Boro Cafe & Bakery

Hidden gem in Swansboro NC. Next to Icehouse stumbled upon by mistake. Nice atmosphere, friendly staff. Fresh, local, chef prepared meals. Had the duck which was perfectly cooked and the sweet potato pumpkin tart is was accompanied by was amazing. The pork belly burger with the apple butter mustard is beyond delicious. Highly recommend. Nice menu with plenty of gluten free and vegetarian options beyond salad. Will return for sure.

Food is good. Service slow! If you’re not sure what it is, ask because I didn’t realize the flat bread was a pizza style meal. Delish. But more than I could eat! I would probably eat here again despite the slow service!

My husband and I decided to give this restaurant a try tonight. What a wonderful place! The staff was friendly, the restaurant was clean, and the food… The food was great! We ordered a couple of their small plated to share and we not disappointed. We will definitely return.

Contrary to previous reviews, service was great. Waitress was delightful, let us try numerous beers and offered good recommendations. Agree with previous review that food was a good concept but not well executed — sushi was heavy but tasty, duck flatbread not good, but the shrimp was great. Great setting, clean, good atmosphere. Worth trying in a town with few selections– warm and friendly service. Good, but maybe there’s something better in Swansboro?

Top 2 or 3 places to eat in the Swansboro /​Emerald Isle area. Flatbreads are incredible, appetizers are akin to NYC swanky spots and their fresh seafood specials and the pork belly burger are some of the best foods I’ve ever eaten, anywhere… Great place for the EasternNC coast. No need to wait at Icehouse, eat here…

Highly recommended! A unique but culinarily spectacular dining experience. Having eaten at Saltwater and a number of other restaurants around Swansboro, this place is our new favorite. The flatbreads are very good and the variety and delivery for the Tapas keeps things interesting. Honestly, I’m a little puzzled at the long waits for the other places in the area, as this place is head and shoulders above both from an atmosphere and food quality stand point. Will be back again.

A hidden gem. The 3 dollar boars head sandwich are a great find. The gronuts are delicious. My one suggestion would to add a table with a umbrella and add a sign stating breakfast/​brunch.

We had a very great evening. The waiter who served us was very helpful in choosing two great dinner tapas choices. A delicious flat bread and a nice Japanese dish with grass fed beef. We enjoyed our choices and definitely will come back to try a new dish. It’s not your typical restaurant, but don’t let something different stop you from exploring your palette.
Enjoy!

Very friendly but strange experience. We all placed food orders at the same time but everyone’s meal came out at different times, one of us waited an hour for her meal. I ordered the burger and it was not good, it had no seasoning on the meat and I just hated it. My drink also never was refilled. Frustrating :/

First visit to the restaurant. Enjoyed it. It was not very crowded and service was good. Plates we ordered were well executed. The quesadillas were better than expected — a lot of fresh veggies and not heavy on the cheese.

Absolutely Fantastic!
Interior: Atmosphere is lighthearted, well laid out, and welcoming. Tables are spaced well to offer movement even when busy.
Staff: knowledgeable & VERY friendly. As soon as I walked in I was promptly greeted and offered a seat. I chose to sit at the bar was greeted with a smile.
Food: looks great, tastes great, appropriately priced. Need I say more?

The service was great and the location is nice. I love cuisine wise what they are trying to do with the menu. To read the menu everything sounds wonderful, however the execution is just not there. Some dishes were better than others but overall the concept is there but it just doesn’t fully deliver. For mac & cheese lovers, don’t bother with the cheesy quinoa… I found this dish to be swimming in butter and way too cheesy. I could have been eating ground up cardboard and I would never know due to the copious amount of butter & cheese that ended up just looking & tasting like a gelatinous mess. The pork flatbread was ill executed as well. The pork was not crisp and the cheese pairing was an awful choice with the apple butter base. Again, I love what Boro is trying to do and I hope they continue to tweak their recipes.

This place defines the great mom and pop restaurant. The service is great, the food is phenomenal, and the beer has a great selection. They have like 15 craft beers and the food has a Spanish/​European style. Best place is Swansboro by far. Highly recommend

Tried this place twice as the first time left us a little disappointed but not turned off. Service was mainly to blame. Waitress sat us (only 2 other tables in the restaurant at this time) but didn’t ask for drink orders or provide a drink menu. OK, not the worst thing in the world as I just got up and grabbed one from the bar. When we finally found a drink that was in stock they took about 15min to arrive at our table. No apologies or explanation. waitress just dropped them off and walked away.
Menu is a little random but options seems like a good thing. Service and execution falls flat on the meal though. We had a table of 3. 2 ordered large plates that arrived at the same time. The last was a flatbread pizza. After 5 min and the waitress walking by our table a few times I asked if the pizza would be coming out soon. «Soon» she replied and walked away. 15min after the large plates came out, a soggy flatbread pizza arrived. Taste was OK. Nothing special but edible. Portions were odd, too. Flatbread pizza was enough for the table, but a large plate (I usually assume entrée) was about 8 shrimp and a side of beans.
Better service would bump this up to a 3 star. If the waitress even just stated that food comes out at random times it probably bumps the rating up a bit. Overall decent food, but nothing special. Horrible service. Would be better just as a coffee house/​bar/​dessert-​with-​live-​music-​type-​venue.

Tapas were ordered by a couple of us to all split. They less than appealing to eat. We decided on dessert and found out when it came that they were literally or bite each. After spending $ 55 I left very hungry and unsatisfied. We will not be returning.

Run don’t walk. I went to this place on a rainy Sunday night. We sat at the bar and ordered a sandwich and a burger from the bartender, the sandwich comes out no burger, the bartender comes back asks my wife how her food is (gross cheese stuffed sandwich with a side of canned soup), still no burger. About 15 mins in with my wife’s food getting cold I ask her where the burger is. She says, «oh I’m so sorry I forgot to put the order in.» This lady has been standing in front if us for 15 minutes and checked in twice and she didn’t think for one second, why doesn’t this guy have food? Wtf? So she puts my order in rushed. My wife and I are being very friendly. «Oh don’t worry about it“‘s abound.
25 minutes later still no burger. I ask for the check. She brings it to me with no apology and rolls her eyes at me. No comped drinks, no comp on my wife’s sandwich. Come on! So we don’t leave her a tip and walk back into the rain and to a place 100 yards down the road where i get a burger.
About an hr into it in walks this bartender presumably having wrapped up her shift and coming in for an industry beverage. Well she proceeds to eyeball my wife and I and then takes the other bartender in the back and talks shit on us in the back for ten minutes. Classy. Run don’t walk away from this place. It has all of the atmosphere of a high school gym, its patrons are red necks and the staff is awful.

Food was good, service was really bad. We were welcomed in by the owner, place was half empty, so far so good. Waitress was simply a no show. Long 15 minute gaps between seeing her and they were untimely, like when another beer would be good or after getting our food but needing condiments. Service was not busy, they were just kind of clueless in terms of upscale (or even midscale) restaurant service.

Unfortunately we decided to eat at the boro on a Friday night and had a terrible experience. We sat down inside and waited at least 10 – 15 min before we even received drinks. The menu and atmosphere is great, the timing and service was terrible. We waited about an hour for all of our meals to come out. I have dined at tapas restaurants before and they were not this slow or unorganiZed. I feel like on a random weekday or for lunch this place may be great but definitely not dinner on a Friday. We wanted to order more drinks after dinner but decided against it because we didn’t want to wait the extra half hour.

Stumbled upon this place by accident. The tapas style was perfect for my group and we ordered quite a few different dishes. Everyone of them impressed. We actually all incredibly enjoyed the grass-​fed burger (which is contrary to another review). But seriously all of the food was pretty amazing. The dishes are all very well thought out, but if your group has generic eaters don’t expect any chicken fingers. This is not a negative but to highlight that this is a culinary experience that will appeal to someone looking to sample a number of great selections. I would be hard-​pressed to limit myself to one if I was ordering alone.
Service was great and friendly. You can tell the dinner service here is a passion project.

Such a cute little bakery/​café. I’ve been impressed with the changes in the past year! The tapas are great, large drink menu and an intimate setting. This is our go-​to when Icehouse is packed.