The 220 Cafe

Don't come hungry - loooooong wait between food order & getting meal! Geesh - maybe they had to go catch the salmon.

The last few times I've eaten here I've found that the food is waaay over-salted.  I shall remember to request my food unsalted and add my own.

We really want to like this restaurant because we are within walking distance of it.  However, the best word I can use to describe the experience is "inconsistent"!  The wait staff is always very friendly but seem overwhelmed by the number of tables they are responsible for.  Orders are usually wrong...fries instead of mashed potatoes,  key lime cheesecake when pecan was ordered.  Tonight, I had the short ribs.  I have ordered these on 3 different occasions and each time they were prepared very differently.  First time, they were fairly decent with a very tasty sauce.  Second time around they were so fatty they were inedible.  Tonight, I had two strips of meat, no sauce whatsoever, and about 2 tablespoons of potatoes!!  The amount of food was so small it looked ridiculous on a large dinner plate!  We had to finally ask for some bread to be brought out.  We ordered dessert and she brought us the wrong thing!  Another odd thing...the bartender guy, who is very nice and even offered to make a special cocktail for us, started clearing all the flowers/vases off the tables at around 9:30!  We were all still eating when he reached over and took the flowers off!  If you want people to linger over dessert and coffee and listen to the band, clearing tables is not the way to encourage that...we started getting ready to leave as did another couple!  I will say that we have also had lunch at 220 3 or 4 times and the lunch menu was pretty good!  The sandwiches were hot and prepared very well!  In closing, 220 is a beautiful little restaurant with an ideal location...but the food needs a drastic overhaul and wait staff needs some training!

I'm a big supporter of local restaurants, especially those in the old downtown / historic districts.  Before you load up the family and head to Chili's, Longhorn, etc, take a look at the local places in your town instead.  In most cases, you get a better product and support local business owners at the same time.

The Good
- Great location in beautiful downtown Statesville
- Plenty of free parking downtown
- Decent wine selection
- Nice menu with several high end items (ribeye, filet, tuna steaks, etc)
- Our waitress treated us well

I don't have any real negatives.  I gave the 220 Cafe a 3 star because the food was okay.  If there was an option for 3.5 then I probably would have done that.  We got the seared tuna and scallops for an appetizer.  Tuna was fine.  The scallops tasted good but were tiny.  My steak was cooked perfectly but it was just okay.  

I plan on going back in the future but will probably order something other than the ribeye.