The Village Bistro

When we walked in we were surprised at the beauty of the place and that there was no one there. Well, there was 1 other table out on the porch. Our table overlooked stunning mountain views. It immediately brought to mind the restaurants that Gordon Ramsey helps. There had to be a reason this stunning place was empty. The menu had 3 items, so I thought it must be 3 great dishes. 2 of them were pot roast and baked chicken which were the 2 dishes my husband and I ordered. The special was lasagna and I thought it was odd that all the food selections were were very heavy.
The server recommend the pot roast. The chicken was good. The pot roast was cooked nicely but was very underwhelming. The worst part were the carrots were not fresh scraped ones, but the kind you get already cut and scraped and rounded in the grocery store. There was a huge pile of these on my plate and it just seemed terribly lazy to me to use these carrots that I only use in my kids lunches when I am in a hurry.
I think what Ramsey would say is, the 3 dishes need to be remarkable. It needs to be fresh, local and organic. Also the dining room décor was a strange mix of New Orleans art and wild flower pictures. They need to get that figured out.
I hope they fix this restaurant. The server was very nice and the view is breathtaking. It has potential but right now seems… tired.

Here for dinner. It’s a limited menu of daily specials had a nice selection to choose from. Service was good and attentive.
Sat out back, beautiful view. The evening heat was settled by the light breeze coming from the valley.
Didn’t hear banjos, would return.

Chicken was so salty I couldn’t eat it. The potatoes were over salted. My partners food tastes the same. She ate half and asked them to take it away.
I’m not a picky person but I couldn’t even stomach the food. I asked them what they had to replace what I ordered. They offered me the fish. It was much better. Then. The bill came: they charged me for the fish which is significantly higher priced than the chicken and they charged my partner full price for her meal.
Talked to the manager and she was completely uncooperative by stating because we tried the food we would pay for it. She only took a few bucks off the meal.
For a fine dining restaurant it was horrible customer service and salty food.

The Village Bistro is pricey ($ 30/​person before drinks), but for good food with a spectacular ambiance you will not find better anywhere in the area.
Our gracious server started us out with warm bread with the best pesto, spice, garlic in olive oil combination I’ve ever had. It is a simple recipe that the chef of Village Bistro has concocted into something orgasmic. They should sell it by the bottle.
Three entrees we tried were the shrimp, the trout, and the steak filet with a crab cake on the side. None of the entrees got high marks. The shrimp were good, but served with a red sauce, and (possibly) bacon that took away from the quality of the shrimp. If you go, try the shrimp grilled. The trout was prepared well, but the diner who ordered it thought it was «muddy.» Not sure what that means, but you can’t blame the cook. Lastly, was my entrée. The steak filet was cooked to order, but fairly flavorless, and the crab cake I would not get again.
The two side items were very good. We had the baby asparagus and Yukon gold mashed potatoes. Both were good though some guests complained that the cook was heavy handed with salt.

Reservation at 7:30, finally got seated about 8:00. But other than that, food and service was excellent.

I really enjoyed this place!!! We had a GREAT time! It had the most GORGEOUS view! We sat outside immediately with our 7:30 pm reservation. Our server was very nice! My husband loves a menu with good beer selection and they had some great beers! We started with the Southwestern Eggroll’s with the spicy ranch sauce. OH so good! I got about one piece before the hubby managed to eat them all. I had the Greek salad which was great! It was not over dressed and had very fresh ingredients. We split the ribeye special with grilled shrimp with mashed potatoes and green beans. We could not FINISH our meal it was so much food! Normally I would say the special was probably $ 35 bucks so we were shocked it was only $ 23 bucks!!! it was cooked perfectly! We enjoyed a few more drinks and just took in the view!!! I loved it!

Beet salad too much vinegar. So my so that we couldn’t finish it. Server great but over worked and therefore not able to get to us as quickly as we would have liked. We ordered the brined chicken breasts and they were also really vinegary. Asparagus was perfect.

Staying at Nantahala Village for our honeymoon. We went to the Village Bistro for dinner one night and we were the only guests except for one other couple. We requested to eat outside to take in the beautiful mountain view. We had the patio area all to ourselves all evening!
The food was really nice. We started by ordering drinks. I had a question about one of the wines on the list and the waitress couldn’t really tell me if it was sweet or dry, so she brought me a tasting followed by a heavy pour. Next she brought out a bread basket with a warm marinara, olive oil and rosemary dipping sauce.
We ordered tuna sashimi and the pickled beet goat cheese salad (so good!). I ordered the filet for dinner with roasted asparagus, but the winner by far was the entrée that my husband ordered — «Tails of the Dragon» Spicy Red Sauce with Shrimp, Bacon, Onions and Peppers over Goat Cheese Grits. We recommend this dish to anyone in the area!
A wonderful night in the Great Smokies!

Wonderful find in the middle of nowhere. Very good food and wine list. You should call ahead for reservations to try to get one of the lovely terrace tables overlooking the Smokies.

Decent (probably nicest/​best) dining option within the Nantahala Gorge area.
There is a bar/​lounge if you don’t want to commit to the restaurant.
Locals hang here — you might bump into your tour guide if you took an excursion during your visit.
The outdoor seating has a nice view
Free wifi
A bit overpriced
Biggest downside is that it’s closed on Tues and Wed. Keep that in mind if you’re in the area and looking for grub. There are some considerations in Bryson City.

I recommend avoiding this place for dinner.
There aren’t many options for a nice sit-​down dinner in the Nantahala area so we have given Thirteen Moons more than 1 chance. It has a great view and nice ambiance. In the past, the dinner was pretty decent but the quality has really dropped in recent years and last year we had 2 bad experiences. We won’t be back. The last experience was miserable. Service took forever and food took forever. Some meals showed up 20 or minutes apart. My wife’s dinner was so overly creamy, she couldn’t eat it and said it made her feel ill. My fish was questionably cooked. The waiter forgot multiple things — to his credit, some of the items weren’t on the bill either because he messed that up as well or realized what a terrible job they had done. I rarely leave reviews or bad reviews but this experience was bad enough that I had to post it.
Might still be okay for breakfast…

I’d heard pretty good things about the food.
Unfortunately, we ate on a Saturday morning. The restaurant was deserted. The only other guest was getting a take-​out order for one of the other cabins at the Nantahala Village.
Our waitress was very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what is going on with Saturday breakfast but she was pressed into cooking duty. She did what she could but it doesn’t seem like she had much help from the chef or other staff.
The home-​made granola and yogurt tasted like it was bought from a supermarket.
On the plus side, for someone who wasn’t a cook she nailed the eggs.
Clearly, breakfast isn’t a strength. The dinner menu looked good so I was disappointed with the one meal we had there.