| rev:text
| - Perhaps it was my high expectations for Block and Grinder, but the food and atmosphere was just not all that for my friends and I. I made a reservation earlier in that day for a table for 3 and when we got there, I didn't see my name in their book... but there was literally nobody else in the restaurant so it's not like we needed one anyways (on a Tuesday evening).
The atmosphere here was severely lacking - maybe it was the boring, chain restaurant-like decor and furniture, the weird lighting, or the fact that it was completely empty for most of the night except for our table. Service was okay... nothing to call home about and they could definitely use some smiling.
The food came out fairly quickly after we ordered. We ordered the special 18 oz prime rib eye of the night (not knowing it was $55, of course) and it was definitely cooked medium rare, but was a little on the cold side for me. The meat was really hard to cut with the steak knife they provided me with for some reason - was having some real struggles there. However, for $55, I have definitely had better rib eye else where, like Del Frisco's.
In addition to the steak, we ordered a trio of charcuterie and a trio of sides. The charcuterie wasn't specactular - the spicy chorizo and wild boar sopressata you could most definitely find at your local Whole Foods at $8-9 for an entire sausage rather than the few pieces you get here. The mustard and crostini was good. The drunken goat cheese I've had elsewhere was much better.
As for the sides - the mac and cheese was the best dish of the night probably, but was very runny. The grits were probably the worst dish of the night, as they had absolutely no flavor or seasoning whatsoever and seemed undercooked. We had to add a ton of salt because it was so, so bland. The sweet potato puree was pretty standard.
We also ordered the pork belly dish to start. While it was beautifully glazed/caramelized on the outside, I have never in my life had such chewy, jaw-breaking pork belly in my life. It had good flavor, but I'm just unsure as to how it was cooked because it literally made my jaw sore to chew through. It was basically like rubber.
I'm not sure if this was just a terribly off night because nobody else was eating and if the food was stale because of that or what, but our experience definitely was not on par with the raving reviews on Yelp. Everything was also overpriced, in my opinion. Over $100 for not that much food. Definitely better dining options in Charlotte after our experience here.
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