Backstreets Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Hickory

For those of you who don't want to read all of this, here's the short version: I've been a customer of Backstreets for around six years. They messed up my order the last time, and charged us for it. They messed up this order, and claimed my wife was lying about how she worded the order. The charge for two bread bowls and an extra bowl is around twenty dolllars, and they charged us 19 plus some change for a "cup" of soup plus three bread bowls, which are 1/2 the size of a bowl. They also failed to provide the bread bowl we paid for but did not receive the previous week.

I suppose Backstreets is doing well enough now that they can afford to insult the families of longtime customers, but I suppose I don't have the time for it.

Last night, I suppose, was a sad night. My wife and I have been going to Backstreets since we moved here around six years ago. This place has always been a staple of dining in Hickory for us, and one of the first places I recommended to friends. I took my parents here when they came to visit half a year ago, even.

At any rate, I often order soup on Mondays. I've done so at least twice a month, ever since last winter, or so. I've had very few problems in the past, and I order the exact same every week. One bread bowl of soup with an extra bread bowl. Usually my wife gets a club sandwich or a bread bowl. At any rate, the last time I ordered, they left off the additional bread bowl, but charged us for it.

This week, when I ordered, the cups were half the size of every other order. When I called to find out why, I was told that we ordered two "cups" instead of bowls, with an additional bread bowl each for the "cup" to go into. These cups were around three to four inches wide, and around an inch and a half tall, approximately. Not a large amount of soup, all things considered, but we were charged 19 dollars and some change, on a non-itemized receipt, and I was charged a second time for the bread bowl they left off the previous order.

Despite them leaving an item out of my order the previous time, they accused my wife of being a liar, and offered no recompense for any mixup. I did not demand any specific recompense, I simply asked them what they intended to do to make it right for me as a customer. They offered me another free bread bowl, despite the extra charge being around 125% of the price of a bread bowl to begin with. Ultimately, I would still end up paying them even more for a mistake on their end.

I'm pretty bummed out. I had some great times at Backstreets, and they have some great people. I cannot do business with a place that insults my family, and treats me with suspicion after all the years we have gone there.

Guess this is goodbye,...

This is our very first visit tonight and unfortunately probably our last.

Initially, it was very encouraging to walk up and notice a ton of people waiting for their seat both inside and out, generally a good sign for something relatively top shelf and high quality. Especially on a Monday! A 10 to 15 minute wait was given to us by the hostess and was accurate as we were seated pretty promptly.

Atmosphere was also pretty cool. Everything was clean and tidy, and there was a good separation between the booths where you might want a more intimate dining experience balanced with the louder and more casual atmosphere of the bar which looked like a great place to watch the game or hang with friends.

However, things didn't pan out so great from there. The menus and the waters were given to us with haste, but I ordered a beer as well that was completely forgotten about. When I mentioned it to the waitress, she brought it out promptly and told us that it was "on the house" since she forgot it, which was a nice gesture, but it actually ended up on the bill anyway! Since we were in a hurry to make an appointment, I didn't bother trying to get her to comp it by sending the bill back again, but the forgotten beer and false promises of getting it taken care of were extremely disappointing.

The food was decent but definitely nothing to write home about. I ordered the pub chips which came with optional blue cheese or ranch. I generally decline those in most restaurants due to dietary restrictions, but the chips were completely bland, dry, and unseasoned to every degree. Not even any salt. Maybe I messed up in general by not ordering something to dip it in, but that seemed unusual and not worth the effort. The fajita wrap I ordered had steak cooked inconsistently and it was pretty greasy, but edible overall. On top of that, the four-top next to us was seated before us and put their food order in before us but ours came out well before theirs. Not sure what happened there but if they aren't complaining, I guess I shouldn't either.

I will also echo some of the other reviews here in saying that it seemed like there was a fairly consistent contingency of regulars here that got a lot of attention around us that we didn't seem to garner for ourselves.

Again, I'll reiterate it was super busy for any night of the week, especially for a Monday. Maybe they were just overwhelmed, but as for as long as they have been open, you would imagine they would be able to overcome something like this. I can't imagine what a nightmare it must be on the weekends.

Sadly, I cannot recommend it based on my service and the food I received, and I'd say don't believe the hype based on the crowd you might see...

I'd given Backstreets a couple tries in the past - none of which stood out, but I decided to give it another shot tonight anyway. They were on a 20-25 minute wait when we arrived around 7 pm which I thought was a good sign since it's only Tuesday and they were packed. Once sat, we ordered the chips & salsa con queso for an appetizer. The chips were stale; the salsa and cheese sauce was pretty good. My boyfriend ordered the cuban sandwich with truffle fries. He said the sandwich was fine, although the fries didn't seem fresh to me upon tasting them. I ordered the special (blackened grouper with a cilantro lemon butter sauce) and chose to pair it with their vegetable medley, sweet potato mash, and Caesar salad (which I asked to come out first). Our server, Tommy B., did not seem at all knowledgable about drinks or food items.. He was mediocre at best. We asked for two bourbons and coke and also two separate shots of bourbon. We received the drinks but not the shots. He came back to the table to ask us if we wanted another round of drinks and mentioned he'd be right back with my salad because he'd forgotten it. I knew he had, he'd taken our order over 15 minutes ago. Not a minute after he'd brought my salad, someone else brought out our entrees.. so I didn't even get to enjoy my salad. The grouper with sauce was fantastic.. but severely overpriced.. especially for the sad excuse of side dishes I received with it. The sweet potato mash was bland and the vegetable medley (which on the menu says "sautéed") was just steamed and unseasoned. I'll admit, it was my mistake for not asking about the price beforehand, but $30+ dollars for a small piece of blackened fish and some poorly prepared sides is ridiculous. Especially when the service did nothing to redeem the experience. Perhaps, if we'd had better service, I'd consider giving Backstreets another try, but I just honestly was...