Twisted Oak American Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Statesville

HAZARDOUS DINING LOCATION -- USE CAUTION IF YOU EAT HERE

Our party of four adults opted to dine here on Sat, Sept 28, 2024 at 730pm. One member of our party has Celiac Disease and has an allergic reaction if he eats bread or pasta made with wheat (gluten). This restaurant offers a variety of gluten-free dishes.

Upon being seated, our waitress, Stephanie, greeted us, brought menus and took our beverage orders. The member of our party who must avoid gluten, told Stephanie of his allergy. She immediately said that she, personally, has gluten-free restrictions and she would review the entire menu.

After bringing our ice teas and waters, Stephanie went over the menu and noted the GF symbols beside the gluten-free dishes. Our gluten-free guest chose the creamy Tuscan White Bean Skillet. The other guests ordered Millionaire Meatloaf and Caribbean Salmon as well as appetizers of Fried Green Tomatoes and Pimento Cheese & Chips. Our gluten-free guest ordered an appetizer of Brussels Sprouts. We told Stephanie that each of us would have separate checks.

Stephanie returned with our appetizers and we began our meal. Entrees arrived and each of us were enjoying our separate dishes. After many minutes, Stephanie returned and said the Tuscan White Bean Skillet had been prepared with regular bread! This, after, our gluten-free guest had already eaten a slice of the bread, along with many forks of the beans & bacon portion. He immediately stopped eating and realized he had eaten the gluten-laden bread and the rest of the skillet was now contaminated, as more bread was in the dish.

Luckily, our gluten-free guest does not suffer EXTREME allergic reactions to gluten, as some folks do. We asked how the dish could have been prepared wrong, due to waitress' personal gluten allergy and her assurance of the kitchen's cooking protocols. She wanted to take the dish back and have the kitchen re-make it. Our gluten-free guest said NO, since he could not now trust the kitchen to safely prepare another dish. So he went without a meal. We all sat stunned at the mistake, especially since Stephanie touted her allergy awareness and assured us the kitchen routinely made gluten-free entrees.

After the three of us finished eating our respective meals, Stephanie returned with our checks. We were shocked that she gave our gluten-free guest a bill for $68, that included his iced tea, brussels sprouts and two Old-Fashioned mixed drinks, along with an order for Fried Green Tomatoes and an order of Pimento Cheese & Chips, that he DID NOT ORDER! On his bill, she had only zeroed-out (comped) the Tuscan White Bean Skillet. Not only did the kitchen make a serious mistake in making what was to be a guaranteed, gluten-free meal, but Stephanie did not comp the other items our gluten-free guest had eaten, as a "apology" for the error. AND, she also added to his bill, the two appetizers ordered by the other 3 members of our party.

After she said she couldn't adjust the bill further, we asked to speak to the manager. Upon his arrival, he never introduced himself, and never apologized for the kitchen or billing errors. We politely, but firmly, explained the situation and asked him for a goodwill gesture as a token of apology. He finally agreed to comp the items our guest had consumed, but he could not comp the alcohol, under state law. We then insisted on a $40 gift card to cover the cost of the alcohol. Stephanie returned with corrected bills and the $40 gift card. When asked again how this could have been allowed to happen, she said "it's never been an issue before".

Be FOREWARNED that this restaurant promotes its gluten-free dishes and its staff touts their allergy awareness, yet they have a disregard for guest safety and customer service. Fortunately, this was not a life-threatening situation, but it could have been for another guest. Sadly, errors occur. Yet the real disappointment was the failure of the staff to own responsibility, not apologize and not proactively "make things right" without a challenge by...

My school recently held our Christmas party at Twisted Oak. I collected all the orders and sent Twisted Oak a spreadsheet (a week before our party) of what each person was ordering and a few special instructions (steak cooked, etc). I also collected money from each person to cover their food, gratuity, and self-serve tea/water. The night of the party I arrived early to set up a few things. I noticed there were not enough chairs, so I mentioned it to the two staff, and they graciously brought out more chairs. Food was served at the time I requested. The food looked good, and we were ready to eat, however we did not have any utensils. One of the wait staff brought some out and laid it on a side table. Several of us got up and helped pass out the silverware. Several people ordered a side salad or salad as their entree and were being charged 75 cents extra for the salad dressing!? Some of my coworkers were complaining to the staff about their special requests not being met. The waitress came to me and apologized that she was not aware of the special requests. I told her not to worry about it. I stood up on the stage so all my co-workers could see me, and I told them that it was not the wait staff's fault that they were not aware of the special requests. I even called out one of my co-workers and told her she would be okay with her toasted hamburger buns. I told them the spreadsheet that I sent evidently was not passed on. When I said that I also mentioned the name of the person I sent it to. My intention was not to publicly humiliate this person but just to let my group know to chill with the wait staff. Everyone finished their meal and had a great time socializing afterwards. I was one of the last people to leave and I thanked the two staff members.

The next day I received a call from the owner berating me for calling out the name of the person I sent the menu to on a microphone in public. First, there was not a microphone and second it was my group and the two workers. He said I obviously did not know how to do math since he had to send me a list of how much each person owed. I don't work for his establishment, I don't know his gratuity rate for groups or how much he charges for drinks (self-serve tea and water), I found the menu and prices online...are those prices current?! He also said that I apparently do not make mistakes. I responded that I make them daily. His response was that I don't get called out for it in public. Who is he kidding we are teachers; we get complaints on Facebook and out in the community daily!? I told him that I did a lot of his waitstaff's work, getting orders, collecting money, making cards to help them know who ordered what. I told him he did not have to worry about us planning our next party there and his response was that was not an option because we were not welcome anymore. During our phone conversation Mr. Cole did accept responsibility for not giving the cook staff our special requests and apologized. However, nothing was ever mentioned about the concerns we had, short staff (2 wait staff to work the bar and deliver food to 45 people), not enough chairs, no silverware, and charge for salad dressing.

Neither I nor my co-workers had any intention of calling Twisted Oak to complain or post a bad review UNTIL the owner called to berate me over the phone. As teachers we are used to going with the flow and that is exactly what we did at our party.

Mr. Cole was extremely rude and confrontational to me over the phone. In his response to one of my co-workers Yelp review he stated that they value teachers and what we do. That's interesting because on the phone he basically called me dumb since he had to send me the individual totals and he said we were not welcome back to Twisted Oak. Mr. Cole, I sent an email to my co-workers that were in attendance, about your berating phone call (speaker phone by the way) and your apology about the food. However, I will never step foot into one of your restaurants again. Broad Street Burgers, Smokin’ Southern Cantina, Unwined...

Beautiful restaurant with a lively old world feel, warm rich wood motif, tasteful lighting and a fantastic bar selection. However, I had a horrible experience with the food and service. Our waitress seemed too busy to take any portion of our order though we all basically walked in knowing what we wanted as two of our party has dined there previously and I had read the menu ahead of time as I have celiacs and know to check for gluten free options. This is not my first time, I expressed that I needed to order gluten free, I made that clear to the waitress who stated that she too had gluten related issues, and told me not to order the chips as they were fried in the same fryer as the chicken, and I thought surely she would be on top of it. My friends ordered regular apps, I ordered a side of Brussel sprouts which came out way before the other apps, I also ordered the CREAMY TUSCAN WHITE BEAN SKILLET which has a GF signifier right on the menu. My order came out, beautiful presentation with toast points already submerged in the food. I exclaimed that it looked and smelled fabulous and that it was some of the best and freshest looking gf bread I’ve had in a restaurant. I starting eating with my friends, and when I was already a third of the way into eating, our waitress comes to the table with an empty plate telling me she was collecting the toast points as they were not gluten free. I had already had one and the bread had been all in the food already. She said they would get me the other bread, but the damage was done. They had every opportunity to do right, the menu and the waitress assured me I would have no issue dining with them, but here we were. I did not want the meal comped, I didn’t want a replacement, I already knew I was looking forward to digestive hell for a few days due to their negligence. I refused anything from the kitchen and stood up to breathe outside. Oh but then, when our tickets came, the glutinous appetizers my friends had are on my ticket on top of the mistaken meal. I was furious. I stood up and asked my friends to deal with it. They later walked out with some sort of gift card, but there isn’t much that can make up for that. I dressed up for this dining experience and was more let down than I could have imagined. If you have any dietary restrictions, I implore you to consider other restaurants...