The Verdict on the square — Restaurant in Graham

On our way Home to Raleigh from Greensboro my wife and I decided to try out The Verdict. We looked up a few places on line and from we were intrigued by their website and the menu sections, over the other places in Elon.

The place has a great location in just about the center of the town of Elon. There's an historic look and feel to area. Very quaint place. The décor inside is well appointed with a rustic style that compliments the surroundings and what they attempt with their menu. Nice bar area which would be very inviting on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. The look and feel of the place deserves a larger space, but this is Elon, not Greensboro or Raleigh.

The waitstaff was okay. We purposefully arrived between lunch and dinner time, to assure a small crowd and no waiting. So maybe it was down time and they weren't as focused as they should have been? The menu is what I would call upscale bar food, which was what we were looking to have for lunch. For an appetizer we started with the fried oysters and ordered sandwiches for our meal, substituting salads for the fries.

First thing delivered? The salads, Caesar salads. Though they were the house version (given they were substitutes for the fries) the plates were sparser than expected. Next out? Our sandwiches, huh? So my wife went and reminded the waitress about the fried oysters. What is it, as of late, with places not being able to get this serving order correct? The overall lack of caring employees? mumble, mumble....

My wife gave thumbs up to her burger. While the interior of my Panini Cubano sandwich was fine, the outside "hoagie" roll was a disappointment. Nothing more than a glorified hot dog roll. While we were there a delivery was being made and I saw that the Hoagie rolls were Martin's. Well, that explained that. While Martin's potato rolls are fine for your boiled hot dogs on a lonely Wednesday night, I expected better from a place with this type of menu and dining sensibilities. BTW, the fried oysters were terrific and from the look of the menu, such items are their specialties. Due to our overall experience at this point (and given the time) we took a pass on dessert.

So overall we were underwhelmed. Not sure if we'll ever be through here again and if we are, not sure if I'll give them a second chance. Doesn't seem to be a bad place, but seems to be more style than substance.

ITEM: If you're a part of a restaurant waitstaff here's a pro tip: First comes the appetizers and not long after your customers finish that, you can then serve the entrée. THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALL BROUGHT TO THE TABLE AT THE SAME TIME OR BROUGHT OUT OF ORDER Capice?

thank-you and...

The food I ordered was meh. The service was ok and mostly attentive. I have no desire to ever go back. I went at 2:45-ish. There were 2 tables occupied, so it was quiet and food arrived promptly. Ordered- Fried pickles, Turkey and brie panini w/ fried brussels sprouts and my mom had "District court burger" w/ handcut fries. Prices are fair.

The fried pickles are yummy, but I love super salty and these are definitely not for the salt conscious. Salt city people!

Turkey brie panini tastes like brie with bread. Extremely small amount of turkey, this could use a few more layers of meat. The green apple is a nice touch and seemed fresh and crisp. As for the blackberry jalapeno jam, couldn't taste it. I was hoping for a bit of spiciness from the jalapeno, but was disappointed with that.

Fried brussel sprouts were nice, but had WAY too much honey drenched on them.

The burger tasted ok, I prefer a more medium rare, but since my mom was the one eating it she was satisfied with well done. The "special" sauce is basically thousand island dressing. Not sure if it's housemade, probably not tho.

Handcut fries were my favorite item. They tasted fresh and well it's fries.. hahaha.

Another family arrived before we were about to leave and sat at the table next to us, so I was surprised when we were leaving that our waitress didn't say "thank you" or anything.

UPDATE: To the owner, I don't think you understood. The pickle chips are CRAZY salty!!! They definitely do NOT need more salt. They are probably too salty for most people's palate (based on the batch I ordered this afternoon), hince why I wrote...

My husband and I went for date night and had the turkey apple brie panini, friend green tomato stack, and harvest salad. We just split everything. The tomatoes were delicious and I loved the corn relish and spicy sauce drizzle. The cornmeal breaddig was done well also. For $9 though, the tomato slices were small and there were only three. This upsets my type-A brain. Most people dine in pairs or maybe two couples. WHY can't you just put 4 tomato slices on the plate to make sharing less awkward? And maybe $8 for 4 tomato slices would feel a bit more comfortable. The panini was very tasty, but I was a bit sad that I could not taste more of the blackberry jalopeno jam that it allegedly had on it. We got sweet potato fries as the side. They were very good. I suggest serving with or at least offering ranch with those instead of ketchup. Bleh. The server was very kind and brought ranch when we asked. The harvest salad was good, we got it with the lemon vinegarette dressing. It says it comes with seasonal fruit, mine had pears, grapes, and dried cranberries, in addition to walnuts, goat cheese and bacon. I would suggest a tad but more bacon for the salad being $10. Also, not the fault of the restaurant, but there was a group with like 6 small kids running around and being noisy because they were bored and I feel like this is NOT an appropriate establishment for children. If you're thinking of bringing your kids and they're under like 12, go to Graham Soda...