risto's place food & spirits

absolutely one of my best restaurant experiences ever! i went here and what a huge contrast from after having a very unfortunate experience at a restaurant behind this one (highly rated but i went there, alone, waited over an hour to be seated, was brought water and then ignored /forgotten for 20 minutes at which time i walked out. so, long story short, by the time i got to risto's, i was grumpy and starvingly hungry.
the host, a young man named austin, was personable and friendly. when i told him about my bad experience where i'd just tried to eat, he and my server, a wonderful, sweet lady named barbara, jumped into action to ensure i got food asap!
and oh, what incredible food!!! my filet mignon was absolutely perfect, and cooked to my idea of perfection!! each dish was better than the last.
the owner (not just a restaurant manager), sheryl, came and talked to me, to make sure it's been treated well (i was), and that the food was to my liking (yum!).
i travel a lot for work and have the opportunity to eat at very nice (expensive) restaurants in a regular basis.
risto's is in mytop5 best restaurants i've ever been to, just for the quality of the food, and of course, wonderful customer service ontopof that.

quality really shows. located in the historic downtown of statesville is a great restaurant that combines quality food withtopnotch service, has local music, amazing from-scratch desserts, supports local agriculture, and really cares about the quality of the food it serves. welcome to mayo's!

have been here several times and always have a stellar meal at a fair price with amazing service. great for lunch or dinner. usually see business meetings when we are there at lunch; no hiccups in the service even when they do have a large crowd. friendly, attentive, but not clingy - a difficult line to walk! the quality is thetopconsideration here from the food to the preparation to the staff.

almost didn't try it because of the bad word-of-mouth from some locals, but i am so glad that we decided to go anyway. one of our two favorites in town. a great place to take someone from out of town to show them what statesville can offer. :)

cool space with high tin ceilings. i agree the decor could be more consistent. the glasstoptables cloth napkins and fairly high prices compete with the 'down home' art and decorative wall painting. our food was really good (burger, spaghetti meatball, grilled cheese & tomato soup) with the exception of the pasta primavera which was watery noodles with some plain steamed veggies on top. our server was super and accommodated half orders and made good suggestions. the bar area had a band starting to play old motown which was great. all in all we payed 80 bucks for 2 adults and 2 kids. but it was good and we'd go again.