The Ugly Dog Pub-Cashiers — Restaurant in Highlands

My husband and I were vacationing in Cashiers, NC for the week. After looking through several publications and checking reviews on the web, we decided to have dinner at The Ugly Dog Pub. It wasn't long before I wished that we had chosen to dine somewhere else. When we walked into the restaurant we were told to sit anywhere we wanted. There was a small patio area with outdoor seating, so we chose to sit out there. However, one of the two vacant tables had no chairs, and the other one had only one chair, so we had to ask a lady to move her purse out of a chair at a neighboring table so we would both have a place to sit. Our server came with menus and took our drink orders - water with a lemon and water with a lime. She returned in a few minutes with two glasses of water with no lemon and no lime. When I told our server that I would like the Roasted Chicken Panino, at first she said OK, then she said they were out of that so I had to change my order to the Crispy Fish Wrap with blue cheese coleslaw. Another lady behind me ordered the same thing, and was also told that they were out of it. It seems it would be common courtesy to tell patrons that you are out of a certain entree when you first bring the menus. My husband ordered the Pressed Cuban with seasoned French fries. While waiting for our food to arrive, which took approximately 40 minutes, we kept noticing sparrows swooping down from outside almost directly over our table, then going up above our heads. After this happened several times, my husband looked up and saw that there was a nest above and directly to my right. Just as I turned to look up, one of the sparrows decided to poop. As I looked down I noticed a section of the floor next to my chair that was about 12 inches in diameter covered in bird poop. I'm guessing this would be a big no-no if the Ugly Dog was visited by a health inspector. I wonder how many patrons have gotten an extra bit of sauce on their food as it was carried under the birds' nest by their server. While we waited for our food, not even once did our server stop by the table to check on us or let us know when our food might be ready. Our food was finally delivered by server number 2, whom I asked for a lemon and lime for our water. As she was walking away to get it, I looked at my plate and realized that I had been given French fries instead of coleslaw, and my husband had regular fries instead of seasoned fries. He decided to just keep what he had, but when server number 2 returned with our lemon and lime, I asked for my coleslaw. She brought it back shortly, and then we had to ask for napkins and silverware. The Crispy Fish Wrap was very good, although there wasn't a lot of fish in it. The coleslaw was also very tasty. My husband said the Pressed Cuban and the fries were just OK. Server number 1 finally came to check on us, completely unaware of the poor service we had received, but we didn't mention it since everything had already been taken care of. When it was time to pay the bill, my husband was much more generous with the tip than I would have been. I realize that this restaurant is fairly new and some things need to be worked out, but there is no excuse for having a birds' nest above the patrons heads and a pile of bird poop on the floor next to you as you are...

I have been to the Ugly Dog Pup twice since it open, both during lunch. Once on a Saturday when it was packed and sat at the bar, the other on a Wednesday when there was 6 tables of people. The first visit was miserable. My parents and I sat at the bar. Our waiter was a bartender who was constantly in front of us. He forgot to put our order in after we waited 15 minutes and asked him. We waited an hour and half to get our food. We order their "famous hamburgers". We never got a refill on our drinks and we sat right in front of the computer where every employee put orders in. The second time I visited, I brought my boyfriend. We are both in the hospitality industry. He is a Vice President of hospitality in the largest rafting company and I'm an event coordinator in cashiers. We were not greeted by a waiter until we stopped a waitress after sitting there for 15 minutes without a drink. She finally gave us drinks. She didn't come back until 15 mins later. She had tables all around us and obviously ignoring us. We ordered a Cuban sandwich and the Pimento cheese hotdog. Both items took the kitchen 40 minutes to make. Again there were 6 other couples in the whole restaurant. How could that be? Well they over cooked the pork for the Cuban and the hot dog was burnt. The side salad had nuts and cranberries which was unexpected. The waitress didn't even ask if my boyfriend had a nut allergy. If a guest did they would have to take that whole plate away and start over and have to wait another 40 minutes to get a new order. The waitress didn't once ask how our food was once she dropped it at us. The pimento cheese on the hotdog had no flavor whatsoever and the hot dog was dry and burnt. How can you mess up a hotdog?! The service was HORRIBLE and the food was overpriced, dry, and a waste of our time. Cashiers is a wonderful small town. How can you mess up a hot dog and Cuban sandwich? I will never return to the Ugly Dog Pup. Worst service ever. If I could truly rate this location it would be a zero. If you are passing through Cashiers go to High Hampton Inn, Mica's. Table 64 or Cork and Barrel to get wonderful service and...

A friend and I had lunch here on Saturday 2/16. We could tell it was going to be busy based on the parking lot but there was only one party waiting in front of us. When the hostess asked how many were in our party, we said two and told her we’d be happy to sit outside if that would be faster. She told us we could absolutely sit outside but we would need to stand “right there” (pointed to the bar in/out area) and “just grab one of the servers and tell them what you want to order.” We stood and waited for a few minutes, when I stopped one of the bartenders and asked if we could order. One bartender said “yeah this is bar service” (I guess implying it would be a while) and the main bartender snapped “just give me a few minutes and I’ll be with you.” The main bartender comes back to take our order and says they’ll bring our food out back to the outdoor area (the spot on the side of the building with seating and picnic tables). Walked outside, and there was nowhere to sit, so we opted to sit on the front patio instead. We attempted to get the bartenders’ attention but were ignored, so we told the hostess we were moving to the front.

We waited for our food for about 15 minutes (less time than expected), but when the main bartender dropped our food off, I said “thank you, we’ll just need some silverware” to which he replied “you’ll have to come inside and get it, I’m swamped” and walked away. A party of two, who were on their way into the restaurant, heard the exchange and turned around and got back in their car.

The food itself left much to be desired (avocado peel on my friend’s sandwich, bread which was triple the size of the salmon on my sandwich), but could have been overlooked if the service had not been so terrible. I am generally a very understanding patron and try to be as friendly as possible, but this was the worst service I’ve ever received, and just downright rude. Will not be going back to this location and do...