Chef's Palette - Cary

Went here right after they opened many years ago, and just finally returned. I remember having a great experience back then and it's still great!

The food add Chef 's Palette is always excellent, and their rotating menu makes offers very interesting and creative choices. We ate their several times [before]. Our table service was excellent. However for a more upscale and higher priced restaurant there are a few minor, yet notable issues: There is a very limited selection of vegetarian dishes basically a salad, one appetizer and one main entry . Often restaurants of that caliber offer additional options on request e.g. Maximillian 's . We just got a simple No we can 't . Very disappointing. Secondly though not a big issue when the dining room is full the place is really loud and there are no acoustic buffers whatsoever. Vegetarian options: Insufficient selection of vegetarian entrees and no flexibility in e.g. putting an portfolio of side dishes together as a full meal.

Perfect place for a birthday dinner! Great service from Chris, one of the nicest cocktails I’ve had in a while (espresso old fashioned), really enjoyed our meals (duck and steak frites). Nice atmosphere. I would highly recommend.

Bummed. Really were looking forward to trying Chef’s Palette again. 1st time was better, not great either. On this trip we arrived with about 50% of the restaurant full so easy to get a table and seated on the bar side. Had to wait a bit for the waitress which was not a big deal. Limited beer selection, only bottles/cans. We each chose a beer. Mine came flat in a glass, generally that means the glass is dirty. Ordered the Pretzel Bites for an app definitely skip it. It was closer to hush puppies w salt. The cheese dip w them was worse. Yuck. Meals were good/fine. Adobo Shrimp wrap was good. Burger was fine, nothing special. When meals were dropped we each asked for a water and I asked for another beer. Only one water made its way to the table during the entire meal. I tried to get her attention but no luck. Waitress never came back until we were done. As she picked up our plates she asked if we wanted anything else. At that time my wife said we I did not need the beer I ordered. At that she said sorry I’ll take that off the bill. What!?!?! You added to the bill but just did not bring the beverage?!? Oh and not the other water. Haha. As a several year previous service industry guy that busted, waited and bartended I give a lot of slack but also have high standards. This experience missed. Average food and bad service. Bummed.

Food is super delicious and service was great, highly recommend! Wife ordered the shrimp and grits and they were superb, I ordered the ribeye and it was steak done right. The potatoes which are often bland and overlooked at other restaurants were perfect as well ?