Savor Cafe on Morehead

It's been a very long time since I was as pleasantly surprised with a dinner as I was with Savor. When we left Arkansas for Virginia, we stopped in Charlotte for a few days to visit with our families. One night while we were home, my in-laws took us out to dinner. They suggested Savor. I had never heard of it, but a quick glance at their menu online had my interest piqued.

The restaurant is small, and it didn't help that half of the dining area was occupied with a rehearsal dinner. Luckily there was one table available. Once we were seated, our adorable waiter took drink orders. He was seriously adorable. Pretty eyes, pretty smile, nice arms in his tight black shirt...

*ahem*

Anyways... They had a nice selection of local beers, which is apparently the hot thing these days. I'm not a beer drinker, so I ordered a cocktail, the 'Southern Special-Tea'. It was a concoction of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, Southern Comfort, iced tea and freshly squeezed lemonade. It was absolutely delicious and the southern girl in me appreciates anything served out of a mason jar.

Their menu was small, but impressive. It was difficult to choose a dish. Graham and his mom both ordered the meatloaf. My father in-law ordered one of their specials (a rib-eye) and I finally decided on the Cowboy Pork Chop over Country Ham & Succotash Risotto.

Oh. My. God. This was absolutely phenomenal. The pork chop was tender and had amazing flavor, and the risotto was probably the best risotto I have ever, ever had. The flavor was phenomenal and I wanted about ten more plates of it to take home with me. The risotto is DEFINITELY something I'm going to have to recreate at home!

The meatloaf that Graham and his mom ordered was just as fantastic. The portions were huge! The meatloaf was grilled and served with a tangy pepper relish and served with horseradish mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables. Everything on that plate was delicious. The potatoes just had the hint of horseradish, and the vegetables were perfectly cooked. They still had a bite to them, and were well seasoned. But the meatloaf... oh man. Probably the best meatloaf I've ever had. It was so moist and flavorful.

We were stuffed after finishing our meals, but having stared at their dessert menu all night made ordering something sweet a definite. Graham and I decided to split an order of the butterscotch bread pudding.

I've never been a huge fan of bread pudding, but this was epic. The portion for this, like the rest of our food, was huge but I'm not embarrassed to say that we finished it all. The texture of this was amazing, and the flavors all worked so well together. We were generous and let the rest of our party have a bite, and they were equally impressed.

This was a fantastic dinner, at a great, hidden spot in Charlotte. The West Side has never really been known for fine dining, but I'm happy to see that's starting to change. Our experience at Savor was wonderful. The food was amazing, the service was fantastic, and the portion sizes for the amount of money we spent was just awesome. I mean, that massive plate of meatloaf and sides that Graham ordered was $11.50! Crazytown!