Sometimes what you see is not what you get, and that can be a very good thing.

A reader gave me some suggestions of places to try in Mooresville, NC. One of the places they suggested was a place called Jeffrey’s. I checked out their menu on their website and it seemed right up my alley. So yesterday, me and Spencer went to try it out.

When we first walked in we thought we might have made a mistake. We’re pretty casual and this place looked anything but. We quickly felt right at home once the first person greeted us with a “Hey, ya’ll! Welcome to Jeffrey’s!”

It’s a really nicely decorated place and they even have a patio area with an outdoor fireplace. We liked that it wasn’t noisy. The bar is separate from the main dining room and they have another room with pub tables. The main dining room is really elegant. It’s almost like three restaurants in one.

Their menu has some interesting choices. It’s Low Country cuisine with a spin.

Spencer had the club sandwich with a side of sweet potato casserole. Spencer said “The sandwich was amazing. It wasn’t overly stacked with meat, had great flavor, and the bread was really good. The portion was just right: I wasn’t still hungry but I didn’t need a couch. You could taste the freshness in the ingredients. The sweet potato casserole in one word: Thanksgiving. It was very well balanced. Just great stuff.”

I got fried green tomatoes as an appetizer.

They were really good. They were crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. Sometimes you get fried green tomatoes and they are dry and just not really good at all. Not the case here! There was a sauce with them that was mildly sweet and it went very nicely with the tomatoes. I’d recommend them. If you’ve never had fried green tomatoes, these would be great for your first experience.

I had shrimp and grits. Now I should tell you when I read on the menu that they put cheese in the grits, I thought it would either be really really good or really really bad.

It was really really REALLY good. Sometimes, shrimp and grits wind up bland or overly seasoned. These were just right. The grits were cooked to perfection. If you aren’t from the South you probably hate grits if you’ve ever tried them and that’s probably because they weren’t cooked right. It’s an art. The addition of cheese took them to a whole other place and it gave a nice balance to the dish. Note to wimpy people like my mom: these have a little kick. Not much, but a little, and not the kind that makes you sweat or get on a first name basis with Jesus or invent swear words. Most people would be able to handle it and enjoy it. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

 

In addition to some really nice menu choices, they offer daily specials which you can check out here or on their Facebook page here.

They do not show dessert on their menu. Ordinarily that would make me sad, but you won’t have room for it anyway, so it works out.

So thanks, Heavenly Hoagie for the recommendations. I’ll be sure to try the other places you suggested and of course I am going to have to come visit you, too.

So here’s how I rated them:

• Space and accessibility – 5 Everything was laid out nicely for me to get around and if you use a wheelchair you would be fine here. They do have an upstairs, but there is plenty of room on the first floor.
• Sanitation – 5 Everything was very clean.
• Friendliness of staff – 5 The staff were all really friendly, very nice and helpful.
• Service time – 5 Surprisingly fast.
• Overall taste – 5 Really good, so so so good. Highly recommend.
• Bang for your buck – 3 It’s not the cheapest place you could go, but it’s very reasonable for what you get.

I’ll definitely be going back. You should try it, too. Go to Jeffrey’s, ya’ll!

-the dude