Flour Shop — Restaurant in Charlotte

After months of hearing nothing but wonderful things about this restaurant from friends and coworkers, my boyfriend and I finally decided to try it last Friday. Sadly, we were left very disappointed with both the service and food and will likely not be going back.

The service was bizarre. Although our server was friendly and polite, his timing and attention was truly terrible. We ordered two cocktails to start. The first one arrived, but we had to wait over ten minutes to "cheers" as it took that long for the second cocktail to arrive. He was in front of us the whole time, going back and forth, totally distracted, with a half-poured cocktail in the shaker. We couldn't understand what took him so long to just put it in a glass and serve it.

The food was underwhelming. Of our appetizers, the croquettes were the only things that were actually good. We also ordered the stracciatella appetizer. As someone who has had a lot of stracciatella in Italy and other places, this was the saddest version of it I have ever seen. It was completely missing the iconic "stretches" of cheese, which give it its name and was simply a soup of mozzarella water. Confusingly, it was topped with root vegetables that were simultaneously charred on the outside but hardly cooked on the inside. They were very difficult to cut and chew. Not at all pleasant to eat.

For our mains, we each ordered a pasta dish. I had the pumpkin and apple ravioli. The ravioli itself was fine, but certainly much sweeter than it needed to be. After the first bite, I found the sweetness overpowering. The dish was also topped with mushrooms which, like the root vegetables of the appetizer, were hardly edible. They were incredibly tough, nearly impossible to cut, and very unpleasant to chew. My boyfriend ordered the gnocchi with meatballs, which was fine. Nothing we haven't had before.

The wine was another fiasco. We ordered a bottle and were waiting for a long time for it. Our main dishes arrive before the wine and by then, we were really unhappy with the overall experience and defiantly did not start eating until we had our wine. We also had to ask for our appetizer plates to be removed. Finally, the waiter realized and came to inform us the wine we had chosen was not available. We chose another bottle. A few minutes later, that one is also not available. The best that can be said is that at this point the waiter brought us another bottle of a similar, but more expensive wine and charged us the lower amount. That is the only reason I am giving two stars and not one; That is also what saved him from a much lower tip.

The last but most important comment I will make is about hygiene. If you are going to have a restaurant with an exposed kitchen, PLEASE ensure that it is clean, tidy, and that your staff know how to behave themselves around food. The cooking range is filthy. There are giant grease and burn stains all along the back of it. There are random utensils and tools sitting around in odd locations. We saw several of the staff's personal water bottles sitting on the food prep surfaces next to kitchen tools. The cook at the range took out his cell phone a few times without gloves and continued cooking without washing his hands. Cell phones are filthy objects and a person handling food should never be touching anything that isn't specifically food related, least of all a personal cell phone. Another of the servers was chewing gum while working. I can't describe how repulsive it is to watch someone handling food and beverages while smacking their mouth. All in all, the hygiene issues were deeply unsettling. If this is what they are comfortable displaying to their customers, just imagine what must be going on in the back kitchen that we cannot see...

We really wanted to like this place, but the experience was one of the worst we have had in Charlotte. Not to mention, the experience cost us $100 per person....

Having been a fan of Customshop on Elizabeth Ave in Charlotte for years, I had fully intended on trying its sister restaurant, Flour Shop, since it opened in Charlotte’s Park Road Shopping Center in early 2018. Well, suffice it to say, I didn’t hop right in and go and, the next thing I knew, it was Covid-19 time and the beginning of my 2+ years at home.

Well, we’ve recently started venturing forth and one of the first places we went was Flour Shop. All I can say is that I wished I had gone there much, much earlier.

My wife and I went with to Flour Shop with another couple on May 12th of 2022 and, after tasting the glorious food and savoring the experience, I can only wish I had gone earlier. But, no worries, I will be going back again… and again… and again.

After being seated and given some time to peruse the cocktail and wine menus, we ordered four cocktails (two from their specialty cocktail list. Without exception, they were well made and appropriately sized and classically presented.

Charles brought out some breads of different varieties, sitting on a plate with just a thin sheen of well flavored and spiced olive oil – not enough to result in soggy bread; but, absolutely perfect for added a bit more flavor for the breads.

After a while spent sipping and chatting a bit, we ordered a couple of appetizers to share for the table. When questioned about whether two appetizers would be sufficient for sharing, our waiter, Charles, was forthright in answering that two should be sufficient and described the quantity of items in each appetizer.

We ordered fried oysters (6) with fresh horseradish aioli and chorizo, herb, potato croquettes (4) with peppercorn aioli. Both appetizers were presented artistically and were quite magnificent.

Once we had almost finished the appetizers, Charles inquired about our main dish selections. I ordered the squid ink linguini, chorizo, Stone Carolina shrimp, tomato and jalapeno. The other dishes tried were the ricotta gnocchi and Cheshire pork meatballs; the rigatoni, Joyce Farms beef & pork Bolognese; and the dry aged duck breast, apple & orange mostarda, golden raisins & demi.

We also ordered glasses of wine with dinner, each of which were delightful and Charles' suggestions were spot on.

Without question, the squid ink linguini was, by far, the best version of that dish I have ever enjoyed. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the flavor (and a little bit of heat) lingered pleasantly. The shrimp were also cooked to perfecting and were a perfect counterpoint to the pasta.

Each of the other three entrees received similar kudos from the other diners. As with everything before, presentation was superb. As for the quantity, each meal was a generous portion, yet easy to finish without being “stuffed” or wanting for a bit more.

As we ate, more bread was brought out – perfect for wiping up any sauce left over from our entrees.

There was but one dessert offering – a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and a butterscotch sauce. The brownie was well sized, soft and flavorful; but the vanilla ice cream was even better – like tasing a flavored cloud – truly delicious.

With dessert, we had French press coffee which was excellent and we were offered refills, which we did not require.

Kudos to the owners, the bar staff, the kitchen staff; and, especially to Charles for providing such exquisite food and excellent service. A long, lingering, unrushed dinner with both excellent food and service is a rarity.

To say that the evening was a success would be an understatement. All four of us already know what we’ll be...

Two girlfriends and I were enjoying a night out together before the holidays at Park Road Shopping Center. We had just finished dinner on the other side of the Shopping Center, and had decided to grab a drink together at Dot Dot Dot, which is just across the parking lot from Flour Shop. They ended up having a relatively long wait for a spot at the bar, so we decided to go elsewhere. It was really rainy that night and so we didn't want to walk very far-- and agreed to just cross the lot and stop in for a glass of wine here.

We were really shocked and disappointed by how we were made to feel when we walked in. We were certainly aware that we were coming without a reservation, and that it would be busy, but we explained to the host that we'd just like to have a glass of wine at the bar. We were told that we could try to find a place, but we immediately did not feel very welcome. We walked to the end of the bar where there were not any barstools and thought it would be okay to order a drink there, as we didn't really mind standing. We stood there for about 10 minutes without any of the staff acknowledging us at all. At that point, a couple of chairs across the bar were vacated, so we thought perhaps the issue was that we were standing, and so we moved to occupy those seats. Immediately, the host came over to us to tell us those seats were actually reserved-- even though we had already been told that we could find any open seat at the bar. This was confusing.

At this point my girlfriends and I were horribly self-conscious and uncomfortable, so we just left as quickly as we could. Given the nature of our visit to Flour Shop, I want to also add to this review that we were completely sober, well-dressed, and polite to the host when we entered. We were a group of three 30-something girlfriends just looking for a glass of wine in the rain... we were not "partying" or disruptive in any way to the atmosphere of a fine dining establishment, nor were we demanding of the staff. We all left and agreed that never in our lives had we been made to feel so unwelcome or unworthy in a social establishment. I frequent nice restaurants in Charlotte all the time and have never ever felt like it was inappropriate to come in just for a glass of wine at the bar. I am sure the food at Flour Shop is great, and I had planned to come back for dinner with my husband after Christmas. And at some point, I really would like to give this place a try... which is why this is still a 2-star review. However, I felt such anxiety during my first visit here that I actually feel apprehensive about returning.

If patrons just looking to end their night quietly at the bar are not welcome here, that's fine-- but this should be made clear by the hostess upon entry. Feeling unwelcome and misled in a restaurant is a really unpleasant experience that I hope I...