admiral

very happy. my wife and i had heard many good things about the admiral. finally we decided to give it a try. i went online and made reservations using opentable. it was a very easy process and we made reservations for 9:30pm for the following sunday. imagine our surprise when we got a call from the hostess asking us to move our reservation up to 7:30pm. we were very happy about that, since 9:30pm was sort of late for us and our 8 year old. we had no wait, and we were shown to a table as soon as we walked in. the atmosphere was great for evening/night dinning. our waitress was friendly and attentive. there is no children’s menu; however our 8 year old was able to order a grilled cheese and potato wedges, which she enjoyed. i was very happy with my order of house smoked duck, mole, fingerlings, orange compressed fennel salad, salty peanuts, and sesame seed espuma. i have a fennel allergy and our waitress was more than happy to serve the orange compressed fennel salad on a separate plate for my wife to enjoy. the duck was wonderful and the mole sauce was superb! my wifeorderedthe black angus rib-eye, pimento mac & cheese, green bean casserole, mushroom gravy, marrow butter, pecorino. the rib-eye was cooked perfectly and the marrow butter was amazing! it was the first time i had tried marrow butter and i was not disappointed. we finished the meal with the lavender brulee with sea salt which can only be described as deliciously fresh. total tab with meal, 2 drinks, and tip was around $90. service was excellent and restaurant was clean. parking can be an issue, but the attentive staff, restaurant cleanliness, and quality of the food make up for that small issue. the menu changes often, so be sure to look online to see the food selection. we are looking forward to returning.

who is the admiral?   because i want to personally thank him/her for a fabulous dinner.  all joking  aside, this meal shared with friends was a real treat.  our grouporderedan assortment of appetizers that included a tasty cheese plate with peach chutney, compressed watermelon with feta and peanuts, and two, yes two servings, of the pork belly with fried green tomatoes and red pepper coulis.  this was definitely  the star attraction of the night.  it was a wise move to order two servings to allow everyone in our party to have 2 or 3 bites each of this savory and tasty appetizer.  the "small plates" weorderedand shared included saffron gnocchi with lobster and shaved truffles and flat iron steak (perfectly seared) with fingerling potatoes and a mushroom reduction. the portions are small, but big on taste, quality and flavor with purposeful and artistic presentation.  dessert was a chocolate brulee with salted caramel topping and fresh blueberries and blackberries.  this extremely decadent and rich dessert was the perfect finish to an outstanding meal.  the understated exterior of this west asheville restaurant means diners who venture inside will be a little surprised to find top notch cuisine and service with an eclectic and vintage decor.  we look forward to returning.

excellent!!!! and it is the best thing next to.... having been on the road for a month, and sampled really great food in va, dc, nyc, and other cities....this is going down as the meal to beat on this trip.
had read some of the critical reviews here and elsewhere, so we weren't expecting the perfect experience we received.
two "tastes" or "small plates" are plenty per person. we were so delighted with our four that we pushed it andorderedthe tartare which left us way too sated to sample their otherwise appealing desserts.
our service was as excellent as the food, inobtrusive but willing to volunteer helpful suggestions. there was a gap between our originallyorderedfour and the tartare, but great opportunities for observing the scene made the time pass quickly. tables are spread out enough to make for easy conversation without inadvertently eavesdropping on your neighbors.

i am happy but sad to see the consistency with the reviews. i agree, the food is creative and delicious. i have seriously eaten everything on the menu but unfortunately my last visit to the admiral ruined my taste buds forever.
like i said i have eaten everything on the menu so you can imagine how many times i have visited. my boyfriend and iorderedabout three plates each; taking our time and enjoying every single bite. the time came for dessert. the server approached us with the dessert menu and said, "if you order dessert you will need to hurry it up. we have people waiting to sit here." sure, sure, just like myself i waited a long time to get the reservation, i totally get it. in turn, there were other tables and bar seats available for us to sit, especially since we just dropped $250 bucks. i was very appalled and disappointed. we nicely asked for the check and headed downtown to french broad chocolate lounge for dessert.
i hope the owner will take these reviews seriously and make some changes.
i will miss going to the admiral.

it was good..but not mindblowing. we made reservations for 3, arrived early and they were very nice and got us in anyways. weorderedthe baby argula salad, pork belly, flat iron steak, fried rabbit, sweetbreads and for dinner weorderedthe scallops and pork chop. the salad was great, the pork belly was my favorite by far as the outside was crisp and so rarely do many chefs do that. the steak was average at best. the potatoes that came with it were slightly undercooked. the fried rabbit was great as were the sweetbreads. my husbands scallops were perfectly cooked and seasoned so that the natural flavor came through. my pork chop was extra thick but cooked great. i honestly liked the goat cheese risotto better than the pork. if we lived in the area, we might try it again but since we are visiting from out of town we will skip it.

not what's it's cracked up to be. my husband and i are asheville natives. the admiral came highly recommended from several friends as one of the best, newer restaurants on the scene. we made reservations for our 24th anniversary. were we ever disappointed.

let me say that the service was impeccable. the gentleman who waited on us was personable and professional. however, if i am going to pay $24 to $30 for a large entree, i expect to not leave hungry. my husbandorderedthe swordfish. iorderedscallops. i gingerly ate my entree in about 3 minutes or less. there was little more on it than an appetizer portion of seafood. moreover, my scallops were overly salted - something that is a no-no for delicate seafood. my husband's swordfish came in a slightly larger portion, but he, too, left hungry. his swordfish was nearly cold ... certainly nothing outstanding.

may i say that the malbec and the wedge wheat beer were very good!

the entrees came with nothing - no salad, no bread, nada. the admiral should at least offer a small side salad and a nice crusty european bread to accompany these outrageously priced dishes.

again, do not misinterpret me. we eat at a lot of different restaurants - different styles, different tastes, different price ranges. therefore, we understand that good food comes with a price tag. however, when it comes to value = price? the admiral lacks severely.

reserving judgment. a surprising find! i actually drove past the place (even with directions), it's so tucked away and unassuming.

as other reviewers have mentioned, it is quite dark (we sat in a booth). one of our party couldn't even read the menu. but the waitress was prepared with a tiny flashlight, so that worked out. i'm just not sure what it says about the atmosphere that flashlights are standard server issue.

the menu is a wonderland of culinary creativity. even the mixed drinks were so clever and interesting that it was difficult to decide which one to pick!

the service was good, though not great, and the food was delivered in a timely manner. it was beautiful to look at. unfortunately, the scallops that iorderedwere undercooked. each piece was half raw, as if the cook simply seared them on one side and couldn't be bothered to turn the scallops over. i was not the only one in our party to order the scallops, and there did not seem to be an issue with the other plate on the table. in fact, my dining companion pronounced hers "delicious!" the rest of my dinner was wonderful.

my appetizer was the raw oysters. i will admit that i felt a little foolish paying $3 per oyster. it was a nice treat, but not one i will be repeating given the price.

it is possible that my first meal here was a simple case of bad luck. the rest of the experience was delightful. so i will withhold judgement for now and give the admiral another try. i hope i will find that the undercooked food was a fluke and not the norm.

amazing. everything weorderedwas cooked to perfection, the server was super friendly and the atmosphere inviting. i will definitely be going back there and consider the admiral one of the best restaurants in town.

great food, spotty service. i went to the admiral with a close friend of mine and we sat at the bar. weordereda couple of drinks while milling over the menu and checking out what other diner's were ordering. when we decided to place our order, we stated we would be splitting an appetizer and an entree. we order the steak tartare appetizer and the pork chop entree. our neighbor at the bar had alsoorderedthe steak tartare and theirs came with an overflowing mound of toasted bageutte. when our order was brought to us, the appetizer and entree came at the same time. to add insult to this injury, our steak tartare came with a single toasted pita that had been sliced into small triangles. my companion asked if they had run out of baguette and a female server responded a lonely, "yes". the food was superb, but the timing of our food was a failure and the response about the grilled bread that was supposed tp be accompaning our appetizer was poor to say the least. at the end of the meal, the bartender took an extrordinarly long time to bring our tab and settle the payment. during this time the bar area heated up to an oven like temperature. i do not know if i would return to the admiral even though the food was great. the lack of atmosphere and the poor service are not enough to make me allure the food.

awesome dinner! great to experience food with taste! everything weorderedwe all enjoyed! thank you

the jokes on......me. i recently had dinner at the admiral in west asheville and couldn't help but think that someone was playing a not so elaborate joke on me. the restaurant is simply a stew pot full of contradictions...some of them wonderful...some of them infuriating. i love the idea of serving "gourmet" food in what looks like a dive bar. the ceilings are low, the lighting is low, the service is ok, and there is definitely a "hip" vibe. the restaurant is always full of customers but i think this is mainly due to fact that the dining area is small. it always appears full. now for the food. it is expensive and uneven. my dining mate and i eachordereda small plate and a large plate. the quail was delicious, perfectly cooked and flavorful. the muscles were good but nothing special. there are an infinite number of restaurants that serve or have served muscles diablo. the only thing that made these somewhat special was the mound of pesto thrown on the top. my dining mateorderedthe skirt steak pho. at $25, we expected something wonderful. the steak was perfectly cooked but unfortunately it was swimming in a flavorless broth with overcooked rice noodles. there were a few condiments on the side but, again at $25, i felt like i was being asked to put this meal together for the kitchen. go to doc cheys, you will get a much better noodle dish for 1/3 the price. we also had the wild mushroom plate: 3 smallish wild mushrooms sitting in a pool of bacon flavored grits. it was tasty but for some reason the mushrooms were tough. i couldn't help but think that they were dried mushrooms that hadn't been soaked long enough. were they actually dried and not fresh? who cares, they were tough and chewy.

the service was competent but mechanical. the servers acted as if they had been through this torturous experience a million times and were going through the motions. they had a long night ahead of them and they weren't going to expend a lot of energy in the early part of the evening. when the server asked how everything tasted, my dining partner said that the pho was not very good. the server, who either didn't hear or didn't care, thanked us and brought the check.

i think most people really want to like this restaurant, unfortunately it is too expensive for me to continue to experiment.

unbelievable food. walking into this joint, i thought the best that i would be able to order would be a burger and fries. wow, was i wrong.

between me and my two friends, weorderedthe scallops, bangers and mash, and the porkchop. you would not believe how well-presented and tasteful the dishes are.

we fully felt as if we were eating 5 star resturant food all while sitting on a picnic table. how contrast is that?