Foragers Canteen — Restaurant in Dillsboro

Executive Chef Kevin Faini Gets It – Our Southern Foodways

When I first walked into HUSK Charleston, I knew. Same thing when I signed up for Feast of Seven Fishes with Vivian Howard at CHEF and the FARMER. And, folks, I felt it again before we were halfway through at FORAGERS CANTEEN in Sylva, North Carolina. If you get a chance to go, do. What all of these restaurants and chefs have in common, including Executive Chef Kevin Faini of FORAGERS, is that they understand a genre dear to my heart, “Southern Foodways.”

It is about the elegant elevation of simple ingredients through an instinctual understanding of the chemistry of fire, flavor profiles, and foods combined with a thorough and heartfelt appreciation of what went into getting those ingredients from the farms, fields, the sea – and getting them onto the table in ways that do them Higher Justice. Chef Kevin Faini clearly gets that.

While on food jaunts through our native Carolinas, my wife, PJ, and I sample the occasional and rumored, “next best spot,” and we do love our “from the mountains to the sea” aspect of North Carolina. Ending up somehow in Sylva, North Carolina, we decided to confirm or dispel the rumors we’d heard about this little spot called FORAGERS CANTEEN.

I’ll examine four dishes as we go along, but I have to start by saying that our server, CAROLINE, was absolutely the most pleasant and unobtrusively attentive server we’ve had in a long time.

With the Fried Deviled Eggs, the technique was exemplary. Imagine taking a boiled egg, halving and gutting it, then putting the whites back in to cook again. Then, the filling goes back into the breaded and fried (reminiscent of Tempura) egg halves, but only after being crafted into a silky smooth, super-light, herbed and seasoned delight. We here in the mountains are all accustomed to deviled eggs of one species or another; we see them at every gathering, special event dinners, that sort of thing – and a ton of the renditions are amazing. But this thing created by Chef Kevin is a Master Class in how to elevate a simple egg so that it does the hen proud. His assembly of this thing results in a creamy, crunchy white stuffed with a silky herbal bliss. This is something you want to taste and savor after clearing your palate with some water. Now for the twist: It was the house pickled onion that tied this thing into such an intricate knot of stacked flavor that ticked all the taste bud boxes. Cooking technique rating: Flawless. Don't bite and swallow. PLEASE take the time to roll this thing across your palate as you would a vintage wine. You'll thank me later.

The scallops were served over a bed of corn-creation involving white corn and whatnot and it was truly delicious. The scallops themselves were just a frog-hair over-salted for my taste, but that was easily forgiven when offset against the creamy and slightly sweet elote concoction beneath them.

The Butchers Bowl (PJ only let me have one small bite) is a meal to itself with all the trimmings. A mound of beef tips over a bed of roasted potatoes and some other stuff; potatoes were small fingerlings that had absorbed some of the broth and folks, the taste is a mile deep.

The Street Corn Shrimp Tacos featured battered and fried shrimp (nice ones), and that same elote dish, but on the tacos, it appeared to be a bit spiked, and I think I may have tasted cherry slivers, but by then my palate was so overstimulated, I could be mistaken. This dish offers two of the tacos with fries, and by my judgment, it’s big enough to split with a date, as were most of these dishes.

FORAGERS is another of our few and far between places here in Appalachia where the Executive Chef shows precisely what can happen when someone cares enough about our Southern Foodways to use all of his skills, his full cranial matter, his devotion to both craft and history, and then lays it all - his own interpretation – bare before us on The Table...

My husband Dave and I stopped at the Foragers Canteen last week. It has taken me over a week to write this review because I simply struggled to come up with words to thoroughly communicate just how AMAZING this gem of a restaurant is!

Our waitress was just fabulous! She knew the menu like the back of her hand and didn’t miss an opportunity to ensure we were enjoying our meal while providing A++ service.

The atmosphere is super welcoming and inviting with a warmth that’s difficult to explain. I felt like I was sitting at an old friends dinner table and often looked at my watch hoping time was magically moving slower.

Oh my! The food is spectacular! I had the Blue Grass Chicken Melt. The flavors of the fresh blueberry compote combined with a perfectly fried pecan crusted chicken breast was insanely flavorful. I’ve never had a sandwich as good as the one I ordered at Foragers Canteen.

I had a side salad with the BEST lemon vinaigrette house made salad dressing. I loved the salad dressing so much that I ordered a mason jar filled to the rim to take home with me.

Dave is a Shrimp and Grits man. If it’s on the menu he will order this dish every time. We spend a good amount of time in Charleston, South Carolina which is known for its signature Shrimp and Grits. Dave literally said he’d never had Shrimp and Grits as good as Foragers Canteen. The South Carolina Shrimp and Grits did not come close. I wholeheartedly agreed as a I stole numerous spoonfuls.

The Executive Chef, Kevin Faini, knows how to ignite the most memorable flavor combinations. Truly, I can close my eyes and still taste the blueberry compote. I regrettably did not get to meet or thank Kevin. I hope my review does justice to his impeccable culinary skills.

As we were packing up to leave and head back home, we had the privilege of meeting one of the owners, Joel (I believe that to be his name). You could see the genuine humility in Joel’s face as we proceeded to tell him just how fabulous his restaurant and our meal had been. Joel has this laid back “chill” vibe. He instantly feels like an old friend from college that you wished you’d kept up with all these years.

I am looking at my calendar to see just when we can get back to Foragers Canteen to enjoy their excellent food and create another priceless memory.

Thank you to all of you at Foragers Canteen- we will see you again...

I have wanted to like this restaurant. I've dined at the Dillsboro location several times and as much as we tried, were never impressed. We decided to try their new location, hoping it would be better, or at least decent. I'm all about eating naturally and from the earth, which is their branding, and why we've wanted to enjoy this restaurant. At the end of the day, the food is subpar and overpriced. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem paying the worth of a good meal but, this just isn't it. I could go pay a fair price for mediocre food at plenty of other establishments, with that expectation and be okay with it. I won't get into detail about all the things that have been wrong with all the different dishes we've tried here over the years but, I will tell you about our latest. I ordered the steak medallions that is supposed to come with crispy smashed fingerling potatoes, and seasonal vegetables. First off, there were no vegetables in sight and the server let us know that may be typo on their menu.. no problem. However, there were also no potatoes in sight. What I recieved were potato skins, broiled to a crisp with burnt onion pieces. No potato inside and overall, inedible. Then there were the medallions. I asked for them to be cooked medium. One was medium well, which was not a huge issue as many restaurants struggle to cook steak at the correct requested temp. The other was charred to a crisp. Completely black on the outside and well done in the center. Quite dry, and also inedible. Our server asked us how our food was and I did let her know it was not what I expected, requested, or what was depicted on the menu. She brought the table a free dessert and after seeing the steak, insisted on removing this dish from the check. I told her she did not have to do all that but, she insisted. I suppose that was fair as one side was missing entirely and the remainder of the dish was mostly inedible. I understand it is a busy weekend, with graduation and mothers day. However, after all this, and all the dishes we've tried over the years in an attempt to find a palatable choice, I just don't think we'll continue to visit this...