Hickory Social House — Restaurant in Hickory

The atmosphere in wood is definitely chill. It’s very dimly lit inside. You often forget it’s daylight outside. Leaving is similar to leaving a movie theater. As far as the service, they could use a little improvement. The staff has always been friendly with me but they are often hard to find and wait times can be pretty long even when the restaurant is very slow. I’m assuming this is due to staff shortage like most establishments these days. The food is generally really good. They specialize in Pizzas, pasta and sandwiches. I’ve tried several and they’ve all been pretty darn good. I especially liked the fish tacos and mojo cubano sandwich. It’s definitely worth trying if you haven’t.

Update 5/12/2022 I'm officially done with this place. Good food but unapologetically terrible service. I've ordered food from here countless times but the service is in a freefalling downward spiral. Getting a 45 minute to an hour wait time is nothing new but now I show up and it's standard practice that the hostess has no clue where my order is. Three, four trips back and forth to the kitchen to ask my name again or confirm that I indeed placed an order. Usually taking an additional 5-10 minutes of waiting. Tonight is the final straw. The 15-20 minute wait estimate when I started the order was changed to 45-50 minutes one minute later at checkout. Pickup time was 6:30. I arrive around 6:35 and once again they have no idea who I am or why I'm there. After two trips to the kitchen and back what I presume to be the owner came out and said there was a mix up, gave a half hearted apology and said they'd cook my food "real quick". While waiting for what ended up being 18 more minutes the delivery driver who was given my food came to return it and was told "oh, that was actually for that guy but you can keep it". He thanked her and left. He gets a free meal while I the paying customer once again have to sit and wait.

The "real quick" food came out undercooked due to the rush. I can't justify spending money at a place that has repeatedly treated me as if my business means nothing to them. I should have at the very least been comped something for the repeated mistakes and delays but no....

Friday means the end of a week and all you want to do is have something wonderful that will bring in the weekend and summarize the end of your week. We got just that at Woods that day. The staff were so warm and welcoming and during lunch feel free to sit yourselves, pick your best seat. This day we sat at the bar and we have never been more glad that we made that choice. We had a couple drinks and in this picture it shows a drink that will later be a part of the vodka infusion bar they are creating. For lunch I had the Reuben sandwich which has always been a favorite. Let me tell you though at Woods from the bread to the meat to the saurkraut each item had that sandwich making my taste buds go crazy. The bread was perfect the pastrami was well seasoned and cooked and saurkraut was truly the "cherry on top". I had a side salad with my sandwich which was also very good but what happened next was so AWESOME and completely unexpected. My coworkers child has an extreme dairy allergy and isn't able to eat things like pizza which is one of Woods biggest menu items with their wood stove pizzas. The owner told us he also had a child with severe allergies and wanted to make us something we could take to her that was dairy free and she would enjoy. The owner literally made us a pizza with garlic aioli topping and an amazing robust tomato sauce that was out of this world. You see it pictured in my photos from lunch. It doesn't look like much but the thought he put into it and literally didn't charge us but wanted someone to enjoy something like pizza that would literally make them forget that they hadn't had any. The owner at this restaurant and his staff all went above and beyond. We felt less like customers and more like family. Seriously more than 10 stars 🌟 for this establishment. We literally left there blown away. Big changes are coming for this spot as a new outdoor patio with games and new seating areas are on their way. Give them a little time if you see construction the wait will...

I attended "Wood: Pizza, Pasta, Sanwiches" for dinner on a work trip. Below are my comments.

Service: Very good wait staff. Staff was attentive, friendly, and knowledgeable about the food being served.

Food: Needs Improvement. Items ordered: side salad and the 12” Italian Margherita pizza. The salad and the pizza left much to be desired. First regarding the salad, there was very little substance. I have no problems with a small portion of food but it must bring a punch of flavor. The salad contained a couple of pieces (maybe a total of 2) of lettuce, 2 slices of a soggy Roma tomato (although the menu states grape), cucumber, shredded carrots and some cashews. I requested the citrus-white balsamic vinaigrette which was not balanced in its ratios. The vinegar to citrus to oil ratio was way off and it tasted mainly like the vinegar and lacked flavor.

Now onto the Italian Margherita pizza. Personally, I found the pizza to be extremely disappointing and not to sound too harsh, but this was the worst wood fired pizza I have ever eaten. Having tried several styles of wood fired pizza in other cities, this pizza was lacking in overall flavor, not salt. The dough was bland, as if the dough did not ferment long enough for good flavor development. The sauce tasted like tomato puree and missing the hints of fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, basil, etc). The pesto basil drizzle does not pack enough flavor to lift the pizza from being bland.

The texture of crust was a miss as well. Having talked to the staff, the oven is kept at 450-500F. Wood fired pizza ovens are usually much hotter than that, more on the scale of 700-900F. The dough of the pizza was undercooked, and the bottom had very little crunch.

I have not eaten other food options at this restaurant and cannot further elaborate. With this restaurant being highly rated and one of the only wood-fired pizza places in the area,...