Scratch Kitchen & Taproom — Restaurant in Cary

Review: Scratch Kitchen & Taproom - Cary, NC

We recently had an opportunity to dine at the Scratch Kitchen for lunch with family and the kids and wanted to share a few things about our experience.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and we had options of picking from the Lunch menu and the Brunch menu, which provided a ton of options from breakfast, appetizers, salads, bowls, noodles, burgers, and entrees.  The options were a bit overwhelming; at one point, several people at the table had to ask the waiter for recommendations because it was a bit too much.   As a food critic, it is always very concerning when a restaurant has a ROBUST menu because it’s hard to be consistent with the food quality with extensive menus.

Entrees Bibimbap Bowl - Seared Rice Bowl with Shaved and Marinated Ribeye Steak, Fresh Spinach, Carrots, Green Onions, Pickled Red Onions, Cucumbers and Over-Easy Egg. Served with Spicy Bib Sauce. This dish really had the perfect combination of flavors, blended together with the tenderness of the steak, the array of colors, tastes, and textures of the vegetables, and the rich, creamy egg overlay on top. My only complaint was that the spicy bib sauce was really spicy. Mind you, the waiter did warn us. It was more than expected. I love spicy, but others may find it overwhelming.

Crispy Chicken Sandwich - Waffle-Battered Fried Chicken with Spicy Maple Syrup Aioli, Candied Bacon and House Pimento Cheese with Scratch-Made Pickles. Served on A Locally Made Brioche Bun.  This waffle batter chicken was perfectly cooked, crispy, juicy and tender inside, and seasoned to perfection.  The maple syrup aioli added an outstanding balance of heat and sweet flavors, adding the smoky sweet candied bacon, with the creamy richness of the pimento cheese and the contrast of flavors with the homemade pickles. The dish was the perfect blend of sweet, savory, and spicy to elevate this sandwich beyond normal expectations.

Chicken Dutch Pancake - Dutch baby pancake baked in cast iron with hand-breaded fried chicken, fresh berries, and rosemary lemon maple syrup. I can’t really explain what this was.  The fried chicken was a superior elevation, just like the sandwich, but the pancake was genuinely questionable.  I think we were all very disappointed. My biggest challenge was the texture of the pancake; being more like a “flan” texture, I would almost call it a Flan Pancake.  The saving grace of the dish was the flavor profile, with the sweetness of the berries mixed with rosemary maple syrup, which provided citrusy, earthy notes. It was a great blend of savory, sweet, and herbal flavors.

OVERALL, it was a great experience. Surprisingly, with all the things on their menu, for the most part, the food was pretty good. I would definitely recommend going. Just dig a little and ask questions...

It honestly sucks to say this but here we go…my husband and I have been here to the Cary location several times, food amazing and no issues…Sunday I went that evening and spent over $100 including my takeout order. Long story short I ended up going back because the pork belly bites (takeout) was an excessive amount of brussel sprouts and little pork, so I called and they agreed to allow me to grab something else…just left earlier today and when I say “I’M NEVER GOING BACK” I truly mean it…again never had an issue up until this point and go in this afternoon and spoke with the girl at the bar and asked who the manager was because the manager I spoke with the day before told me the manager would be expecting me and just give my name so they can comp the order…so the bartender walks over to the manager and never came back, mind you I’m sitting at the bar waiting to see if everything is all good and absolutely NOTHING…so this other girl walks by and I asked hey is everything good she goes yeah we put your order in. I wait until the food was done and they brought it out to me in a container, no bag no plastic wear NOTHING…so I’m like do you expect me to just walk out of here with food in hand so I asked for a bag and mind you the manager NEVER came over , no I’m sorry this happened, we’re working on it NOTHING!! I am BIG on customer service and I know things aren’t perfect but it’s all about the customer experience…this service I was provided today was tasteless and disappointing to say the least…I’m not sure if it’s a CULTURE THING but I promise you I’m never returning…and my family that goes EVERY WEEKEND and spend their money I’ll be sure to let them know we should go where customers are appreciated…this was super awful so that let’s you know it starts from the top down, I’d NEVER have who was there today managing my business…just piss poor and trashy…I hate this was my experience but clearly the owners allow this behavior…we won’t step foot in another one regardless of how good the food is…super waste of my time,...

The Brussel sprouts are really amazing, the hostess was very hospitable. I give this restaurant 1 🌟 because I ordered the chicken greens and black-eyed peas my husband ordered loaded fries. First issue, it took over thirty min before our food arrived . However the table behind that had a party of 6 whom arrived after us got there food before we received our food and not to add race into this equation However they where white. My second issue was not only did it take 30 minutes for us to get our dinner, but my chicken and greens were completely over cooked. So I had to place another order, added an additional 20 minutes to my wait time by the time I received my food my husband was done and I had to eat after him. The experience was ruined. When bringing this to the manager on duty, his response blew my mind. He did apologize and said that he fixed our bill (which consisted of him swapping my meals not charging me for my over cooked food ) also stated he made sure he spoke with cooks so no one else would have a bad experience then ended with if there is anything else I could do let him know? I feel like he could of cared less if we returned or if we were satisfied before left. I never in life used race in my review However based on the clientele and based on his passive aggressive behavior, it said a lot about how he felt. So just saying if you're nationally is not of the Caucasian decent, don't have high expectations of you're inconvenienced do to cooks mistakes, oh and 30.00 for some dry mac and cheese with meat is not worth. Or maybe we just came in a off night. Management definitely needs to be retrained on proper customer service etiquette regardless of a person color our background your job is to make sure that all your guest are satisfied before they leave your establishment.It makes me sad because I saw so many good experiences maybe I will try...