Asheville Restaurant Guide

My brother and I ride Harleys across the united states every year around the third week in June. We almost always route ourselves thru Asheville to eat at the Moose Restaurant to get their biscuts and gravy. This year we will see you in April.

we've been coming to North Carolina for over eight year's and finally found the Moose Cafe! It is our favorite restaurant. My grandkids and kid's love it and always want to go there on our trip's. Thanks for the good food and wonderful service! see ya next year!
Sharon Brock

A great place to eat.

Would recommend

I ate at the Moose cafe as a child and my memory of it was wonderful. So wonderful that it was the first place I wanted my husband to try when we relocated here a month ago. I am so disappointed! It was horrible. What happened? We both grew up in the south and have a love of real southern food and we could not find one thing to love about this place. I wanted it to be wonderful,believe me, I did. I hope that our northern travlers do not go here and think this is real southern food and we are all idiots. My granny would have had a fit if served that hard heavy bread! Moosecafe, you lost what would have been a twice (or more) diner in us with the food and service we got at your place the other day.By the way, YES the service was horrible.Our waitress was so tired, she looked half asleep and acted drunk. Our order was wrong and we didnt get even an "Im sorry" just a huff and a roll of the eyes.Sorry to have to write this, but I feel like it is deserved. The worse thing is that our food was left on the table because we could not eat it and the waitress didnt even ask why or care when we told her why. I think if this was my place I would fire someone for sending out that food and for serving it and for not geting the manager asap.Our food was seen and handled by countless people, from the cooks to the servers and nobody thought it looked bad enough to stop it from being brought to my table. I wouldnt have served our greasy chicken to our dogs...

We were traveling home and stopped for breakfast.It was a delicious breakfast and still remember your cafe. We especially loved your apple butter and bought an extra jar to take home. Unfortunately, it isn't available to buy on line and I live in New York. That's a great disappointment.I would order quite a number of bottles, if available.(They make good gifts.)How can you make it available?

A very fine eatery!

Pleasantly surprised with outstanding service and delicious food. The biscuits are enormous and so good with the apple butter. We weren't sure what to expect and were not disappointed. Will go back to try other items. We enjoyed the chili and angus hot dog.

I was not impressed with your restaurant and to pay $7.50 for bacon & eggs is quite pricey.
The biscuits were heavy and I didn't care to use the melted butter that had been sitting on the table. Yes the little butter tubs had melted from sitting in the morning sun. The biscuits were so heavy 4 of us only ate 2 biscuits. The fried potatoes were greasy and tasted like a commercial product not fresh. The sausage had so much grease on it that I took a napkin to dry it off. Eggs were the standard commercial product.
I ordered the all you could eat breakfast and on the sign it said Canadian bacon and I thought hash browns was on the sign also. I didn't get either on on my plate.
The waitress was pleasant and kept the coffee cup full. When I paid for my bill a young man asked me "how was everything?". My reply was it was ok. He didn't bother to ask why.
This was my first time trying your restaurant and that trip will probably be my last trip even though I will be in Asheville once a month.
I've read two different sites and the people have raved on the food and price. I guess I was at the wrong restaurant.

AS A DINER WE LOVED THE MOOSE CAFE ESPECIALLY FOR BREAKFAST AND DINNER. 10 YEARS AGO IT COULD NOT BE BEAT FOR THE FOOD AND SERVICE. TODAY THE MOOSE HAS FALLEN LAME. THEY HAVE ALL YOU CAN EAT SPECIALS AND THEREFORE THE FOOD IS ALREADY PREPARED THUS LIMITING CHOICES AND FRESHNESS OF PRODUCT. WHEN WE ARRIVED WE WERE SEATED PROMPTLY BY THE HOSTESS. THE WAITRESS WAS NOT THRILLED AS SHE SAID SHE HAD BEEN DOUBLE SEATED TWICE ALREADY. BUT SHE GAVE US PROMPT ATTENTION AND WE ORDERED. THE FOOD CAME QUICKLY CHARRED MEATLOAF AND A PLENTIFUL PLATE OF PULLED PROK, I THINK IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BARBQUED . IT WAS DRY AND BURNED ALSO. WHEN MY HUSBAND ASKED TO HAVE THE MEATLOAF REPLACED SHE SAID IT WAS ALL PRETTY MUCH LIKE THIS AND WOULD HE MIND WAITING 20 MINUTES IF HE HAD TO. WHAT A QUESTION. THE SECOND SERVING WAS ALMOST AS BAD AND THE WAITRESS ASKED IF HE WANYTED TO KEEP THE MASHED POTATOES. THEY LOOK AWFUL AND STONE COLD. I TOLD HER WE WOULD JUST EAT AND GET THE ---- OUT OF THERE. THEN THE MANAGER APPEARS WITHOUT BOTHERING TO INTRODUCE HERSELF AND ASKED IF EVERYTHING WAS ALL RIGHT. I USED THE WORD DAM AND SHE FOCUSED ON THAT RATHER THAN FIXING THE PROBLEM BEING A SOULTION SHE BECAME PART OF THE PROBLEM. SHE WAS CONDECENDING BOARDING ON SARCASTIC.SHE ASKED IF WE WANTED MORE FOOD AND OFFERED TO MAKE IT ANYWAY WE WANTED. THEN SAID I GUESS YOU JUST DON'T WANT ANYTHING DO YOU? BOTH MY HUSBAND AND I ARE DIABETICS HE DOES NOT TAKE INSULIN I DO AND THE LACK OF FOOD COMBINED WITH MY INSULIN THAT I HAD ALREADY TAKEN MADE MY EXPERIENCE EVEN MORE INTENSE THE SITUATION WAS GROWING WORSE BY THE SECOND AS WE TRIED TO GET AWAY FROM YOUR MANAGER. I ASSUME THE PORK WAS LEFT OVER FROM THE SPECIAL THE NIGHT BEFORE. WE WILL NOT GO BACK. I HAVE BEEN A HOSPITIALITY MANAGER FOR MANY YEARS. NUMBER ONE THAT POOR PRODUCT WOULD NEVER HAVE LEFT MY KITCHEN. IF FRESH FOOD IS ADVERTISED THEN IT SHOULD BE FRESH. EVEN THE BISCUTS WERE POOR. I GAVE A RATING OF ONE STAR BECAUSE THAT IS AS LOW AS IT WENT BUT IN MY OPINION THAT WAS BEING WAY TO KIND. THE RESTRUANT WASN'T EVEN HALF FULL ON A SUNDAY AT 5. VERY SAD TO SEE THE CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE AND THEY ARE NOT FOR THE BETTER.

I went here while visiting family in Asheville for Christmas last year. The staff was extremely helpful. Coming from a big town, it's nice to see the "small town dinner" atmosphere still exists. You could tell who had been coming there for years and who was visiting. However, their staff treated everyone with the same kindness. The food was quite good. They have these huge buttermilk buscuits that are outstanding with Honey. Overall, worth the trip!

Food was OK for the price. They advertise for free kids meal after 4 - not true. They will still charge you even after asking them about it. Not very nice especially if you're just passing through and on the budget.

Over rated, country fried steak mediocre, not very clean, servers acts like it's a waste of their time talking to you.

Everytime i'm in Asheville I stop by the Moose Cafe. Best country ham and biscuits I have ever had. Moose Cafe now has another restaurant located in Greensboro at the Piedmont Triad Farmer's Market. I live and work less than 10 miles from the restaurant. My coworkers and I love to eat there during our lunch breaks. Their great country cooking is sitting in front of your face within minutes of sittng down.

Whenever we pass through Asheville we go to the wonderful Farmers Market and we(husband, me, 3 kids) love to stop at the Moose Cafe. Fried chicken good. Their smoked porkchops are great, moist,comforting. The pinto beans and their own label chow chow are also great. But it would be enough reason to go for the cat head biscuits with apple butter or sorghum. Heavenly days!!! I still scour the internet hoping someone will post the recipe!!

I have been dying to try this restaurant since moving to Asheville and finally went today. I hate to say it, but I am a huge fan of Cracker Barrel and was truly hoping that this was better. I would MUCH rather go somewhere run by locals. I ordered chicken and dumplings (my fav), mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. The chicken and dumplings were decent, green beans good, but the mashed potatoes seemed like the powdered kind and the gravy was BRIGHT YELLOW--bizarre. I've never seen such a thing! My husband ordered the smoked pork chops and he loved them. I was expecting fresher vegetables since it's right by the farmers market. I would go back, but with different expectations next time.

We stopped on our way to Lake Junaluska for a retreat. 22 ladies piled out of our vehicles and we all were from different walks of life. I was nervous because I was the newest one there and I was still getting to know these ladies. But, when I walked in to the cafe', I was immediately at ease and comfortable. I had a great time because the place, the service and the food was like I was at home--only much better cooking than me.

There's almost always a line at the Moose Cafe and for good reason. If you're lucky, you'll get to sit in the back room with large windows looking out on the beautiful Biltmore Estate and blue ridge mountains and folk art covering ht walls. Once you pick your meat and three dinner form their menu of fresh homestyle food(the NC Farmer's Market is just next door ensuring fresh vegetables daily-- after all, they own the place.)you're treated to a fresh, hot bisquit about the size of a softball that which you can slather with their signiture apple butter, or honey or even sorghum. The food comes piled high and piping hot and the waitress will probably call you "honey." OK, serving drinks in "fruit jars" may have become quaint, but these people probably invented it.

Just happened to take the exit by the Moose Cafe while traveling from Knoxville, TN to Durham, NC. Wonderful restaurant with delicious food, great home cooking, food served very quickly and portions were large. Will definately make the Moose Cafe a planned stop on our next trip to Tennessee.

We love the Moose Cafe for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Great portions and value. Love the chow chow with the pintos. Best meatloaf ever and the mashed potatoes are real and great. Same friendly servers there forever. I discovered that they opened a Moose Cafe in Greensboro Farmer's Market, good as Asheville

We visited twice and really wanted to like this restaurant. Many good qualities: The apple butter/biscuits are great. The menu is southern, but varied, with lots of options for kids, who eat free after 4pm. The food is plentiful and the prices reasonable. The ambiance is simple, country kitschy but charmingly authentic, sort of like what Cracker Barrel would be if it were a Mom/Pop business. Still both visits were a mixed bag. Some menu items lived up to the description, others were disappointing. There were long waits for the food to come out of the kitchen, despite it not being that busy. Country Fried Steak advertised in the lobby as "on special", but they were out-of-it when I tried to order it. Service is hit and miss, with long waits between check backs; one could die of thirst waiting for coffee or drink refills. All in all, both visits were average to mediocre. I may try it again some day, at that time I hope that the actual experience lives up to the promise.

Discovered best real country restaurant ever. It is the real deal with huge biscuits and homemade applebutter. Real fresh country coooking. The staff is extremely friendly.

My husband and I met friends there and we just wanted to have a breakfast place and visit. It was almost as great of an experience as being with friends. The food was superb. I have never had biscuits like that before and would hand over a first born child for that recipe. I would suggest the Moose Cafe to everyone going to Asheville and want a fabulous dining experience. Thanks to you.

Discovered this one of a kind, down home cafe by accident on our way home from the mountains! You can bet, this will be a destination eating place for us from now on!!! The biscuits were heavenly and the apple butter..... yum! We bought several jars to take home as gifts. The cafe was busy.... and that is what drew us over to try it. Suzy & ED

Food is about average for a country cafe. Don't go there for lunch between 11:00 and 12:30. You will have a 20-30 minute wait in a tight area. This restaurant is about the noisiest I have ever been in. As far as breakfast goes, everything is OK except the dark brown gravy. Too overcooked. Great value overall.

We were very disappointed in the food. We all had chicken and dumplings. The dumplings did not taste homemade, the green beans tasted 'out of the can,' the collards were tough and tasteless. The biscuits and apple butter were good. I have no intention of repeating this experience.

We're from Lexington, SC and discovered this GEM of a restaurant during our visit in October 2005. You try it once, you'll be hooked forever. True, southern, Aunt Jemima style cooking. Their 'cat-head' biscuits are to DIE FOR! See you in 2 weeks.

The Moose Cafe is the real deal, good old fashion southern cooking. The staff is great and the biscuits and applebutter are to die for. Way better then Cracker Barrel.

This is one of my favorite places to eat. Lunch is always my favorite time to go. The food is great and the staff is very friendly.

Good service, nice views and the food was Great with very large portions Our party had 5 adults and 4 children and the bill was around 40 dollars we liked it so much we went back the next day for lunch

I've had much better country cooking than this. Food was rather bland and poorly cooked. I actually found a piece of plastic in my mashed potatoes! Service was friendly but we were mostly forgotten about. We won't be going there again.

Real "back home" cooking. Get a table overlooking the mountains...great view. The food could be better but it's plentiful and good. Try the pinto bean "side"...better than Cracker Barrel's.