Nightingale Rooftop Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Holly Springs

Nightingale Rooftop is a new hotspot tapas restaurant in downtown Holly Springs NC, offering a unique offering of small plates, cheese/cracker combos and crafted cocktails. We had high hopes and arrived to dine rather early in the evening and were surprised to see the swanky, colorful and almost retro super club vibe already bustling. We sat indoors at a two top which wasn't all that exciting for a date night, however there were some cool booths and more intimate seating options. The highlight surely is when weather is good, the outdoor rooftop overlooking downtown Holly Springs which is probably the biggest draw to this new spot.

We were greeted with a carafe of water and a single page menu featuring their plates for the evening and on the backside their cocktail list and beer/wine offerings. My husband ordered the Cleopatra Julep (served in a copper cup) and I ordered a Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal tequila on the rocks with a half lime. There was an upsell offer of $1 to have a large single ice cube for the Mezcal. Respectfully, charging for a cube of ice is ridiculous, especially with a single shot drink price at $20. I declined and when the drink came, it arrived with no half lime. With a bottle price of $65, the drink markup/drink price should come with more attention to what was ordered by the customer and for goodness sake throw in the large cube.

We ordered 4 plates to start - The french fries served with peruvian spice and cilantro cream. They were very good, flavorful but ultimately just french fries with a dipping sauce... nothing crazy. We tried the Pork Belly which had a delicious apple chutney and caramelized cabbage. The chutney and cabbage were the best part of the dish with the pork belly being a bit underwhelming and mostly just a cut of pork with only a small sliver of pork belly fat. The Ostrich Sliders were good with blue cheese infused patties, pickled onion, pear mustard on a yeast roll. They were cooked "well done" as the patties themselves were quite thin and small. They were sliders so no surprise here, tasty but not all that memorable for $15. The Smoked Catfish Dip featured toast points. This combo was very good and was probably one of my favorites for the evening.

Then we waited, and waited, and waited. The restaurant had filled up and our waiter was over sat. We weren't getting follow up on the meal or offers to get another round of drinks and eventually had to flag our guy down to get our next order in. When he did come, he was ready to check us out. We were ready to order more food and drinks and honestly felt like he was just trying to clear the table. With small plates we were still hungry and thirsty.

For our second round of food and drinks we ordered another Del Maguey Tequila again sans of lime or lime juice and the Young Buck, a very good, rich bourbon cocktail with hints of vanilla, ginger and tobacco. We got the Whipped Feta with two types of homemade crackers and fried saltines, which were delicious, the Cocktail Eggs also very good with their topping of mushroom duxelles and the Gnocchi Bravas made of sweet potato. The Gnocchi is not actually gnocchi. It's essentially soft sweet potato tater tots, which when you're expecting the texture of gnocchi is a bit underwhelming and was our least favorite dish of the night.

Through this second round of drinks and plates, we again sat with no interaction or check-in from our waiter. We would have ordered another round of drinks or dessert, but by the time our waiter did come over, we were done and sort of over the whole experience. Training is needed to help the staff tend to their guests throughout a meal of small plates, which requires a constant check in to keep food flowing and drinks topped off. Growing pains for sure, and we hope this place will be successful and...

I don't like leaving bad reviews or complaining or generally anything about being a customer, but I want to be constructive here. I don't know if there were inventory or staffing issues, but our experience was much like the last review before mine. We made reservations to celebrate Valentine's Day. The website is nice and trendy, and the menu looked great. Service was OK, and we did actually really like the cocktails! We did the prix fixe and the appetizers were fine. My partner's steak was also alright. The salad was pretty terrible - it was missing the cucumber listed on the menu and was spring mix and carrot shreds. Also, it's hard to eat salads out of tiny bowls like that. The worst part was the polenta dish. It promised sun dried tomato polenta, lion's mane mushrooms, smoked carrot zest (absent), and coconut creamed kale. First impression was that the dish was lukewarm. the polenta was completely flavorless with a mushy, lumpy texture. The lion's mane mushrooms were fried in a too-salty batter and also did not have much flavor. This is partly personal preference, but if I had known they'd be fried like bar food, I probably wouldn't have gotten this to begin with, but could have been OK if the rest wasn't awful. Finally, the kale was not creamed, it tasted like it had been cooked in plain coconut milk and drained. The entire dish was flavorless, tepid, with bizarre and competing, not complimentary, textures. I don't know how that made it to the menu honestly, it almost feels like ChatGPT came up with it or something. Dessert was fine. We probably won't be back (partly because it's a haul from our home, but if we are up that way we would check out more cocktails... maybe not food). there's a lot of creativity and potential here but you need to put a little more thought and care into...

We had an extremely disappointing experience here tonight, which reluctantly leads me to writing this review. While the food was excellent and our server did a great job, the rudeness and unprofessionalism displayed by the host staff marred an otherwise great dinner.

We made a reservation for a seat in the outdoor section, which is a separate option on their website compared to reserving an indoor table, with separate availability. We specifically compromised on our preferred dining time in order to get an outdoor reservation and enjoy the view and the nice weather.

When we arrived, we were lead to a table in the inside section. Before we could say anything the host dashed off. I awkwardly walked back to the front of the restaurant to ask the other hostess if we could be seated outdoors as per our reservation.

I was met with a curt "we don't have any outdoor tables available". I asked "So... why would you take a separate reservation specifically for an outdoor table if you can't honor it." I was given a vague "we had a large party come in earlier that messed up our seating. You'll have to sit inside."

I've worked on a restaurant before. I understand that things happen. If this has been explained to us when we first arrived, I wouldn't be writing this review. But I feel that it was incredibly unprofessional to seat us inside without offering any explanation or apology. I would expect far better from a restaurant at this...