Sophie's Café-Bistro — Restaurant in Whiteville

My family ate here on our return drive from the Southern Outer Banks. I always look for a nice lunch stop on road trips to give us all a rest and some time to stretch, even if that means an hour off the road. After getting off of the highway and passing traffic lined up at the fast food restaurants, we navigated to downtown Whiteville and found Sophie's. Walking through the front door was like an oasis. The place was not crowded at lunch time on a Saturday and the staff greeted us warmly. My young boys had room to roam around the place and they even had an X-Box Kinetic for them to burn some energy. They restaurant is decorated with antiques and has a soda fountain, lunch counter, and small lounge area with sofas. I had the caprese sandwich, my boys shared a grilled cheese with potato chips, and my wife had the BLT. The food was delicious, and arrived reasonably quick. The drive back to the highway through this charming town was even a pleasant surprise. I can't recommend Sophie's highly enough. Our beach trip travel day is normally not much fun, but Sophie's...

So I’ll start by saying I love the food. We have went here for years and while the service while dining in has always been lackluster, the food is something you can’t get anywhere else in Whiteville.

The reason for this terrible review is because lately the service is just down right unacceptable for any business. A lot of times they won’t answer the phone period if it’s later in the day... today, (Saturday - they close at 3pm) we call to place an order for pickup around 2pm and they say “we have already cleaned the grill since it has been so slow - we apologize we are going to just close early”. What kind of business turns away customers because of a “slow day”?! No wonder your slow. Most of your positive reviews are probably fake news. There is no way that many people find this kind of behavior from a business acceptable.

I’ll make sure we never bother trying to give you anymore business! We don’t want to inconvenience you anymore. If your a local I recommend giving your hard earned money to someone who actually appreciates you...

My family reunion (20 people varies arrival times starting at 8:00 am). met at Sophie’s for breakfast yesterday. The procedure is place order at counter and pay. Then go to your table and wait for your order to be served to you. There was confusion and long wait times for drink/coffee orders. Food took a long time to be served and some members had slightly cold food instead of hot food. Two disappointing occurrences were being served instant oatmeal for their oatmeal (easily could have done in the hotel room) and a family member not receiving the slice of cake ordered when arrived but was sold to other customers who got to go orders instead of eating in the establishment. My veggie burrito was excellent but it was not accompanied by garnish or sauce. Just a burrito on a plate. All in all, the food was good, the decor was interesting, but the restaurant lacked organization and did not prepare all...