Academy Street Bistro — Restaurant in Cary

My experience at Academy Street Bistro on February 10th afternoon left much to be desired. Despite the cozy ambiance and promising menu, the service fell egregiously short of expectations. From the moment my mother and I were seated, it became apparent that our waitress was not up to par.

After providing our order, it was frustrating to witness repeated errors in communication. Our requests for straws went unnoticed despite being made twice within a span of 20 minutes. Even a simple request for sugar took two reminders before it was fulfilled.

The real disappointment, however, came with the excruciating wait for our food. As other diners around us, who arrived long after we did, were served promptly, we found ourselves left behind. Our waitress seemed oblivious to our growing frustration, making no effort to check in or rectify the situation. It was disheartening to feel ignored and neglected, especially when attempting to attract her attention yielded no results.

Even seeking assistance from other waitstaff proved fruitless, as they too seemed preoccupied with their own tables and eventually forgot about us. It was only when we decided to leave and voiced our grievances to the hostess that any acknowledgment of the issue occurred.

The explanation given by our original waitress—that there was a mix-up with our order—felt inadequate after an hour of waiting. The lack of communication and accountability, coupled with a dismissive attitude, left a sour taste in our mouths.

It's disheartening to even consider the possibility that our experience may have been influenced by our skin color. Regardless of the reason, such treatment is unacceptable and reflects poorly on the establishment as a whole.

In conclusion, I cannot recommend The Village Bistro based on my experience. While the food and ambiance may have potential, the abysmal service and lack of accountability overshadow any positives. We luckily walked down the road and found another establishment that took care of us in a prompt and...

Multiple issues throughout the meal. Our ny strip that we ordered medium rare came out with almost no pink left, fully overcooked. So we asked if we could get it recooked. They wanted to take the steak and leave the rest of our plate on the table to get cold while we waited for the correct temped steak to come back out. We asked if they could take it all and just reheat the remaining food to match the steak. The manager Becca then came out and tried to gaslight me to say the steak was medium rare even though it was almost well done and tried telling us that their chef cooks the steaks to a certain temperature and that’s just his ny strip looks when medium rare. It does not. We asked for it to be cooked less the second time. She took our food back, never apologizing or acknowledging anything. We waited over 25 minutes for our new steak to come back out. They dropped it on the table and walked away. Never checking if the new steak was cooked properly. It was in fact still almost well temped, not even close to medium rare. At this point we’re starving so we just eat it. Manager never came back to check on us, server never checked on us, and a very pricey steak was never cooked properly. Food tasted delicious but overall a really bad experience. We also had a child with us and they couldn’t provide a kids menu physically but instead verbally told us what our options were. We selected the Alfredo pasta with chicken for our 18 month old and when we received our bill they charged us $20 for the kids meal. I’ve worked in fine dining for a decade and these details and experience are unacceptable for the level of dining they claim to provide and the cost of their menu. We sat outdoors and the tables were in such horrible condition and so rocky that we had to hold our wine glasses even when a server would walk by so our wine wouldn’t tip over. Even our server stated how horrible the tables were and they were over 8 years old and need replacing. Would not recommend this dining...

just want share my horrible experience with this so called “a restaurant “. My wife and I went there six days ago, and we try to order the two simplest food in world, caesar salad and chicken sandwich, so far it seems so easy, and then my wife add add a soup to the order and told the waitress if the soup has any red meat in it, because my wife doesn’t eat red meat, and the answer from the waitress was shocking, because she DOESN’T KNOW with they have in their soup and MAYBE there’s no meat in it. Ten minutes after, another waitress came with the salad without any silverware, and we waited for another 15 minutes to get some forks to eat our salad, and the first waitress came after with the soup filled with bacon, and we respectively asked her to change it, because this not what we ordered, and guess what, we NEVER see the soup again and she never even mentioned it. After all that we stayed calm and try to get the main order - chicken sandwich- and they came with chicken SALAD sandwich, and once again I told the waitress that I ordered chicken sandwich not chicken salad one, to get another professional answer, WE DON’T HAVE CHICKEN SANDWICH HERE, to get interrupted from another waitress- No we can make one- And the end they brought me a dry chicken breast with lettuce and a slice of tomato on it , it’s like someone try to learn how to cook, and that was his best opportunity. I got really upset from the unprofessional way they treated us, and post a review on google saying ( their food tastes like gas stations good ) and honestly that what I think , and today I got the stunning answer from the PROFESSIONAL owner:

Response from the owner And thank you for that. Anyone who says we have "gas station" food...is not welcomed back.

I think this is the way this owner fix his place’s issue, but unfortunately we have place like this in a nice...