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Categories: Vegetarian, American (Traditional) [Edit]
111 E Main St
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The Spotted Dog is a weirdly-placed (I mean, it's like in the middle of the street, but then again it's not! :-O ) restaurant, in between two streets and across the street from Carr Mill. It's good though.
I came in here with some people on a nice Friday night and was able to get a cheap Rum + Diet Coke, as well as some chicken fingers. It's primarily a vegetarian place, but I did like the chicken fingers. Deals seem to be generally good as well.
Overall a nicely eclectic restaurant in the middle of Carrboro.
I had an excellent tempeh wrap when I was here last, and I'd get it again. One of the few vegetarian-focused restaurants in the area, so I'm always glad to support them. Good drink specials from the bar on weekday nights, too.
My chimi changa was super greasy and a litle over cooked. The rest of my group's entrees looked better. I will give it another try sometime.
The first thing that really hits you about the Spotted dog is the shape of it. It' starts with just the width of the door to get in - just where Weaver St. makes "vees" off of Main - and gets wider as the two roads separate. From there it's two narrow seating areas on either side of the bar. Really cool kind of spot, and one that I wish would be open later for just general drinking purposes.
Most people seem to rave over the vegetarian selection, but there's plenty for the meat-eaters. Ironically enough, they have the best salad a carnivore could ask for in their grilled chicken salad, and actually make impressive Mexican-but-not-quite-Mexican dishes like enchiladas.
The staff there is always incredibly friendly with the exception of one visit. My first. She was terrible. But the food was good enough that I went back anyway. So what does that tell you?
A nice little place on the corner of Weaver and Main, the Spotted Dog stands out mostly for its large vegetarian menu. When your girlfriend's a vegetarian, it's always nice to find a restaurant that offers so many vegetarian options.
For carnivores, the Spotted Dog is also a great place to stop by, with a menu offering a great mix of sandwiches, burgers, and Tex-Mex. I had the enchiladas while I was there, which satisfied.
I'd recommend the Spotted Dog for anybody interested in a quick and not too expensive lunch or dinner.
As a dedicated carnivore (I used to own an actual spotted dog... he was delicious), me and the Spotted Dog had some issues to work out between us. This place is the epicenter of hippie dining in the area (rivaled only by Weaver Street, which is a scant thirty feet away), so you should really exercise caution when ordering off the non-vegan parts of the menu.
That said, I have to agree with Henry S... These are some rockin' fish and chips. I'm a huge fish and chips lover, and these guys do them right. Love it to death. So much, in fact, that it's all I've ever had here.
That's five stars for food, and the decor similarly (how cute can you make this place, honestly, it's almost too much), but the service tends to be a little slow and even rude. Blasted kids.
If you're a vegetarian or vegan this is your best option in Carrboro. About 75% of the menu is meat free so you have so much to choose from it might make you very indecisive.
The Veggie BBQ sandwich is pretty good as well as the cheese fries with tempe bacon. Most of the food is the sort of thing you'd find at a chili's/applebees but with a vegetarian slant. And of course spotted dog is independent and locally-owned. As a bonus, it seems to be a very gay-friendly environment.
When picky vegetarian friends from San Francisco with pierced noses and liberal -isms came to visit, I knew this place would please them. I'll be honest, it was my first time ordering off the vegan part of the menu, and my first foray with vegetarian 'hot wings' (not bad, actually!) and other animal-friendly oddities.
I've always appreciated Spotted Dog. For its awesome staff. For its thrift shop-find porcelain dog salt and pepper shakers. For its menu that has stuff like: the Wobbly Gobbly (turkey sammie; not everything's all veggie!), Rover's Clover (salad), and Fetchin' Sticks. Pretty good offerings on tap and some IPAs. I checked them out for late-night once -- definitely more of a 'regular' crowd, but great if you're looking to get served some hefty (or healthy!) food with your pint.
I keep going back to Spotted Dog and I don't know why. The service is slow (and occasionally very rude), the food is mediocre (its either ok or horrible), and its a little expensive for what you get.
I only rated it 2 stars because I am all for supporting local businesses, but these guys just seem to have completely given up. If you are in Carrboro, opt for one of the other restaurants.
The only redeeming factor about this place are the fish and chips, and the mojitos aren't bad.
YAY! We had a great experience here!
we went in for dinner and sat at the bar. We had not one, but TWO, very cute and fun bartenders take care of us-- I wish I could remember their names, though! The girl bartender was Chris, but I can't remember the cute boy bartender's name... My dining partner and I were looking around the area as a possible place to move, and the bartenders were super friendly and helpful with regards to our questions about the area.
Then, the food.
It was GREAT to have a menu that had just as many veggie options as it did meat-options! And the vegetarian "buffalo wings" (homemade, NOT premade/frozen/mass-produced!) were so good my meat-eating companion ordered a second serving! Sadly, the vegetarian "BBQ" sandwich wasn't all i'd hoped it to be... the texture was right-on, but the "sauce" had been described on the menu as an "Eastern Carolina" bbq "sauce" (meaning- dry and vinegary, not sweet-n-tomatoey and gooey)... but the flavor ended up being kind of sweet, with no real vinegar flavor to it... I asked for some hot-sauce to try to vinegar-it-up some...
However, that disappointment would DEFINITELY not stop me from returning and trying other tasty treats on the menu!
The Spotted Dog is the epicentre of the meat-eschewing Carrboro contingency. But there are some excellent carnivorous options as well.
Favorite dishes:
Rover meets Charlie (seared tuna salad)
Baked potato soup (vegan)
Fish & Chips
The wait staff is mediocre, but made up for by the excellent bar staff. The decor is adorable. Go.
Absolutely love it.
Good atmosphere, great staff.
Food wasn't too shabby either.
:)
I've eaten here so many times it's hard to remember all of the good and any bad experiences over the years. I'll make a list to help.
Pros: nice bar; prompt seating; veggie/vegan options (including good vegan bbq); excellent location; friendly bartenders/helpful wait staff; good drink specials; great place to watch women's basketball (UNC in particular) or local sports in general; fetchin' sticks (fried mozzarella covered in crushed pretzels instead of bread crumbs); prompt take out.
Cons: it always smells weird at the end of bar nearest the bathrooms; I've had mixed up orders on occasion; fetchin' sticks are off of the menu; closed Mondays (who ever remembers this?).
I think Spotted Dog is the quintessential neighborhood bar/restaurant for Carrboro, and I'm sure I will be back there countless more times when I visit in the future.
Good beer selection. Several options for vegetarians and vegans. Yummy burgers.
My first couple of visits here were NOT great. I really wanted this place to be since they did provide alot of options for vegetarians which is why I went back after not such great food. However, they recently revamped their dinner menu and it shows some real improvement. Last dinner there wasn't bad and I'm looking forward to trying a few other things to see if they've improved as well.
4/26/07- update: Still not great service but the food is holding steady at decent but not great.
The Spotted Dog has some of the best fish and chips I've ever had. It's not really their specialty, but for some reason the way they fry their fish makes we want to go face first into my plate. I've tried some of the other items here, including the infamous vegetarian BBQ (which is AWESOME), and haven't been let down. The service does tend to lack, though, as most of the servers are college students who couldn't care less about the customers. I wish parking was a little easier to find on the weekends, but sometimes you can find spaces in the Carr Mill Mall parking lot across the street.
I'm a meat lover, but they have the most unique and best veggie wings I've ever tasted in my whole life. I highly recommend their veggie wings.
This was one of my favorite restaurants in Carrboro when I lived in the area. The food is excellent, there are a lot of vegetarian options though my favorite meal there was always the Tree Chicken. Appetizers are very nice as well. The dessert drinks are so good, man, what a way to round out the meal. Ah, I miss it!
Excellent food and beer selection. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, but sometimes I'll get those options too. I've never had a bad meal here, but I have had a bad server or two... but nothing that will prevent me from coming back. Great location and a cool building too.
The Spotted Dog won my heart for being super vegitarian-friendly. Being from Atlanta, and not Carrboro (although I do love Carrboro - what a little liberal oasis in the deep red South), I tend to assume that restaurants will have one or two vegetarian options. But Oh No! Not the Spotted Dog! It has a complete menu page full of vegetarian treats. Now, I'm not just talking salads - they have their own catagory - this is Faux Chicken BBQ, Greek Pasta Salads, Tempeh and Tofu, Veggie Burgers - a great range of choices. I enjoyed the hummus appitizer and the Greek Pasta Salad (I love those olives!) and thought the quality of the food was first rate - delish - and, get this - the servings are reasonable - there isn't a huge plate of food that you'll never finish. So, yes, this means no doggy bags - but it also means that at least one restaurant in the medium price range isn't going to fatten up America. Hurrah Spooted Dog, Hurrah!
The atmostphere is cute - I was there on a Sunday night and the place was crowded, but not packed. There is a dog theme, with pictures of dogs everywhere. There is also a little bit of local art. The restaurant is triangle shaped, so there is occasionally a traffic jam - but the whole thing was cute, a little quirky, and really tasty.
The staff is friendly, as are the locals.
If you're looking for a nice date restaurant, or something a little up scale without breaking the bank - try The Spotted Dog. Its lovely.
Great vegetarian fare, and very helpful and friendly staff.
Spotted Dog, I found you too LATE! I always walked by this place and for some reason, never looked at the menu. It looked sorta sports bar-ish and I assumed their menu wouldn't range beyond beer, wings and burgers. I was so wrong! They have an awesome selection of vegetarian food, including yummy fake meat junk food like faux buffalo wings and BBQ sandwich. Meat eaters will be happy too, as it's not a totally veg menu. I'll definitely return when I'm back in NC.
Every time I eat here, I don't feel well later that evening.
Get the vegetarian club sandwich, which was previously only on lunch menus, but served when asked in the evenings. Yum! OK, so maybe I shouldn't crave fake meat as a vegetarian, but damn I love a good piece of fake bacon when I find one. Lot a good other veggie options and a great beer selection, too.
This restaurant is normal. Food is good, beer selection and specials are great and the service is above average. Great for a quick business lunch or a chill Friday evening before the bar hopping begins.
I have been made happy. I can get a tempeh wrap in the Chapel Hill area. And an amazing one, too. Also, awesome fries (I normally don't eat them, but theirs are too amazing to pass up.) The prices are no worse than anywhere else in the area. AND it's right next to Weaver Street.
Like most restaurants in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the food is awful. Try the spinach appetizer, and nothing else at this overpriced joint with tiny portions of subpar cuisine.
i really don't understand why yelp hasn't taken off in chapel hill. if it had, i feel sure the spotted dog would have been reviewed by now. let's start by first saying i am writing this review from san francisco and so, first off, that should tell you the impression this place has made on me. i always want to eat there when i go back home. i love the tempeh salad. i don't know what it is that they do to their tempeh (maybe some honey with other marinade??), but it comes out just perfect in a huge yummy salad with artichokes and other veggies. you should get the honey mustard dressing because it's perfect, not only for your salad - go ahead and call me crazy - but also for dipping their beer battered french fries in. just the plain fries though, not the ones with the fakin' bacon and other toppings, but don't let me stop you from getting those because they are a great appetizer to get if you would rather share fries then have them as your personal side. i love the fact that you can get a veggie burger here with fakin' bacon on it. it's amazing. hardly any place does this, even in sf. my only problem with the spotted dog doesn't even have to do with the restaurant. it's the fact that the owners had to close down crazy mae's. i know many people, including myself, who has hardly been there in the past four years, are madly missing those homemade chips and fake bbq sandwiches. bring it back!
Chapel Hill, NC
Carrboro, NC
Category: Bars
Carrboro, NC
Category: American (New)
Chapel Hill, NC
Category: American (New)
Carrboro, NC
Category: Mexican
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