Key Ingredients

This was an unexpected pleasure. First off, it’s an old mansion, beautifully restored and the food is labeled as seed to soul– lovely thought.
We started out with the Brie and baguette with apple butter– homemade apple butter and so delicious! They brought the whole jar and then tell you to take home what’s left– nice touch. It was all delicious.
The burgers sounded good so we went with those– they were excellent. The quality of the meat was apparent and the bun nicely toasted with some nice cheddar and a side salad that was also very nice.
Dessert did not disappoint either, fabulous warm bread pudding with caramel sauce and some outrageously good butter pecan ic cream from a local dairy. The food, the atmosphere and the service all top notch. They close for 4 months but we hope to come back on our way to Charlotte in the summer– great place.

The brownie sundae was quite tasty. Cozy little spot to get some food with a nice view.

Great food and fun. The owners are just the best always enjoy my weekly visits. Great history

We were hoping for a healthy dinner and were pleasantly surprised with a delicious kale salad. I could have eaten 2 platefuls of it. The tomato cream soup was very tasty and served hot.
Other patrons were ordering steak dinners and seemed pleased.
The service is good. Yes we were greeted outdoors by a man, and immediately served by a server inside. Would recommend and try again in the future… traveling up I-​81 and needed some good healthy food.
The desserts looked very good… bread pudding, pecan pie, and icecream from a nearby ice creamery.

Service was exceptional and the food was delicious! We had the kale salad topped with crab cake and grilled salmon. Everything was fresh and healthy. It’s a great idea to sit upstairs on the porch overlooking the rolling hills and enjoy the beautiful fall landscape and breeze. Great experience especially considering we thought our only options were unhealthy chain restaurants.

Superior dishes, beyond superior service. Thomas seems to really enjoy his work and where he does it!
The venue is in the process of being restored. Ask for a tour! Thomas handles these as well! Prepare for a great time!

So glad we found this place on Unilocal!We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. They serve delicious food in a beautiful setting, and the prices are very reasonable. We especially enjoyed eating on the porch with beautiful views of the countryside. We had an appetizer of chicken salad quesadilla (big enough for several people), a cheddar burger with pasta salad, and a pulled pork sandwich with steamed broccoli. Everything was delicious and prepared to perfection. We also had excellent service. We couldn’t be more satisfied.

My boyfriend and I wanted to stop somewhere during our 10 hour drive from NJ to NC that wasn’t Wendy’s or Burger King, and we found this great little place. I had the grilled salmon wrap with coleslaw and my boyfriend had the grilled chicken wrap with coleslaw. Both delicious. Waiter (Thomas) was great and super friendly. We sat outside so we had a nice view. Definitely a nice place to stop when you want something good and fresh to eat.

Thanks to other Unilocal reviews, we decided to give this place a try. Wow! We were not disappointed.
Just off of 81, Key Ingredients is located inside The Mansion at Fort Chiswell. The property is fantastic and looks likes it could hold a decent sized wedding or party.
After being greeted by Thomas at the stairs, we were led upstairs to their new bar. The menu had good variety at very reasonable prices. All of their food is truly farm to table. Even the veggies are grown in their own garden.
We started with the Brie and baguette, which came with their own homemade apple butter. The baguette was warm and fresh, the Brie fantastic, but the apple butter was the key! It wasn’t loaded with sugar like most recipes.
My wife had the chicken salad wrap and I had the steak and cheddar sandwich — both were excellent! We finished with a scoop of key lime ice cream, which is made at a local dairy.
We will definitely be back!
TLDR: fresh, affordable, fantastic

The atmosphere was great as far as the view was concerned; however, the noise from the bar ruined the ambience of the country. The food would have been delicious had the chicken in the wrap not been burned. Our brownie was delicious, but being given lukewarm coffee and being told they could microwave it rather than make fresh coffee was disappointing.

If you want a beautiful view, lovely but laid back atmosphere, fantastic service (see Thomas) and wonderful food please, please, please visit this place. We had a party of 10 (6 of whom are admittedly pretty rambunctious kids between 10 – 14) and we were made to feel right at home. Thomas is very friendly, funny and goes far beyond the norm to accommodate. The food is high quality with many farm-​fresh ingredients. This is the best place in the area by a country mile.

Stopped here on our way home to Pennsylvania. Great find, beautiful view. Upon our arrival we were greeted by the tour guide and Thomas our waiter — very nice and friendly. He said we could pick anywhere to sit — so we chose a lovely table on the porch with a great view of the countryside. We ordered 2 Mansion Chef Salads and the Chicken Salad Sandwich — the food came out quickly and was clearly made to order with fresh ingredients. Food was delicious and this was a great stop on a long road trip. Definitely recommend a stop, very easy to find and close to the Interstate. Don’t forget to stop at the creamery before you leave — best Butter Pecan ever!

On our way to the beach, we were looking for a new place to stop for lunch. Following the advice of fellow Unilocalers we gave this restaurant located in an historic mansion a try. Just off of ⁷⁷⁄₈₁ in the Wytheville area, the location couldn’t be more convenient to travelers passing through, and the panoramic farm and mountain scenery on the porch dinning area was accompanied by cascading flower baskets. The food and service lived up to the awesome environment. Our server Thomas responded to our questions about a local beer by bringing us one (of 70) to sample. We both had the incredible kale salad (from the mansion garden). You can request a different dressing than the lemon evoo seasoning, but don’t. It’s perfectly light and lets the veggies sing. We topped one salad with a crab cake and the other with chicken salad, both of which were good. We were disappointed that the salads didn’t come with bread, however Thomas brought us freshly toasted baguette when we inquired. They are currently putting in a bar, so the operation is growing. Hopefully next time we stop they’ll have a beer list for us, but regardless, we’ll be back!

Visited this restaurant twice while in the Wytheville area. The food was excellent. Everything was fresh, presentation lovely, waitstaff accommodating and reasonably priced. I would highly recommend stopping here. If you are a history buff or just interested in housed of the Civil War era, be sure to take the tour.

We had the tour and then an early dinner, both were very nice. Almost as soon as we stepped out of our car we were greeted by a sweet smiling girl asking us if we would like the tour and/​or to dine.
The tour was fun, I had been in the home years ago and it was wonderful to see how it had been brought back to glory by the current owner. The tour guide was super nice, not uptight in the least and certainly not a know it all.
The food was fine especially for something right off of the interstate. I did find the pasta salad to be overly oily and very bland. My veggie wrap was delicious though. Our server, Aurora, was super sweet.
I certainly commend the owner for the renovations and really hope that she/​he appreciates the staff because they are top notch. I can’t remember a place that I have been that made me feel so welcome.
I loved that they are obviously pet friendly as they have our door dining and a pet cleanup station complete with Mutt Mitts.

Excellent food and friendly service. Fresh all around. Colonial atmosphere gives a great setting. Beautiful building and grounds. Highly recommended!

Quiet lunch on the porch with a nice distant view of cows grazing up on the hill. Fresh salad with a particularly tasty crab cake made with what seemed like very little bread crumbs. A bit of egg and celery, nicely seasoned, though a bit salty. The blacked salmon wrap was made with a nice seasoned tortilla. Friendly staff. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to get a tour of the mansion. I’m sure it had a great story.

We both had wraps… Mom with house-​made chicken salad and I with blacken salmon. Side of pasta salad. Salmon was a little greasy but flavored very well. Pasta salad was a little dry and not very seasoned… I added salt to both the salmon and the pasta. It was very nice enjoying lunch outside on a 70 degree afternoon. Didn’t take the tour… Maybe next time.

Lovely setting on the porch for a summer lunch. I thought the menu was somewhat un-​imaginative for a restaurant featuring locally sourced food. That being said I had the crab cake, certainly not local, which was good. Very interesting tour of the old mansion. Taken together certainly worth the stop.

Great find on the road south. Beautifully restored mansion with friendly owner on site who has lovingly brought the structure back to its original glory.
Tasty chicken salad with fresh veggies and served with a smile.
Don’t miss this gem!