text: I have been meaning to post this since my last experience there which was late October of last year Prior to that visit we had eaten at Ratcliffe on occasions and the food had always been some of the better in Charlotte save for a few items here and there their chicken dishes are never very good the mini biscuits they serve are like cold little rocks and there is an excessive use of truffle oil going on with the grits and a few entrees to the point that we would ask that grits not be included with our meal the smell makes my fiance ill But outside of that everything had been pretty good with generally decent servicennBut then we had the October incident after that we never went back again My fiance had called the day before to make a reservation and had told the host it was my birthday we do not expect any special treatment because of this but we would hoped we would get a slightly better seat than what they usually gave us which was a tiny two person table against the wall they did it every time we went So we arrive on our special night and are after the host actually showed up escorted to the tiniest crappiest table in the whole place in the far back left corner next to the water station The person that seated us was curt and unfriendly Ok maybe the other tables were reserved But mind you whenever we went the restaurant was always under halffull usually well under halffull the rest of the night I think I counted maybe couplesgroups in and out of the place nnI cannot recall if the server was male or female I simply remember that they were not friendly because it surprised me for the place The dishes that night were subpar which was a first Some people complain about the portion size I do not see the problem the food is well presented and whenever we order the tasting course we come out full Anyway the whole night someone was always right behind my head clanking around a water pitcher and it was not pleasant Our server was slow to wait on us and while we are used to the fact that it can take up to three hours to get out of the place we have actually listened to tables around us complain about the slow preparationservice to the point of anger but we realize it takes time to artfully prepare food so we do not have an issue with it it was taking an exceedingly long time to be waited on nnAlso we have watched the chef come out and pleasantly make his rounds almost every time we were there and he would speak to almost everyone never to us even if he walked right by our table nnIt was a miserable birthday dinner bad seat bad service and less than stellar food made quite the impression on the boy and I and we never went back again It just is not worth the cost if we are going to spend over on a meal we expect it to be much better than that especially on a special occasionnnWe are always polite and cheerful well dressed no jeans and such and we are welleducated in localorganicgourmet food I have zero clue as to why we would be treated poorly and stuffed into small tables we are young maybe that is it I was wearing a vintage fur coat my Dad had given me for my birthday that day maybe the fur thing irked them Maybe it is because we rarely order wine as we do not care to drink I honestly have no clue But it left a bad taste and we have since found better restaurants to give our regular business to