Cornucopia Restaurant

I was in my way to the Orchard up the road when I saw this place. I pulled into the parking lot being from out of town and it just didn’t feel inviting. Unilocal said this place was not open because they close in between lunch and dinner. Someone should really update that. I absolutely loved the building and dining room with high ceiling and that vintage barn feeling. I could have selected multiple things off of the menu but chose the crab cakes and a wedge salad with ranch. It took about ten minutes to order but then my food arrived in the same time which was perfect. Hilariously the waiter just could not remember to bring me a glass of water as I waited for my bourbon from the bar. I mean no beverage at all. I actually finished eating my dinner and after a 3^rd time waving down my overwhelmed waiter he apologized and finally got me some water. My bourbon arrived some time later. I was in a good mood though and had my food so ok nothing to drink. The food was well worth it and priced right but $ 16 for a single knob creek on the rocks seemed overpriced and the highest I have ever paid outside of a rip off hotel bar at a Marriot on a major city. Get a grip. Come here for the food and cool environment not the drinks. Laid back and fun and pretty close to the new Hampton up the road.

This is a cute little farmhouse style restaurant. This first time I had the food was taken out and only mediocre. The second time I went, I had a salad in house and it was quite excellent !! Great outdoor seating as well. Prices are medium to high, but it was a decent value. Server was great!

I don’t know why anyone would give any less than 5 stars. There food is excellent and service is friendly and balanced perfectly.

Back in the day, Cornucopia was a terrific restaurant. They used to have a big open deck where you could enjoy the great outdoors while eating to die for sandwiches at an affordable price.
Fast forward to today and my how things have changed. Instead of an open deck, the dining area is a big high ceiling enclosure. Gone is the charm of the old place, replaced by what can only be described as a mess hall — like dining room.
Honestly, I felt like I was transported back in time to my college dining hall, except this time instead of being surrounded by my fellow college students, I was surrounded by affluent retirees enjoying their over-​priced entrees.
But Russell you say, what about the food? The food is pretty good, I say, albeit priced about 20% higher than what it should be. [Fair disclosure: just about everything in this area is overpriced].
I had a trio of tuna salad, shrimp salad and chicken salad. It was good, although I noticed the few greens that each scoop was served on was starting to turn brown. It is priced at $ 16 (see, I told you), but was worth about $ 12 or $ 13 at best.
The iced tea costs $ 2.50, but they serve it in a plastic cup, for Pete’s sake. [Note to restaurants that charge more than $ 2 for iced tea — it’s only water with a tea bag, not Dom Perignon! If you give me iced tea in a plastic cup, please don’t charge more than $ 2, even if you have really good tea.]
I rate Cornucopia as 3 stars. The food is pretty good, although not as fresh as the prices dictate. The atmosphere is mountain sanitized. The prices are high, even by Highlands-​Cashiers standards. But they seem to do well, so what do I know.

The best place to eat in Cashiers, NC! It is always nice to see Hailey’s smiling face behind the bar. The atmosphere is positive and extremely welcoming. Chef Roy can make a dang good Purple Onion burger! You have to try this place at least once. You will be hooked!

I live 30 minutes from the beach and drove 7 hours to get one of the best crab cakes ever. I know my crab cakes. You cannot go wrong. Thank you Cathy for the suggestion.

We go out of our way to eat at this quaint, local Cashiers restaurant. Had two delicious salads. Mine was the Fried Chicken Salad that had crispy strips of freshly fried chicken, pecans, cranberries, and romaine lettuce. It was very good. My wife had a salad with fresh Salmon on it. A little pricey but excellent. Had fresh raspberries and other fruit and cheese. But, I always go there for the cobbler. It has been the best in the past. This peach cobbler was freshly made, but they cut the portion down significantly than the last time I was there. The vanilla ice cream on top seemed more than the small bowl of cobbler. It was delicious, but when sharing, it doesn’t go as far as it used to go. Will still come back because it is always a great experience there.

This place was amazing! It was packed and that is always a good sign — well worth the wait! We had two kids who had great meals, one adult got a chicken salad that was huge and so fresh, another got a Red Ruben (good but not as impressive as the other two), and I had the veggie burger, which was DELICIOUS. We want to go back again on this trip!

As a Local I eat lunch here every day that I’m in town, and dinner about twice a week. This place has all three elements of a great restaurant. Great Culinary, Great Atmosphere, and Great Service … If you go for lunch anytime in July or on any Holiday Weekend, get there before 11:30 or expect a wait. This is by far the most popular lunch venue in town.

I have been sitting at this restaurant for 1.75 hours and my entire table has still not received our dinner order. My brother is waiting for a Caesar salad and still hasn’t received it. How can a restaurant make its patrons wait close to 2 hours for food especially when they have little toddlers at the table is beyond me? Clueless waitress and management staff. Don’t even waste your time. I’d rather be eating a pbj sandwich at home. Sad because it is a really cute place but this restaurant is a disaster.

Our fav spot in Cashiers!!! Amazing atmosphere and delicious food. We stopped at cornucopia every time we are in Cashiers, North Carolina

Great setting and very good food. So so much better than eating at the High Hampton Country Club for dinner. So pleasant, we ate there twice. Steaks, halibut were great. Cheese grits, yum. All 10 of us were pleased.

Food was very good however we waited so long for service I had to get some one. It’s dog friendly, they made us sit outside with my dogs who were in a stroller. Then we saw a dog in the main part of the restaurant on a leash. It was at least 10 degrees cooler in there. I was not happy.

Had a wonderful time and great meals. Started with the tuna sushi and for my entrée had the scallops with crab risotto which was outstanding. Dessert was the highlight with the chocolate buttermilk pie. Cannot say enough about the staff who were attentive during the entire meal. Make this a stop in Cashiers!

Seems to be THE local place to eat, so while staying in the area we came for lunch one day. The setting is certainly lovely, with a nice atmosphere.
The food was good; adequate portions, lots of options, excellent flavor. Prices were about as expected, fairly reasonable.
The service we received was curt, hurried, and kind of a brush-​off. We were the last table seated before they closed mid-​afternoon, but we ate quickly and more than half the restaurant was still full of eating and lingering diners when we left. There was a lot of sighing and eye rolling, and weird things like bringing us coffee stirrers instead of straws. Maybe it isn’t always that way, but that was my experience. We didn’t let it ruin our meal but it was odd. I’ll definitely give it another chance if I return to the area.

I eat here all the time, so it’s about time I review it.
Lunch time is sandwiches, soups, salads, burgers… you know, lunchy stuff. You can get something basic and familiar, like a Reuben sandwich, but it will be the best damn Reuben sandwich you’ve ever had. Same goes for the fish sandwich, the California BLT, etc. You may say, «I’ve had all those before» but everything is the best everything you’ve ever had.
Get the black and blue salad. Just get it. The beef tenderloin is the tenderest loin ever, and perfectly medium rare.
My boyfriend said the bacon cheeseburger was the best bacon cheeseburger he’s ever had. Ok, sure, he’s not too food-​adventurous, but if you saw the thing you’d understand that this is no ordinary burger. He was drooling in his sleep that night and I’m pretty sure it was because of the burger. At least I hope so. He also mumbled «I love you» several times. I’m also assuming that was for the burger.
Finish up with the buttermilk pie. OHMYGOD.
I’d give five stars, but the wine list was a little silly. Yes, I live in an expensive old-​rich-​people town, but you should still be able to get a glass of wine in the single digits at a sandwich-​soup-​salad lunch place. Lunch, people. No one spends 20 dollars on a glass of wine at lunch. (Ok, they do, but I don’t, and I’m snatching a star because of it)
BTW, this place has a kids menu and I’ve taken my kids there. I’ve taken my 3 month old baby there several times lately. So I’m clicking the «good for kids» button. However, you might not want to take your kids if they have a hard time waiting. My older ones do ok, and the baby is only interested in boobs anyway, but kids between 1 and 5 might not be super happy here. Not sure.

This was a rad little stop on our way to the Highlands in North Carolina!
A cool restaurant situated in a barn that has both indoor and outdoor seating!
With a full bar I decided to try one of the local brews on tap! My pops in law took care of ordering this for me so I didn’t even know what I was drinking but it was good!
As for a meal I got the Vegan/​Veggie Burger which was cooked awesomely and definitely prepared in house not out of a package! Which I always love. It came with a great amount of avocado, sprouts, onion, lettuce, and two huge tomatoes on wheat bread! And yep a big old pickle on the side! YUM YUM YUM! Potato chips as well! I loved it! It was big and beautiful!
My wife ordered the Salmon sandwhich, which she was a little bummed about because it’s SMOKED Salmon, and no where on the menu did it say that’s what kinda of sandwhich it was, so just beware of that!
But all in all great service, cool place, and great food!

We were a party of 6 showing up on a Sunday, after the church crowd. So yes, it was crowded and we were told it would be about a 50 minute wait. No problem… Once seated our server was there promptly. We all placed drink orders and she was kind enough to let me sample a Pinot Gris, before ordering it. One person in our party ordered an appetizer… about 15 minutes later he was informed that they didn’t have anymore (fries with gravy). Ok, no problem. It took about an hour for our food to arrive. I ordered the Reuben (11.00)… And found it to have the smallest amount of meat in it_​especially for the price (see photo). Another friend specifically asked for No Mayo… and his sandwich came out with mayo… it got sent back. The worst order was the hamburger my friend asked for cheddar instead of American. When he got the burger he noticed the error and brought it to the attention of the wait staff. When they brought it back… they just added a slice of cheddar on top of the American. We called a manager over and explained the problems. Shortly later the owner came over and was extremely apologetic. He sincerely wanted to make things right with our table. We all would like to say that the customer service we received truly helped turn our experience around. Sometimes things happen… and we all appreciated the staff trying to make up for the issues. Our waitress imputed all information into the POS correctly… so, the failure was in the kitchen.
I will more than likely return when I am back in the area. Just be prepared to wait… it can become a lengthy wait/​dinning experience.
And thank you to the staff who did go out of their way to show us customer service.

I’m kinda torn on this this place. I’ll have to try it again this summer. Came in with a group of 10 on a rain off-​season day and we were greeted and seated promptly.
The service was fine, we didn’t wait or lack for anything.
The food was OK. I won’t say there was anything particularly special about any of it. Tried their trout fish spread. I’m not a big seafood eater, but usually enjoy fish spread. It wasn’t tasty to me, but others liked it. I guess what really bothered me was the prices compared to the amount and type of food. I had a club sandwich and chips. It was overpriced at $ 12. My wife had the curry chicken salad. It was $ 12 or $ 14 and definitely not worth it. It was some pieces of chicken served on a quarter of a melon or cantaloupe. She was hungry an hour later. Totally a small portion for the price.
Just not a good value in a place with many other options.

VIBE: This is a go-​to place in Cashiers. It opened in a small house right by the highway. Has been expanded many times — the latest is a large barn-​like annex that is open air in good weather. Just added a bar area and have full liquor. Restaurant, bar and gourmet shop in main building and bottle shop next door.
ORDER THE Red Reuben, Arabian Club & other specialty sandwiches. The pimento cheese appetizer is outstanding with a glass of wine. Have new chef so menu will be changing.