Rougarou (Imbibe) — Restaurant in Chapel Hill

Went with my friends on a Saturday night, and the place was completely dead. Monday and Wednesday nights seem to be the active days, so whatever. The menu was a stained sheet of paper with a QR code to their online menu and some specials. There was no table service, and the food had to be ordered online before you tell the bartender your order. I've ordered from a QR code menu before, so I was optimistic, while my friends were a little perplexed. We scanned the QR code and that's when everything went wrong.

Half of us were able to scour the menu, pick food, and head to the checkout. I managed to put in my card details but the website immediately froze upon processing my orders. The other half were incapable of accessing the online menu at all, the website server refusing to load. Then the site crashed for all of us. We alerted the bartender who was kind enough to take out a pen and paper and do it the old school way, however the lack of paper menu was really baffling to me at this point.

Those of us who managed to put in our orders were reassured that the orders hadn't been accepted yet, but a website crashing with our credit card details didn't make us feel any better. But the bartender and another worker assured us the food would be out. We ordered multiple Po Boys, and waited.

It was a long wait, but the food was delicious. I got a blackened pork belly po boy on ciabatta bread that was greasy in all the right ways, if a little salty. My friends who ordered shrimp po boys were a little unsatisfied with the size of the shrimps. But we ate, we dined, we paid, and we left.

Overall, it was a ... meh? Experience. I wouldn't return again personally, maybe if it was a busy night with live blues shows, but the QR code and lack of table service left a sour taste in my mouth. Also, the restaurant website requested a tip despite there being no table service. In my opinion, if there is no table service, there should be an option to tip the cooks/bartender directly... or no tip at all! I have no idea if those tips are going to the owner or the workers who actually helped us. I can't imagine how the website holds up during inclement weather, older customers who aren't familiar with QR codes, busy crowds with multiple people accessing the site at once, etc.

My advice to the owners: replace the QR codes with reusable paper menus, put at least one waiter for table service on slow days if you're gonna ask for tips, and clean...

I love the vibes of this place. It is cool. It definitely has a Louisiana 👢 look and vibe to it. They have live music during the week. I definitely will be back for that. It seems like it may be quite the experience. I ordered takeout from this place. I will come back and have an in-dining experience and update my review. I tried the fried oysters. They were fried nicely but if you are talking about a Louisiana restaurant, you have to come with the flavor and the seasoning. They were lacking the Louisiana seasoning. I ordered the Mufalleta sandwich 🥪, the one with the meats (ham, salami, etc.). This sandwich 🥪 was also lacking flavor. The olive salad was too tangy. The meat-to-bread ratio was off: not enough meat compared to how thick the bread is. The fries weren't bad. They could use a better selection of fries, but not bad. The falafel was bland in my opinion. However, what saved the day was the Fried Pork Rinds! They were Crispy and crunchy. I ordered the Cajun style. Definitely, some great Pork rinds here. I'll try something else when I go back. Let me know what you all...

This is one of my favorite restaurants. I LOVE the shrimp and grits. I’ve eaten many other things too…I like the mussels when they are on the menu because they are AMAZING. You are going to come here and have an atmosphere that is 100% not Panera or some sort of fast food restaurant. The food will be outrageously delicious and not expensive by any sort of Chapel Hill standard. There will be good music and nice people. There will be interesting books and board games to look at and good drinks. Overall amazing vibe and absurdly delicious food. I like to come for lunch and buy my shrimp and grits and Diet Coke and take bottles of wine to go. I also like to come in for a drink in the evening like a normal adult but usually I don’t because I have children and I’m running around at their activities. Oh, and if you also have kids and your kids like food and know how to conduct themselves in a restaurant they will like this restaurant too. My kids love this...