STIR — Restaurant in Greenville

I went to STIR (Greenville) today to celebrate a belated birthday. It was a new(er) place that no one in my party had tried and had a wide array of menu options for us to try. I was joining my party a couple minutes after they had already arrived and sat down and my partner was joining for lunch shortly after. I was welcome by the host and again by the server, Maya, shortly after I sat down. The place was bright, clean, not too loud so we could chat together and the menus gave us many options so it was hard to choose! (In the best way since everything sounded good!) We told her our last person would be joining us a little late and we put in our drink order along with the Parmesan Truffle Fries. The app came out shortly after and she apologized for the drink taking longer since the bar was short staffed but we didn't notice a craft cocktail taking longer than usual and we were enjoying the appetizer anyways (which was super yummy with the dipping sauce!). She came by frequently to check on us, our drinks (my cocktail was SUPER good - The Wild Moonchild) and how our last person was since they hadn't arrived yet. We placed our entrees (including our last guest since they were able to view the full menu online) and when he arrived, also got a cocktail. When the entrees came out, 3 out of the 4 were delivered hot and fresh. (Mine was last). Maya again apologized for the wait but I'd MUCH rather fresh food come to the table for the guests to enjoy as it reaches the counter rather than waiting less than 5 minutes for mine under some lights or a heater just so they could come out together. The food (Steak Frites, Sesame Steak Bowl, Chicken Caprese & Crispy Mahi Bowl) was to die for. Flavorful, rich, good portions and very fresh. Maya packed up any leftovers, cleared plates in a timely manner and even escorted someone in our party to where the bathrooms (which had Men's, Women's & Neutral single rooms) were instead of pointing or giving vague directions. What was sweet but confusing was Maya's genuine apologies about the sub-par service regarding wait times and how the order of food came out. Our table didn't complain or seem upset at any point and wondered why she was being so empathetic. We told her at the end that if our first experience was their 'worst' and still above par, I'd love to see them at their 'best'. We're already planning another trip in since their Brunch looks amazing and if we continue to have the type of service she and the GM Monteiro provided - it's still better than most places to dine in Greenville. Would dine here again 10/10 and I'll definitely be asking for Maya as she went above and beyond for us and was so authentically sweet during our experience. Note: We didn't get any photos of the food or cocktails since they looked too good to not dive into as soon as they were placed...

Stir is conveniently located downtown Greenville. It's a beautiful building and has a nice big open space inside with surrounding patios for seating outside as well. We were able to score a reservation for 6 ppl on a Tuesday but had to come at 430pm. Upon arrival we admired how beautiful it was inside. The host were very friendly and seated us at a big cozy booth! The bar was at half capacity as was the restaurant. We were greeted by our server Haley A and we all just absolutely loved her! Fabulous attitude, great service, fun and was just happy to be there! So far so good! We ordered peach sangria and they were not to sweet as Haley had told us! However man it took ages to get our drinks. It was rough. I hate being petty but we're a table of drinkers and typically sit at the bar so we can get quicker service but since we had a large group opted for table. The drink time kept getting longer and longer the busier the restaurant got. We told Haley and she was very apologetic and kept going to bar to see the hold up. We know it's not her fault and we know it's only been one week since Stir has been opened. But with 5 bartenders on and drinks taking well over 20 minutes it was frustrating.

Let's talk about food. We ordered the grilled oysters. I will say the sauce was amazing However I'm not sure there were oysters underneath and if so they were the saddest little things ever..I was really expecting a nice bite when I ate these but got crumbs instead. It was disappointing but I did really love the sauce. Hoping they will consider using larger oysters for this dish. We also had the charcuterie board and it was amazing! For dinner I had the shrimp and lobster mac and cheese with asparagus. That dish came highly recommended by Haley and it did not disappoint! That was the winning dish with our super club! We also indulged in the sesame steak bowl very tasty, the tuna rolls with a wedge salad also fantastic. But then two guest got steak and frites with a side of vegetables... Unfortunately the fries were not on the plate and both steaks were incredibly overcooked and the vegetables were burnt pretty bad. That dish i know could be better and looked great from other pics and reviews but we didn't have a good experience with ours. Plus the fries didn't come out until after they were finished eating the dinner. Again Haley was very apologetic. We told her we know it's not you, cause you're AWESOME and we get that things happen and she offered us a birthday desert that they were Unfortunately out of. At that point we had enough and got our checks! I may check it out again after they have been opened longer, but for now I'm gonna stick to The Ottoray or Jones for my oysters and cktls lol...

Again we loved our server Haley she was a shining star! Great asset to...

Where to start, I do know they’ve only been open for 2 weeks so I’ll preface with that. We arrived around 9:48 for our 10 pm reservation. We were seated after perhaps a 3 min wait. We sat down and then proceeded to wait about 8 or so mins until our waitress came and talked to us.

DRINKS: We proceeded to order a bottle of wine. The wine took 20 or so minutes to arrive, and turned out to be a twist top so we returned it. We then ordered the $100 bottle of Veuve Clicquot which took another 15 mins or so to arrive. Our food arrived before our bottled drinks. Was quite infuriating.

FOOD: After ordering our first bottle, with how few and far between we saw our waitress we decided to order our food immediately (we already felt like this was going to take some time, though it wasn’t very busy). We saw our waitress walk by us and instead of stopping quickly to ask if everything was okay or we needed anything, she went and sat down behind another table. She chatted with her coworker who was doing the same. We then had to flag her down for her to take our order. What we ordered: steak, charbroiled oysters, bao buns and fries. Fries were oily and had no taste, oysters were cold and very small with fake Parmesan completely covering it. Bao buns were OK, pretty much the best I had there. Steak was OK from what my partner said.

WAITRESS: She didn’t know the menu well, and that’s understandable as it has only been open for 2 weeks. What isn’t understandable is how she dragged her feet across the floor like a sloth to move about. How she was more often seen conversing with her coworkers than checking in on her table(s). How she never once asked us why our plates weren’t empty/barely eaten because we did not like the food at all and how we saw everyone other tables’ servers more than we saw ours.

Overall, no one bothered to check in on why most of our plates were untouched or half eaten. Also the waitress gave us an attitude at the end. We usually leave a 20% tip but gave her a 12% this time around. We spent $194 prior to tip. Will most likely not be returning after this experience....