NAPA Kitchen and Wine — Restaurant in Midlothian

Sorry folks, I do not understand all the hype with this place. First, let me start by saying I very rarely, if ever, write reviews; but tonight was just sub-optimal enough that I feel compelled to write about our experience.

My wife and I went to Napa Kitchen tonight for the first time to celebrate our anniversary. We have heard some great things about Napa Kitchen, and we were hoping to have an enjoyable dinner tonight to celebrate. Except, our experience was not exactly that.

Our service did not start out very well. We had a 7:30 reservation. We were seated with minutes of our arrival, but we waited about 10 minutes before we were acknowledged by our server. Our server was nice enough, and we finally got our drink order in.

Unfortunately, this was not Kevin's night. In addition to our table, our server was also attending to a large party that was nearing the end of their dinner. His attention was not with us.

At this point, we are starting to realize that our server is new at this (which was confirmed later). So, we were willing to overlook some of the shortcomings with attentiveness.

Then, as soon as the first large party left, they sat him another large 10 top. This just cemented our experience at Napa Kitchen. Our night just wasn't meant to be.

Even with the shortcomings with service, our starter, salad and meals were prepared in a timely fashion. No real issues there, as the kitchen staff seemed to provide delivery of our courses. We did not see our server as much as we felt we should.

Now on to the food . . .this was not a good meal. Sorry folks! Also, no offense to Napa and the cooking staff, but our meals were mediocre at best.

$6 for a basket of bread! This was 'store bought' bread at best. I did not get the impression that this bread was unique, or fresh out of the oven. Sorry Napa, not worth $6. Entrees next.

The wife had the Shrimp Scampi Risotto. Really, Napa!? Only 4 shrimp on a $21 shrimp risotto dinner?!? Seriously?!? This meal either needs a price reduction, or throw a few more shrimp on there! It was tad salty as well. Also, I don't think of myself as a cheap person, and I do enjoy a good meal and will pay for it . . . but this is ridiculous!

Next . . .I am not a foodie. I am not someone that likes all this fancy nonsense. I like a good steak, and I love hibachi. So, I order a dish on the menu that I think I will enjoy. I ordered the Hibachi Steak Fried Rice . . . this was not hibachi. Do not order this meal, I repeat, do no order this meal. Napa Kitchen and the owner need to seriously consider removing this item from the menu. Period.

The Hibachi dish is prepared ahead of time. The components are anyway. They have to "reheat" it when made, and it is obvious. I told the manger this when we spoke later. If you have ever had PF Changes frozen dinner from the grocery store freezer isle, that would be better than this dish.

Cocktails from the bar were fine. Good, but nothing special. Probably not worth the $14 price tag either. If you are a fan of manhattans, do not order this one.

All of this amounted to my wife and I having a poor experience. We paid our tab and tipped the server appropriately. He was not shorted. We understand his position, and we did not fault him.

Now, let me also give a shout-out to the GM, Evan, who spoke to us after our dinner. We wanted to let him know that we did not have the experience we were hoping for, and he was very pleasant and welcomed our feedback. He tried to make our night better by offering a gift card to come back and try them again. We agreed.

So, that is our first experience with Napa Kitchen and Wine. I know they want to do well and are trying to make this restaurant a destination for many in our area. They have many positive things working, and we wish them much success. Unfortunately, they missed the mark tonight with us. But we have promised to come back and try them again.

Sorry for the long review. Once I get started, it is hard for me to stop sometimes. Hope this review helps some of you out there.

Thanks for...

If you’re looking for southern cuisine or the ability to alter a menu item (due to allergies or dietary preferences), this is not the place to go. I visit with a large group of friends around 7 people and every single person had an issue with their meal. Most received cold eggs or hard waffles but a few of us with allergies were met with huge disappointments. A friend was allergic to mushrooms and they told her they couldn’t remove them from an omelette but she could pick them out. I don’t eat avocados (allergy) or eggs or pork so I decided to get the shrimp and grits. A easy southern breakfast dish, for some reason this includes ham so I requested that be removed. I was told that they marinate their grits with the ham??? Never heard of this considering grits are a quick meal that doesn’t require any prep. Well since that was a huge issue for the cook, I asked for the tomato pot pie. Now every pot pie I’ve had in my life is literally a pie baked with filling inside. This ended up being an open pot pie (so no crust) and it was filled with cheese and about 5 thin slices of tomatoes. That was it and a side of lettuce. It was disgusting and unappetizing, I could not finish it. I let the waitress know and she offered to give me a free dessert in place. I’m not sure who would really want ice cream after having drinks and no food so I declined and said the only thing I had wanted was the shrimp and grits so if they cannot make that then there’s nothing else I would want. After speaking with the manager, that was now possible to happen without ham unlike the first time I requested the meal. Once this meal came out, it was also a disappointment. The grits they used were not mill grain and had whole kernels in it. It was very mushy and chunky at the same time (see photo). The shrimp had a bitter taste to it as well. I did get a chance to speak with the manager and he was nice about trying to improve as a restaurant. He admitted that they do not have alternates to the menu to accommodate allergies and typically they customers to pick something else. Also, he stated that EVERYTHING on the menu is premade which explained why the table had cold and overheated food. The menu is very small which would lead people to think the food is fresh but there is nothing freshly made. I would expect for the prices and the wait, that my food would be fresh. I did give 2 stars because the staff was nice enough to work on solutions and the drinks were amazing but as a new restaurant, they really should have thought out the menu more and be able to accommodate a customer if the menu is going to be so small. I appreciated the manager wanting to improve the restaurant by listening to our concerns and I hope they do...

Just ate here last night for my wifes birthday and was thoroughly impressed! So much so that I will be trying to switch reservations now for my Fathers 70th birthday diner from a "downtown" spot that is really good to here. Our server (Jasmine) was fantastic and very attentive as well as spot on with recommendations. My son has celiac (which she noted and took seriously) and this place knocked the GF options out of the park, and he ate everything that we put in front of him which is a big deal in my opinion. For starters we got the Fried Goat Cheese and Tuna Nachos... -Fried Goat Cheese was delicious and exactly what you would expect or hope for if you like goat cheese, the honey and Balsamic was a delightful addition to the tanginess you can expect from the cheese. Very well balanced! -The Tuna Wonton nachos were really good from a flavor perspective. However my only recommendation here would be to create this dish in "taco" form in lieu of nachos style as I would've preferred a bite with a little more tuna than wonton. And feel that this type of "vehicle" could provide the prefect ratio/bite. But again, the flavors were there and that is what is most important for me. As far as mains, I was on the fence as so many dishes really peeked my interest and this is where Jasmine stepped up and nailed it from a recommendation standpoint. I was between the Rockfish special, the Black ink Ciopinno and the Cacio e Pepe after I narrowed it down. I asked her what she would recommend, and even though I was leaning heavily towards the ciopinno, she assured me I couldn't go wrong with any. However after talking each dish over I was guided to the cacio e pepe and MANNNNNNNNN let me tell you.... This dish is something I will crave for a loooonnnnggg time! The flavors in this dish were impeccable (hats off to the chef). So many times I have ordered dishes with truffles from restaurants all over and the truffle completely dominates the pallet and takes over the dish, but here this was NOT the case. The balance between the parmesan, mushrooms, truffles and cream was spectacular, not to mention the pasta was cooked to a perfect al dente! Wonderfully done NAPA and it was a pleasure to dine with y'all! Keep up the great work staff, and Chef, you sir have something to be proud of with the food your pumping out of that kitchen!!

NAPA will be seeing alot more of me now as I still have several menu items I want to try but the dilemma I am going to have is how do I go here and not order the Cacio e pepe every time because it was...