River Birch Lodge — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

Normally RIVER BIRCH LODGE in Winston-Salem is fair to good. The last 2 times I went: the 1st time was fair to poor overall, and the 2nd visit was absolutely terrible. The staff appears to not want customers after 8:30p. Just look at their behavior and how few customers they have coming in during that time frame (and earlier) to know the truth of this. On the 1st visit as I entered the restaurant, the greeter reminded me “We close in 22 minutes.” The message is clear: He would rather close up instead of serve. I was the only customer in the seating area. Service was subpar and my supposedly rare Ribeye was near medium, but pretty good none the less. The other food was only so-so. My wine and water were very slow in coming. After the food was delivered she checked on me once after 3 minutes, only, not to see her again until after I had finished eating which left me short of drink and I did not order a second glass of wine. The 2nd visit (The terrible one) I came in at 18 minutes to 9:00. They seated me fairly quickly without comment to time. I ordered coffee (I had to ask for cream twice). Ordered prime rib rare (cooked more towards medium rare but good meat overall, although I ate well less than 1/5th of it due to circumstances that ensued.). Ordered a baked potato with double all the fixings plus butter and sour cream (only got potato with regular fixings). I ordered my side of Brussels sprouts and asked for a cheese sauce for the sprouts (no cheese sauce ever came, Brussels sprouts were buried in pepper so the cheese sauce probably would have made them edible: otherwise they were terrible.) About 3 minutes after being served a different staff person asked how things were. I requested the double potato fixings, plus butter and sour cream, asked again for cream for coffee, and cheese sauce for Brussels sprouts. Butter and coffee cream were delivered: nothing else. Before I could use the cream I unfortunately spilt it by accident. After several minutes I was able to flag down my waitress about the split cream. I tried to talk about the missing items, but, giving her the benefit of the doubt, she walked away without hearing me. I never saw my waitress again. I do not drink coffee without cream (which no replacement ever came). I have dry mouth issues so I don’t eat without drink. I gave up and put butter on a cold potato, which added some moisture and I ate about half of that. I tried unsuccessfully to flag down a staff member, all of whom were cleaning (I assume), and too busy to look my way as they walked past. I finally (after 14 minutes with no contact from any staff) gave up. I was putting my personal items together to leave and someone came up and asked if there was a problem. I explained what had happened. She responded in elevated voice “Well you came in at 5 minutes to closing what did you expect?!?!” I responded “I walked in the door at 8:42 not 8:55, and I expected service”. She accused me of lying. At that point, I blew up and raised my voice significantly in reply. I made it clear I would not pay because I had eaten practically nothing. I explained the same to someone who came up and said he was a manager. Even though I had already told him that I wasn’t going pay, he offered that I wouldn’t have to pay and apologized. I thanked him for his offer but I wasn’t planning to pay anyway. Thus we were in agreement that I would not have to pay and he clearly understood my situation. He offered a box to take the food. I responded “I am not paying, so I will not take the food.” I left a paper message at the bar for the top manager with my name and phone with a request for him/her to call. No one called. I hope they solve...

Firstly, we searched our new home city (just moved to Winston-Salem two weeks ago) for a great, family-friendly restaurant, nearby. Armed only with Google reviews, we headed to River Birch Lodge with no real expectations. We have eight-year-old triplets, often difficult to please when it comes to meal time. This was a definitive test of just how kid-friendly the restaurant is...and here, insofar as the food and service were concerned, the meal delivered a solid five stars. The menu is pricey and that much was unexpected. This is Winston-Salem, not Chicago or Houston. Nonetheless:

My wife ordered a salad and added salmon, the net result was - in her view - an excellent choice and enjoyable meal. I ordered soup (tomato basil) which was thick and tasty, if oversalted. I also had the chicken salad sandwich, prepared as a wrap (an option they offer for most sandwiches, as I recall). The wrap was tasty, if very dry. If I were cheffing (and I once owned a fine dining restaurant, and know from whence I speak) I would add chopped walnuts and pecans to this chicken salad, as well as chopped celery, and sultana, muscat and monukka raisins. These additions not only make for a more moist chicken salad, they add complexity to the flavour. Also missing from the chicken as prepared were dill and tarragon. If I were invited, I would gladly co-make a sample of this recipe with the River Birch Lodge chef and taste test the results with actual customers. If I didn't already know the excellent outcome, I would not be willing to wager this upgrading of the chicken salad would be a smash hit.

Oh, I'm leaving out one standout staple: the house potato chips were tasty and unique...a blend of regular potatoes and sweet potatoes were thinly sliced, fried and lightly salted, resulting in a wonderful addition to our daughters' meals. I had the house french fries, which I thought were quite good, as well.

Finally, we shall be returning, because our first outing was a positive one, with a worthy performance from our server, and protracted and pleasant tableside visit from the restaurant's manager. All said, a...

Only giving this place two stars cause our waitress (she was amazing and very sweet) I do believe her name was Katherine. Other then that everything else was honestly mediocre. A waste of my time and money. Unfortunately I took my girlfriend here for Valentine’s Day. Little did we know that this would be one of the worse restaurant experiences we’ve ever had. To start off the male host in the front was utterly rude and snobby before we even sat down. Then they take us to the seating outside (it’s cold and rainy) my girlfriend didn’t want to be outside (if we wanted to eat outside I would’ve grilled myself and ate on our patio) granted there was a heater and it was covered but, they sat us near the opening that leads outside. I went to the host stand to tell them that we don’t mind waiting extra for another seat inside... the hosts looked at me and completely ignored me even gave me a smirk. So I went back to where we were seated. Fortunately our waitress realized we were cold and unhappy with our seating.. so she moved us closer to the heater and away from the zipper door thing they have on the patio (thank you Katherine). Then time for the food.. they got everything wrong.. and I mean everything. They got our sides wrong and the steak wrong.. only thing they did right was the salmon.. unfortunately I won’t be returning nor would I recommend this place. I get it Valentine’s Day is stressful and VERY busy.. but, at the end of the day you guys should be ready for service.. You should know how to grill steak.. You should know how to put the right sides on the plate.. We ended up going to another restaurant after leaving just so we could actually eat and enjoy our night. We literally paid for food we didn’t eat or even take home. Highly disappointed and...