The Shack — Restaurant in Staunton

I was in Staunton for work and came across The Shack while looking for restaurants in the area. It seemed interesting and apparently had a James Beard nominee as the head chef, so I decided to make a reservation.

This ended up being one of the more disappointing meals I have had in a long time. To be clear, the 1 star I have for food is taking the price point into account.

For an appetizer, I had the roasted focaccia with herb butter. Now, I will admit that it is partially my fault for even ordering this, but I saw it on the menu and thought "what could possibly make this worthy of being a paid item?" So I decided to find out. The answer was, of course, nothing. It was not terrible, but it was absolutely no better than bread I would expect to get for free at a restaurant of this supposed quality, and worse than some I've had. Honestly an embarrassing item to have on the menu.

I then had a half order of pappardelle with smoked brisket. It was fine, but certainly nothing special. The flavors were pretty standard and nothing really jumped out. It was no better than a dish I might make in my own kitchen. If I'd had this at Olive Garden, I would have been satisfied.

As an entree I had pork schnitzel with a fried egg on top. The parts of the schnitzel which were not covered by the egg were legitimately so dry as to be difficult to eat. The part with the egg white were edible, and the parts which actually had yoke at least approached good, but without any particularly interesting or standout flavors.

As a desert I had chocolate and caramel panna cotta. It was about as good as I'd expect to get in some casual spot that I randomly walked into off the street without any research. Not horrible, but average at best.

As a drink I had a ginger margarita. This was by far the most interesting thing I got there, but the flavor was so strong that it absolutely didn't belong on the menu with the other items, none of which had particularly strong flavors. The gentleman sitting next to me, who ordered it when he saw me drinking it, described his first sip of it as "a kick in the teeth".

While I didn't have it, the person to my left who ordered the soft shell crab described it as "disgusting" and looking at it, the amount of breading on it was absolutely inside.

The waiter was attentive and pleasant. The atmosphere was neutral, I should have seen if it was possible to sit outside, but when I arrived there was already a table with my name on it.

All in all I was very disappointed after looking forward to this meal. I am returning to Staunton for work and will not be returning...

To keep our “foodie” membership card current, we drove three hours to check out the Shack 😁. There is a diner who loves this place, in fact just read the rest of the reviews and you will see how many say just that. It reminded me a lot of 11 Madison, the 3 Michelin started restaurant in New York and Noma in Copenhagen because of its focus on seasonal vegetables, love of fermentation, and Asian inspired techniques.

We did the five course plus the dip ($25 supplement). We opted out of the wine pairing. My favorite dishes were the sweet and salty dip with America’s finest bag of chips, chestnuts in the umami-full broth and the flaky flounder with the crunchy top and fresh pea shoots and dumplings.

The Shack gets an A+ for ingredients and technique but an F for flavor, and ummm dare I say results. Exhibit A: savory dishes had either one flavor profile such as the sour carrot salad, sour king fish or the salty amuse bouche. There was a “reheated” poultry taste for the two strings of duck in the pasta dish. Which brings me to my partner’s main complaint: there were 4 ounces of protein (if that) in the $250 meal. The dessert was the saddest part of the meal for me. So much potential again, just bad execution. The chocolate desert for example had flowery undertones that overtook the subtle chocolate notes. It made it inedible for both of us. Even the berries that came with it and the tuille tasted bad. I mean they worked hard on this one small cup, it had at least 4 separate desserts in it. I tried the different elements together and that didn’t work. I tried them separately and that didn’t work either. I mean that one little dessert pot spoke of everything that was amazing at the restaurant: great technique and good ingredients. But the way they were combined and flavored resulted in an offensive dish. The Baltimore snowball also didn’t work. The grapefruit granita was good by itself, the marshmallow cream was good on its own, but the green spiced crumble added to the top ruined it all. It clashed with the grapefruit and completely hid the subtle marshmallow flavor. The service was good. The tables were too close together to allow for intimate or personal conversations. In fact that might be an upside if you are a solo diner. You can easily start a conversation with friendly locals, especially after they gulp a few wine glasses down.

All in all, the Shack has all the right ingredients to be a destination on its own, but until they figure out how to create harmony and fireworks in every bite they will be relegated to the “coulda, woulda,...

We were on our way back from Kentucky and decided to look up places ahead to eat, finding the review for this place. I wanted to try somewhere new.

Firstly, I'm fairly certain it is called the shack because it's tiny. If you don't like somewhat noisy environs, this isn't the place for you.

Secondly, don't poke your head in unless you're looking for a $13+ entree. I think a couple of the breakfast scramble/items were a bit less, but I wasn't interested in breakfast. My boyfriend got the burger and fries for $13, he loved it. Said it was a great burger. I however got the fried chicken sandwich and fries for $13. I was a little iffy on the sandwich, when I first bit into ir, it did have an amazing crunch but that's the best thing I can say about it. I will say, I didn't get the b and b pickles, I'm not a fan and I got their shake shack aioli on the side -I'm glad I did, it's mayo mixed with a sorghum hotsauce, but in taste kinda reminds me of mustard, which I loathe. So it was pretty much lettuce, grilled bun and the chicken. For $13 I expect a big juicy plump breast. If it was white meat chicken, they marinated in something funky, as it was awfully dark. I know some of you will say dark meat is tastier, but I have found very few dark meat preparations I like. Then I got a bite of a big piece of gristle and I was done with the sandwich. The fries I Wil say, were exactly as fries should be, hot, crispy, seasoned pefectly.

We also got bread and biscuits, sorghum butter and cherry jam. Those were ok. He got coffee and I got iced tea. Our bill before tip was $35. For the experience I had, I might come back...