Dean & Deluca Wine Room

Friday night a friend of mine and I ventured to Dean & Deluca Wine Room in South Park as this was on both our CLT Bucket Lists for a while.  I am so glad we did!  D&D Wine Room exceeded our expectations by the quality food prepared, the service and the atmosphere.

D&D Wine Room is a bit on the pricier side, but the meals are certainly big enough to split and it is a great place for a girl's night out or a relaxing date night.  We choose to sit outside on their new patio where we were promptly greeted by our waitress and properly attended to for the rest of the night.

We decided to split a bottle of wine and the Cheese & Charcuterie plate.  The bottles are about the same as anywhere you would order a bottle, but here, you are actually getting a GOOD bottle of wine for 30 bucks.  The French plate was delicious. The cheeses, figs a preserves blended perfectly together and tasted incredibly fresh.  

Next, my friend and I split the Lobster 'BLT' Sliders and an order of the truffle fries.  Both were wonderful AND the waitress didn't seem put off by us splitting dinner (which often times they can be).  Our meal came out in perfect time and they were both better than we expected.   Let's first discuss the Lobster 'BLT' Sliders.  These things are like 'butta' to sink your teeth into.  Quality bacon and CHUNKS of lobster sandwiched in between brioche rolls with chips on the side.  This plate is $13 and it's massive.  D&D gives you THREE mini lobster sliders (which would easily equal about 1 1/2 to 2 sandwiches).  Next, the truffle fries: cooked in truffle oil and then tossed in parsley butter.  They were crispy and flavorful.

We were stuffed by this point, but as this was a celebration, we decided to splurge on dessert.  We ordered two Mini Cakes: the Vanilla Strawberry and the Chocolate Mint.  These things are not really mini, they are easily big enough to split.  Both were delicious.  The Chocolate Mint is rich in both mint and chocolate.  The Strawberry Vanilla tasted light and perfect for a summertime treat.

In the end, is it pricey? Yes, but it doesn't have to be.  Split a panini & order of truffle fries and it's only 20 bucks.  Am I going to get good service? Yes. Am I going to get good food? Yes.

My suggestions to order: The Lobster 'BLT' Sliders and the Vanilla Strawberry Mini Cake - both of these are memorable.  In fact, I'm craving them now . . . at 10am!

D&D Wine Room has a great selection of wines to choose from, and a pretty decent bar menu. We didn't try any of the larger plates, but a girlfriend and I met before a movie to have a few glasses and share some apps. The lobster sliders and mediterranean sampler (pita paired with hummus, baba ganoush and tabbouleh) were more than enough betwixt us. Actually, the mediterrean platter alone would have been perfectly substantial! We still had a lot left even after we'd both had our fill. Pricing is as little high, but the quality *is* there to account for it. The pita wasn't the best, nor were the rolls on the sliders my favorite, but the dips and lobster filling (and BACON) scored extremely high on the tasty-meter.

Just don't expect to be able to leave quickly or be on time somewhere after! After making sure we were set with food and drink, our waiter/s (we seemed to have more than one assisting us) disappeared, and took a good while before we could flag one down to get our check and go - we had a movie to get to! The location is a win though, being a very short walk to the theater, so luckily we arrived just as the credits were starting.

I would visit the Wine Room again if I wanted to relax with a glass or two of wine, but next time, I think I'd give myself more leeway if I had to be somewhere after.

Soneone needs to seriously pull management aside and rethink their new directive to the wait staff.  Arrived here early Sat afternoon for a nice glass of Prosecco - looked on the menu and noticed they served it by the glass or bottle.  Since there were three of us, bottle made more sense.  Bottle was $16 - waitress then informed us there was a new pricing directive from the managers  - they were required to charge a corkage fee on top of the bottle - WHAT???? I could understand a corkage fee on a bottle we picked from their retail area but something listed on the menu - and to make matters worse  - CORKAGE FEE WAS $15.00!!! Outrageous and we should have moved on.  But, we wanted to try the Tuscan beans so stayed.  Needless to say I will never set foot in this place again.  THIS IS PRICE GOUGING AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL!  I repeat this was a bottle listed on the menu not from the retail.  Management must think very highly of their service and product to think that patrons will pay this exorbitant amount to open a damn bottle of wine!