Pollard 107 South — Restaurant in Vinton

On our second try of this place and I don't know how, but everything was worse this time around. Called in a take out order for a salad, cheese steak sandwich (medium rare), side of smoked gouda mac and cheese, and a side of steak fries.

Was told 20 minutes and it would be ready. Arrived within 20 minutes and....a sign at the front stating please seat yourself. I tracked down a server and asked where to pick up a take out order and was directed to the bar. As with most bars, extremely noisy and it was decently busy, bartender was nice.

I was told food was still being finished and would be right out. 10 minutes later I was handed the food and went home, about a 5 minute drive. For starters, the sandwich, fries and mac and cheese were barely warm, like they had been sitting for awhile which seemed confusing considering I was told the food was still being prepared when I got there.

The fries we received were not steak fries as advertised, and at no point during the phone call to order were we told we'd be getting what I can only describe as Food Lion generic seasoned fries. Super salty, greasy, and again, not even hot.

The cheese steak sandwich was easily the worst I've ever had from a restaurant. My first bite was a giant hunk of rare gristle and fat, which got spat out immediately. The second bite was another large piece, however it was rare and had ZERO seasoning. Not even a hint of salt or pepper. The veggies were also not seasoned, in huge chunks and half cooked. The bread was toasted on a grill and absorbed the burnt carbon flavor. Needless to say I didn't even come close to finishing the sandwich.

The salad, according to the person that ate it, was ok.

Now for the "smoked gouda" mac and cheese....I'm not exaggerating when I say the $7 "portion" was literally three tablespoons worth of mac and cheese. Also, zero seasoning, no cheese flavor, no salt, no pepper. I got more flavor out of the green onions it was garnished with.

I will definitely not be giving this place a third chance. Advice for whoever owns this place.....go to your nearest grocery store and pick up some salt, pepper, garlic, ANYTHING to give the food some flavor. Might also help to keep the food warm, portions priced fair and make sure items not in stock are communicated...

As beautiful as the photo is, the entire experience screamed ALL THAT GLITTERS ISNT GOLD—- this may be the longest review ever but hopefully it’ll be received as a complementary consultation for improvement (feel free to donate to my 501c3 if any or all advice is applied 💛)

ok so this would’ve technically been my 3RD try, the first two times i solely went for the lobster roll— both times it was unavailable so i left. ultimately the uneasiness in my spirit on the last attempt should’ve been listened to but my stomach said otherwise.

upon walking through the back, as there is no front street parking, we see a sign that says ‘walk to the front to be seated’ only to walk to the front and see a sign that says ‘seat where you’d like’ 🙃 not the biggest deal for an able bodied customer but clearly a sign of improvement, moving forward

upon sitting at the bar, there was no greeting ofc (which ive straddled with either being the result of people being overworked or uncomfortable speaking to those that don’t look like them) either way i began to brace myself for a very long experience as apparently there was only one person working…. there were two other people noticed who sometimes went behind the bar but did absolutely nothing to reduce the pressure for Brooke, the bartender/server/busser

orders were placed & we retreated closer to the fire pit, food had not been cleaned up from previous guests & wasn’t cleaned up until our food was brought out. i ordered the Steakhouse Burger it didn’t come out with the A1 or Worcestershire sauce that was advertised—- AND IT NEEDED IT. i ordered a medium well burger, not sure if sitting it next to the fire for about 10 more mins as i waited for the sauce to give the burger some kind of moisture made it well done but DRY, I’ll leave it at that. my friend ordered the Philly cheese steak and was super unimpressed with the tasteless entree.

We could only force ourselves not to waste so much of the food. Our hearts go out to the employees who are there because the atmosphere itself doesn’t seem healthy… any place that doesn’t put an ounce of LOVE into their food probably isn’t putting a pound of LOVE into the work space & the reviews show that as well, sad.

three strikes & would never...

We arrived at 1:30pm for Mothers Day Brunch. It was myself, my mom and my fiancé. We sat down and got our drink order in. We waited about 25 minutes until I got up to ask our server to take our food order. We could see her putting together silverware for the entire time we waited to have our order taken. It was very evident that everyone around us was unhappy with the service. The couple beside us had no food when we walked in and were just waiting on their check for 30+ mins. One table behind us got up to get their own silverware. Another table that was directly behind us refused to wait any longer for their food and wanted to leave. The server told them it was on the belt and if they still wanted it they could bring it back. The people in front of us got their food discounted because of a reason i don’t know? At about 3:10 we were given the 5 more minutes talk because we had been there for so long. We were now the only people left on that side of the building. We gave it about 15 more minutes and we asked to just get our check for our drinks and leave. We were done waiting. The server told us she would go and box it up for us and let us take it if it was ready because it was supposed to be ready “5 minutes ago”… well guess what, the food wasn’t ready so we paid full price for our drinks and wasted two hours of our time to not even eat. I was embarrassed that my mom had to spend her Mother’s Day like that. Burgers and Fries is all our table Ordered - we were there from 1:30-3:30pm. We went to Rosie’s and got better food and service. That’s sad… Server told us there was only 4 of them working? Where is management? Transparency and communication would’ve made all the difference, and it shouldn’t be the servers responsibility to...