American Restaurants

Five Guys Concord

7741 Gateway Lane NW
Concord, NC, 28207
704-979-1283
All Five Guys Concord Photos

So I was reading letters to the editor of the Charlotte Observer food and entertainment section Kathleen Purvis. In one question to the editor was a comment about Five Guys franchise in Concord.

The letter proclaimed this place to be fantastic and hearty, and the editor replied with saying she had heard this same rumor and was going to give it a try soon.

Well I am happy to say i beat her to it. I was on my way to writing a piece on Chuck E Cheese being a classic part of childhood and a cheap escape for parents when I passed this place in Concord. After fighting the Saturday traffic in Concord, NC I managed to find a parking spot for Five Guys around 6pm on a Saturday. This location is side by side with a drive through Starbucks location so the parking lot is taking a life risk to drive in.

Walking up Five Guys struck me as the stepchild of a old favorite restaurant of mine called Schaller’s in Rochester, New York. Five guys is a very minimal white tile white walls and chairs sort of cafeteria look. There is no frills and this place looks like the kind of place you look for at 1am after a night of drinking. The location is open 11am to 10pm 7 days a week only, so you cant take that sugestion unless you leave the bar very early.

The location smells like cooking fries and the stacks of potato bags on the walls say they take great pride in making “home cooking” and not fast food. This sentence really sums up what you get at Five Guys. Everything looked and worked like you were at a family picnic and the burgers were getting made fresh at the park grill. The fries are true potatos cut and dropped in pure peanut oil so they come out heavy, greasy and tasting like biting into potatos and not frozen crisps.

You can see in the photos that we ordered two regular size fries, which is the smaller of the two sizes, and it filled an entire paper lunch bag to the top.

Again - This bag here only has two regular size fry orders in it.

This bag with only 2 orders of fries in it was heavy to carry soaked with grease and filled to the top like luggage. This monster sized order of fries was very impressive, like nothing I had ever seen.

The fries are very fresh and real but a bit heavy with grease for my tastes. We all agreed that still nobody can defeat the flavor of a McDonalds fry. While they are not as fresh or huge as these amazing fried, McDonalds still taste the best for some artificial reason. Keep in mind though, these are the most authentic and largest order of fries I had ever been served, just not my perfect style by my personal tastes.

The wife had the “small” bacon cheeseburger and I had the regular “cheeseburger”. Both of the burgers were doubles, both were stacked like “freak-burgers” and both tasted like licking the grill they were so authentic. My wife proclaimed it the bestburger she had ever had, and I wasnt far behind that assessment. The burgers here are excellent and taste like a backyard cookout with true grill flavor and neatly stacked and prepared while you watch.

Five guys take extra steps with large helpings and wrapping the burgers in real foil and not paper burger wraps. You will feel like you are at a cookout and getting the best grill prepared food you have had in years.

The walls of this location are littered with signs proclaiming awards they have won for the best food and fries, and I now agree that most of that is hard earned. This is a franchise that doesnt feel like one.

Five guys is like someone attending a softball cookout, handed everyone an employee shirt, and asked you what you want on your paper plate.

For fries this place has authentic and good true potatos fries in huge servings. In burgers, Five Guys has a real off the grill amazing fresh and authentic burger like no other you have had.

Our advice is sneak your McDonalds fries into Five Guys and order one of their burgers to go with it.

This combination would be the best burger meal you ever sat down to, this would be the all star of burger meals.

I have had a long standing bet with myself in my own mind in regards to McDonalds, and more namely the somewhat shabby McDonalds location by my house on WT Harris by Sugar Creek.

This is a bit run down, a bit beat up location that could use a modernization or upgrade from the 80-90’s feel about it. I am in the group that think McDoanlds is a (somewhat) high quality franchise that does it better than many othr competitors. It seems it is not popular to be a franchise or any of the “big boys’ on the net.

I had done a search marketing research awhile back and if you search companies with the word “sucks” after their name you invariably find that the largest players in every field have more results returned. Walmart has more “complaints posted on the web” than Target, Microsoft more than Apple, McDonalds more than Burger King, etc etc. This seems to be the root for the little guy root against the establishment mentality showing its ugly head.

I say its ok to be the best or more specifically the biggest. You likely built a track record that led to this place you now are. I am not going to say too much nice about the fast food industry in general, but when you take everything as a reletive comparison to others in the same market I find McDonalds to be a pretty good franchise and place to be.

Well my long standing bet with myself is looking for the staff or drive through member that says “your welcome” to my constant barage of “thank you very much”’s.

After at least a dozen stops at the “way home” McDonalds by Harris and David Cox Rd., and always hitting them with a “thank you very much” and not once geting a “your welcome”, I am happy to say the first time I decide to start video documenting my search for “your welcome”, I was finally happily surprised.

They may have stumbled on the order process, but both the payment window #1 and order window #2 hit me with thank you and your welcome. It is almost like they knew it was coming, but this was a hidden cam and the service was with a smile. The fries were also resh which is plus number two. All you hate on the biggest game in town should take a step back and see that sometimes the biggest is the best.

Best fries, good for the community, decent franchise. Lets give McDonalds a break and be thankful for those amazing fries.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Grand Promenade Suite 230
Charlotte, NC 28262
(704) 510-1545

Walked past it 5 times and never got around to going in, now I have. Buffalo
Wild Wings at the Grande Promenade II Upper level.

Having been a lifetime Buffalo Sports fan and local to western NY, I take particular
notice of anyplace trying to sprinkle the word New York or Buffalo Style on
their menu. All in all, I left with no offense taken.

When you walk in your get the strong wood-grain and projection TV atmosphere
of a sports bar, with alot of games and color around. Its like a sports bar
and a ChuckECheese had a baby and its name was Buffalo Wild Wings. This is to
say a very fun looking place and nice relaxing atmosphere, with an incredible
amount of sports on a ton of TV’s.

If you want to watch the game, this layout and atmosphere seems absoluetly
perfect to do so.

The menu at Buffalo Wild Wings, is pretty much what you might expect, if anything
a bit less to choose from than I would have though when opening the huge multi-color
menu. You will find the expected affair of wings, burgers with fancy combinations
and chicken sandwich type platters.

What did catch my attention quickly was the fact that it was actually pretty
pricey for this type of place.

Both me and the Ms. had a burger from the selection, her a Shroom and Swiss,
and me a Black and Blue Burger which is spicy blue cheese. Both burger were
about $4 or $4.50 and that isnt with anything but a pickle next to it. Not that
this is a pile of cash, but its just for the burger, this burger better sing
and dance for most of $5.

We went with the standard side served at Buffalo Wild Wings which is potato
wedges, or short little steak fries.

Firstly, the waitress was very nice, very friendly and attentive, so for that
we say thanks upfront.

The burgers came out and looked awfully dissapointing, about 8 tiny from a
can mushrooms on the wife’s and mine basically looked like I made it at home
with a thin-thin patty, or to say, not impressive to see.

The fact that I just paid $4.50 for just this pretty sad burger was a bummer
for such a cool place. But there is some slight salvation, the burger tasted
good. While it looked like a homemade burger for over $4, it also tasted like
one, but from the grill. There is a distinct grill taste and the burgr despite
looking like not much for alot of money did really taste good. Also nice bonus
points for a place that finally uses a real "roll" and not a puny
bun. The taste difference of the good hearty "real roll" is measurable
and appreciated (since I just overpaid anyhow).

Should you goto Buffalo Wild Wings?

If you dont think $4.25 for a burger, then $2.50 more for fries, then paying
for a drink is too much to pay for a decent burger? then yes. This is a fun
place to watch the game, and Im going to guess they have some great monday night
football scenes in this huge place with 20+ TV’s.

Not overly impressive food presentation, pretty sad actually, but the ingedients
and real grill taste saved some face. This coupled with a great huge and casual
sporty place makes for a fun but not all too great dining experience.

If you want better food, or you are with a date, goto Red Robin. If you are
with the boys and wings sound like a possability, then give this place one try.

Cheddars Casual Cafe

3 Stars 

Charlotte Critic
620 University Center Blvd
Charlotte 28262
Menu Features: burgers,chicken,appetizers,deserts,family dining

Restaurant Review For Cheddars Casual Cafe
Cheddars Casual Cafe Finally stopped off of WT Harris Blvd to visit this location of Cheddars Casual Cafe. You may have never seen this location but it is right next to Chilis and across from the Walmart Plaza on Harris, somewhat hidden. I passed it many times cause I must say it has an awful ugly physical location. The building next to it used to be a restaurant but is closed down and unsightly making Cheddars Cafe suffer in appearence as well. Once we pulled up the place is very nicely designed and seemed somewhat fancier the closer we got. When you walk in you have to be impressed by the decor or this place. The is a Chilis-level restaurant but the design of the insode with oriental windmill fans on the ceiling and beautiful high ceiling was very impressive, this is the strong point of this location hands down. I was immediately thrilled with the decor and the equally profesioanl and talkative staff. To continue my rant about the layout, the booths are very large and seating areas all very comfortable and spacious, a nice change from more cramped Chilis, or louder more comotion filled Red Robin. The menu here is a very nice variety, with more than a few higher end seafood/steaks/ribs platters, and the normal compliment of burgers and wraps and such. The prices are very easy on the wallet with full meals (minus drinks) from about 6.50 to 11.00. The waiter insisted we try the spinach and cheese dip which is served with colorful tortillas and was excellent. I expect I will be getting a triple by-pass next week to get the mountains of cheese it involved removed from me. This dip was butter - mozzarella - and spinach with chips to dip, served with a side of surprisingly hot salsa. This is a good choice if you like appetizers and is only . This will not replace the amazing southwest eggrolls at Chilis as the appetizer of choice for me though. My ‘ms’ had ribs with boneless chicken platter with a side of red beans/rice and coleslaw. The final opinion on those items went as follows.
Ribs - winner
Boneless chicken - bland
Beans - bland
Coleslaw - poor In all shes was under-whelmed by the food and thought it to be ok but not really worth a return trip. I stayed safe and cheap with a standar winner’s choice of Philly-cheesesteak. While its hard to mess that up, I was happy with it overall. The philly was greasy, cheesy, had great tasting mushrooms all over it but lacked a decent bun. I repeat 100 times on this site how important it is for a restaurant to spring for a better piece of bread to present their food with. This was a good sandwich served on a pretty meager supermarket bun.
In all the food is Ok but we both agree Chili’s and Red Robin are better, with Red Robin being the current best food of this level and type in the University area. If you are looking for a nice cheap dat eplace this is a solid choice though, as they have the best decor of the three I mention, and they have some fancy items on the menu to let her feel like shes getting a nice meal as well. Great prices, great atmosphere, nice staff, mediocre food that was a bit bland and plain. I do feel it worth mentioning, that although we didnt do desert, the ones I saw on the menu and being served around us looked to be extremely impressive! making this again a good place for a college student to get out on a date or with the boys.  

Showmars Northlake Mall

2.5 Stars 

Charlotte Critic
Northlake Mall
Charlotte 28269
Menu Features: burgers,fries,hots

Photos From Shomars>

Restaurant Review For Showmars Northlake Mall
Showmars Northlake Mall Charlotte Location Time to review what is called a local Charlotte tradition, Showmars burgers of Charlotte.
Just visited the new Northlake Mall location, and it is clean large and bright with a great spot right by the courtyard. Friendly excellent, and enthusiastic service is definately a plus of this burger spot. The menu is large and varied with average prices of about for two people. So I went for the Big C, which is a large double decker house special cheeseburger, and the Ms. had some sort of Pita thing that looked well filled as well. In all the food was fair, the burger was very similar to the previously mentioned Red Robin burgers, which is to say they are good not great. In upstate New York there is a true local institution known as Schaller’s Restaurants where they understand one thing all “want to be the best burger place”‘’s need to learn…..The bun is so much. A good hardroll is 50% of the battle. This means a HARD-ROLL with the knot you can pull out.
Not a “bun”
Not sourdough
Not Chibatto bread or whatever that is…. but a good think hardroll that can handle the two layers of meat you are putting on it.
Too often trying to stack a huge obscene burger with blue-cheese, bacon and everything else goes bad when it is done to a “sams club” bun. Here was the one major issue. You have a nice place, a nice location, great service, and great burgers but to then serve them on weak skinny “Cafeteria” buns is a waste. You will notice that Showmars uses the same buns as the Hardees Thickburger we just reviewed. I find it hard to be a local institution when I have the same Hamburger buns as Hardees uses. This coupled with the very small amount of fries that comes in a combo made it a very average outing, and a bit disappointing since we expected so much more. If you are in Northlake Mall, and need a burger, this is a clean freindly place with a very nice owner and manager.
If you are looking for the best burgers, and an authentic Burger spot….then please stay tuned, since I havnt found one in Charlotte yet. Anyone who think they know th place to get a real burger on great rolls, with hot sauce and onions applied while it is prepared…..I am still searching, even after visiting the pleasant but not special Showmars.

Restaurant Review For Red Robin Restaurant

3.5 Stars 

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers
Charlotte Critic
Red Robin - Harris Blvd
8304 Kenbrooke Drive
Charlotte, NC 28262
(704) 971-2060

See the photos of Red Robin here >
Finally got around to trying this chain location that just opened on Harris Blvd in the University section of Charlotte. If you are looking for a good University area restaurant for student or a date this is a solid choice. Red Robin has an excellent interior atmosphere with tons to look at from the pictures all over the wall (standard stuff for this genre) to the TV built into the floor at the entrance showing cartoon network. Complete with a full bar and a huge open to see grill area this place has atmosphere to keep the college student or family outing happy and preoccupied with the things to see. This location is much larger inside than outside. Once you step in you are in a good mood and ready to see the menu as the restaurant is very fun and inviting, the hostess was friendly as was our waiter (i think he was new to waitering, but he was very good). This is competition for Chilis and Friday all the way. If you are new to the franchise, expect a larger open version of Chilis, or a more exciting version of Fridays. To me it seemed that Chuck E Cheese and Chilis had a baby and its name was Red Robin. I am a fan of Chilis, and think its a good franchise but I expect this place to get my business just as much in the future. The menu had a huge selection of you “fancy-burgers”, meaning a tall burge that looks unnaturally stacked high with whatever you choose. I had a burger with Guacamole and it was similar to what Chilis serves which is tall, good, and fresh but not the best burger in town. Ms. Critic had a Chicken Parm plate that was exceptiomal. It was a huge portion and the sauce tasted like the tomato got picked 4 mintues earlier. A very fresh and highly recommended choice. I should change the review to a 4 from 3.5 now that I recall how impressed we were with the sauce and the chicken parm. Like their competition they have alot of drinks that belong in the Bahamas, and look perfect had it been a “girls night out”. The bar was open with about 18 seats and fine for an after work get together. The staff is visible through the open to view grill and everyone seemed in a great mood (we witness a staff birthday happening while they cooked, and its always nice to see the managers appreciating staff. The restaurant could likely and should likely be a 4 star review, but it may take more visits for that to happen, the menu looked standard which is the only issue, I will need to find a great appetizer on their menu to call this a 4/5. Great fun place for a family Friday out, big burgers and good steak fries, no complaints. And the Chicken Parm is excellent and fresh.

Red Robin Revisited

3.5 Stars 

Charlotte Critic
8304 Kenbrooke Drive
Charlotte 28262
(704) 971-2060
Menu Features: burgers,fries,pasta,chicken sandwiches

Restaurant Review For Red Robin Revisited
Well, missed a lnch date and ended up at Red Robin again. This place is a never miss pretty good place to grab a lunch or dinner with pretty much any company you choose. If you dont know or cant decide what to have, this will be a choice that never fails. As earlier discussed in my first ever visit to Red Robin Restaurant, this place is like a Chuck E Cheese for adults, in the way it gives you so much to look at and talk about over dinner. With franchises like Fridays, Chili’s, Cheddars, Ruby Tuesday’s and others of similar nature already crowding this market ofsouthwestern yuppie stops, its hard to carve a niche for a place like Red Robin. From this brief list of competition, clearly Red Robin and Chili’s are the best of the bunch. Red Robin has friendly open layout with tons of stuff to look at, tv’s to watch and a full bar right in the middle of the open floor. The design is clearly one with the intention of creating an upbeat and fun place to grab dinner or a drink with any company. This look at the decor presentation leads perfectly into what they do next best here, food presentation. Please take note I didnt say ‘food’ I said food presentation. The food has been good on every visit, but what is exceptional is the presentation that comes from the kitchen. It is not at the first bite that we have said “wow”, but when it hits the table. Red Robin has by far the most extensive menu and the most choices of any similar restaurant, and in all food genres they have been right on target. We have had chicken dishes, pasta, many burgers and even some salads, and all have been very good, very large and with exceptional presentation as service. My most recent stop that inspired this re-review I had a Chili Chili Cheeseburger, that was essentially a “manwich with steakfries”. While this sounds basic, try to tell me who doesnt like a huge manwich with steakfries? The food was large portion and tasty, and one of the many examples of an extensive menu of choices. We were going to name this a pick of the month, and tell everyone that hasnt gone to Red Robin to give it a first try, but we have given the nod to Golden Taipei for reasons that are to be convered in our exclusive Free Charlottecritic.com newsletter.

Hickory Tavern

3.5 Stars 

A contribution By Michael Adam Green
9010 Harris Corners Pkwy
Charlotte 28269
704-921-4466
Menu Features: burgers,shrimp baskets, seafood

Restaurant Review For Hickory Tavern
More casual than its predecessor Harris Grille, Hickory Tavern is a great place to get good food and meet up for sporting events or a live band. Better than usual bar food and a fun atmosphere. Once dominating the lunch and dinner crowds, it has a lot of competition with all of the new franchise restaurants opening up at the new Northlake Mall. Excellent burgers and sandwiches, a limited lunch menu that is the same as the dinner menu (prices too) and lunch specials that remain the same every week (change daily). For all practical purposes it is the best choice for food when compared to other bar/taverns such as Midtown Sundries or Stool Pigeons. They have a friendly staff that is only composed of female waitresses, so beware of bringing your date or wife there. And a good final attraction is an all you can eat wings bar with soup for , during lunch (they might be doing away with it) and there desserts are excellent!… Why only 3 1/2 stars? The restaurant is great, but with lunch prices starting at , it is a bit pricey and the service isn’t great. They also don’t offer rolls, and the rolls they do have which come with a salad are 25 cents each. Hard to compete with Olive Gardens all you can eat breadsticks. A contribution By Michael Adam Green

Bob Evans WT Harris

2 Stars 

Charlotte Critic
9253 Statesville Road
Charlotte 28269
(704) 599-5414
Menu Features: sausages,bread,biscuits,eggs,toast

Restaurant Review For Bob Evans WT Harris
So the mission for this trip in Charlotte NC was a great location for breafast. Too bad the mission went nowhere on this day. I would also like to point out this review was a re-entry to our website as our visits were back in December of 05. Bob Evans Farms Restaurant in Area 1 Charlotte on Statesville Rd So I really tried to like this place. This Bob Evans is on WT Harris and is pretty new still. I have been long looking for the right place to have breakfast at off hours. I think that is a pursuit of many a person, ecspecially one that lives odd hours as we do. There is “nothing more satisfying than a waitress named Flo, good coffee, and over easy eggs” to quote my brother loosely. I have been a fan of clean places like Perkins with great breakfast choices so going in I was hoping this Bob Evans near my home was it. The restaurant is very clean, amazingly well decorated and lit. The staff was very friendly on both visits, when they were not dropping the ball, and the prices were fair. Now for the other shoe dropping. They appear to have some staffing issues happening, and my two visits have been a month apart. the first visit had the following chain of amazing events take place. Coffee cup fell empty, wrong meal delivered to the table, wrong amount charged for wrong meal, no silverware at start of meal, wrong price charged for a “take home” bread we ordered. and finally the waitress threw our “to-go” container out while we were paying. Final bill (take home was about ). The waitress was new and already overworked, and as hard as we wanted to like this place it had such poor service this day. Our second visit was 2 stars for other reasons all together. The time we returned we got one breakfast and one meal. The meal was salmon and was cold and underdone, and the eggs were cold as well which is basically ruining them completely. The service was again friendly but lacking experience apparently. I think this trip and the poor review is just a matter of bad coicidence, as this seems like a really bright and clean location for a meal at first glance.

Lava Bistro

3.5 Stars 

By: Diana Reis
8708 J.W. Clay Blvd
Charlotte 28262
704-549-4460
Menu Features: Meat Loaf,Quiche,Burgers

Restaurant Review For Lava Bistro
I have gone here many times for lunch. They have lunch specials with fair prices and good portions.
The service is always great and I usually have time to spare to take a short walk around the Lake . We love this place so much we reserved one of there private dining rooms for our Wedding Party, ( The Lake Room) The staff is so attentive and the food is top shelf. I usually get the Meat Loaf or the Crab Cakes and always finish off with the Creme Brulee. My husband usually gets the Quiche or the Club sandwich, but we never leave hungry and are always pleased with everything. They also have a Sunday Brunch . I haven’t tried it yet but I’m sure it must be good. You don’t have to Dress up for this there is such a mix from Jeans to Suits .
I guess everyone loves Great Food at good prices. They also have salads that are realy fresh and great dressings. The Dinner menu has Steaks and other things like Salmon and Grilled Tuna.
They have a web site that lists the menu and if you search some of the coupon sites and local magazines you can get a buy one meal get one free.
http://www.lavabistro.com/
Give it a try . I think you might like it!!!