Olde Hickory Station — Restaurant in Hickory

My husband and i came to meet some friends for brunch here. None of us had been before. When i came to the hostess there were two, neither of them acknowledged me, one grabbed menus for another party and the other had her head down looking on the phone even though i said hello. We were sat pretty quickly after about 15 mins. After being seated for about 25 mins and seeing another party of about 6 being seated after us and getting their drink order by our waitress, she finally stopped by. She immediately asked for our drink order AND our food rider. Given that we’d been seated for a while and saw it was taking others to get their food late we decided to order. The last person to order was debating between a few items and the waitress clearly seemed frustrated. One of her orders was the cauliflower fritters. They came out about 20 mins later. They were cold however due to the waitress not coming back for a while we weren’t able to tell her. We finally got the rest of our food about 30 more mins later… total of 45 mins for our food after being seated for 25 mins. At that time we told her about the cauliflower fritters being cold. She just took the plate. She never asked if we wanted another order or for them to warm them up. Which is what we would have chosen to do at that time. When we later asked about the bites she said “oh did you want another order?” We advised her we did assuming they were tossed. She again just walked away. We gave the food a 5 as everyone’s was pretty good, the crab cake Benedict was great and those that ordered the huervo rancheros enjoyed theirs and the wings. We gave the atmosphere a 5 as well however the service was a 1 and probably would give a 0 if we could which is the biggest reason we rarely eat out. Customers are deciding to spend their hard earned money at restaurants and expect good food, priced accordingly and good service however, we encounter staff at some places that seem like they don’t want to do their job and forget that they chose the profession to serve. Essentially there definitely needs to be some up-training for the staff on overall customer service. Unfortunately our waitress never gave us her name al we are unsure of who she was. On the other hand we still don’t want to put her name on google. When people come to restore expect good food, good service and prices accordingly, instead the overall service is what brought our rating to 3 stars. If any restaurant thinks it’s not that big of a deal is flat out wrong! I will always return to a place with good service maybe even priced a little higher and “okay” tasting food. Never will i return service is bad. If servers don’t like their job, don’t take it out on customers. Remember you chose...

Went here for the first time today, wait time was 20 mins, on the way to being seated there was a good 5 tables and booths that were covered with dirty plates and while waiting to be sat no server or busser came out to clean off the tables. Also a couple came in wasn’t greeted for about 5 mins and walked out, also could’ve sat more people if the tables were cleaned and flipped in a timely manner, but got sat and my friend sat on one side of the booth and it was wet with water, a clear lack of care on servers or bussers. Anyways got our drink and appetizer order in, and our server came back by to get our entree order and then said that she’d put our appetizer order in, when she could’ve had it in before getting our entree order.

We got the fried mozzarella and it was ok the sauce just tasted and looked like canned tomatoes blended up with some seasoning added, while waiting for the entrees, I couldn’t help but notice how dirty and dusty the ledge by the booth was, clearly staff Doesn’t care about cleanliness of the restaurant. Our entrees came out and we got a pizza and a burger, pizza was meh, but honestly little ceasars tastes better, for a wood fired pizza there was no char or flavor to the crust, as far as the burger goes, clearly a frozen pre-formed patty the only good thing was the goat cheese and pepper jelly. The fries were good, that might’ve actually been the star for me, not the burger or the pizza but the fries, it was also rather loud with how the restaurant is setup, we had to practically yell at each other to hear each other talk, it was that bad volume wise, just a lot of echoes and sound travel.

The only reason I’d go back is for the cute little wine, meat, cheese, and dessert counter that they have to the left when you walk in, the mousse cakes were delicious and my friend got a bottle of wine and some little gifts for her dads birthday, but they did also have a decent selection of THC infused drinks, but that would be the only reason I’d go back.

Also a side note, they had what looked to be about 30 beers on draft so decent beer selection, but from someone in the restaurant industry, I know breweries that don’t even have half that many beers on draft, it’s a nightmare, service could’ve been a lot better to improve customer satisfaction and experience. Overall 2/5 stars, wouldn’t recommend other than for the little store, wasn’t blown away or impressed by any of the food, other than it being a old train station right by some train tracks it’s nothing special, there’s plenty of other great options in the downtown...

Have to say we were kind of disappointed with our first lunch experience. We have eaten breakfast there quite a few times and it's always been great, they definitely know how to do a perfectly poached egg. I consider myself a French onion soup expert as I was a chef for many years and it was one of our specialties at the restaurant I worked at, so I was excited to see it featured as one of the soups of the day. Unfortunately, it fell flat. Very bland and WAY too many croutons I only got about 5 spoonfuls of soup and then it was just soggy croutons and onions bc the croutons had absorbed all the liquid. You could tell the square piece of cheese was just laid on top and let the heat from the soup semi melt it, was not crispy or golden brown. I was torn between a burger or the island of mozzarella. Had heard good things about the burgers there, ordered it medium and it was rare-med rare, not a deal breaker but after 2 bites I and no flavor at all, I passed and ordered the island of mozzarella instead. The mozzarella was delicious and reminded me of the mozzarella steaks in little Italy on the northeast coast. The marinara sauce however was so salty I was actually sweating and I love salt. My husband ordered the chicken, spinach, alfredo pizza and also said he was disappointed, he said there was little to no sauce on the za, he offered me a piece and after one bite I absolutely agreed. Fortunately the service was great, very nice girl behind the bar that took care of us, after all, it's not her fault regarding the food. We came in around 2:45 so it definitely wasn't a busy time. One thing a good chef or cook should do is always be tasting your food, and any cook worth his weight should know a perfect medium 1/2 lb burger should be 4 minutes on each side as long as it isn't frozen product. Room temp your meat before it hits the grill for...