The Tilted Ladder — Restaurant in Pilot Mountain

I really wanted to like this restaurant. I visit Pilot Mountain occasionally & there are not a lot of options besides fast food. We were in town for the weekend for the Vintage Market & stopped in for dinner Friday night. First, the positives... our waitress was a sweet young girl and did a great job. And the shrimp appetizer was simply amazing, although a bit overpriced for the portion size. The side salad my husband got with his meal was a large portion and he really enjoyed it. I got a burger and fries, the burger was dry. The side of broccoli I ordered was cooked just the way I asked, but over-salted. Otherwise the broccoli would have been perfect. My husband ordered the fettuccine Alfredo. When it came to the table, it was cold. Not even lukewarm. Cold. He was going to eat it and not say anything. I insisted that he tell the waitress so that it could be heated up. She took it back to the kitchen and they microwaved it. (We do not like using the microwave, but that was the quickest way to do it.) I don’t understand why it was cold. Did it get dished up hot and then it was left on the counter while my burger was cooked? Is it not kept hot, but rather in the cooler and warmed up when somebody orders it? At any rate, we ate our food, left a nice tip for the waitress because she did a good job. We will try the restaurant again when we return to town. We really believe in supporting small, family-owned businesses. I know the restaurant has recently changed owners and hopefully all of these little bugs will...

I want to preface this by saying our waitress was wonderful. We had a very large party (with reservations made days in advance) and she not only accommodated our large party flawlessly but also 2 other large partys at the same time. This restaurant is the epitome of poor management and ownership. Instead of preparing for the car show yesterday and having food on hand, they were out of absolutely everything our party tried to order. My seven year old daughter was the LAST to receive her food, which was a children's mac and cheese and watermelon. Along with 2 adults in our party that had not received their food. Everyone else had eaten and was ready to go by the time their food came out. When talking with 2 different managers, the first stated she was bar tending and the food service wasn't her problem. She told me that she would have the kitchen manager come out due to the owner not being available. 15 minutes later she came out with the wrong food and the best she could do was discount our bill. If it weren't for the lack of accountability with management, I could be a little more understanding. It basically wasn't their problem that there wasnt food. If a restaurant doesn't have more than half the food on their menu that day, they should NOT open! If they knew there was an upcoming car show AND large partys with reservations coming in they should have made preparations for that in advance. I am all for supporting local, but I will not be back in this...

Food was wonderful, but unfortunately the server my family and I had was sub-par. Prioritized larger tables over our 3 person party. Asked for a fork at one point that we never received because she spoke with a larger party most of the time we were eating, so we ended up having to share one.

Additionally, DO NOT TRUST THE RANCH. My family and I were with our dogs, so we sat outside. When we arrived, there were three tables with ranch that had been left out in the sun, including the table we sat at. The bottle on our table was dated improperly, as it did not have the date, and the time stamp was set to expire two hours before we arrived. I'm certified as a Food Safety Manager. This should NEVER happen. Food in general and especially food products containing dairy have strict time frames that restaurants must throw them out at. There are different time frames between if a food product is frozen, in a fridge, or at room temp. Food should never be left for long period of time in the sun. It can harvest bacteria like crazy. Even after we pointed this out to our server, I observed her then hand a separate table a ranch bottle that had been on a different table since we arrived. We made sure to inform the table before they consumed any of it. My review is largely for the manager of this facility in the hopes they read it and tighten up their food safety practices...