Gooey’s American Grille

First thing that caught our eye was the big menu on the wall with LOTS of options. Sandwiches, soups, 8 types of Mac and cheese, salads and desserts. Second was the customer service. Owner came out and told us about the store and menu, then even offered us samples of the Mac and cheese! Last was the food. The Cajun Mac and cheese was delicious and spicy. The creamy tomato soup was yummy. And the sandwiches were fantastic. We had the fried chicken sandwich on white and the spicy friend chicken sandwich on Texas toast. The Texas toast really made the whole sandwich. 5 stars overall. Will be back.

This is a fantastic place that is being « Unilocalmailed» by help. They don’t post most of their 5 star reviews and are asking them to pay for advertisement. We ate here first time today bacon mad and cheese, Bologna, blt and the «dippers» are amazing. S’more was great. Highly recommend you try we will be back soon

Great service. Really good food.
This place has a real chance.
I had a great experience but they need to go with fresh burgers, not frozen. Not much more expensive and you will sell more.
My blt was awesome. Fresh, crunchy and tasty. The fries were great. Basically, better version of Mc d’s. Chips look sketchy. Over cooked. It is Hard to make a good chip. Experiment with it.
The soups and chili were perfect for a cold night.
I think this place is great if you want a nice friendly, family oriented joint. There is Bar and a foodie spot next door if you want trendy or Smokey.
I would suggest staying on top of your young staff. It is hard to get teens to work hard, clean and do it with a smile.
Also, put a quesadilla on the menu. Kids love cheese quesadillas and they are easy to make. Plus tortillas go with many of your items.
We will be back.

I have been here with my family three times. It’s hard to please teenagers AND parents, but Gooeys succeeded. Very reasonably priced food was excellent, as well as the service. Food has been served quicker each time we have gone. Disregard the negative reviews and try this place. They have inspired me to write my first Unilocal review.

Just what we needed on a chilly December day! A «gooey» grilled cheese and generous cup of soup. Hubby loved his roast beef with au jus and homemade chips. Next time we’ll be trying the cheesy dippers, breaded and fried grilled cheese bites?! Yum!

Was so excited for this place. Turkey sandwich was dry. I will give them credit it’s real turkey! Mac n cheese was ehhh. Overall 3 stars. Nice people.

Stopped by for the pot roast sandwich and soup! Both were amazing! I will definitely be back!

Sadly I had high hopes for this place however they were stomped on. First it is ones belief that that burgers are par cooked Pre frozen burgers from US Foods. Not what one would expect for the price paid. Surely worse than the food found in a hospital. To this I can testify being an employee for DHHS at a hospital whom has seen some not so good burgers. Perhaps one with not so developed taste might find the burgers ok. Next for the price paid one should expect a delicious brioche or even a ciabatta bun but surely this was not the case. It is a humble recommendation that Gooey’s consider the fleshier breads perhaps from Neomonde’s bakery to advance their product.
Next when one thinks of the word fresh they truly expect just that and not some fryer steamed par cooked later microwaved potato chips. On a serious note once cooked their is approximately a 2 1 – 2 minute shelf life under a proper heating light or in a proper warming drawer for about five minutes. Sadly Gooeys thinks that they are not subject to the proper handling and temperatures mandated by the law.
Next it was ones request that the chips be made fresh to which the cashier obliged. While waiting an employee was observed without washing hands or even wearing gloves preparing ready to eat product. Then said employee handled the chips from the precooked fryer basket and placed the cheese atop and then off to the microwave. Really! I thought for sure I was in a foreign country because it was obviously a lack of proper training. Everyone that has ever worked within a food service establishment knows that the proper way to melt cheese is either below a salamander, or broiler and clearly not a microwave which would take the already old chips to a rubbery stale state. To this I demanded a return on my money only to be questioned.
The final failure was the soup that clearly was within the temperature danger zone. For soup to be safe it must be cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees and held for no more than four hours at a temp of 140 degrees. Our soup came to us at a guessed temp of about 90 to 100 degrees clearly too cold and a harvesting ground for bacteria.
If this is how they run a business it is ones prediction that Gooey’s is the next restaurant failure. Hopefully Chris the health inspector will be making another visit real soon to re-​evaluate.

A great concept, with great simple food. I highly suggest the Fried Chicken Grilled cheese!

Let’s start. We had heard about the «Mac-​n-​Cheese». My kids partook in this. And they described it as «smokey, creamy, cheesy goodness». A empty bowl and clean sandwich paper pretty means it ain’t Kraft. The ham and cheese sandwich had thick slices of ham. And it was extremely tasty, kind of like the type of sandwich your mom would make when you’re in bed with strep throat. It just makes you feel warm. I had the gumbo, and it was very good. I know a certain friend from NOLA that would scoff at it. But we’re in Wake Forest, so suck it up butter cup. And for desert, we split a s’mores donut. Let’s just say, eat enough of these. A humalog cocktail will be in you’re future. And finally, CHEERWINE ON TAP!!!

I have eaten at Gooey’s on several
Occasions! Love their food! My fav is the roast beef sandwich on Texas toast with provolone ! It does have mushrooms but I don’t mind! The homemade chips are delish! Oh and the broccoli cheddar soup! Better than Panera and is homemade! Def a great idea and the owner is always there and super nice! Interacts with people and answers questions! Looking forward to trying the turkey next time!
*so I’m reading the reviews after posting mine seems weird all the reviews were posted the same time like you’re purposely trying to hurt a locally owned business… … For the lady who says the soups are not homemade… you’re funny! They most certainly are! They even have a pic on here of the tomatoes that they roast before putting in the tomato soup! I guess opinions are like well… lol everyone has one but I love it here! My kids love it! How you can review Lelis Diner higher than this! Barf! I wouldn’t let my dog eat at Lelis!

We loved this place! Came for lunch and got a kids tender with Mac and cheese, a grilled ham and cheese (came with Mac) and soup (was free bc I was wearing pink for breast cancer :)) but it was $ 11. I don’t think that’s bad for lunch of that quality!
The food was out quickly and super friendly service. We will be back to try more! Thanks for some great food, Gooey’s!

I hate to post this review but will do it in hope that things improve. Ate there blast Sunday with friends. We each got different tthings so we could share. The highlight was prime rib sandwich, which was pretty good. That is where the good food ended. The tomato soup was very watery. We ordered three different dippers and had three different experiences: cold, medium, and scalding hot. Two off-​the-​wall cheese sauces were filmed over and cold. I hope things get better for this place.

Wife didn’t want me to post a review as we really want a local place to make it there. Sadly, I won’t be back unless things change. I hope some feedback helps them know what people see as issues.
First thing I noticed was that the burgers were made ahead of time and just heated up on the griddle. It was obviously a pre made patty but I’m not sure if pre cooked off site or not. Anything on Texas toast will taste moist but the burger simply wasn’t what I expected at a local «grill».
Adult grilled cheese was the same exact size as the kids yet the kid’s includes a drink for the same price???
As other reviews noted, I’m pretty sure the chips are store bought and not homemade.
The Mac and cheese has potential but it also seemed to be warmed up (not hot) and made some time ago. I certainly don’t expect them to cook the macaroni and make mac n cheese when it’s ordered but there wasn’t anything gooey about mine. They need a better method to provide what I’d think is a signature part of the menu.
Overall, it just feels as if corners are being cut. Local and fresh is what we were looking for. I really hope things change and they make it.

Went there last week for the first time. Live nearby so hoping for a good place to frequent. First, the good… well,…the menu is written on a marker board, which means it can easily be changed. I ordered the turkey, bacon, avocado club sandwich on texas toast with a side of cajun mac and cheese. Service was fine. Sandwich came out and I was confused. I received what looked like a pot roast on bread with bacon? I informed the staff and they said it the turkey club i ordered. Dark meat turkey that looked like pot roast, small piece of bacon NO avocado (was told it was avocado spread, which wasnt even on sandwich either). I would have never ordered if I knew it would not be an actual Turkey Club sandwich that is commonly made (sliced turkey breast), the current club needs to be redesigned or dropped totally. To credit they gladly made a substitute, french dip au jus which was good.
Overall, I feel the ball was dropped in several areas, perhaps a grilled cheese place would greatly excel with home made bread or cheeses. Not to mention the kettle chips that are store bought. Grilled cheese to begin with would be a tough sell, but easily turned around with some minor changes.

Came here with the kiddos. BLT Salad, Caesar Salad, chicken tenders, Mac Cheese Grill Cheese, and Chessburger Grilled Cheese. Overall you get what you pay for, I had slightly higher hopes. I think a place like this has a lot of potential, almost like a Friendly’s, but some things just mediocre at best. Chips not homemade (to me an easy way to set you apart as a restaurant), iceberg lettuce, plain old sandwich bread (would benefit from thicker cut quality bread slices), and under seasoned mac & cheese. Burger was ¹⁄₆ pound at best. Service and staff were very pleasant and fast and restaurant very clean. Would benefit highly from a few tweaks to the prep of the food, better utilization of ice cream bar (make a legit soda fountain place) and this place could be GREAT.

UPDATE: THINGS ARE CHANGING ALREADY. We went back a week and a half later to get some lunch, and the home made loaded chips (which were awesome, by the way) and were disappointed to see that things are already changing. Prices are going up (slightly, but still going up). More importantly, they no longer do the thick cut, home-​made chips for their loaded chips. They’ve replaced them with regular, store bought kettle chips for the same price. Too bad. We left without eating. Doubt we’ll be back as the sandwiches didn’t stand out a ton. Also noticed that the AC ducts have so much condensation on them that they are dripping over the eating area.
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My wife and I snuck in for lunch shortly after they opened. We were greeted by a young man who we later learned was the owner’s son. Seems to be a good young man. He shared with us that his dad was trying to make a family spot, so they turned the old «bar» into an «ice cream bar.» Good move dad!
I had a chicken avocado sandwich and she had the «Macaroni and cheese grilled cheese.» Mine was good, but she raved. The loaded, home made chips (with cheese, chives, and bacon) ware outstanding! Thick, crispy, homemade chips really held up well with the added toppings.
I wasn’t happy about the price of my sandwich (it was $ 8 for a chicken sandwich on regular white bread with a little avocado), but her grilled cheese was more in line with realistic.
I highly recommend the home-​made, loaded chips!

Me and my family have been looking forward to coming here all week. We place our order, it took 30 to 40 minutes for our food to come out. In that time we saw 4 group’s leave because they didn’t want to wait any more. Then we got our food my son order was wrong. My other son burger was dry. The mac and cheese was a little dry and needed some seasoning. My roast beef sandwich wasn’t to bad. Really didn’t like it drowning in butter on my bread. Maybe in a few weeks we will go back and try it again.

I ordered the spicy chicken sandwich with chips and a side of mac and cheese to go. First, the cook grabbed a handful of chip from a bucket sitting in the counter. Big NO for me. The chips were cold. Second, the chicken was very crunchy outside but uncooked inside. The middle of the breast was pink and cold. Another big NO. The only part of meal that I enjoyed was the mac and cheese. Mac and cheese was goooey!!!

Looking for something new…
We stumbled across Gooey’s by accident while looking for something different. Boy did we find it. The food was great the service was awesome. We even met the owner John. He was great! The restaurant is brand new and hasn’t even had its official grand opening yet. If you are a cheese lover this place is for you. Try the Cajun Mac and Cheese nice and spicy!
Go Wake Forest Titans!