Hickory Restaurants

Ambiance is not great, and the service is really Mom n Pop (read: slow but sweet)... and yet the food is authentic. And when I mean authentic, while it may not be the best Thai you have ever had, it's probably the best for Hickory and perhaps in the regional Greater Hickory Metro area. They have vegetarian options and the prices are good. VERY good for lunch and reasonable for dinner.

Favorite Dish: Pad Thai is more than acceptable. Spring Rolls, Thai Rolls, Buddha Rolls and their soups, too. Freshly prepared and served fairly well.

I always try to find a local coffee shop when I visit a new town. Copperbean is a nice place patterned after Starbucks. Sadly, they made a tragic mistake while making my cappucino, they added a horrible syrup to it. I am a coffee snob and don't like any flavorings to be added. The kicker is they asked me now once, but twice if I wanted anything added. The fact that we were the only two customers made this even more unfortunate.

Looking for basic, cheap food? Mom's is a local diner that will hit the spot. We stopped for a late breakfast and I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, steak and eggs at $8.50

Favorite Dish: I had steak and eggs. Nothing to write home about, but it was good.

We stopped here for lunch and I was pleasantly surprised. It has a sports bar atmosphere with several tv's but it is very open and there is a lot of light inside. The food and service were good. Not off the charts, but it hit the spot.

Favorite Dish: I had penne with chicken and vegetables.

My wife and I have 3 children under 3 years old and it had been almost a year since we had gone out just the two of us. I had a gift certificate to the Peddler so we decided to give it a try. We were seated quickly and the ambiance was acceptable. Maybe a little loud for an upscale steak house.

The chef rolled the cart to our table with two cuts of beef- the Ribeye and New York Strip. We ordered and the steaks- 17 oz Ribeye for me and the NY Strip for my wife and they were cut in front of us. I ordered my Ribeye medium rare and my wife ordered hers the same.

We proceeded to the salad bar where I was not surprised but disappointed to find only iceberg lettuce for the salad. The person who had cut our steaks for us came up to me and told me that my cut had come in at 20 oz instead of 17 and told me that he would cut another for me if I wished. I told him that 20 oz was fine.

Our steaks arrived in a timely manner but I was once again disappointed to find that my medium rare was pretty much rare. It had a cold red center that extended from about 1/8" from the top to 1/8" from the bottom. To me this is rare- definitely not medium rare.

I asked our nice waitress for my steak to be cooked a little more which she obliged. My steak was brought back to me cooked correctly but now both the top and bottom were charred. Although I was not happy with how my cut was cooked the quality of the beef was certainly good.

I found that for the price the food was pretty disappointing for what is supposed to be an upscale steak house. For about the same money I can go to a Ruths Chris steakhouse and get an exquisite, perfectly cooked steak with a much better wine selection and far better ambiance. However, I would have to drive at least an hour to Charlotte.

But at the same time, I guess I really shouldn't expect much better in Hickory. I have lived here all my life and upscale dining establishments that actually earn the right to be called upscale can be counted on one hand.