Good New Restaurants

[Guest]

I must say, this site has been FAR better thus far than Dion's work at the Agenda...maybe all the terrible takes can just be blamed on Ted after all

To be fair, Ted does not want a negative take on any business that could pay him to do sponsored content.

I found that out first hand when this article below...

https://qcnerve.com/the-james-k-polk-building-a-eulogy/

Became this.

https://www.charlotteagenda.com/160321/polk-building-demolished-to-make-way-for-apartments/

And that’s one of the reasons why I stopped caring about writing for the agenda.


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[CLT2014]

43 minutes ago, mpretori said:

I know multinational immigrants whose english was not their first language. I know their first job in the United States was for BOA. They excelled in their position and are in upper management.

Just because you don't know english 100%, doesn't make you unqualified. 

I don't know your IT background, but having a translator in a website is easy to create. 

Also, there are many multinational restaurants in Seattle that have Caucasian visitors and thrive of off them.  They are not going bankrupt anytime soon.  

 

The United States is a melting pot, from its foundings when Europe concord the Natives of the new world. I appreciate your last question and answer, but everything before is based off on prejudices makes immigrants look inferior. 

I 100% agree that an immigrant can get a job at BofA and rise to be the CEO. It is also true that immigrants are often some of the hardest working small business owners in our country, which was my point. 

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/immigrants-play-an-outsize-role-in-small-business.html

[Vitamin_N]

I tried Velvet Taco at Optimist Hall yesterday and it was outstanding. My favorite was the Thai curry-flavored queso dip. The brisket taco was quite good as well.

[Bruco72]

Ate at Mal Pan in Piedmont Row tonight. It’s a taqueria that’s fast casual during the day and table service at nice. 

Decor is very nice but you do feel a bit like you’re at a fast casual place more than a typical restaurant but....

I thought the food and drinks were excellent. It’s obvious that basically everything is made in house. Split two steak tacos on great housemade blue corn tortillas then got a California burrito with steak and guacamole and fries in burrito. Both outstanding. 

Had a Paloma which was good. Obviously fresh squeezed juice. My mojito was outstanding. 

Presentation was great on everything. 

Hope it can break the Piedmont curse 

 

 

 

[CLT>]

On 12/14/2019 at 9:29 AM, Jayvee said:

It's fascinating to me the different experiences people can have. I really enjoyed north and we had stellar service and the food came out pronto. I'd recommend giving it another go. 

 

Indaco is superior tho

Always like to give new places at least 2 shots, usually with a month in between to work out kinks.

[grodney]

I went to Velvet Taco at Optimist Hall today. I stood in line for 5-10 minutes and ordered 2 tacos. I got my food exactly 29 minutes after I placed my order.

[KJHburg]

Chick-fil-A is test marketing some new items in the Charlotte market (and outside of Atlanta, Houston and Dallas Ft Worth we are one of their biggest markets)

and I heard from an insider the famous brownies will be coming back soon.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/01/02/chick-fil-a-picks-charlotte-market-for-modified.html

[Matthew.Brendan]

On 1/3/2020 at 5:22 PM, KJHburg said:

Chick-fil-A is test marketing some new items in the Charlotte market (and outside of Atlanta, Houston and Dallas Ft Worth we are one of their biggest markets)

and I heard from an insider the famous brownies will be coming back soon.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/01/02/chick-fil-a-picks-charlotte-market-for-modified.html

Would be nice if they served the breakfast burritos past 10:30

[ScottCLT]

But how were the tacos? 

I ate at Ava - had their fennel sausage pizza. It was good, but not really competition to Inizio and Capishe. I'm most looking forward to Botiwala.

[Ric0_0]

2 hours ago, ScottCLT said:

But how were the tacos? 

I ate at Ava - had their fennel sausage pizza. It was good, but not really competition to Inizio and Capishe. I'm most looking forward to Botiwala.

 There is a Botiwala in DT Alpharetta and all the people around here have said it's fantastic, so I presume that your hope will be matched or even exceeded.

[Crown]

Went to white duck taco in belmont over the weekend. No booze yet. Tacos were good I had the Steak and the thai peanut and they were really delicious with double wrapped tortillas. Chips and queso was unremarkable. Still kind of feels like you're eating at the bottom of a storage facility. 

[CLTProductions]

1 hour ago, Crown said:

Went to white duck taco in belmont over the weekend. No booze yet. Tacos were good I had the Steak and the thai peanut and they were really delicious with double wrapped tortillas. Chips and queso was unremarkable. Still kind of feels like you're eating at the bottom of a storage facility. 

They still don’t have booze? That’s odd, they have ABC permits issued. And agreed, I’d rather have velvet taco and what a weird weird weird space for them to go

[Crown]

22 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

They still don’t have booze? That’s odd, they have ABC permits issued. And agreed, I’d rather have velvet taco and what a weird weird weird space for them to go

Whoops I went Thursday night, not over the weekend. Still trying to get a grip of what day it is after the holidays. Quite possible they had booze by the weekend. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Crown said:

Went to white duck taco in belmont over the weekend. No booze yet. Tacos were good I had the Steak and the thai peanut and they were really delicious with double wrapped tortillas. Chips and queso was unremarkable. Still kind of feels like you're eating at the bottom of a storage facility. 

Meanwhile their $psf lease is more expensive at the storage facility in Belmont, than on Biltmore Ave in DT Asheville. 

Edited January 6, 2020 by Guest

[swh1972]

Mattie's Diner coming back! To reopen at the old tire place at 3100 The Plaza! This is awesome news!

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[11 HouseBZ]

15 hours ago, swh1972 said:

Mattie's Diner coming back! To reopen at the old tire place at 3100 The Plaza! This is awesome news!

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

Here's the link to the story. 

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/whats-in-store/article238655608.html

[Matthew.Brendan]

Directly on the corner of Shamrock and Plaza, that is AWESOME for that location.

I'm sure the clubbers at Crystal will love it too

[Desert Power]

16 hours ago, swh1972 said:

Mattie's Diner coming back! To reopen at the old tire place at 3100 The Plaza! This is awesome news!

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

Oh hells yeah!

[Vitamin_N]

Had lunch today at Ace #3 in the Belmont neighborhood, across from Sweet Lew's. Very good burger and their fry game is strong. Recommended.

[11 HouseBZ]

Had lunch at Lulu's Maryland Chicken and Seafood today with the family including my bro-n-law from Maryland.

Hands down one of the best new restaurants I've had in a minute. Bro-n-law said their crab cake was *the* best he's had since moving down here and better than most he's had back home. Though I'm not well acquainted with good crab cake (was raised eating cheap store bought, heavily breaded ones), I was thoroughly impressed. 

Everything that was fried and battered wasn't too heavy on batter and oddly wasn't too greasy. I recommend the cabbage and seafood mac for sides. I normally would of had collards but they serve theirs with vinegar, of which I skipped on. Just not my preference. Oh and grab a piece of cornbread for dessert, made fresh daily.

Pro tips: The owner told us to eat the seafood with the "special sauce" and the chicken with "mumbo sauce". Do what he says. The platters are very generous, so I recommend splitting between yourself and a friend. If you have kids that have kid tastes, they do have a chicken tenders meal with curly fries. 

Conclusion: Great place by good people making delicious food. 

 

[Madison Parkitect]

Been wanting to go by that place since the Agenda had an article about it, it sounds legit.

[JHart]

I need to try it out again because when I went, it was pretty bad. It was 2 days after that article came out and the owner opened the store an hour later saying they were so swamped the day before that they sold out of everything and he needed to go buy new ingredients (although he later admitted to staying up late watching the Thursday night football game at the restaurant and it was a rough morning). $20 crab cake came out without a single piece of lump crabmeat, it was like he went to the grocery store and bought every can of crab they had.. All of the sauces came straight from a Sysco jug into the serving bottles.

I'm sure they have gotten better since then but it was not a good crab cake at all when I went 

[11 HouseBZ]

Our only "complaint"  was maybe wait times when ordering at the counter. I figure they'll find a way to speed up the ordering process. The screens above the counter were off, so maybe putting the menu up there for people still in line? And definitely printing out a few dozen menus to put in people's hands while waiting in line. 

Edited January 9, 2020 by 11 HouseBZ

[wilmore]

18 hours ago, 11 HouseBZ said:

Had lunch at Lulu's Maryland Chicken and Seafood today with the family including my bro-n-law from Maryland.

Hands down one of the best new restaurants I've had in a minute. Bro-n-law said their crab cake was *the* best he's had since moving down here and better than most he's had back home. Though I'm not well acquainted with good crab cake (was raised eating cheap store bought, heavily breaded ones), I was thoroughly impressed. 

Everything that was fried and battered wasn't too heavy on batter and oddly wasn't too greasy. I recommend the cabbage and seafood mac for sides. I normally would of had collards but they serve theirs with vinegar, of which I skipped on. Just not my preference. Oh and grab a piece of cornbread for dessert, made fresh daily.

Pro tips: The owner told us to eat the seafood with the "special sauce" and the chicken with "mumbo sauce". Do what he says. The platters are very generous, so I recommend splitting between yourself and a friend. If you have kids that have kid tastes, they do have a chicken tenders meal with curly fries. 

Conclusion: Great place by good people making delicious food. 

 

yes, this place is awesome - the portions are ENORMOUS, have had the crab cake platter (which is a bit expensive, but it's tons of crab), and the trout platter, which was like $10 for 3 giant pieces of trout, on rice, with two sides. 

it is very slow at the counter, which is the downside. but the owner is talking with everyone and cracking jokes, it's a pleasant experience

Edited January 9, 2020 by wilmore

[KJHburg]

^^^^ I just went by that place today when I was on Thrift that location is great for them with all the new offices opening in those warehouses.  I will stop by next time.