a hostess who did cash us out and informed us that our server was distracted with a large group in another room.

While our meal was delicious the overall experience was underwhelming and in our opinion a little overpriced. We love food, and don't mind paying for good quality products and service, but Vidalia fell short on this occassion based on the recommendation...

Happy anniversary to us, NOT! Tonight we tried to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary here. Made reservation for 7 o'clock and even noted it was our anniversary. So here is how our night went. Worst seats in the whole place. People after us with no reservation got better seating because they asked if they needed a reservation at the door. When I mention to Grant our waiter they said we can move you but nope no other seats available after a crowd came in. Ordered drinks and waited forever. Seriously we had finish the average truffle fries a couple were soggy and gross before our drinks came. Drinks were the highlight of our meal and to be honest worth the wait. We order the rabbit sausages which were nice but the rice and Lima beans that accompanied the dish were well under cooked! Brought it to the waiters attention and he said he would tell chef. Really never got a sorry and after that basically we were ignored. Can’t take the criticism then stay out of the kitchen they were undercooked seriously undercooked! We were going to order more food but after that Don't take it for Granted your waiter will come back. We borrowed the dessert menu from the way to close table next to us and still no Grant. At that point forget it took out my credit card and waited to pay the bill. Serious if I hadn't told Grant and put it on the reservation that it was our anniversary I'd probably won't be as disappointed but as a local in this town forgot this place there are so many better less pretentious and successful restaurants. Since we still haven’t heard from the restaurant or management it is clear that locals are to be ignored here. I have nothing nice to say but the drinks were better than the whole meal. Ps I would have liked another one of those also but after my appropriate comment about the rice and Lima beans I guess your quality of attention from staff goes way down. Ownership sorry we PLANNED to have our Twentieth anniversary with you and...