The Best Dinner in Hickory, North Carolina || Café Rule
We ended our unbelievable North Carolina adventure with Ralph and Patricia of Sweet Tea B&B by going to Café Rule (in Hickory) for dinner. Check out the video from our last day…
The restaurant is stunning.
It has a hip, modern, date-night vibe and we instantly fell in love. It has some industrial touches like the exposed brick, stone, and duct work. But they balanced it out with the stylish light fixtures, minimalist decorations, and beautiful blue booths and chairs.
It’s just a cute restaurant and we think anyone going on a date (or other fund event like birthday parties) in Hickory, North Carolina should go to Café Rule
For appetizers we had a delicious crab cake and Café Rule’s broccoli baffle (SO GOOD!). But the entrees are the main event.
Joanie B. went for the beautiful Certified Angus 12 oz. ribeye. It’s cooked to your version of perfection (medium for us) and served with mashed potatoes and smoked tomato demi.
When it came to the table all of us gasped. It was so beautiful. And, thankfully, equally as delicious.
Jenni B. had the blackened chicken pasta. It’s perfectly al dente fettuccini noodles in a gorgonzola cream sauce with onions, green peppers, spinach, and blackened chicken. If you’re of a red meat kind of person then you can substitute for blackened steak.
This dish was divine. Creamy but not swimming in sauce. Blackened but not burnt. Noodles that had the tiniest bit of substance without being crunchy or mushy. It was really just perfection in a bowl.
For dessert we went with two fan favorites. First, by popular request, was the popcorn ice cream. For our group it was too salty and buttery, so it definitely wasn’t our favorite. But if you’re the type of dessert lover who leans toward the more savory side, then this could be heavenly for you.
Then we had the churro waffle ice cream sandwich. The waffles were crispy and covered with cinnamon sugar. After our first bite we noticed a kick we weren’t expecting. Upon further investigation we learned that the creamy ice cream in between these waffles wasn’t just vanilla. It’s a cayenne cinnamon ice cream, and it’s incredible!
And how stunning are both of these desserts?!
If you’re looking to elevate your experience at Café Rule, you can reserve their Chef’s Table. When you reserve the space you get the outside patio AND the actual Chef’s Table, which is inside the working pantry for the kitchen. It’s a gorgeous space!
They have three main packages for the Chef’s Table experience, which can be found on their website. But Café Rule is amazing at customizing your experience to fit the event you’re hosting.
The coolest thing we found about the Chef’s Table was the live feed from the kitchen that you get to watch throughout your dinner. We’ve never seen anything like it!
A very special thank you to everyone at Café Rule for giving us such an incredible dinner experience. And, of course, thank you to Ralph and Patricia from Sweet Tea B&B for creating the most incredible itinerary imaginable for our time in North Carolina.
If you’d like to support this wild ride, become a Patron, we have some awesome reward tiers. Sometimes we even pick up little gifts for you along our travels.
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