Best of the Best
Southside is one of the best fine dining restaurants in all of Asheville. The service is always polished. The food is consistently top quality. This restaurant has been a favorite in Asheville for more than 16 years. Its tucked away in a small shopping center on Hendersonville Highway at the intersection with Overlook Road. Don't miss it!    [18 Aug 2006 10:32:39]

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     ­Linda   

Waste of Money
This was one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had anywhere any time.

We heard the hype about this place and that the chef was a protege of Gary Danko, so perhaps our standards were high going in, but wow, was this place a major, major disappointment to the maximum degree. Where to start? You walk in and the first thing you see is a junky bar with ice tea canisters and random glassware and beverage stuff shoved all over. I should have turned and run.

Decor is hideous. It looks exactly like the dining room at my grandfather's assisted living facility. Think early '80s clubhouse.

The menu is totally random. I guess there are some old standards that can't get let go, with some other wanna-be-California-French dishes thrown in. Is it Asian? Fine dining? Family? Italian? French? It was all over the place.

The food was dreadful. Our salad came on a very modern elliptical plate, which matched nothing -- not the decor, and certainly not the salad. It was pre-made and so Outback. Just a bunch of vegetables, a pathetic refrigerated tomato wedge, some normal lettuce with dressing on the side. I can't recall what astronomical price we paid for it -- I think I blocked it out. My fish had been frozen and was a mushy, yet overcooked mess. I ate one bite.

Wine list was so average. Not an ounce of ingenuity went into it. Pretty much everything on there you can buy at Ingels Supermarket.

Service was abysmal. We waited 20 minute to get seated (with reservations). From our waiting area, I could see at least 3 tables with no diners, and covered with used dishes. From arrival until the first course arrived was 1 hour 20 minutes. Total dining time (2 courses): 2.5 hours. Waitress seemed to want to be just about anywhere than at work. I complained about my fish being so bad, and she just stared at me. Finally she apathetically offered something else, which I declined since we had been there for a lifetime already, and she shrugged and walked off, and still charged me for the dish, which was not cheap.

Total cost: $175 for two people (2 glass of wine, 3 apps, 2 mains, 1 coffee), and 2.5 hours of my life I will never get back.    [27 Jan 2007 23:53:33]

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     ­Anonymous