Andrew Blair's - Charlotte, NC

Andrew Blair’s is a medium sized restaurant located at the intersection of Park Road and Woodlawn in Charlotte, NC. With a large patio and a bar area, Andrew Blair’s has a variety of places to sit and eat.

I visited Andrew Blair’s as part of Charlotte Restaurant Week during which a whole host of eating establishments around the Queen City present a limited choice menu for only $30 per person. Bearing this mind, the selections I made were chosen from this menu and may not be available at other times of the year.

When we arrived at Andrew Blair’s, the parking lot was very full and it was apparent that a lot of patrons were also taking advantage of the offer. We were seated in one of the many spacious booths and were served a plate of pita chips with hummus and white bean dip to share. Both dips were delicious and the pita chips were a nice accompaniment.

As a choice of starters, of which there were four, I chose the Pulled Pork BBQ Stack. This consisted on a small square of corn pudding (almost the consistency of bread) with a heap of pulled pork in a sweet BBQ sauce topped with 2 rashers of bacon. The BBQ and corn pudding were delicious, the BBQ sauce had a hint of mustard that was divine, and although the portion size was small, along with the hummus dip earlier it was not insufficient.

For my choice of entrée I chose the North Carolina flounder served with a tasso grit cake, local corn and lima bean succotash with a white lemon sauce. The portion size for the entrée was bigger but not huge which was welcome. The fish had been pan-seared but lacked any real flavor. It was not overly cooked however and had a nice texture. The vegetables were disappointing as they didn’t taste very fresh and lacked any exciting flavor. As for the grit cake, it was quite oily, and although fairly tasty by itself, was unable to carry the rest of the quite boring entrée.

For dessert I ordered cookies and milk which were very good. Obviously homemade and still warm enough that the chocolate chips melted when the cookie was pulled apart. My fellow diners however were not as lucky with their desserts. The warm chocolate brownie was so hard it took all us with 3 spoons to break a piece off to eat it! The strawberry shortcake had beautiful strawberries but the cake was stale and lacked any flavor at all.

I think it is a shame that a restaurant, which is choosing to show itself to a new collection of diners during Charlotte Restaurant Week really failed to take the opportunity to shine by producing some adequate food. The service was also pretty poor as our waitress had a rude attitude and was in such a rush she wouldn’t even slow down for a drinks order.

I give this restaurant 3 out of 5 stars, which is a shame because it could have earned more.