Hickory Tavern - Gastonia

We came here last night with some friends who just came back from a one month European vacation. “We know the perfect place where we can catch up and look at pictures.” Biiiiiig mistake. We were greeted by “Do you have a reservation?” Since when?? We were all very hungry, so luckily, our seating was fairly quickly quick. We ordered our beverages and appetizer. Chips/queso/salsa took 15min to come out. Our meals took another 40min for delivery. The fish was overcooked in the fish and chips, the Ruben’s meat was sparse, the Protein Bowl Tuna was undercooked (ordered Medium – delivered Rare), and my Shrimp and Grits were very overcooked – but flavorful. (Tough shrimp AND hardened sausage) Top that off with screaming loud music, and constantly searching for our server Courtney … the night was a disaster. 6:38-8:12 to get and uncomfortably quickly eat ½ of our food. We boxed it up and immediately went elsewhere for coffee, dessert, and conversation. (Our ears were ringing very loud!) Our friends say they won’t be back, but we know how good it normally is, so we’ll return on any day other than Jukebox Bingo Thursday.