Flower Child — Restaurant in Charlotte

Busy after lunch crowd for a post-holiday weekday visit. Interesting menu, and enough choices to please most. Very few desserts though. Ordered the enchilada bowl, as well as the grilled steak with grilled broccoli and mac-n-cheese. Enchilada bowl was delicious. Nice lunch sized portion too. Steak OTOH, nicely cooked and seasoned but almost too tough to chew. A line of fatty grissel went through the beef. I tried cutting around it, chewing what I could. Mac-n-cheese was tasty, not very "cheesy" though. Grilled broccoli was not my thing. Broccoli had a bitter aftertaste and the spices didn't compliment the broccoli. Plus, my meal was lukewarm at best. You could tell everything had been hot once, but no longer. Enchilada was served very hot. Rose petal lemonade; poor choice on my part. Not for me. No one else at the table liked it either. Overall ambiance was nice with a open summertime vibe, but the recorded music was too loud and almost unintelligible. It was difficult to carry a conversation at a small table. I'd rather have instrumental over singing at a restaurant, and definitely not a loud upbeat tempo designed to get you in and out faster. Staff was plentiful and helpful. The ordering flow didn't seem to work well. I guess you're supposed to order, be told your order number, then find what table your server placed the number sign on. For our visit, we were interrupted at the register and given our table number as we were ordering, stopping the ordering process for everyone. We asked for an inside table. We ordered, moved away so others could order, then looked for our table. Not finding it, we asked for help only to discover our table was outside. The staff member retrieved it and gave us an indoor table somewhere. We saw other guests do the same thing...order, then wonder where to go, looking around the room searching for a small numbered tag. Maybe it just works better to give the number to the guest and let them decide where to sit. As for cost, typical Ballantyne. Lunch for 2 with one lemonade, one dessert muffin was over $40. That's about on par with other nearby places. But considering only one meal was warm and tasty, several warm foods weren't even served warm, and you're forced to play "I Spy" to find your table, not sure...

We enjoyed our first visit to this restaurant. Everyone was very friendly and very attentive. You order up front and then get a number and then they bring you the food by your number.

We both ordered the turkey wraps and two drinks. I thought it was a little expensive for a restaurant that does not have table service. It was $35.00 and there were no sides with it. The sandwiches were delicious, but not worth the money.

The parking is free and right now there is plenty of parking available as this is the only restaurant opened at The Bowl. Once all the other places open, then we will see how crowded it gets.

One thing that I did not particularly like was the line was long when we got inside. My daughter knew what I wanted, so I went outside to find a seat as I have a disability. When I got outside, all the tables had numbers on them already. So I asked a worker and she said all the tables were reserved and I was confused. She got the Manager who explained to me that they don’t want you to sit until you order. So basically they want everyone in your party to go through the line and then once they give you the number, you find where they placed you inside or out (your preference). I explained that I could not wait in line for 30 minutes, so she did find me a table. She was kind but a little confused in what to do. But this system is ridiculous and it does not take into account for disabled or elderly people.

There was also a lady with a dog, which they allow on their outdoor patio. She placed a to go order so she could eat it on the patio and the same thing happened to her. She explained she could not go in the restaurant with the dog to order, so she did the to go order. They did not her want to sit at a table as well. In the end she did get to stay and eat her food, but they will loose customers quickly if that is...

I visited this location for the first time to pick up an order. As I walked in, a name was called, and I politely asked the hostess to repeat it. She curled her lip in annoyance and snapped, “KIMBERLY,” in a rude tone. She was a white woman, and I chose to ignore her attitude and waited calmly.

While I was standing there, another customer came in and asked where the pickup line was. I replied, “The line is here,” and gently gestured with my arm toward the woman standing to my right. As I did, the same white hostess came from behind and forcefully tried to pass between us, bumping into my arm so hard that it knocked my phone out of my hand and onto the floor — face-first, loudly.

Instead of taking responsibility, she turned around and shouted, “AH, YOU HIT ME!” — despite the fact that my back was turned and the contact clearly came from her. I calmly asked her to pick up my phone. She initially refused, and when I asked again, she picked it up but with an attitude, then walked off whispering something to her manager.

I spoke to the same manager and expressed how disturbing the encounter was. She admitted she could understand why I’d feel offended but did not offer an apology on behalf of her staff.

As a woman of color in a predominantly white area, the false accusation — shouted loudly, no less — felt deeply inappropriate and charged. Being accused of hitting someone when my back was turned wasn’t just untrue; it felt like a deliberate, inflammatory move by someone who knew the weight such a statement carries, especially from a white woman toward a Black woman.

A sincere apology could’ve gone a long way. But apparently, even that was too much to expect.

Spend your money where you’re treated with basic respect — and where your presence isn’t treated...