Stable Cafe — Restaurant in North Carolina

The Stable Cafe on the Biltmore Estate's property that is literally attached to the house is nothing but exceptional. I have been coming to eat here for 11 years now and every time is special. The food is nothing but all natural ingredients grown on the property or come from local farmers in the area. They hire nothing but exceptional chefs to prepare every meal for each guest. I called ahead to see if reservations were needed to dine in during covid. They stated first come first serve till 2pm then reservation are available. I asked for a 2pm reservation because the drive and wait were the same time. After having a longer than usual wait driving in from traffic which is good business for them I arrived to be directly seated in a stall. Yes you read that correctly. The cafe is literally in the original horse 🐎 stables used to house the Vanderbilt's horses. It has been converted into a two story fine dining restaurant. The floors are made of cobblestone brick with a clean coat very unique style. When you come straight up to the house turn right you will pass the ticketing for house tours. Then pass the photo pickup for house tours taken during a tour of the house straight through to of big open courtyard with cobblestone. You will see a few shops like a ice cream , chocolate, shop. Keep walking straight in to the building you will see shops to the right and left of different categories. Definitely check all of the them out. Turn to your right the restaurant is on the end. Paula was my server today. She did a very good job from the presentation to the making sure the chef prepared my food gluten free so I don't have a reaction from being allergic to wheat. Yes this restaurant is gluten friendly and I highly recommend it. After looking over the menu I decided on the seared stream trout, collard greens, roasted pear salad, and grits. The drink of choice this time was blackberry Lemonade with water. As I wait for the meal to arrive I watch everything around me from the couples on a date, to batchlorette parties, families, to friends just getting together for a good meal in a unique place. To dine at the Stable Cafe is always an experience to remember. The food came out pretty quick from the kitchen that took every step needed to not cross contaminate. I had the deviled eggs for my appetizer as you will see from the pictures with spiced pecans. Then the main dish came 😋. As you look at the pictures of the trout, the taste was just as good as it looks. Next I had the collard greens and wow they were prepared just right and I am very picky about how they are prepared. It was very tasty the flavors just right. The smoked pear salad with walnuts, blue cheese, and champagne vinegaret dressing. Everything tasted amazing and prepared just right. To the Chef and staff of the Stable Cafe. Thank you for another wonderful experience and till next time...

So I was 50/50 on this place after I left. My husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a day at Biltmore and lunch here (where we did put on our reservation it was our anniversary). We had been waiting days for this place and left kinda disappointed.

A few points to note: -Nothing was mentioned to us about our anniversary note which we found disappointing.

-We got water and the moscow mule. The mule was soooo good. 10/10 loved this drink

-Our appetizer was the Pimento Cheese Toast. Again, 10/10. We assumed for some reason it was gonna be a type a dip with toast points almost, and it wasn’t. It was thick slices of bread with pimento cheese, pickled onions, chow chow, and this not too hot honey. The honey was maybe a 1/10 on the hot scale. Delicious.

-I got the smash burger w/ grilled onions and mushrooms. That was the best part. The veggies. The burger patty itself was bland. The burger is huge so it look me a hot minute to get to them but when I tried it it had NO flavor and was dry. Very disappointed. I was hoping for the price of that burger, I was gonna be blown away. I was not. I focused more on the fries than I did the actual burger (took it home and ate it later with sauce)

-If you get fries as a side, ASK FOR RANCH. Let me tell you what, that ranch is 100/10 amazing. It’s a dill style ranch that I was ready to commit a crime and steal their entire supply.

-My husband got the Apple Butter Bacon Cheeseburger and he enjoyed it. I took a bite and it was definitely better than mine. It had flavor but I can’t give anymore info on his food as it was his and not mine lol

-We noticed that everyone around was got a plate with 2 rolls and butter with their entire but we did not. Not sure if why and we didn’t want to make a fuss about it.

-Our waiter was super nice and friendly and I enjoy good customer service so I appreciate that. But he (or the host) should check reservation notes in case people are in to celebrate a special occasion :)

Like I said, it was a 50/50 experience but we most likely will not be coming back and I’m sure they aren’t hurt about that as...

My family and I made reservations for January 2nd, 2023 at 6:30 for a table of six. Our server was Nicole. Upon arrival we were told our table was not ready and would have to wait 20 minutes to be seated. I thought that was a little strange, because reservations are made so we can be seated at our reserved time. 30 minutes later, my husband went up to the hostess and asked “is there anyone with reservations earlier than ours still waiting to be seated.” Her reply was yes, and my husband responded with “really? Earlier than 6:30?” Then, the hostess looks at the screen with shock on her face and replies “your table is almost ready.” Once we got to the table, we quickly noticed that my husband would have difficulty squeezing into the tight booth. We noticed a table set up for 8, that would have plenty of space for us to sit comfortably. My husband and mother in law asked if we could sit at that table, but the hostess claimed there was a reservation for a party of 8 there. They told us that they could have a different table ready, but we would have to wait even longer. As we are sitting uncomfortably, we noticed for the rest of the night nobody came to sit at that table. We were there until the restaurant closed. On top of all of this, the waitress was severely rude, was giving nothing but attitude towards my husband. There was missing ingredients in my husband’s old fashioned, which the waitress never told him they were out of cherries ahead of time. My husband had to say something halfway through his drink and waitress replied “oh yeah we’re out of cherries.” (Drink=30 dollars) Then hurries off and doesn’t offer anything else or any apologies. Then he gets his bisque, without garnish, and when he says something to the waitress she replies “oh, it’s not there?” We couldn’t have received worse service especially for the prices we paid and the environment we were in. When it said cafe, I didn’t realize it was a legit cafeteria style dining experience. We will never return....