Hickory Tavern — Restaurant in Charlotte

Visited today 10/19/2024. Ordered a Tavern Burger which actually turned out to be a double smash burger. The burger was so big that I had to cut it in half before I attempted to eat it. The first three bites were phenomenal. The fourth bite was not so great. I actually bit into paper, that is used to separate frozen hamburger patties. I actually ate some of the paper and my teeth marks were in the paper. I checked the other half for the burger and sure enough, the rest of the paper was on that half of the burger as well. I sent the burger back and I received an apology. I also was offered a replacement burger, but at that point, I had lost my appetite. God only knows what else was inside that burger. My dinner companion ordered six wings ($12) and a cup of coleslaw ($3.99) which was nothing more than some shredded cabbage mixed with mayonnaise. We finished dinner, I asked the waitress for our check and she brought it. However, after 10 minutes of waiting for her to come back and she never did, I walked up to the bar to pay the bartender. At this point, the hostess stopped me and asked what I was doing. I told her that my waitress had not returned and that I had somewhere to be so I was going to pay the bartender. She said she would handle it and took it from me. As I was walking back to my table, my waitress approached me and asked me why I went to the bar. I told her that I had somewhere to be and that I wanted to pay my bill. She asked me who I gave my bill and credit card to and I told her that I had given it to the hostess. She was furious walked very rapidly across the restaurant. I guess she was looking for the hostess who had my credit card. After a couple of minutes, the original waitress showed up with my credit card and I was able to leave and sign and leave. This is the first time I have ever had a bad experience at Hickory Tavern and I was very surprised. I did not want another burger and I did not want to continue eating my burger that had paper in it. if they is not giving any attention to making my meal, I don’t want him to make me another one and I did not continue eating that burger because God only knows how many more foreign objects I may have encountered. Sorry, Hickory Tavern. You need to step...

Six of us stopped by for dinner after a round of golf today. The restaurant was relatively empty (it was 8:40 pm when we arrived).

We sat down and were promptly greeted and our drink orders taken (pitcher of beer and a couple of sodas). Soon she came and took our dinner orders (we skipped apps) - mostly burgers and a couple of grilled chicken sandwiches). Around 9:20 we asked if our food would be coming out soon - it should be out any minute. At 9:30, we asked about our food again - “it should be right out, I promise”. She then promptly moved to talk to an elderly couple in a nearby booth. she apparently knew them as she stood chatting for a good 10 minutes. I think the couple saw our impatient looks and said something to her because she came by a couple minutes later, and then some other server brought out our dinners. As expected, the food was cold, and the french fries cold as well. We talked to her and she apologized and said she would bring out more fries for the table. One of us had added bacon to the chicken sandwich - the bacon was decidedly rancid - he ended up pulling it out of the sandwich. Although hungry, neither the other person, or I, ate more than half our chicken sandwich. The burgers seemed fine, and we did get hot fries brought out for the table. One of the six had asked to leave the pickles off of his burger (leave them on the side); of course this didn’t happen.

It’s totally understandable to get this kind of service when you are eating at prime time, especially given the lack of staff these days. However, given that the restaurant was no more than 20% occupied, this was inexcusable. Food was mediocre at best (no reason to serve rancid bacon), made worse by sitting around waiting to be brought out.

We will pick some other...

The customer is always wrong at this place 😂 I ordered the alcoholic watermelon spritzer but got the non-alcoholic version. When I told the waitress she explained that the watermelon juice disguises the vodka?? ( Wish I had known this magical fact back in college !! 🤣 )

My Mrs tasted it and agreed there was no vodka in it. The waitress then took my drink away and ordered a 2nd alcoholic spritzer for me. In this one I could taste the vodka, my Mrs also tasted it and agreed.

Along comes the bill and I get charged for 2 alcoholic spritzers. Im thinking ok, honest mistake on her part. I ask her to take one of the spritzers off and she says no because the first one was also an alcoholic version. I said that simply isnt true, both my wife and I could taste the vodka in the 2nd one and the lack of vodka in the first. She then calls her manager and he wants to charge me for 1 non-alcoholic and 1 alcoholic. I said that ridiculous because its not what I ordered it got taken away from me

In the end I only got charged for the alcoholic spritzer but both manager and waitress argued it intently even saying that the bartender has worked here 16 years and he has never made a mistake. They refused to admit their mistake. They were unapologetic and...