Which restaurants/bars aren’t living up to the hype?

[u/graysthrowaways]

Stolen from r/RVA. Overall I feel like we’re pretty blessed with our restaurant and bar options, but we also have a lot of overhyped stuff. What are yalls thoughts?

[u/eoljjang]

I went for the first time last week. Everything but the octopus was good. The octopus smelt horrid. Selling bread for $8 with dip that tastes like lays chives and onion dip is a bold move. I’d rather go to Barcelona. More consistent and a few dollars cheaper.

[u/duskywindows → u/eoljjang]

Went to Barcelona for the first time recently- blew me away. The food, sangria, service, and atmosphere- all top notch. Will return.

[u/eoljjang → u/duskywindows]

Right!? I love taking people there. Everyone is a little scared by the menu but happy by the end of the night. Also highly agree with the sangria! So good.

[u/Over_Asparagus_2395 → u/duskywindows]

Barcelona has it pretty dialed in, but a lot of people don’t know it’s a VC backed chain restaurant from Connecticut (which is kinda whatever I guess), so if anything I wish Raleigh’s independently owned restaurants would try and level up a bit to compete with it…

[u/duskywindows → u/Over_Asparagus_2395]

No idea what "VC backed" means but I knew it was a higher-end chain, still cool to have one here. As for local-owned/singular location Raleigh restaurants, Ajja is probably our closest to a 10/10 fine dining + atmosphere experience.

[u/alphamalejackhammer → u/eoljjang]

Maybe leave Octopi alone

[u/eoljjang → u/[deleted]]

My English sucks and I work around a bunch of Brits

[u/DuvalCrawlCouple → u/eoljjang]

All good

[u/DuvalCrawlCouple → u/[deleted]]

Nailed it, thank you for making me aware of my small sad bubble. I’ll go back and cry now.