Bordinos Restaurant & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Fayetteville

Last night was my husband’s birthday so we had planned a beautiful dinner at Bordinos restaurant and then we were going to see the lights at the square. We have a 7 year old son, so in efforts to make him happy and accommodating for our dinner, we stopped at chick-fil-a to get him dinner to take to the restaurant. He is a very very picky eater. We arrived at the restaurant around 6:30 to 6:45 PM and did not want to disturb anyone in the dining area because of our child, we decided to eat in the bar. There were not very many patrons in the bar so that helped the decision. When we sat down we were visited by the manager on duty. She came by to tell us that it is against health code to allow other food in the restaurant. Being that I have worked in restaurants almost all my life, I know that this is incorrect and a flat out lie. That made me pretty upset, but I didn’t say anything at this time, because my son took this as he cannot eat his food and immediately started crying. Seeing that I was upset and my son was upset, my husband took my son out to the front entry way and let him eat his chicken nuggets. He was able to eat almost all of the French fries. This satisfied the manager for the time being. When my family came back to the table, there were 3 fries left, so my husband put the fries on the plate that the server had now brought to our table. This was not enough for the manager last night. She proceeded to come back by our table to tell us that the three French fries were still not allowed in the restaurant. At this point I am in disbelief that this is actually a conversation because we take and are allowed to take other food into many other restaurants in the area and are actually welcomed to do it if it helps us as the parents to keep the child calm and we can enjoy a nice dinner. I proceed to tell this manager that the three French fries will be gone in a matter of minutes, but that is not good enough for her. I am not sure what her expectations are at this point, but this is when we were done with being harassed by this manager. We told her we would be leaving and not spending our money at the restaurant. I contacted the GM of the restaurant today because it is common all over the US for parents to take snacks and food into restaurants for children to keep happy and this instance should not be any different. I even made the comment that the restaurant allows cakes and such to be served in the restaurant to customers and that is also outside food. To my complete disbelief the GM came back and had no sympathy whatsoever. It was just fine that the manager made our son cry about the outside food. It was not appreciated that we adhered to the manager and went out of the restaurant and let our son eat 90% of the food we brought for him. It was also completely acceptable that the manager come back over a second time to harass us into leaving because of the three french fries left of my son's plate. I would highly recommend going to a local company that believes in service. JJ"s Grill or JBGB is one local restaurant that will make sure that you feel welcome in their...

What a colossal disappointment! This used to be one of my favorites - for dinner before a show, happy hour, or a date night.

Meet a girlfriend for dinner. I had the chicken chowder, which was good. She had the Cesar. Previously, it was amazing, great flavor, tons of parm slices. Now they charge you for the parm, which they did before, but also came with sauce and roasted garlic. They've changed it to full Kale, not a mix, but just Kale. After 3 bites, it was too much and tasted like dirt.

For dinner, I had the Shrimp Bucatini for $27, here's the menu description: Apricot, Caper, Sundried Tomato, Spinach, Guanciale Tomato Jus, Duck Fat Bread Crumb. I had 3 Shrimp in my pasta, 1 tiny bite of Apricot, 3 leaves of Spinach and was so dry without any sauce, I had to request more. Which took 15 minutes and cost me an additional $2. Almost $30 for very little ingredients and average pasta. She had the Chicken Fettuccini $26 the description from the menu is as follows: House-Made Pasta, Sundried Tomato, Broccolini, Cremini, White Wine Cream Sauce. This pasta was a bit better, but crazy dry as well, 3 pieces of chicken.

Our waiter, Joseph, looked mostly annoyed the entire evening. He was pleasant, but I wouldn't say friendly. He also had the entire bar area.

Overall, Bordinos has become the place you skip vs look forward to going to. The prices, including parking, have gotten outrageous, while also putting out food of less quality than Olive Garden. Plenty of amazing restaurants with excellent dishes & atmosphere. Check out some of my other reviews...

Upscale ambiance and a most excellent, attentive and knowledgable server this past weekend. Just wish the food matched the buildup. Wine list is a bit eclectic and oddly limited. I asked for a glass of a spicy zinfindel and the closest wine recommendation was a malbec. Granted, the malbec was a bit more spirited than most rounded malbecs so there's that. Wife had a caesar salad and the recommended potato soup - soup was more cheese than soup - almost a fondue and actually not bad for dipping bread in - just not as expected. I selected the wild boar sausage lasagna. Server hyped the fresh made pasta and ingredients but when it arrived it was covered in a thick slab of toasted mozzarella so overwhelming that all that could be tasted was the cheese and spicy tomato sauce. If one were expecting to actually taste the boar sausage and beef or wax poetic about the delicate fresh pasta, think again. The inclusion of sliced roma tomatoes was interesting... Overall, food was unimpressive / slightly better than average. Perhaps bad choices on our part. Just wish the kitchen staff was as nimble as the waitstaff. Really had wished for a 4 star experience and in the end, our high expectations may have jinxed...