Poole's

Great for a well rounded, southern dining experience! Highly recommend doing a family style ordering for a table and get multiple apps and an entire or two depending on the size of your party because there's so many good options to choose from. Not only that but the food has an incredible range for it being southern dining with a light, seasonal heirloom tomato bruschetta (seasonal item in September) to classic heavier staples like the au-gratin Mac and cheese. Service was great as well as they made sure to bring out all the courses in an ordered and timely manor. This allowed for an enjoyable experience that didn't feel rushed like when restaurants bring out apps 6 minutes before your entire. They are intentional in you enjoying your time and all the food you get. Highly recommend for good southern cooking. Especially if you have out of town guests that may be looking for some good southern dining

We have had brunch at Poole's many times and always enjoyed it. This was our first time for lunch with their full menu. This time our service was poor. Our original waiter disappeared and after flagging down another had a new one that was good. Ambiance is always nice. Food was excellent but my entree was lukewarm and the fries were way over salted for me. Prices, like all restaurants, when up and the steaks have gotten smaller.Still love all of Ashley Christensen's restaurants in Raleigh and we will continue to support her creative and tasty menu items, but our last trip was a little disappointing.

I will say 4-4.5 stars for this place. This is definitely a fancy place that you need to make reservations to guarantee a seat. Luckily they do vouch for your parking and we were seated promptly for our reservation. We did like their pimento cheese appetizer, but wish they'd bring the fried saltines back instead of the crostini. The baguette and butter was alright, nothing too special.We also got a couple cocktails, as well as the half-roasted chicken and the macaroni au gratin. It's definitely worth coming for the signature macaroni. The sauce on the roasted chicken and the mashed potatoes were very tasty, but I'm unsure if half a chicken is worth $32. Overall, this is more of a fancy date night spot and the food is delicious. If we go again, we will have to try their other unique dishes like the pickle Caesar salad and the short rib pot pie.

While stopping through Raleigh in decided to check out pooles as I have heard great things! It did not disappoint. We had a 9 o'clock reservation and were seated promptly! Our service was great and the atmosphere is the diner vibe you would expect! With elevated dishes that you wouldn't expect at a diner! The Mac and cheese is a must try and the fried okra is a great starter! A definite must try when in the Raleigh area

Visited Poole's diner first night in town. I've been recommended this place a number of times and was excited to try! Had the baguette, beet salad, brown butter carrots and the chicken and mashed potatoes dish. Everything was good but it wasn't great, nothing to write home about. Service was excellent I will say that, the ambience and overall vibe was cool and it seemed pretty trendy in there. Hated that the menus are written in chalk all over the wall. Probably wouldn't be on my list of places to return but had a decent meal.

I knew Poole's had amazing reviews, but I was honestly shocked HOW good the food was. We snagged an early reservation before a concert at Red Hat. Started with some cocktails and the bread with butter. We're from NJ and I was truly SHOOK by how good the bread was, haha. We also got the watermelon salad which was delish.For dinner, my husband had the pork tenderloin and I had the chicken. Both were absolutely amazing. My husband said that his meal was the best meal he ever had.It's decently pricey for how casual it is, but that speaks to the quality of the food. Next time, we'll definitely sit at the counter.

Tried the last of the AC restaurants tonight, Poole's. We were very excited to try the mac n cheese, and at least that did not disappoint. Unfortunately, like her other restaurant Death & Taxes, the timing between appetizer/salad and entree was subpar, with a 40 minute wait time in between.The food, however, was delightful. The star was the macaroni au gratin, a Poole's classic, which had that delicious crusty top and creamy, decadent white cheese interior. I love how the macaroni noodles were small in this dish. We started out with the Bibb Lettuces salad, which came out in 10 minutes, and was very refreshing - it had the perfect amount of vinaigrette and the aged parmesan melted in your mouth. One entree was the roast half chicken, which is another classic here. The chicken was roasted perfectly & retained its moisture, the potatoes were perfectly smooth though we missed the "herb scented" aspect, and the smoky chicken stock was incredibly flavorful and really lifted up the dish. However, it may have been missing a fresh element as it was all very rich. The pan-roasted trout with turmeric-coconut broth was nice & light - the broth had amazing flavor and the trout was cooked nicely, though I missed the crispy skin. We finished off our meal with the hazelnut pot de crème. This dish was just okay - the cookie was average and the pot de crème, although perfectly smooth, lacked that punch of chocolate and hazelnut flavor we were craving.

The food was pretty good. We came here on Valentine's Day for dinner. They had steak frites on the menu but ran out. It looked delicious though. We ended up with short rib pot pie and baked chicken. The pot pie was delicious, the chicken was just ok. The sides were delicious and the staff were super nice. It was an enjoyable experience.

Poole's has become an iconic institution in downtown Raleigh and doesn't disappoint. Housed in an old diner, the vibe is one of an active, high energy diner. Ashley Christensen's modern interpretation of Southern comfort food is amazing. We started with the Bibb lettuce salad which was amazing! Our entree was the Royal with cheese which is an off-menu item only offered on Sundays. Sides included Brussels sprouts and the do-not-miss mac and chess au gratin. The four of us split the salad and sides and we shared two Royals. Service was spot on. Attentive, knowledgeable, and very personable. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience.

As 4 people who are very serious about food, we were so excited to get a reservation at Poole's Diner last Sunday night, Sept 15th at 5:30 pm. Of course, we started with the Pimento Cheese and Crostini, which was delightful and enough for all 4 of us to have plenty of pieces. My dining partners all got meat dish entrees, the Pork Shank and Grits, the 10ozRoyale and the 1/2 Chicken and almost every morsel was eaten! I wasn't that hungry so I got the Whipped Corn Soup and the Heirloom Tomato Salad. Both of these were ethereal. Props to our server for describing the corn soup because it was very unusual, was served cold but was perhaps the most delicious thing I have eaten this year! Our meal was nearly spoiled, however by the party of 3 that was seated adjacent to us that SCREAMED and competed for air from 6 pm on. The Beavus and Butthead laugh that came from one of them was 100 decibels was the most obnoxious sound ever made! Our desserts were perfect but curdled in my stomach as I couldn't wait to get away from that RUDE party. They were oblivious to the looks we gave them. When we left, I saw that we were the only party remotely near them so every other table had left. I did let the host know not to seat anyone near them and to pray for them to leave. Not sure what restaurants can do about patrons like these but there is not fixing rude. When we come back, I will hope for normal conversation around us :)