Cafe Rule & Wine Bar

A wonderful time, as always. Our favorite Hickory restaurant!

My wide and I had a delicious Sunday brunch here, October 13. The food was outstanding! We enjoyed the cocktails, the entrees, and dessert. The service was great. There was live acoustic music playing. Everything was perfect.

Excellent experience! They went above and beyond for our Anniversary.

Enjoyed the meal. Service was good and the location and ambiance was good

When requesting a table be cleared where you want to sit. They wanted to place us in the center of the restaurant where patrons enters and leave. Not a great stop to enjoy your food or conversation. Needed to move to a high table which was small and seats were uncomfortable. The good news the food was terrific as always.

Great selection of wine and food. Recommend the dry aged Ribeye that pairs great with Stags Leap Cab.

We had a small dinner party in the Chef’s Table area. Everything about it was amazing !

We had a fabulous meal and enjoyed lovely outdoor dining in the garden.

In town for a conference this restaurant came highly recommended. We loved it so much we went back 2nd night. Amazing cocktails, great wine selection, awesome food. Great service. The patio was so delightful. I could eat here every day.

We frequent Cafe Rule and were very disappointed in tonight’s dinner. There were three tables seated in the entire restaurant. Service was fair, food was partially cold, delayed to table, and not to standard. Unfortunate experience.

Loud. Waited over 1:45 for our entrees and finally cancelled them. They did comp them which was appreciated. Just not the same place as it used to be.

I highly recommend that everyone tries the bacon stack at least once. It is one of the most amazing things that I've eaten.

Service was nonexistent . Party of 6 was seated in patio and no server ever came to our table. We used a cell phone to call and ask for a server. Once we had one we barely saw them. We did not receive the food that he said he was bringing. The food we did receive was very good. Will try another time , however, this trip was very disappointing!

Unplanned dinner had us making dinner reservations for the night. As we have had in previous visits the service and food was perfect. Jeremy was our server and he was excellent. Food was great and exactly the way we ordered it. Highly recommend this restaurant.

Cafe Rule has finally hit on a winning menu!! The only thing they need is a good bartender!! Of the three drinks that we ordered, only one was decent, and it was a specialty drink off the menu. A good bartender can mix anything! They really need to find one!!! Otherwise, Cafe Rule is great!!!

We live in Charlotte and visit Hickory often to see family. When we can, we make a point to come to Cafe Rule. It never disappoints but last night may have been our best meal there! Maybe one of the best meals I've ever had. Fresh and inspired menu and presentation. Love this place!

We ate al fresco and it was fabulous! Food was outstanding and the staff was professional.

We happened upon this fabulous restaurant and we’ll definitely be planning a return visit.

Family get together.

We missed the bread and pepper jelly , but Jeremy did a great job on alternate appetizer selection.
All 4 meals were well prepared, presented and consumed. The Garden sitting is exceptional and a long time favorite since first discovered in 2014. Exceptional location and menu.

An amazing, personalized experience with fantastic food and delicious cocktails! The service was spectacular and the ambiance was wonderful!

Great food and vibe.

Food quality was excellent would highly recommend. Service was sub par. Took 30 minutes for waitress to take our order, almost as long to get our glass of wine we ordered. Restaurant seemed very disorganized, this is not a restaurant I would recommend even though food was good, much better in Hickory and more reasonably priced

My favorite restaurant in Western North Carolina. The service is always outstanding and the food is superb. I love going there and only wish it was closer to where I live. Yum Yum Yum!!

We were there for a business dinner and the food and atmosphere was great.

Will go back for sure.

Loved it! Great food, service, wine selections. The outside patio was wonderful.

Excellent food and service we will return soon! Our friends from New York City said it rivals some of the best restaurants in their city!!

As always food was very good. Sarah was an excellent waitress. Alyssa is always friendly and checks to see how we are doing.

Loved the new Sunday brunch menu.

Everyone in my party of 6 had a well prepared and flavorable meal. Portions and plating were good. Best calamari ever! House special cocktails were disappointing for the price.

Service was good and the roofed courtyard was so nice. My pineapple mojito was just juice. Chefs were not accommodating, even though it would have been the easiest substitute to include one chicken taco and one fish on the same plate. My plate sat under the warmer for longer than necessary, my steak may have been good if i had gotten it right away. I had dehydrated dog food on my plate in the form of steak, mashed potatoes were cold even though they had good flavor.

Great food and quaint but peaceful ambience. Service was excellent, and I'll be back for the churro waffle dessert!

Service was outstanding, was birthday dinner 4 my fiance had a personal card signed by the whole staff, food was outstanding, the desert a chiro waffle an icecream was the perfect finish. Definitely will be returning thank you to the staff and managment of Cafe Rule

I just think we had a bad first experience.

First, their internet went down, which meant that their credit/debit payments were unavailable, since they use some sort of internet payment service, like Square.

Secondly, instead of letting my wife know that they were out of the green beans that were suppose to come with her meal, they tried to substitute it with broccoli, hoping she wouldn't notice. She hates broccoli.

They did comp one of my beers ($4.00), but still feel like they could have done more, considering. Server was extremely polite, other than not informing my wife about the green beans. I had the chicken and waffles, and it was pretty good, other than the syrup wasn't spicy as the menu claimed it would be.

We'll probably give it a 2nd chance.

I love it! The atmosphere was excellent! Customer service and food were very good.

The chocolate coconut tres leche was my cherry on the top for the evening 🤩🤩🤩

Fifth visit and we currently live in Ohio. When our house on Lake Norman is complete I suspect we'll become regulars.

Food was very good? Waiter was very nice. Thought the drinks and wine were a bit overpriced.

Fun night with one of best girlfriends, celebrating her birthday. Wonderful night outside where you could enjoy each other and the beautiful surroundings!!

Outside seating is wonderful. Waitress didn’t rush us through out meal which was wonderful because we were catching up with longtime friends. Wine selection is great! Food is good and reasonably priced.

We were seated approx 45 min before we were ever able to order. We kept having to flag people down for drinks and it took an ungodly amount of time for our salads and appetizers to be brought out. All that wait and the watermelon feta salad was disgusting. There were approximately 3 specs of feta in with onions so strong I couldn't even eat the lettuce. I salvaged the chunks of watermelon. The specialty drinks were disgusting and I didn't even drink 2 of them. I was finally able to get a good one (pineapple) at the recommendation of the manager who was extremely friendly. The flank steak was good in the butter as were the potatoes and vegetables. The dessert was great-I had the berries. Our waiter was almost nonexistent the entire stay and we kept having to re-request things because he would go to get things such as another drink and would never return. We took a chance and drove an hour to this restaurant only to leave disappointed.