Boondocks Brewing Tap Room & Restaurant

My wife and I were staying at a friend's cabin in the next town over and the owner suggested we head to W. Jefferson for an "art crawl."  Though we missed the crawl, we stayed in town for dinner.  Based on reviews on Google, we tried Boondocks, having never been in W. Jefferson and not knowing the area or restaurants.  We thought, "it's a brewery; how bad could it be?"

The wait to be seated was almost an hour.  While we waited, the bartender ignored us for over 10 minutes, despite not being terribly busy, before we were finally able to get a glass of wine.

The waitress was the biggest problem - but I don't think it was her fault: she was completely overwhelmed, which is a management problem.  Busy night?  Doesn't matter - a good manager should expect busy nights.

The bacon-wrapped scallops were overcooked and dry, and at $11, much more expensive than they should have been.  We had to ask for bread.  My wife got the crab cake and I got the Asian-glazed salmon.  Both meals were luke-warm, and I'm being generous - and it took over 45 minutes before we even got our meals.  Although the flavoring of my meal was good, it was fairly simple and not terribly exciting - and certainly did not justify the price.  The meals were on par with Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday, not the 20+ meals we ordered.  Farm-raised salmon, with a splash of peanut sauce, asparagus and mashed potatoes is not a $23.00 meal.

I can't blame the kitchen or the waitstaff.  Yes, the service was terrible, but I got the impression it was a management problem, not a staff problem.  Fix the schedule, revise the menu, and dammit, offer a single beer on tap that's made on-site (there were none available that night) - you're a brewery!

Second visit since the new ownership.  Second time it took forever to get our food.  The only first was that my food was really cold.  My wife got one of their flatbread pizzas which was OK, if not a little bland, but at least it was hot.  I had a cheeseburger and fries- quite the formidable culinary challenge.  Both the CB and fries were cold.  I think it must have been ready some time before my wife's entrée.  Anyway, I didn't eat it, and  the waitress offered something else, but I didn't have another hour to wait.  I hope they get it together- this is a great concept for West Jefferson, but its gonna be tough with less than average food, long waits, and poor kitchen operations.  I'll give it another shot in a year or so.

When in the boonies this is definitely a nice place to grab some pub grub and a tasty pint or two.  They boasted about 20-ish beers on-tap some from NC and from all over.   I had two of the Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale seasonal draft and was tasty indeed.  Food was fine. Everyone including the kids were happy with their choices with your typical pub fare of mac n' cheese and hot dogs for kids and pasta & meatballs for the adults.  Meatballs I thought were pretty tasty.  Only thing I was missing was for a"brewing" establishment I didn't see they had any of their own make available.