Hickory Tavern — Restaurant in Indian Trail

Food was amazing. Margarita wasn't what he's use to (didn't taste like a margarita and no salt around rim, served in a glass I've never seen a margarita served in).

So we won't be ordering a margarita again, but will be back for food.

Our waitress was kind and attentive overall. Despite what seemed like some stress/work issue she came to the table with a smile and a positive attitude. She seemed tired, but despite this she was very attentive to needs. Food came out hot and fresh.

Also, because there were specific needs but a desire for certain foods she was VERY accommodating. Even though the meal wasn't for a child she offered a kid menu option that filled both desires of the person ordering (and the portion was more than enough for the adult who has health issues that limits diet).

When certain extra items were requested there was no attitude. Not bragging about tip size, but I did leave beyond the average because she really was so amazing. I can only hope it brightened her night a bit. If I could have afforded to tip more I absolutely would have. I wish I could remember her name, but she definitely is a great asset to the Hickory Tavern team.

Props to the chef as well on their ability to cook amazing dishes.

Order was-

Philly cheesesteak (no onion no green pepper, add side of mayonnaise) dish and side of broccoli was chosen (they have plenty of options for their standard AND upgrade choices)

Plain cheese quesadilla (not a menu item, but accommodation was made) with a side of fries. Sides of mayonnaise and extra sour cream as well.

Drink was a margarita and then just a cup of ice water with extra extra ice.

Just under 30 for all of it.

Also note, even though it was a Saturday night we came in late after a movie at Sun Valley. They had been pretty busy but things were starting to wind down a bit as we settled in.

The have outdoor table options for those who want to eat outside. They have a lot of tvs with different sports playing if that's something you're looking for. I counted like 25, seems excessive to me, but im really not a TV person especially while out. They weren't overly loud or anything though so it wasn't a major distraction.

Bathrooms were clean, the setup is nice, nothing that stood out as off-putting to me. Front staff was quick to seat us and friendly as well.

I dont typically go to bars because it's not my thing, but their menu offers enough restaurant style items and the bar doesn't seem to be the only focus so it wasn't so much like...

I totally get that many places are short staffed these days but there is a right way and a wrong way to handle that. The management here definitely handles it the wrong way. We were a pretty large group of maybe 15 people. We arrived at nearly 8pm last evening so it was already thinning out a bit. Even still it took over 1 1/2 hours to get our food. When you are short staffed you should at least let people know that ahead of time and give fair warning that food may be delayed. Not a word from the hostess stand as we walked in. Didn’t get anything from our server either in way of an apology or an update from the kitchen. Actually felt like she kind of purposely avoided us after taking our order. Then despite our server having a full 90 minutes before food arrived during which at any point she could have brought silverware to the table we still had to go up to the bar and get that ourselves along with any condiments. Server dropped off some pitchers of what a few of us were drinking but not once did she ever return to offer refills on anything. We asked for checks as food was delivered and still waited another 15-20 minutes after we had all finished eating before getting our checks. Still with not one apology from our server. All I got was “yeah the kitchen is so understaffed and it really has affected my tips….” While I get that big parties can be tough on a server sometimes this girl was quick to tell us when we sat down that “this wasn’t her first rodeo”….well it sure felt like it….

This place is a sports bar right?? We asked different people at least 3-4 times to please put on the UNC - Clemson game (instead of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer which was playing on half the tvs)….We were told that the manager was busy in the kitchen and would fix that shortly…..seriously…the manager is the only person in the restaurant that can change a channel????? Glad they were in the kitchen but let’s empower some other people to handle the basics here……when we left the restaurant at 10pm it was nearly empty and yep now we were watching Frosty instead…

I like Hickory Tavern and will continue to go but I can promise you I will NEVER step foot in this particular one again.

The management at this store is either completely overwhelmed or they just need to be fired asap. The staff definitely needs some help to. Hoping someone at corporate reads this. I am a reasonable guy. I write positive reviews when things are good and try to be fair when things are bad. This was just...

I have never written a review for anything before, but because our experience was so terrible- I can not consciously choose to ignore it. We came as a party of 5 and were sat at a broken table. The table shook so bad that there was NO way that we could eat without dumping our food all over the floor. We mentioned it to the waitress and she said "yes we know it's broken and there's nothing we can do about it really". So she told us to go back to the hostess table and they would resit us somewhere else. (Why on earth did you think it was okay to KNOWINGLY sit us a broken table that spins in circles when you eat in the first place?) they fixed the problem by seating us elsewhere, but it was worse from that point on. We waited 20 minutes for the waitress to serve us. 2 out of 5 our drinks were wrong when she finally brought them out to us. Then we waited an hour for our food to get to the table. We watched tables that were the same size as ours, and BIGGER that came in well after us, get their food well before us. It was obvious that a mistake was made somewhere but do you think anyone has the decency to inform us that something happened? Nope. We just sat and stared hoping someone would tell us what was going on. I made the mistake of asking for extra dressing when I ordered my salad, didn't get the dressing- reminded the waitress about it again...and then finally got it once everyone else at the table had already finished their food and my meat on my salad was ice cold. Once again, no apologies from the waitress or any kindness offered to us whatsoever. I seriously hope that the manager was off tonight, because if she/he was okay with the service that was offered this evening, there is a major problem. Every time I mentioned that something was messed up to the waitress or the hostess, I was treated with no kindness and felt like they though I was just being a nusence. I have never had a worse experience in a restaurant in my life. We will not be returning there ever, and I will make sure no friends or family of mine will ever step foot in that restaurant and be treated...