The Hatch — Restaurant in Roanoke

I usually don't like to leave negative reviews, I would much rather leave constructive criticism, however I also usually don't leave a restaurant as angry as I did when leaving The Hatch. My sister had come into town and we were wanting to take her to a new, local-to-Roanoke restaurant. The choice came down between The Hatch and another nearby restaurant and given the high ratings (although to be fair, we didn't read the actual comments) we chose The Hatch. We were a party of six. It was Labor Day, so they were far from busy. (There may have been a few couples dining in as well).

After being seated, we waited for a noticeable amount of time before we were greeted. The greeting consisted of our server (who never gave us a name) walking past our table without making real eye contact towards the soda machine and just saying "Everyone wants water?" She brought us all water and we ordered our drinks and the Deviled Eggs appetizer. Again, after a noticeable amount of time we were still waiting on our drinks. They finally came out with the appetizer. She dropped everything off and stated she'd be back to grab our order -even though we were ready to order. About 15 minutes passed before she came back, in the mean time I had to grab napkins from the server station because we had none and she didn't come back to check on us. As a fellow server, a huge pet peeve is having to ask for napkins. It got worse.

The drink my mom got was way too strong and tasted like straight up vodka. Our server agreed to bring a different drink, which she did, but then they tried to charge us full price for both (they ended up taking half off after we mentioned it).

Everyone ordered their food. I ordered the Meatloaf and Chicken Tenders platter specifically because I was very hungry and the menu clearly states the platter comes with two sides and double fries. When my food came out, I was missing the fries.

The conversation went like this: Me: Hey there, I'm missing the fries Server (with an attitude): What fries? Me: The ones that come with my meal Server: What meal? Me: The one you just brought out, the meatloaf platter Server: That doesn't come with fries. Me: The menu says two sides and double fries Server; Did you get the two sides Me: Yes Server: Ok well you got your sides, it does not come with fries By this time I was pissed at her attitude towards me so I just said "Ok fine".

The rest of the time was awkward and cringe. After we paid, I requested to speak to a manager and actually got the owner. He looked visibly frustrated and I could tell he was disappointed. I informed him that servers are the face of the restaurant and we were extremely let down. I also pointed out in the menu where I was correct in reading the items that come with the meal.

After reading the actual comments, it seems this is an ongoing issue. I hope it gets resolved, I can't imagine we would ever come back, which is a shame because the food was actually very good. But, servers make or break...

Traveling through and didn't know the area. A quick search for local restaurants presented the opportunity to enjoy all that this fantastic restaurant has to offer.

The staff hustled, but were very attentive without being intrusive. We enjoyed talking with Shy, our waitress. She was great! She was everywhere: taking orders, bartending, welcoming new customers, etc. All with a smile.

It was nice to hear that the owner is an active owner, there every morning prepping food for the day. It makes a difference not only in the food but in the staff as well.

Ok, so onto the food review....

Deviled eggs as an appetizer?!? Who does that? But as my girlfriend focuses on a higher protein diet, we were like, "let's give them a try, they look good."

Ok, they weren't good, they were phenomenal. Seriously, best deviled eggs ever! Don't hesitate to try them. Bacon topped, just slightly sweet but balanced with mustard filling, all nestled on a spoonful of magical remoulade that had a little sweet with a little heat, but not overbearing heat. All with a sprinkling of seasoning that was hard to pinpoint, but so delicious. Possibly something like Meat Church honey bacon BBQ seasoning. SO GOOD!

My GF got the fried chicken w/pimento cheese sandwich without the bun. The plating was very nice, not just thrown on a plate like what often happens when you ask for no bun. She raved about the flavor as well. The pickles for the sandwich were excellent, I believe they said they were homemade.

I had the chicken fried chicken with gravy. I expected a traditional white gravy, but it was more orange and delicious! The collard greens were excellent and the Mac and cheese was cheesy, but not heavy. The cornbread was mildly sweet and super moist. Really good!

Drinks were great, and dessert was even better. We had to take dessert to go, we were stuffed! The strawberry crunch was really good, the crunch wasn't very crunchy by the time we got to it. No fault of the restaurant. The banana pudding was creamy and light, almost whipped. So good!

The prices were very reasonable. We were surprised that it wasn't more. Sure we indulged in a couple drinks and the desserts, but if you are on a budget, you could happily get out of there for $20-$25 a piece including an app and tip. Being on vacation, we were a little more than double that, but we splurged and took leftovers and...

I was hoping to have a great experience due in part of the ambiance being so beautiful and quaint. But, for some reason our original server didn't come and greet us so we thought we were going to be taken care of by another who seemed a bit more put together and actually seemed to enjoy our patronage. I did however dismiss that situation because I figured that our original server needed some time to get themselves together or something. Our group had never been to this restaurant, and probably won't be going back in the future. We waited some time before we were greeted, then before ordering I had a few questions. The server made me feel like I was a complete idiot for asking questions. Then after ordering, came back and states that the items that some of the group purchased were no longer available. It happens, totally understandable. However, when our deviled eggs came out there was some sort of water underneath all of them, our drinks weren't refilled until they were completely empty, and then our food took a long time to come out. By this time we have been at the restaurant for an hour. So, I asked for our food to be served to go because we had prior engagements. When the server brought out our food there was liquid all over the outside of the bag. They did try to clean it and gave us extra food that had sat in the window for too long waiting on the rest of our parties food. However, there wasn't an apology and when I went to make sure we had everything before we left one of the boxes had liquid all over it, as did the inside of the bag. At this point I didn't even make sure that we had everything because I was super upset. As we start opening boxes to eat the food I see a half inch thick oil on the bottom of the box and the grits were clumed up together. I ended up throwing it away and the others tried to eat their food but were also super disappointed. I took pictures, but there isn't a way to insert them on this post.

I hope that The Hatch gets better containers to have food carried out and also works on...