Blanton House Restaurant & Venue — Restaurant in Marion

My husband and I had dinner here on our anniversary. We were disappointed in the food, but the atmosphere and service was absolutely wonderful! It’s a beautiful place and the staff are so friendly. We ordered an appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 desserts and a coffee. We had water to drink. We spent $180 including a tip. I will preface this by saying that we did eat our food and we chose not to complain. The food was 100% edible, but it was mediocre at best.

*Except for the duck confit. My husband ordered it and that dish was really good!!

We chose not to complain for a number of reasons. Reason number 1 is that it’s uncomfortable and we just wanted to enjoy ourselves and not dampen the mood by dealing with returning food. Especially if the food came back out the same way. The other reason is that we would’ve had to send back an appetizer, an entree and 2 desserts. Not one person can say that they would’ve been comfortable sending everything back, except for 1 entree. Unless you’re the type of person that likes to complain. The issues: No sear on the crab cakes. They were barely warm and mushy. They were folding in half, nearly falling apart when we tried to transfer to our plates. The flavor was good though. Filet mignon had zero sear. I ordered medium rare and it was blue rare (purple inside). The potato tuile was missing. However, the pomme puree and grilled zucchini were really good! My husband and I did eat the filet mignon that I ordered because I had already started eating it and told the waitress it was good before getting a little closer to the center and realizing how extra rare it was. It was still edible and very tender, so we chose to just eat it. The crème brulee wasn’t smooth. It had more of a scrambled texture. The torched sugar on top was thick. The chocolate torte must have came straight out of the refrigerator and the texture was grainy. The chocolate ganache on top was a chocolate syrup consistency.

Our experience in a nutshell: When the appetizer came out mushy, we just ignored it and chalked it up to maybe that’s how they choose to serve it. (When looking at other photos on Google, the crab cakes have a nice crust and that’s not what we got) When the entrees came out, we chose to just eat the filet mignon because everything else on both plates was very good and a blue rare filet mignon is still edible. The desserts couldn’t even be fixed because they’re not made to order. At that point, we had already ignored the other issues and chose not to complain to the waitress. We were very uncomfortable to even think about bringing anything up because the food had been eaten. We knew the only option at that point was for the restaurant to comp parts of the meal. We felt very uncomfortable with that (because we had eaten without complaints) and we just decided to say that everything was good and leave.

With all of that said, we really wanted to love this place. It’s where we live and we would much rather support local. It wasn’t busy at all (we were eating dessert when a group of prom/formal kids came in to eat). So either the chef was having an off day or this is what is normally sent out. Either way, our anniversary dinner was disappointing and we wish we would’ve gone somewhere else. We would’ve gladly spent $180 again for great food. Especially on an occasion like ours. Unfortunately, our future brunch dates are now off the table and I don’t think that we will be back. We can’t justify spending that amount of money again in hopes that it’ll be good this time.

Obviously the restaurant would've preferred this to be said in the moment, but again, only 1 out of 5 dishes were correct/made properly. Even if we had the other 4 sent back, we still would’ve been put in an uncomfortable situation having to do that. 4 of those dishes should never have been sent out like that, especially if they’re going to be at a fine dining price point. Mistakes happen, but 4 dishes out of 5 just seemed like it was more than a mistake. If the food was guaranteed to be cooked properly, this place...

Wow — I have never before seen a restaurant owner publicly accuse customers of lying. One review was going to be enough, but after reading your response and seeing how you misrepresent the facts, I feel compelled to set the record straight.

First, regarding the Cajun pasta: I checked your Google listing and menu before my visit that is how I knew to ask about it in the first place, and it was still shown there. Nobody in our party was “ugly” about it not being available. I was personally disappointed because I was looking forward to trying it which I even stated to your server, but being sad about a missing menu item is very different than being abrasive. Note to others they change their menu every 3 months.

Second, the service experience was not as you described. At no point did the server ask us to cut into our steaks to confirm doneness. In fact, we had to get up multiple times to find both a server and a manager because our table was left unattended several times for excessive lengths. When we asked politely if the steaks looked well-done, even the manager agreed they did not. The steaks were returned as though they had been microwaved, not re-grilled. On top of that, they were handed back to the wrong people at the table, and the server walked away without waiting to confirm if they were cooked correctly.

Third, regarding the wine service: Peace Moscato was listed on your in-house menu & online & is still there but was not actually available to order either apparently discontinued, despite your claim that menus are always updated through your website and Facebook. We accepted the server’s suggestion of another Moscato as a second option. However, when we later requested a second bottle of that same Moscato, we were told you were out. That is not the customer’s fault. We had no issue selecting an alternative, but it was your restaurant that failed to stock what was advertised. To portray this as us berating the server is simply false.

Fourth, food safety and health standards were a serious concern. Several members of our party became sick after dining there. We didn’t even bring this up in our original review because we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt and focus on the service issues. But given your accusations, it’s important for others to know.

Fifth, regarding your “offers” to make it right: we were repeatedly chasing down staff and managers, not the other way around. When the steaks came back wrong a second time, we were hungry and frustrated — and we no longer trusted the kitchen to fix the problem. Offering a free dessert didn’t solve the issue of not having a proper dinner & we couldn’t trust it would be done correctly the 3rd time.

Finally, to imply that because other customers left happy, our experience is invalid, is dismissive. Every guest deserves attentive service and properly prepared food — not just some. And to claim that our reviews elsewhere mean nothing would have pleased us is another deflection. Reviews don’t lie, and I see a clear pattern here in how criticism is handled — by blaming the customer.

If there is any doubt, I encourage you to review your CCTV footage. It will show how many times we had to get up and look for staff. The record will...

My boyfriend planned a sweet date night in our weekend getaway because Blantons reminded of him of our first date spot in Raleigh, Second Empire (excellent, top tier service, phenomenal responses times, and delicious food in an old house). To say we were disappointed is a complete understatement. My boyfriend had booked the balcony for us, come to find out they aren’t seating the balcony when we check in with the hostess. Following that, we were sat upstairs, yes, I understand it is an old house with no AC, but we had been waiting for 10 minutes before stopping someone to ask for water because it was so hot….unfortunately, it just goes down hill from here. We ask for biscuits (not listed as its own appetizer on the menu), and we are essentially told no. We would have been willing to pay the price of the charcuterie board to get biscuits. I have been a server and the fact that Lucy didn’t even try was sadly disappointing. Anyways, we choose a different appetizer that is shortly being delivered to a table right beside us. They say it’s not theirs, we try and get the food runners attention (we are maybe 5ft from him), he COMPLETELY IGNORES and starts talking the table he tried to give our appetizers too saying he recognized them from earlier when he was walking around town. It was a complete, embarrassing disaster on Blantons end….I think they may need some new attentive employees. I don’t want to neglect the fact that our server has three tables in the same small room. She passes multiple times NOT checking on us, asking us if we wanted (to increase our tab) another round of drinks. Nope, absolutely nothing. Again, I have previous serving experience at a high volume place in Blowing Rock and I completely sadden by the service and personnel here. To close it all out, we waited at least an hour for two dinners. If you are reading this review, I HIGHLY advise you do not entertain a dinner at this place unless you like to be neglected, have slow and inattentive services, and wait hours for your food when the restaurant is not just. Again, this is my perspective and experience from being in the service industry 10+ years. I think this place needs new staff and management. On the bright side, the food was good and served hot. 10/10 recommend the...