Cork and Table — Restaurant in Fredericksburg

Updated review after 2nd dining experience, 1st was in 2020.

Decided to give them another try a couple years after my original review since they expanded. This is a review based on two 4 course meals with wine pairings.

Did the 4 course with wine pairing. Fyi for a fine dining experience that boasts to not be "pretentious", they sure do have the price tag to be pretentious. They miss little details a $200+ dinner shouldn't. Paper napkins for example do not give an elevated dining experience.

Crab and Corn chowder. Delicious. The white wine pairing went very well.

Next was Blue Cheese & Bacon salad. Weird how a $200+ dinner comes with dressing in a plastic cup. However, the flavor was great. Tangy dressing went well with the blue cheese. Wine pairing was good, but not quite there. With that said, there was a chip on the plate. Again, $200 price tag with a chipped plate did not compute.

The main course comes. Filet with Garlic Shrimp. The filet is cooked to order and was at the correct temp. The mash was well, mash. Nothing special. Now the shrimp. The flavor was fine but it was oddly chewy and overcooked. Idk how they cook the shrimp, but didn't bother to ask. For $200 I shouldn't have too. Also the "reduction" is literally just beef gravy. So yeah, not blown away. The onion sauce with the medallions was much better. The wine pairing however was great. A cab sav if memory serves. Another point to make on the details though, no steak knife was automatically given, you have to ask for it. Boo.

Now we get to dessert. Sticky Toffee Pudding. Never had it before so I can't have but so much of an opinion. However, as far as desserts go, it was fine. Interesting flavors mix very well with the parring suggestion (port). We we're celebrating our anniversary so the chocolate acknowledgement on the plate was a nice touch. I'd say dessert, nothing wrong with it.

All in all, the food was decent. Flavors were on point with the soup and salad, main course was odd with the shrimp and weird "reduction" that's just beef gravy and the dessert was a good ending. I'd say however as far as "fine dining" goes in Fredericksburg that's "not pretentious", it was a middle of the road experience. There's a lot of elements that could be elevated for the price point. Basically saying, you could spend the exact same amount of money at another local restaurant and have a much better experience with more adequate/better mixing flavor profiles along with more attention to detail and quite frankly, better food.

A few side notes. I noticed a table next to us wanted some of their food to go, and the server just nonchalantly gave them a clear plastic container. Just incredibly laxidasical. Same goes to say with the fruit flies they...

This was our first visit to Cork & Table. Being foodies and wine lovers, we were excited to try another restaurant being run by an owner who is both the Chef and a Sommelier .

Pros: Our meal took approximately two hours from start to finish and was clearly a "dining experience." Perfect spacing/timing between the appetizers, salads and main course. All of the food was well prepared, superbly presented and delicious.

We started with one a half order of the Mushroom and Goat cheese flatbread and Brie. Followed with three salads...a Smoked Duck Breast, Organic Greens Salad and the Bacon and Blue Cheese.

The main courses were the Wagu Beef Medallions paired with a very nice Au Gratin potato dish and Seared Tuna. All were cooked to perfection and most enjoyable.

The atmosphere was welcoming, easy and very bistro like. Our two servers were attentive and continued to check on us over the course of the meal, to ensure everything was to our satisfaction.

Cons: I fully expected our red wine selection to be served at a proper temperature. I was both surprised and disappointed when our server brought us the bottle, which I noticed had simply been stored, upright on the shelf. Chef Fallon, being a Sommelier, should know better. I cannot for one moment fathom he would find acceptable, being presented a bottle of wine at a "finer dining" type establishment. which was both stored incorrectly and at the wrong temperature. Subsequently, we asked our server to chill the red wine down in a bucket of ice water for about 10 minutes. When she did bring it to us, it was still slightly warm (it had possible been in a bucket of ice, but not ice water), but she provided a cooling sleeve for the table, which helped as the meal went forward.

Cork & Table is not alone in its improper serving of red wine. Sadly, the majority of the upper end restaurants in downtown Fredericksburg fall into the same trap. I fail to understand why, if you are going to offer a level of finer dining, why more of the restaurateurs don't have the foresight to invest in some type of wine cooler or Euro Cave in order to ensure wines are served properly.

The Brie appetizer. The Brie was a nice sized wedge, ice cold when brought to the table, and I concluded it had just come out of the refrigerator. Again, Chef Fallon should know better. I assume he is fully cognizant of the need for cheese to be served at room temperature in order to obtain the full experience of flavor and texture it has to offer.

The above said, we will return. In all likelihood I will have to request the wine be chilled before being served. If partaking of either of the cheese appetizers again, I will make it a point to query the server...

Let me tell you about the most interesting dining experience I’ve ever had; not a positive interesting. My husband and I have been to restaurants, specifically steakhouses all around the world. Some amazing, some not so great; but never like the experience we had at Cork and Table. My husband loves steak. I don’t mean loves it in the sense of enjoys eating it, I mean loves it in the sense of he would leave me for steak if that was a socially viable option. It was our 12th anniversary and on a whim we decided to call Cork and Table to see if they had a table available; and “luckily” they did. We both got the prix fixe meal and our soups/salads were good. The service was phenomenal so no complaints there. We both ordered the steak.. medium rare for me and rare (as in still mooing) for my husband. The steaks came out with a sauce that was so salty it caused me to down my water in an almost gulp. My husband cut into his medallions and they were medium-well. At best. I immediately offered him my steak (which was cooked as requested) but he assured me that the restaurant would fix their mistake and to eat. I could not eat as the steak was so salty and sauce was so overpowering all I could taste was canned brown gravy. And before anyone argues with me, I went to sleep-away camp in the poconos and can tell brown gravy from a Pennsylvania mile away. Sure enough the wonderful waitress came by and my husband told her the steak was not to his liking. She offered to take it back, to which he agreed. Not a sip of wine later, the owner/chef was out to ask what was wrong. After explaining that the steak was over cooked the gentleman asked if he could bring the meal back... to which my husband agreed, puzzled. The chef then proceeded to bring my husband’s meal from the kitchen and argue about why the steak he ordered is cooked to his liking and how my husband is wrong. We are both in shock. I have never, in my 34 years, experienced a kitchen arguing with me about my preferences. The chef then proceeds to tell us that he “can’t make us happy” and that he “can’t cook” steak the way my husband wants it. My husbands offers to show him, to which the chef graciously declined. All in all I lost my appetite, my husband didn’t eat, and we went to our usual, Fahrenheit 132, to get our food and service the way we were...