09/29/09

Great place for friendly service and southern food favorites

by CLTFoodie

Hotel Charlotte offers the kind of charm that few restaurants in town can match. The place is a veteran of the restaurant scene and has a little wear around the edges, but it's a comforable place to enjoy good food with family and friends. The service staff is very friendly and there's a new chef. He offered crabcakes as a special the last time I was there and today he served homemade chicken and dumplings with sides of collard greens and mac and cheese. This was the kind of food my grandmother made and it was all very authentic-right down to the fresh made biscuit. I'm happy to have rediscovered this restaurant after not going for years and finding that the food is better than I remember, but everything else is just the same. That's what gives the place so much charm.

• Pros: The best crabcake I've ever eaten
• Cons: Specials are very popular and can sell out

02/16/09

Best Prime-Rib in years

by brianincharlotte

Hotel Charlotte impressed,being refreshingly "local" and incredibly friendly.My date and I split a marvelous Ahi-tuna salad and some very delicious baked oysters,we drank belgian beers and had the best prime rib I have had in years.Service was impeccable,the Valentine's decor fun.This restaurant was a great find for this displaced Floridian,we left satiated and happy.

• Pros: Local crowd,Great Food,Fantastic Service.
• Cons: I did not find the place sooner.

01/29/09

Not Worth The Trip

by ncgatorguy

Well had I not had a $25 gift card I would have never been able to experience this place. 99 Beers is a good start but about it on a Thursday night. Food> I started with the "OYSTERS ROYAL" which in it's name invokes a somewhat royal dish.While the menu describes the dish as "lightly battered & fried - topped with crumbled bacon & hollandaise" I received 6 nicley fried oysters of decent size, sprinkled with bacons pieces (real bacon no less) but not even a complete teaspoon of the hollandaise. And it appeared to be some sort of remoulade sauce anyway as if to say the chef did not want to or had not prepared the hollandaise.

Ishould have ordered the Jumbo Gumbo but had a real hunger for some Low Country Shrimp & Grits. Their menu states "gulf shrimp sauteed with butter and garlic on a bed of stone ground cheddar cheese grits ladled with a tasso cream sauce" Better described as "A nice bowl of cool not hot cheese grits covered with a handful of frozen Contessa shrimp that are warmed in a pan with a stick of butter and a spoonful of garlic powder then topped with 2 spoonsful of cheddar cheese & parm that are right of the refrg, to give a nice cool topping to your dish. After this we will NOT put any amount of Tasso Cream Sauce on your shrimp so as to not add ANY AMOUNT of taste to the dish and ruin your perfectly cold meal!

Now with that said I give props to a wonderful bowl of She Crab Soup, a Nicely done Prime Rib and some tremendous smashed potato's !

I should have had the JUMBO GUMBO and the chef should not do SHRIMP & GRITS ANYMORE unless of course he does them RIGHT! Put some DANG BACON & Grease in them for Pete's sake!