Muddy Creek Cafe & Music Hall Sparta — Restaurant in Sparta

I want to start off by saying that I really wanted to like this restaurant, it's independently owned and a seemingly nice addition to little Sparta. Also, I believe that based off what I've heard from others that they put a lot more effort into their dinner service than their lunch. With that being said, my experience was pretty disappointing. The restaurant itself looks lovely, as you walk in you are given the choice to eat inside or dine outside, because of the heat we chose to dine indoors. It wasn't busy at this point, but we were sat in the back in an area by what I assume was a closet and the kitchen door, away from everyone else dining. As a waitress myself, I understand sections and all that but thought it was peculiar that everyone that came in after us got sat in the more appealing part of the restaurant. It wasn't a huge deal though and we were still prepared to enjoy a meal. Three different servers visited our table during this meal, so it wasn't clear which one was actually ours. However all of them were very young and didnt seem thoroughly trained. My mom was given the wrong dressing for her salad, I was not given ketchup or offered a dipping for my fries before the waitress quickly walked away and didn't return for some time. She eventually did get her dressing, but the salad was disappointing. It was supposed to have avacado and bacon and she at first thought they had forgotten, because she had to dig around for some time before finding a very little helping of each. We also didn't get any refills on our water (which we drank quickly after walking around in the heat) during the time we were there, again I am a waitress and understand being busy with other customers but there were only three other people dining at the time and on the way out I noticed the two girls sitting down rolling silverware and chatting casually. I hope this review isn't taken for being hostile, but just some observations that could easily improve the dining experience. On a side note, my panini pressed sandwich and French fries were good :) best of luck to this...

Service was terrible. I’m not one to usually complain or even write reviews but I was very disappointed with the poor and painfully slow service we received here. My friends and I decide to go there for lunch, when we arrived it was 4:30 it took a minute for someone to sit us down, which was not a bad thing necessarily we understood they could be busy, however the restaurant was pretty empty at the time. After we were Sat down, the waitress took our beverage order but it took at least 10 minutes before we got our beverages. My friend had gotten a tea, she asked for some sweetener and milk and it was never brought by the waitress we had to ask another employee if she could bring it out for her(granted this was like 10 mins after she brought her tea) . At this point we had already placed our food order and it had been about 20-25 minutes after and nothing had came out form our order this would normally not bother me but the restaurant was not busy (there were like two other tables dinning). It was around 5:10 when we noticed that there were more people at that time coming in and they were sat down and they were helped right away and while at this time they had only took out our appetizer that consisted of 6 fried pickles they were taking plates of food for a table of 8 that got there way after us! (we were only 3) I order a ham and cheese sandwich I do not believe it can take a whole hour to make a ham and cheese sandwich. By the time that we finished the pickles it was 5:40 and our food had not been taken to us. We needed to go so we got up paid our fried pickles we ate explained to the waitress why we no longer we’re going to eat at the establishment and left very disappointed at the poor service we got and that we were there for over an hour and never got our food. While the waitress was sweet nothing ...

I don’t often write reviews, but I feel it my due diligence to at least write a review about my experience here. I’m in the service industry and have been for 14 years. I know when a place is struggling and I can offer grace, vs when a place clearly doesn’t care about its service. This is one of those places.

To start, the place is unclean. Upon entering, the host sat my boyfriend and I at a two person table and literally wiped the crumbs off the table with his hands before setting our silverware and menus down. That’s when we should’ve left. There were multiple tables not wiped and the floors were filthy.

Service was slow to start, but generally consistent. However, my bf and I witnessed three separate groups be sat and never waited on so they just left. In fact, a table that had clearly been sitting before we were sat was served AFTER we had our waters. But there was a whole group of staff standing behind the counter?? I’m still baffled by the obvious lack of management.

The food was…lackluster. I ate it considering I was pretty hungry and I hate sending a plate back but I certainly won’t make the same mistake. I ordered a $28 meal for the whole thing to come out undercooked. The steak was rare when I asked for medium-rare, granted that distinction is hard to make sometimes so I let that slide. The brussels were under seasoned and undercooked. The potatoes au-gratin were pretty tough to cut and just generally tasteless. This is something I’d serve to a toddler to introduce them to new foods.

I know this is Sparta, NC and we’re not exactly a gastronomic hotspot, but I was expecting far more from this place. I’m disappointed and will just have to take my business to other places. I genuinely hope this place can make a turnaround and be a real Sparta gem, but perhaps a change in management would be...