Spotted Dog Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Carrboro

Spotted Dog is a place that wouldn’t really make sense outside of Carrboro (or, perhaps, Asheville). The name evokes a well-worn neighborhood bar, and while this is a bar with the requisite wood and brick, it’s well-maintained and adorned with local art. No, the dog theme is literal: nearly everything on the menu has a canine connotation. In addition, there is a strong vegan-friendly bent. Add to that the building’s triangular shape, and if nothing else, the Spotted Dog stands out.

But there is more than just novel design/branding here: the menu selection gives some separation from the pack as well. You can find everything from seafood (crab cakes, fish and chips) to Mexican and Asian-influenced specials to classic sandwiches in both meat and meatless iterations. For our first visit, my wife and I went with the radical rooben (tempeh, avocado, and the usual Reuben accoutrements), the Carolina crab cake sandwich, and an order of puppy ciao (a Mediterranean artichoke/olive/spinach/cheese dip). The dip was tasty, and several layers of flavor came though at once. My crab cake sandwich didn’t skimp on the crab, and the hint of bourbon made for an interesting twist. While my wife enjoyed the rooben (it wasn’t a greasy mess, as Reubens sometimes are), I found the tempeh a poor facsimile for corned beef. All told, the food was considerably better than average bar fare.

Unfortunately, while the staff were friendly, service at Spotted Dog was quite slow. Fellow patrons were few and far between when we visited on a Saturday afternoon, yet we wouldn’t have guessed from the wait times. Pricing here is a bit mystifying as well. A crab cake sandwich and a side for $9.50 was certainly affordable, as were several other menu options. But the vegan rendition of the crab cake is actually more expensive than the real deal, and some of the lunch features ($13.50 for vegan pozole verde, $13.95 for fish tacos) are definitely a stretch.

Spotted Dog is intriguingly funky, and chances are, you will find something worth trying here. Whether you are willing to wait for it, on the other hand, is...

Awful experience. My partner and I visited last night to pick up our vegan hotdog order. When we checked it we realized the toppings were not how we ordered on their website and brought it back. They later brought out the “corrected order” and we saw 3 boxes instead of 2. It was somebody else’s order. We went back and asked for our order. Once we got the order the sides we ordered were extremely less than before and we tried the hot dogs to our realization it was beef. I, who is allergic to meat and dairy, instantly got sick and my partner who is vegetarian threw up moments later on the side of the road. We called them to ask if the order we got was vegan and they said yes. He informed us the staff did vegan dogs. After all the errors previously we could not trust that. We knew what we ate. We did not want a refund after all this we didn’t want the correct order. We just wanted them to be sincere about their many errors. We dropped it and told the manager to have a nice day. If you are going to serve vegetarian and non vegetarian food. Do it correctly. Talk to your 3rd party about more thorough tickets printed out. Double triple check your orders before sending them out. I broke out in hives all night until the Benadryl knocked me out until mid sleep I had to go to the bathroom to throw up. Let’s not do this to anyone else please. Please do better for your customers who are...

We just went to the Spotted Dog for an early brunch with our 3 months old puppy. Given that this is supposed to be a dog friendly place, we thought this would be a great place to take him for his first outing. We asked for an outside seat, which was completely empty and were placed under a table under a nice tree. However, within 3 min. of ordering drinks, we realized that our puppy was trying to eat all the pebbles so we moved to a table on the concrete patio. The waitress came out immediately and told us that we couldn't sit there because the table seated more people and they didn't want to chance not being able to seat a larger party (again this is at 11 am on a Sunday for brunch and the place is completely dead). So we asked if we could just go ahead and sit on one of the smaller tables on the side and pull up another chair. This also was not "allowed" since the walkway through was too small for this. So they expect us to sit where my puppy may eat something that might hurt him??? Needless to say at this point we got up and just left. Spotted Dog - not dog friendly after all. We've been here several times and will NEVER come back. Note: as other reviewers have said, the portions are very small, my husband usually leaves...