West Main

Not bad, but I miss the Rainbow Trout, and the Duck Breast. It’s an okay place to bring visitors that are a little more cautious in food.
I do really like that they have a place upstairs for reservations. It’s nice for meetings and get-​togethers.

I had a reservation (Scheduled 3 – 4 mos. ago) for my wedding rehearsal dinner at West Main two weeks from today. I was just informed via email that they will be closing that week for for ‘rebranding and renovation.‘
I would have been ok with a month, but just 2 weeks? For a sudden ‘rebranding’? Making a reservation at a wedding destination during wedding season 3 – 4 months ago was difficult enough.
Just completely unprofessional.

This review is for their Saturday brunch. First off they only have benedicts in Sunday’s (What!!!). I had my eye in their crab Benedict but I guess that forced me to order something than my go-​to.
I had the West Main Scramble which was eggs w bacon onions salsa and other stuff with hollandaise. It was v similar to an omelet but a lot fluffier and I sure was pleased. The potatoes were perfect and the extra applewood smoked bacon definitely filled me up.
The service was very cheery and quick. We were outside but the waiters frequently checked on us.

We were a large group in an upstairs room. The restaurant did not assign adequate wait staff to us. As a result, water glasses didn’t get refilled, coffee didn’t arrive, people’s food didn’t arrive anywhere close to the same time.
Overall, the food was just okay. Crab cakes has a lot of breading in them. The steak frites was probably the best dish.
I would not choose to return.

Wonderful historical ambiance, friendly and helpful staff AND fabulous mac n cheese! Can’t wait to go back

This place was most definitely not great. We wanted to eat brunch/​breakfast here and though we had no trouble finding a seat, we were let down after that. The service was pretty okay, but the food was just yuck. I really hate giving a negative review, and luckily I do not usually have to, but this place was… well. crappy. I ordered a goat cheese and veggie omelette, and it looked pathetic. Take a gander at the picture I posted of it… I opened it to see the disaster they called an omelette. It was greasy, no flavor (you would think the grease would add to the flavor…), there were slight sprinkles of goat cheese, the mushrooms and other veggies? were basically burnt, and it was overcooked! I also ordered 2 sausage patty on the side and I had to blot them in several napkins because the grease was just DRIPPING from them. OMG. Just so bad. Really. So yeah, the food was crappy, and so were the drinks. I ordered a bloody mary, and was so disappointed that I basically ended up making my own, as I politely asked for hot sauce, salt and pepper. I didn’t even finish it, I couldn’t…and if I don’t finish a drink… you know it’s bad. My husband’s mimosa was sad as well. Would have enjoyed some sparkling wine with our orange juice.
Over all, the only thing this place had going for them when we visited was their location… and that’s about it. Sorry for the bad review, but it earned it.

Went here on a Sunday for brunch because it was the only place that didn’t have a wait when we called. I understand why now. The service was not on top of their game. Our table had to ask multiple times for several. We had a table of 4 adults and I personally had to asked multiple times just to get cream for my coffee. And after waiting 5 – 10 mintues and still not having it, I flag down the waitress and still wait another several mintues before I get it. So by then my coffee is luke warm and all faith in the establishment has gone out the window. Serve plays a big role in my perception of a restaurant.
As for the food, I had the eggs florentine with the house fries. Got to say I did like my meal. Their house fries were surprisingly fresh and flavorful, not overcook and dry like I’ve had at other places.
My wife had the shrimp and grits, which she found just okay. Not good enough for her to finish the whole thing. All-​in-​all I gave it 3 stars because it has the potential to be good but the lack of attentiveness from the server stopped it from getting a higher rating.

Overall, I would give West Main 2.5 stars, but to be generous, I rounded up. I have been to West Main a few times. Once for, cue nerding out, a board game meetup, once for an event that was held in the downstairs bar, and once for brunch. The first visits I only had drinks or pre-​ordered appetizers. These weren’t bad. The last visit was for brunch, which was representative of what you get when you walk in to dine there.
I arrived on a Sunday just as they opened to meet a group of eight other ladies for brunch. They were able to seat us right away. The group took a long time to order between catching up and not really getting a chance to look at the menu. I went with a breakfast sandwich with the bacon on the side and a sides of homefries and fresh fruit. The food took a while to come out, which was okay because we had taken forever to order, and we were in a large group. But, that meant I was starving by the time the food arrived.
There was a hair on my plate, and due to being in a group, I didn’t want to send it back. I brushed it off and hoped for the best. The sandwich came on super tiny slices of bread. The eggs and bacon were both super greasy. The homefries were just okay. The fresh fruit was warm. I was starving, so I ate. On my way home, my stomach started to feel kind of queasy and stayed that way.
Overall, West Main is not a quality dining experience. Honestly, after having recently visited a Waffle House, I would say it is about that quality. While it was nice for the other occasions that I visited, I won’t be back for a regular meal there.

Tried to eat there for Sunday brunch. Waited 20 minutes at the entrance with no one present and finally got a seat outside. The table next to us said don’t expect to be waited on anytime soon and after waiting another 15 minutes for someone to come by for a drink order we left. No intention of going back. Staff is not well trained and if the food is good, I wouldn’t know since I didn’t have the patience after 35 minutes of waiting to even give it a try. Won’t ever get my business.

The waitress was angry and unhelpful. She would not entertain any changes or substitutions; and could not be bothered to refill coffees. The food was consistently undercooked, the toast was only toasted on one side, and the portions were small and not tasty. If I could give this place no stars I would. Will not return and will recommend that others avoid at all costs.

We were out of towners looking for a casual spot for a wedding rehearsal dinner/​welcome party location as the wedding was at Trump Winery in Charlottesville. West Main was perfect. At first we wanted a simple gathering for all wedding guests and the wedding party, and the lower level was ideal for our guests… it is private, with a private bar perfectly suited for the guests to catch up in a relaxed atmosphere.
When our plans changed at the last minute to host a private dinner for the wedding party prior to the lower level gathering, the manager quickly and happily arranged for a private sit down dinner in one of the rooms on the upper level. After dinner, the wedding party joined their guests downstairs.
It is not a fancy place per se, yet perfect for our crowd of mostly late twenty somethings happy to hang around a private casual bar catching up with college and high school friends. We chose our own music, decorated a bit and it was a perfect kick off to the wedding festivities.

I’ve been to West Main to have brunch /​dinner /​drinks /​sports. The mid-​town location is nice however they only have 3 – 4 dedicated parking space (with several new bars/​restaurants open on Main St they really need to change that in order to compete, in my opinion, as silly as it sounds in a small town). The food usually don’t disappoint and the service always good. Another reason for a 3-​star is because sometimes you feel a little drown out in the ‘regulars’ crowd and there’s the odd sketchy wanderers that come in.

**Stop 2 of 7 on the Taste of Virginia Charlottesville Food Tour**
A cool, historical, and criminally underrated bar and restaurant.
The second stop on our food tour, West Main occupies a 190-​year-​old building in the heart of Midtown. History nerds will love this place — old pictures of Charlottesville line the walls, and much of the original woodwork is still preserved. There are three floors: the basement is a bar with bar games and TVs, the first floor is more of a restaurant (still with a bar an a TV), and the upstairs contains quiet banquet rooms. We learned that the arrangement of the floors was actually a response to the damage from a roaring fire, which essentially created a hole where the basement is now. Apparently, there are rumors of ghosts activity upstairs (albeit very nice ghosts). In short, it’s just a really neat old building.
My girlfriend and I split the Philly Egg Rolls which were stuffed with shaved sirloin, pepper jack, onions, and peppers, served with a side of sweet sriracha aioli. The egg rolls does the city of Philadelphia proud — the sirloin was juicy and warm and the cheese was melted throughout the entire roll, not just melted on top (foodies: that’s the difference between a mediocre cheesesteak and a fantastic one). It was the best cheesesteak dish I’ve had outside of Philly. The sweet srirachi ailoi only further complemented the appetizer.
Overall, a really great bar and restaurant whose Unilocal rating is a bit lower than it probably should be. If you’re visiting and are interested in the history of the area, you can’t go wrong with West Main.

I’ve been here on a couple of other occasions and their bar is laid back and the bartenders are good people. This particular visit, I had the pleasure of trying their food. I saw pictures of their bacon & gouda burger, but the pictures were better than the real thing. It tasted good, but what stole the show was their mac and cheese. It had gooey, cheesy goodness of gouda, cheddar, pepper jack and parmesan. The pepper jack gave a good, spicy kick and the main flavor came from the gouda — it’s well done. The Southerner, a fried chicken sandwich was also really good. It is described to come with a spicy sauce, but I don’t think I noticed anything spicy. The fried chicken was also a winner. The two thighs came perfectly crispy and the gravy, mashed cauliflower and asparagus worked well all together. The cons for us was the slow service. We weren’t sure whether there was only one server the evening we went, but she did her best to keep up. The main disappointment were the hush puppies. The were fried well, but we didn’t taste any cheese or jalapeño. We could see bits of jalapeño, but overall, the hush puppies were pretty bland.

I only went here to drink so maybe the food is good but the bar was not my favorite. Didnt have any personality and just seemed like a snoody crowd. Maybe I shouldnt base my review on one experience though. Decent beer selection. Several separate rooms

Visited this place last week while being close to a relative who was having surgery.
A short walk from downtown Charlottesville, West Main is phenomenal. It is has it’s own character, unlike Trinity and Three. The server was prompt and extremely personable; The food was outstanding.
Personal recommendation– the crab cake entrée and fried cookie dough dessert

This place is really great. The food is spans across several genres, from burgers to battered and fried sandwiches. It’s an older restaurant that has a nice vibe to it.

I’ve been to this restaurant for Sunday Brunch and Dinner and had a great time. But after this last experience… not sure I’ll ever go back. The hunger after waiting for an hour, lack of communication, and just thrown together salad put a bad taste in my mouth.
Summary: Horrible brunch this time around. Service wasn’t great due to poor communication. Had to wait about an hour for food and wasn’t informed of the reason until we had been waiting about 40 minutes. Ordered two meals, one of which was thrown together and missing ingredients.
We went on a Saturday brunch around 1. We arrived, thinking that service would be nice since there didn’t seem to be many people in the restaurant. After ordering our meals, we waited about 40 minutes before we started wondering where the food was. Apparently, there was a large party upstairs and our food was significantly delayed…
I really wish we would have been informed about a 1 hour wait time WHEN we arrived so we had the option of going to another restaurant (because we were already pretty hungry by the time that we arrived) … So, you can imagine the frustration on top of an empty stomach. (We didn’t order appetizers due to thinking at first that the food was going to be out soon, and didn’t later because we were going to leave if our order much longer than 55 minutes — plus the chefs were already overburdened).
Because of the huge order upstairs that we weren’t told about, one of our meals (mine), which was a shrimp salad, was just thrown together without effort. I think there were maybe 3 pieces of shrimp, and absolutely no bacon that was included with the description of the salad. It was mainly lettuce and a tiny bit of chopped tomato with dressing for $ 11. I imagine they didn’t bother even cooking bacon because they were making so many other meals. We had been waiting so long, and had gotten so hungry, that I didn’t return the salad. We just wanted to get out of there. The second meal for my husband, the West Main omelet, was okay. It was as expected and tasted pretty good, so I ended up eating some of it since my salad was basically … lettuce.
We got coffees because of the wait, and they were covered… which was nice (I do appreciate it). However, I would have preferred 1.) Better communication about the party upstairs 2.) Offered a complimentary appetizer when it was going to be another 15 minutes until our meals were ready. 3.) Actually had a decent salad.

This is not a good brunch place. Came on a Sunday morning and there was a 30 min wait so we thought it would probably be good.
Drinks: the Bloody Marys tasted like cocktail sauce and horseradish, the mimosas didn’t taste like they had champagne in them, the «raspberry royals» tasted like cough syrup.
Food: the eggs Benedict (which are only available on Sundays) are some of the worst I’ve ever had– they didn’t toast the English muffins and the hollandaise sauce was bland. The cheese grits were soupy and very bland.
The service wasn’t great. Basically there were no redeeming qualities to this place. Oh, also we sat outside and it was swarming with flies.

Pulled in at 10pm and ate outside with a parade of drunks because we had the dog with us and outdoor seating was key.
Sweet Habanero wings were yummy, Turkey & Brie sandwich was delicious with a Caesar side and the boy enjoyed his bacon and Gouda burger.
Service was friendly and fast, even outdoors.