milkbread — Restaurant in Charlotte

I tried Milkbread for the first time today and have a mixed opinion of the place. I live close by & have been wanting to give it a try. So, today, as an early lunch, I ordered the original chicken sandwich, & had it hot-dipped, and added a side order of fries. I tried to order it online, but this wasn’t successful. The default pick-up time was 10 minutes, and felt I couldn’t get there that soon, so I tried to use the edit function & could not change the time, date, or anything. So I decided to leave it at 10 minutes. When I tried to place the order, they wanted more info – name, email address, phone number. But at the bottom, they wanted my exact birthdate. Why do they need my birthdate? – sorry – I just want a crispy chicken sandwich, not a rectal exam. So, I punted on the online order & drove over to order at the window. The staff I interacted with were all pleasant. I must say the Milkbread people have done a good job updating the old Dairy Queen building, though I hated losing this icon in Plaza-Midwood. While walking over to a table to sit & wait for my order, I noticed that my table & the 2 adjacent tables all needed wiping down – Plenty of crumbs & some grease stains left from previous diners. The food came out in about 10 minutes. I live very close by, so I was home unwrapping the sandwich in about 5 minutes. The fries were a perfect crinkle cut fry – hot & very crunchy. I was very pleased. The chicken sandwich was where everything started to, literally, fall apart. I guess I should have had the hot dip sauce put on the side & not on the sandwich. When I started eating it, the bun was already saturated, doughy, & started splitting apart. The breading on the chicken was no longer crunchy & was sliding off of the chicken, and everything was sliding off of the bun. I just dumped it all back in the box in a pile and ate the items separately. The pickles were great. I was very disappointed in the chicken itself – it was very tough & very chewy. Worst piece of chicken I’ve had in a while. It was as if they used the breast from an old stewing hen. I was very surprised & disappointed at this. For $10, this sandwich was just not worth it. At a minimum, they should recommend putting the dipping sauce on the side. 11/27/22 Update: I spoke with a friend & neighbor the other day who tried the chicken sandwich, undipped, as take-out. He was very pleased with it, and said the chicken was not at all tough. Guess I'll have to give them another try.

When paying for the sandwich, I was prompted to add a 20% tip, but I could lower this to 18%. I say this as a person who used to wait tables years ago, and who tips well for even average service in a sit-down restaurant, but adding 20% to an already expensive to-go order at a pick-up window is too much. It should be no more than 10% - or better yet, pay your staff better. With tip, the chicken sandwich & fries came to about $17.50. I’m sure I’ll come back at some point & try another item. I’m hoping the chewy chicken breast was just a one-off mistake. For the experience I had today, I can’t say that a chicken sandwich from Popeye’s drive through window isn’t a...

I almost never leave reviews but in this case, I really need to. I have always been a huge fan of all of the local restaurant groups in the CLT area. I love trying different cuisine, I love when people open up cool concepts in the area, etc. Milkbread has always been so reputable to me just because it’s apart of a larger restaurant group and the people who create these concepts have such a cool vision that it always gets my immediate support. So that’s why I wanted to write this. I hope the owners will see this and truly hear it because I’m not alone in my thoughts. I moved to Plaza last October. I’m a 2 minute walk from this Milkbread. Honestly I was so excited to be able to walk to this place when I moved into my apartment. I’ve pretty consistently gotten food at this location for almost a year now. Today, I got an avocado toast that was literally burnt to almost ashes and it was my final straw. I get avocado toast from this Milkbread location SO often and sometimes they go overboard with the seeds which is annoying but I just knock off the excess. Sometimes it’s a lil too crispy but I eat it anyway. Whatever. I’m genuinely not picky. But today my toast was black and ashy. When I got home and saw it, I tried it anyway bc I don’t like to make returns and such, and it was so bitter and nasty from being burnt that I couldn’t eat it. The whole toast was so black and there were so many seeds you would genuinely not know it was an avocado toast if you saw it. So I decided to take it back thinking they’d be like “wow! That’s so burnt I’m sorry, we’ll make you another!” When I brought it back, the girl told me that that’s how the owners want it to be made. ??? I don’t think that’s true because I’ve had that same avocado toast order for almost a year and it’s never been that way. And, when you go on the Milkbread Instagram, they do not advertise an avocado toast that is literally completely blackened and ashy. They ended up making me a new one, but the push back and bad vibes that I got put me off. I also tip really well on take out. The same as I would a waitress, it’s 20% every time. So it’s crazy to me to get push back when I am a regular customer who knows that a burnt piece of bread is not only not standard for the location but is also nasty in general and not acceptable to serve to the public, and when I try to support the workers there as a customer the best I can with my tips. The reason I’m so adamant right now is because this isn’t my first issue here, but it’s my most recent and annoying one. I’ve had a biscuit that was literally still squishy dough and not fully cooked that I didn’t return, and like I said, the toast often has so many seeds that you have to knock them all off before you eat. I understand fun flavors and textures in food. I know what is adventurous and what is not. What’s going on here is not a cool and fun food concept. It’s genuinely a low effort rip off. And for the price point, it is...

The winner here is the chicken sandwich! I’ve visited now a few time and I’m a foodie so I like to order multiple things from a menu to test and share with my audience. The chicken sandwich is the number one choice when visiting this establishment. If you’re not into meat then the Mushroom toast is my second favorite thing here!

I also tried a toast with hummus but I’m drawing blanks here- couldn’t have been memorable.

I have a love hate thing going on with the Mac and cheese here for reasons I’ll spare. I did mention the issue to the owner and he assured me he would fix it and work to not have the issue happen again. Needless to say, I was in heaven initially when I first tried the Mac- it was surprisingly good, way better than the white stuff that Panera sells. The last time I tried it when bringing another foodie along it wasn’t that great.

Back to the chicken sandwich- it’s something about the pickles on this sandwich that elevates it into another realm. This chicken sandwich supersedes any Chickfila sandwich.

The original donut here is worthy of praises as well. It’s doughy with the perfect thickness- isn’t paper thin like Krispy Kreme and not too “bready” like Dunkin; this is a perfect balance…nicely glazed.

The big chocolate chip cookie with sea salt is blahhhh…nothing spectacular. I would’ve loved it more if it wasn’t hard and moreso soft and chewy.

The cauliflower bites were surprisingly good as well- can’t recall the sauce that came with but it was a great addition. Only qualm here would be for them to paper line the bottom of the fry cup when inserting the cauliflower bites as the grease came out everywhere.

Drinks were pretty good as well- I got a latte and it gave what I needed.

One pet peeve which I know it would be hard to implement and this is more-so a customer issue: I do not like it when people with dogs allow their dogs to roam and approach strangers, either to sniff them or jump on them, that’s a huge problem and a liability to the Restuarant. Dog owners need their own little area as to not terrify other patrons or have their dogs jump on complete strangers.

My child is terrified of dogs and people just assuming everyone is a dog lover and allowing them to freely approach people is bothersome (happened here).

Outside of that- definitely visit. I love the vibe and energy of this place.

As I type this I’m thinking about the original donut. True story: I ordered an extra after tasting it, came home and had my husband take a bite so he could taste it. Went to water my garden and my donut was gone- he replaced it with Krispy Kreme which sat on the counter for 2 days before meeting the trash can! Keep...