VANA — Restaurant in Charlotte

This visit was made on 8/29/20 around 7pm. This a new restaurant in the Charlotte area! I believe they opened about 3-4 weeks ago. This restaurant is a small plates/tapas type of restaurant. When we arrived, there host was friendly. It was fairly packed. The only open seating was by the garage doors, which wasn’t a problem. They opened them towards the end of our visit to get some fresh air in. I wish they had them opened earlier. The kitchen is open concept which is pretty cool. You can watch them make your food. They like for you to order everything you want at the beginning. Since it is open concept, they will monitor the progress of how you’re eating your food to know when to start making your next dish. No complaints. It worked out pretty well. There was little wait in between dishes. For the appetizer, we got the flatbread minus the olives. It was great. No complaints. The bacon was a tad salty though. In the first order of drinks, I got the AGAVE FIELDS FOREVER (Lunazul Reposado, Los Vecinos Mezcal, strawberry, agave, orange bitters) and I didn’t like it... Our waiter, Steven, described it as being sweet and strong. I concur that it was strong, alcohol wise. There was something overpowering for me and it just wasn’t for me. I barely tasted the strawberry or the agave. At one point, a lady, who I presume was the manager, asked how we liked the drinks and I expressed my dislike for it was evident I had barely drank any of it. She asked me if i had mezcal before and I said no. She made a joke about me taking a shot with trying it. She did not offer replace it and allow me to choose another drink, which was disappointing. This is the main reason for the 4 stars. Customer satisfaction should be key for a business. I eventually held my breath and drank it. Note: If you can’t smell it, you can’t taste it! 💯 Also, I noticed that someone left a 1 start review and the person commenting on the other reviews (maybe owner) never replied to them but replied to everyone who left 5 start reviews. That’s concerning.. My bf got the MARIPOSA (Don Julio Blanco, elderflower, grapefruit, orange, vanilla, agave, rose) and it was good! It comes with a rose gummy which they make in house!! So cool. For the first dish, we had pork cheeks and it was SCRUMPTIOUS!!!!! I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you get this! I wish there we had more!! The second dish was Braised Lamb Neck. For me, it was okay. I didn’t like the pickled onions that came with it. My bf liked it all and had no complaints. He liked it better than the pork cheeks. I like the pork cheeks the best! The third dish was the Whole Roasted Fish. It was good! It was flavorful and we had no complaints. I was getting full by this point. My bf ordered the KEEP IT SPICY (Real Montelobo Mezcal or Lunazul Reposado, campari, passionfruit, triple spice, lime). He didn’t like it and I didn’t like it either 🤷‍♂️ He told our waiter and he got his drink replaced.. In retrospect, I should’ve told him about my drink. His replacement drink was the HUMMINGBIRD SOUR (Muddy River Spiced Rum, Elijah Craig Bourbon, pineapple, lemon, banana, pecans, egg white). This drink was GOOD!! I recommend this!! For a second drink, I got the SUMMER HIGHBALL (Toki Japanese Whiskey, fennel, orange watermelon soda, lemon) and this was good too! To end the experience, we got the CHOCOLATE CREMEUX (Banana, caramel, peanuts). It was alright. There is mint leaves in it, which caught me off guard. It also comes what appeared to be dried or dehydrated strawberries. This was no issue either. The other two dessert options weren’t appealing to us. Overall, our waiter, Steven, was really good. He was attentive and friendly. The atmosphere was nice. They played some music was in tuned with the African American culture (older songs tho) and it was nice. I must note, that we were the only black people in the establishment at the time. I should note that you should plan to spend some money. This experience was over $150 and, the portions are small. The flatbread, the pork cheeks, and the hummingbird sour are must tries...

So, I wish this could have been a better review, but wow! What a disappointment!! I've seen this place pop up on my IG because one of our friends knows the chef here. So I've been dying to go ever since I saw the drinks and food on my friends page. Our friend from Washington was in town and we decided we would get our group together to grab dinner. Of course I suggested VANA. The first thing that threw me off with them is I called up around 2:30 that Friday and asked if they do reservations. The women that answered the phone said no walk ins only. Which was fine...(better to ask then not too). Anyways around 5. My other friend texted me and said he just made a reservation for 7:30 for 7...hmmm ok. Weird I only thought they take walk-ins. Fast forward to dinner. We all met there and got seated in the corner table to the right. Right near the door. We ordered our drinks which were well put together and tasted great. I ordered the roasted bone marrow. My other friends ordered the ceviche, chorizo and market fish. Now we knew this was a tapas restaurant. So portions were expected to be shareable. Well, our friends ceviche came out in a big bowl that when she handed it to him I barley saw the ceviche in there! Definitely NOT a shareable item. Then the Chorizo came out which was 7 pieces of Cherry tomatoes with a dollop of Chorizo on it and filled with grease! My bone marrow of course yummy, but not worth $21. I got maybe 2 spoon fulls and it was gone. Our friends who got the fish were disappointed as well. It had no taste. For $40 there should be flavor!! To make matters worse it was 86 degrees in there with no air flow and they have an open ovan in the room! I ordered dessert to see if that was any better but it wasn't. It's like they threw the custard on the plate, covered it with shredded coconut and threw these puff pieces on. Worth $11, no not at all. At the end we did complain to our waitress. The managing partner came over and did apologize for the inconvenience and told us that if we come back the first rounds on him. He gave us his business card and left. Not one thing was comp'd off our dinner. So we payed full price and had a miserable time. Hopefully they will get there AC issue fixed. But we won't be back and neither will...

Vana is an entirely new and exciting concept in Charlotte dining. There is no wall between the dining room and the kitchen, and you get to watch everything being prepared. As soon as the food is ready and plated, it is coming out. It is really something to see. Every waiter is part of the prep team, and I literally did not see one of them standing around from the time we walked in until we left. We arrived at 6pm on a Friday night and were promptly seated. I was told that if you arrived after 7pm to expect a wait, and by the time we left that was the case. The place was abuzz with energy and laughter, and the garage door windows were rolled up to let the warm November night air in. We ordered drinks, and I can personally tell you that the Bullet Manhattan was perfect, and they arrived quickly despite the near full house. My party of three ordered Bread Service and one starter each for the table to share: Bison Tartar, Spanish Chorizo (stuffed sweet peppers with smoked gouda, corn and chorizo), and Pork Cheeks served with squash, garlic cream, and chimichurri. Whoa! Everything was spot on, but I particularly loved the Tartar. It was worth the trip alone. Each was beautiful plated and was just enough for each of us to have a few bites of everything. FYI - the bread was insanely delicious and I hate it for you if you are on a carb free diet. Speaking of that, there must have been a model convention in town because every woman in the place was a 10+. Seriously, it was ridiculous. Thankfully, my wife didn't slap me in public for gawking . For our main we all split the 14oz Tallow Coated Bison Ribeye (medium rare). It was cooked to perfection and was mouth watering delicious from the first bite to the last. To wrap things up we split a Vanilla Bread Pudding that was heaven on a fork. I absolutely loved this dining experience! It was a night fun enough to make me forget that we are still in 2020. Great job Chef...