Porter's Tavern

2412 Hillsborough St
Raleigh, NC 27607

We choose Porter's for a Sunday-afternoon stop because we wanted to sit outside. We miss European outdoor cafes, and thought this upscale pub would be a perfect spot to eat and watch people pass.

I ordered the Strawberry Fields iced tea. I thought it tasted like room-temperature sweet tea spiked with vodka, but The Boy detected undertones of cough syrup as well.

After that, The Boy stayed away from the cocktails and ordered a beer, which he described as a beer slushie. I'm not sure how my drink managed to arrive warm and his tooth-numbingly cold, but it was a disappointing start.



We were both disappointed in the limited and unexciting brunch menu, but when our food came, we liked both of our meals. I really wanted to like it, but it wasn't anything I couldn't whip up at home (and serve with better drinks).

The atmosphere was our main reason to choose Porter's. We did get to sit outside, but we were seated on essentially deck chairs at a wobbly table, a deterrent to our plan to linger over lunch.

Rereading this, I seem to have overused the word "disappointing." That sums up our experience. Not awful, but disappointing in every way.

Piper's Tavern Easter Brunch

Piper's Tavern
8304 Falls Of Neuse Rd
Raleigh, NC 27615
(919) 676-7413

This isn't really the type of place we'd pick on our own, but our family decided to visit Piper's Tavern for the Easter Brunch Buffet.

Besides the part where the waitress served a tray of hot coffee cups from over my niece's head, service was what you'd expect for a busy place. A drink was forgotten, it was hard to find our waitress to get refills or creamers, but it was packed so I'll give them a pass.

The food was excellent for buffet food, everything was fresh. Nothing looked or tasted like it had been sitting in steamers or under heat lamps. The carving station, often a traffic flow problem in buffet lines, moved very fast.



I think buffets should be labeled. It may sound silly that I need tags for my bacon and eggs, but I mistook some kind of weird ground-beef-shredded potato mixture for hashbrowns, and my M-I-L was not pleased with the surprise coconut in her chocolate cake. I imagine pretty disastrous consequences of a diner being allergic to an ingredient instead of just not fond of it.

In general, I prefer plated food to buffets because eating out can be a visual treat too. Biscuits and eggs that I put on my own plate aren't as aesthetically pleasing as professionally plated food. It's hardly worth going out for something I can put together on my own. The buffet worked well, though, for younger members of the family who could chose exactly what they wanted, and with the wee ones happy, the whole family could relax and enjoy an Easter meal. It seemed like all the families at the tables around us had the same idea.

Overall, The Boy and I wouldn't return on our own for a buffet, but we would like to check out Piper's Tavern on a non-buffet day.