Urban District Market — Restaurant in Charlotte

What happened here?! What happened to the vibrant bustling food court that we visited a few months ago?!

My wife and I stopped in just after this promising food market opened a few months ago. What we saw as we sat at the bar then looked promising and we were looking forward to seeing this operation in full swing once all the tenants were in. We enjoyed some original cocktails at the bar and couldn’t believe how packed it was. We tried various fare from several vendors and enjoyed everything. We promised we’d have to return to try the mouth watering steaks that were coming out piping hot from The Rare Butcher. The smells emanating from these restaurants, at that time, were to die for.

Fast forward a few months to March. Lunchtime. The parking lot was empty which isn’t a good sign. Last time, we had to park two blocks away. Upon entering, this time, there was nary a person inside. We immediately noticed garbage and spilled food at various areas, most notably adjacent to uncleaned tables and garbage cans.

The bar was not operational and was unattended, the restaurant we had intended to go to was either not open or had shut down, and we waited patiently at some other restaurant’s counters but there were zero employees present to take our order or to assist us. The lighting appeared to be dimmed at most and there was zero aroma of any kind of food being cooked.

There was a couple with children playing at the indoor picnic tables and one person working quietly on their computer. The rest of the food hall was vacant.

Perhaps they’re not open for lunch at 1:00 p.m. on a Friday? Perhaps we entered during a fire drill? Maybe vendors are only open on certain days? I don’t know.

We enjoyed looking at all the varieties of pre-packaged ramen at the Asian market. We also noticed they served bottles of wine and cans of beer in their coolers. Perhaps they’re promoting a kind of BYOB atmosphere? It’s all a mystery to us.

We left hungry, and thirsty, feeling like we just escaped an episode of The Last of Us, or Omega Man (if you know).

We considered the adjacent Seoul Food Meat Company but it was just as empty and lonely feeling. There seemed to be a ton of construction in the area so, hopefully, the future nearby tenants can give this seemingly good idea a kick start.

Perhaps we’ll try it again in a few months to see if it’s evolved, or still...

An overall decent food hall/market with more misses than hits. Expect to pay slightly above average prices for meals ranging from stellar to absurdly bad.

Pros The bistec sandwich from El Dorado is my go-to entree - I 100% recommend giving this a try, it's the meal that keeps bringing me back here! The bread is light and crispy, and the sauce perfectly brings the whole thing together. I usually eat half the sandwich there and take the other half home as leftovers (and yes, they travel and reheat perfectly fine!), so for the portion size I think it's very fairly priced.

For desserts, I'd recommend either the bungeo-ppang (fish-shaped pastries filled with a sweet red bean paste) from Stuffed for 1-2 people or the bingsoo from &coffee (currently located at the front with the bar Labaratory) for 2-3 people.

The mini market in the back is also a nice touch, with a solid variety of drink and snack options.

Cons I got the beef katsu sando and Korean corndog from Crispy Patty. The corndog was fine, but if you've had Korean corndogs before, these were nothing to write home about. The katsu sauce was way too salty though and ruined the entire sandwich for me, and unfortunately you can't modify the katsu sandos to do no sauce/sauce on the side (even though it is an option for the katsu burgers) - definitely a missed opportunity there.

I got the sunny burger with fries and jalapeno poppers from Cluck & Moo. The jalapeno poppers were good (can't really go wrong there), but the burger and fries were utterly bland. Both were in dire need of additional seasonings and/or sauces. Halfway through the meal it felt like I was force-feeding myself a block of unseasoned meat - never a great way to think about a burger. Overall it felt like I was paying restaurant prices for mediocre...

I'm a nanny who frequents Urban District Market every week. This morning myself and another nanny were told we could not bring inside food in by Ish a worker at the super mart that sits in the middle of the building. Which we completely understood most of the time we buy lunch there anyway, we've had numerous occasions when we've had outside food and we've never had an issue. She then proceeds to tell us that we can't feed our 2.5 year old kids their lunch as well. We could visibly see other people feeding their children outside food and nothing was said to them in the same regard. There were no signs visible nor a policy on there website that reflects what we were told. I approached her again to further inquire why we couldn't feed the kids she was condescending, nasty, and rude. We asked her for her managers name and she refused to give it. We then tried to approach the manager to remedy the situation and we were blatantly ignored. We decided to leave and on our way out we approached a group of moms who had outside food as well. They said no one has ever said anything to them. They went up to inquire and she told them it was fine for the kids to eat after telling us numerous times they could not. This situation has left me feeling profiled and disgusted at the ignorance that I was subjected to this morning especially with no management to talk to to remedy the situation. I will no longer support this business and I think future patron should consider spending their...