CLT Eats – A Charlotte Restaurant Review

Main Seating Area

One of the great things about reviewing restaurants is it gets me to branch and and try new things. It’s easy to rely on the ones I love most but they can be worn out. I get excited about checking out something new. A friend of mine mentioned she wanted to check out Common House and I was definitely up for the challenge. I’d driven by several times on the way to Zada Jane’s, Dish and the Penguin and noticed it but hadn’t yet mustered up enough curiosity to check it out.

We met over there on a rainy day which wouldn’t have been as much of a bummer if it hadn’t have been for the fact that the parking lot isn’t paved which means you have to watch for puddles. We walked in and the entrance to the restaurant is to the right after entering the building. The building houses more than just this restaurant. The restaurant was very clean and attractive on the inside although a hair on the sterile side. We were seated at a booth near the door. Kind of wished we could’ve been seated at the other side of the restaurant near the windows but it was fairly packed on that end.

The menu isn’t terribly broad but what is on there looks quite appealing. We felt compelled to try the fried pickle spears and placed an order for those. While waiting on the appetizer I was eyeballing the entrees pretty hard and trying to settle on which one to zero in on. The waitress returned after an unusually long period and mentioned that entrees are not served at lunch. That was pretty disappointing. There was no indication on the menu about that and I’d to be honest the waitress’s slowness was not reacting well with my hunger – I get grumpy easily when I’m hungry. Fortunately there were several sandwich options I’d previously noticed that looked very appealing. I ended up ordering the Roasted Chicken Salad Sandwich.

After a very long time our appetizer showed up. The fried pickle spears were good but to be honest I prefer pickle slices to spears – better batter to pickle ratio. After another very long wait our waitress returned with our sandwiches. These were also very good. I don’t know what was going on with the service but it really was extremely and unacceptably slow. It wasn’t all that busy as there were several tables open but it wasn’t slow in there. I’m reasonably patient but this was unbelievably poor.

Aside from the service I thought this was a pretty good restaurant. Not over-the-top but solidly good. The service today absolutely ruined the experience for me. I was going to not recommend this place but it’s quite possible the service was isolated to this particular staff member. If you are prepared for an extended excursion and aren’t particularly hungry you’ll probably enjoy Common House, even if the service was as poor as what I received.

Pros

• Decent Atmosphere
• Good Food
• Decent Menu

Cons

• Atrocious Service
• Entrees not available at lunch

Rating: Recommended