Enjoy the charm of the newly renovated Albemarle Hotel while indulging in a delightful meal. This is the perfect date night location.
197 N. Second St, Albemarle, NC, North Carolina
The Digs:
The inside of this restaurant is very nice with dark blue walls and wood trim. The bar is really pretty and there is lots of seating. The restaurant is inside a brick building known as the Albemarle Hotel which has been redesigned into apartments where the old hotel rooms used to be.
There is plenty of parking on the street so finding a spot should be relatively easy to find when dining here.
The bathroom is very nice with doors that lock and also indicate whether they are vacant or not. Plenty of room inside and nice towels and toilet paper.
The Grub:
I started my meal with a bottle of wine. I was very excited to see they had a good wine list and the quilt Cabernet Sauvignon, which is one of my favorites. The waitress told me that they also have great cocktails so I’ll give those a go another day. Upon the waiter’s recommendation, I decided to try the meatballs as an appetizer. They came out fairly quick and were way larger than I expected them to be. The meatballs were a tad bit greasy but had a wonderful taste. They were covered in a spicy honey sauce which gave them a fun, unexpected flavor.
For my entree, I got the filet. I don’t feel like there are a lot of great steak places in this county, so I was excited to try Christines to see if they could fill this void. I ordered my filet medium rare. It may have been a little more on the rare side but I was okay with that.
It tasted delicious and had excellent seasoning on the outside. My only complaint is that it wasn’t warm; like it had been sitting in the kitchen for a little too long. It came with a side and I selected mixed vegetables which included broccoli and various colors of carrots. The vegetables were good but probably had a little too much olive oil on them.
I look forward to going back and trying their pizza because it looked amazing!
The Service:
The service was top-notch. This was the first night the restaurant was open to the public and I was impressed with how knowledgeable our server was. She could describe pretty much all of the dishes. They are new and obviously still have a few things to learn, but their staff seems to be well-trained even this early in the game.
The Scratch per person:
The price per person is probably $30 to $50. I spent $100 because I ordered a pretty expensive filet and one of their higher-priced bottles of wine.
The Duds:
This restaurant would be perfect for date night. The dress is casual however most people dress up a bit. It was opening night so I saw all kinds of attire however, I feel like they lean towards more dressier than casual.