Fig — Restaurant in Charlottesville

FIG (Food is good), I agree. Food is good, just not here.

Dinner: Starters- We started with the mussels & frites. The actual mussels were adequate and met our reasonable expectations. The broth was actually not bad, but the onions within the broth were undercooked and made it difficult to enjoy. The dish itself was served without a spoon as if the broth was not intended to be consumed. The broth was the best part of the dish. A soup spoon wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring out with the dish and a decent basket of bread would really set this whole thing off. We got neither and it is what it is.

My main question/concern….Who’s idea was it to top a plate of mussels with a handful of undercooked, limp, “Cajun seasoned” french fries? In what world would that be a good idea? Even if this dish were good, the wet noodle like fries on top would have inevitably ruined it either way.

Main: Crab cake on a bed of risotto:…..Terrible. I’ve had better crab cakes from the frozen section of Whole Foods. If you’re charging $20 for a single crab cake that’s the size of a cookie, you better be knocking my taste buds out with that thing. Small. Tasteless. Disappointing. The “risotto” the crab was propped up on was about the same consistency as the fried rice you’ll find in an MRE that’s sat in a storage shed for about a decade too long. Way overcooked. Tasteless. And whole walnuts embedded in the rice paste called risotto really topped it off well for me. Throw some random greens beside all that and you’ve got yourself a terrible “meal”.

Pork chop & frites:….If you thought the crab cake dish was bad hold on, this pork chop just made that look good. Served again beside possibly the worst fries I’ve ever had. Microwaved McDonald’s fries are better than these thin cut, soggy, limp, overall gross fries. The chop itself….if you’re going to serve a pork chop that is so over cooked, even after it’s been butterflied wide open, you better at least serve it with a knife sharp enough to cut through the tough, drawn up, gray, overcooked piece of protein called pork. A light breading encapsulated the petrified piece of pork with limited seasoning leaving just about everything to be desired. It’s sad to know that an animal gave its life just so an undertrained like cook could do that to a piece of its lion. You took the crown jewel of a hog and decimated it. Disrespectful.

This was one of the worst meals I’ve had in a long time. Food is good. Should be good. But if that’s what you’re looking for, keep looking. This isn’t the...

Passing through Charlottesville (one of our fave cities to try new restaurants) we stopped in for brunch today. They were out of 2/3 of the beers my husband requested. I requested wheat toast with my omelet and the server came back responding they were out of wheat toast, so I opted for the biscuit. The biscuit was placed into the system after our order and brought out 1 minute later before our meals. It was hard like a scone and cold. I requested a fresh biscuit, which was warm, however still hard and crumbled like the texture of a scone. I ordered the Mediterranean omelet- good, nothing to brag about. Husband got the fried chicken with chorizo over a biscuit. Hard biscuit again. Chorizo was great, but masked the poor taste of everything else. Our friends ordered the chicken and waffles and shrimp and grits. The biggest complaint was the fried chicken had very little breading remaining on it once it was fried. It had crispy breading from the fryer around the edges and the entire bulk of the chicken you could see the meat, no fried breading. Waffle was "extra crispy" on one side. Shrimp and grits were reportedly mediocre and needed salting for flavor. Also, friend with the shrimp and grits had a completely unpeeled shrimp in the grits he popped into his mouth in one bite! Yikes! We also had two side orders of the cajun potatoes for our table. They are served on a skillet, however must not be cooked in that mini skillet bc the shredded cheese thrown on top wasn't even melted and the potatoes were room temperature, not hot, not cold... not good. We would definitely not recommend this restaurant or return for a second chance. (Our visit was 03/12/17.) we only complained about the original biscuit and it was taken off our bill, however we had to make our way to the SHENANDOAH JOE right next door for coffee and pastries after. I highly recommend them!!! Great coffee...

Really hoped for more from this place, but the reviews were hit our miss. We are in town for a bachelorette who is a HUGE foodie and every dish missed the spot. #1 - Cocktails were 14$ and Margs were 5$, so we all opted for margs, and it was clear why they were 5$. Literally no one could finish theirs. #2 - The service was super meh. Our waitress was really short with our group - 7 ladies in their 30s, all of whom have worked in the service industry and were friendly and patient. My biggest issue was that we ordered burgers and fish and she didn't ask anyone how they'd like them cooked. All our food came out rare, which for some people, was an issue (myself included) #3 - The apps were super yummy and worth the price, especially the mussels :) #4 - Our entrees were all disappointing. Lamb burger was bleeding. Crab cake was barely any crab and almost burnt on both sides. Salmon, again was rare which is just not how I would have preferred it, having been asked. And everything was overpriced for the amount we got. The only dishes they did OK on were the pastas. #5 - Finally, no split check. Not even an option to pay more gratuity to split the check or let us pay on 2 cards. Of course we can figure it out, but the restaurant wasn't busy by the time we went to pay and we were surprised by the refusal to let us split the check.

Oh, FIG, we'd have loved A LOT more of you, but the $$ packing college kiddos seemed to love your very confused and...