Fin & Fino Birkdale — Restaurant in Huntersville

Opening night was a spectacular experience at the new Fin & Fino @ Birkdale. Most seats require reservations—including the high-top tables in the bar—and my husband and I chose to sit at a high-top table in the bar for our 5pm reservation so we could have our favorite bartender/server, Kevin.

We’ve been to the Uptown location of Fin & Fino, but I think their menu definitely has improved since the last time we ate at their Uptown location. We love the smaller portions usually found in tapas, and Fin & Fino Birkdale gave us some wonderful options.

We ordered five plates:

Tuna crudo - A, The tuna was cut thicker and larger than we have seen in other tapas restaurants. This one was full of flavor and just phenomenal with the tiny orange slices. Seafood salad - B+, There wasn’t more than one tiny piece of octopus in the bowl but there was plenty of shrimp, and the flavors were bright and citrusy. Roasted Beets with Whipped Feta and Pistachios - A, I don’t usually like beets, but this one was astoundingly good. I had to scrape all the remaining feta/pistachio off the plate before I’d let Kevin take it away. This is a must repeat for me. Scallops with Butternut Squash Risotto- A, My favorite dish of the night, and a larger portion than you would expect, with three scallops and a large serving of risotto. The butternut squash paired perfectly with the creamy risotto, and the scallops were buttery and fork tender. Hanger steak - A, This was my husband’s favorite dish. The steak was a bit more rare than his ordered medium rare (but he’ll eat either). The flavor was incredible, and it paired really well with the parsnip purée.

For our beverages, my husband had a Jack and coke, and I tried one of their signature cocktails, the Frances Myrtle Humphrey. It was both sweet and a bit salty, and was very good.

As expected, our service was just perfect. Kevin always seemed to know when he needed to pick up our cleaned plates, and offered fresh plates and utensils throughout the meal.

The dining room is bright and airy, and the bar seating has been expanded to include the area where the original Dressler’s hostess desk was situated. (It’s now just a small hostess stand to the left of the entryway.) They are adding a few elements to the dining room—like sound-dampening on the ceiling—but we were there early enough (5pm reservation) that the noise wasn’t an issue for us.

All in all, we really enjoyed our meal, and definitely plan to...

Extremely over priced and mediocre at best. We looked forward to the opening of this new location and tried it for dinner but left hungry and disappointed. Food is served tapas style (very small portions with more garnish than substance).

Oysters Bienville - six oysters served with a topping reminiscent of grits (not in a good way). They arrived smelling of low tide, one of the oysters we tried tasted just as bad as it smelled. Notified the manager who said maybe we got unlucky and had one of the “2/100 oysters that are bad.” That’s a poor excuse for a restaurant who has oysters on almost a third of the menu.

Market Salad - again, bland and underwhelming. Menu listed pomegranate as an ingredient but it was not evident in the dish.

Roasted Beets - they were served warm. No different than warming supermarket prepared beets in the microwave.

Seafood Salad - nice flavor and proper heat from the chili oil. Tiny portion, not even close in size to the images posted on their Instagram page.

Mussels - small mussels but plump and slightly sweet. The sauce had absolutely no flavor or spice. It was reminiscent of just throwing a can of tomatoes in a blender and heating it up… the jowl bacon was not properly rendered leaving it tough and a few pieces had gristle.

Sable Fish - the sauce had no depth of flavor. The fish was just okay but was certainly not fresh. Similar flavor and texture to grade school fish sticks without the breading. Very pricey for the small portion of fish you were served. The bean salad that accompanied the fish was a total disappointment too.

Whole Bronzini - the best dish we had during this visit. Fresh and cooked well. The fish was only mildly seasoned but the simple sauce that drizzled the veggies on the plate was good. Very few bones in the fish. This was a 4/5.

Overall, we spent $120 (manager removed the oysters from bill) to feed three people w/o drinks who still left hungry. Bland and uninspired was the general theme of the dishes we ordered. Didn’t think the manager went above and beyond to address the disgusting oyster we were served. Would not return and certainly would...

What a disappointment!! We had guests in town and dined at Fin & Fino on Wednesday 11/27/24. Much to our surprise and disappointment, it was one of the worst value dining experiences we’ve encountered in quite some time. We have previously dined at Fin & Fino- Birkdale and left feeling that this was our go to restaurant in the Lake Norman area. On this occasion, we chose the “Treatment” for the table, which we would not recommend to anyone; Unless you are happy overpaying for your meal. Once arriving home, we added up the total of the dishes that we were initially served and we would have overplayed by almost $200 for 6 guests, had we not complained and requested additional dishes. Although we were served additional dishes to “try to make it right,” unfortunately it was too little too late for our evening. The dishes we were served were fair, at best. The Lobster Mac’n Cheese, Mushroom Toast and Little Gem salad (each of which we provided two of for the table) are dishes we recommend avoiding. Lettuce in Little Gem Salad was brown and wilted ; Our guests described both the Mushroom Toast and Lobster Mac’n Cheese as dishes that they would serve if trying to convince someone to hate mushrooms or Mac’n cheese. Remainder of dishes were not stellar either, but these were the most egregious offenses to the palate. We are hoping that this was just an off night prior to a holiday, that we assume was staffed primarily by the B-Team, but will be leery to return, especially given the price tag of dining here. AnnaLisa, the manager on duty, was unhelpful, dismissive of our concerns, and argumentative when confronted. We will definitely think twice before dining here again. Advice to future diners wishing to avoid getting ripped off: Avoid this restaurant, but if you choose to give them a chance, avoid the “Treatment”...