Not so Open Kitchen

A few weeks ago, Shelly and I went to the Open Kitchen on Morehead Street. This restaurant claims to be the first in Charlotte to serve pizza so it's been around awhile.  It was pretty easy to get there since it was right off of 277. Shelly and I got a table and waited for Anna to arrive and we were served bread in a basket while we looked over the menu. Here was the first disappointment. The bread was basically the kind of bread you could pick up at Walmart as a loaf and serve to friends at your house. It wasn't heated or served with any fun oils or spreads, just butter. They did have a few other options like those little hard breadsticks and crackers but for a really old Italian restaurant, it just didn't quite cut it.

The second disappointment? No mixed drinks. I'm not a wine or a beer person. In fact, I barely drink alcohol at all, but I certainly like a little something when I'm having a nice dinner. There was nothing available. I guess this isn't so weird because there have been a few other restaurants like that (Mert's Heart and Soul, you know I'm talking about you)...but I still don't like it. For dinner, Shelly and I each ordered the Chicken Parmigiana (the Top 100 dish). Anna got fettucine and added chicken. Here was the third disappointment. She asked if something green could be added - broccoli, etc. They had NONE. Who doesn't have broccoli in a restaurant? She ended up getting mushrooms on it instead. I also ordered the antipasto platter while Shelly and Anna got a Greek salad. Anna ordered the dressing on the side, but it came tossed in despite her wishes. The waitress also asked both of them if they wanted beets, which they did not, but didn't think to ask me...so I ended up with beets on my antipasto platter (which wasn't listed on the menu as one of the ingredients), necessitating me scraping them off before I could even enjoy the platter...and I was HUNGRY!

Our dinners came out and smelled delicious, renewing my hope for the evening. Anna's plate had a HUGE number of mushrooms on it, but it still looked good. Shelly's and mine looked good as well.


Chicken Parmigiana

Here was the next disappointment - the dish really wasn't that great. The chicken was pretty tough, the spaghetti on the side uninspired, and the sauce was only so-so. The best part was the cheese. They could've sent out a plate of the cheese and little bit of sauce and it would have been much better than what we were served.

The next disappointment: our check was not split into individuals and the man in charge seemed very angry with the waitress for not doing that. He looked at us like idiots when we started to list what our dishes were and made the waitress come up and figure it out. THEN, to our horror, he begin saying nasty things about a woman sitting near where we were. I guess she was having trouble deciding what to order and he said (very loudly) "Well, I'll make it easy. The kitchen is closed" and started muttering about her not making up her mind and wasting time.

All in all, I doubt a perfect plate of food would have made this experience better given the attitude of the man in charge and the things missing (fresh veggies, nice bread). I don't know if it was an off night, but I can assure you I will not be returning there to find out.