Side Street Pour House and Grill — Restaurant in Lenoir

My first experience at Side Street Pour House and Grill was the worst! My friends and family decided to eat at the restaurant after a long day with the kids. We had a party of 10 (6 adults, 4 children). Because we often eat out together, we understand that it would take some time to be seated and receive our food after ordering.

Because of our large party, we requested outside dining when we noticed there were available seating. We should have left when the restaurant manager, Angie, gave us grief about pulling tables together to accommodate our party, but we decided to brush it off since we were tired and hungry.

We were seated at 6:50 pm and we did not receive our food until close to 9 pm! Let's just say we had lost our patience by the time we were able to eat our dinner. We even asked our server to ask the cook to push the children's food out first so they can eat, but it never came. The children needed to eat and get home to rest and sleep.

While we were stuffing our face because we were so hungry, one of our friends requested to speak to the manager to inform her that she refuses to pay full price because the service was lacking. When the manager came out to speak to her, the manager decided to argue with my friend trying to justify the wait time of our food. She even interrupted my friend as she was speaking! Talk about customer service!

While she was walking by, I decided to stop her and ask what her name was and if she was the owner. She deflected my questions and said that they were a just a small local restaurant. I asked her my questions again and she finally gave me her name (Angie) and the name of the owner (Kevin Eller).

My friends and family grew up in the area, therefore, love supporting our local small businesses. We will NEVER return to this restaurant due to the way Angie treated us. She was very condescending with a very bad attitude. I also heard she is the mother of the owner! What does that say about the mother treating her son's guests so poorly? Or a son employing his mother as a manager but is okay with her treating others so poorly?

Overall, we spent over $200 that evening. The atmosphere was great, the food was overcooked, the server was patient with us and she was amazing. Customer service from the restaurant manager...not so much. As locals, we have been spreading the word but we hope others have a better experience...

This was my first visit to Side Street Pour House and as we walked in I noticed there was outdoor seating and it was a nice day so I asked our hostess if we could get a table outside, she looked right at me when I said it and I know she heard me but she instead seated us inside next to the window.... I guess that's ok 🤷. After sitting there 10 minutes or so she brought us a menu and took our drink order then went to fetch our drinks which took a little longer than I think it should have especially since the joint wasn't busy and the bar was only four steps away from our table. My wife and myself were ready to order our food by the time she returned with our drinks but she sat them down on our table and left again ...long story short, this lady wasn't in any kinda hurry. My wife ordered the chicken strips plate with a baked potato and I got the hamburger steak and a salad, my hamburger steak was good although a little overcooked but not unreasonably so, my wife said the chicken strips were great but when she started preparing her potato with butter and sour cream the butter didn't melt because her potato wasn't warm enough to melt it... I said " Damn , butter melts at a couple degrees above room temperature... send it back it's friggin cold." I'm not going to get on here and bash the place, maybe this never happens or rarely happens... either way I only submit these reviews with complete honesty and I didn't have any preconceived ideas about the food or the service at this establishment and I'll probably go back someday and give it another try so please don't let my review make any decisions for you, I encourage you to read reviews by other people because their experience could have been entirely different from mine. Thanks...

I have a lot of bad stories about this place. I was assaulted by a local who had a bad day in front of several people and they kicked us both out. I honestly wasn't even doing anything but sitting there enjoying myself with several other people and they made me leave because a guy tried to dance around like a flamingo and spinning back kick me in the head. The man even threatened to kill me he as he was walking off to cheap shot me after he knocked over my friends beer... I stood up to retaliate but 50 people had to keep me from defending myself. Everyone just starred at him... Manager told me to leave but that I was not banned. I went back to this place 3 times to have one single beer by myself in a 6 month period after the incident. [they never told me to leave... ] Out of the blue bartender comes outside and tells me im banned infront of a friend that came from raliegh. Then I FIND OUT this guy who tried to kick me in the head and got kicked out isnt banned.... but I am? Explain to me how that makes sense? That is 100% blasphemy. I tried asking the manager, but they said they didn't want to explain themselves and did not have to. I guess the guy and the owner are butt_buddies. I'll give them that... they really don't have to explain themselves, because I will never be back and I know a few customers that will never as well.~!!!. Not to mention that one time when my friend had to bounce people out and keep the police from being called years before : because the owner didn't even have any help there to moderate violence when an incident broke out in 2005... the owner told my friend to leave after saving his bar... how ungrateful. My friend saved his bar from being shut down that night and all he had to say was.......