My husband and I have a vacation home in Marion and had been looking for a dinner spot with cool vibes, tasty drinks, and delicious food. Modern Alchemist checked every box! The ambiance was absolutely perfect, the cocktails were exceptional, and every dish from guac to burrito bowl to dessert were perfection. Ana took wonderful care of his and we will absolutely be back soon!! read more

Such a poor experience all around here. The first red flag was right whenever we walked in to grab a table after reading the sign that said "please seat yourself," but the waitress gave us an attitude about needing to wait (even with open cleaned tables). No biggie. If only we had taken this as a sign to leave! To start off, I got the mock margarita, and it tasted like straight lime juice. It was very acidic and not well balanced. The others in our party said their drinks were fine. We started with an order of fried pickles, which was the highlight of the meal! It was a big platter of hot and very crispy fried pickles. We loved the sauce that came with it, even though it wasn't enough. And the waitress never came by, so we were unable to request more. This dish had us hopeful! For my entree, I got the brussels sprouts Caesar salad. I thought I would love this since it was a combo of my fav things! Sadly, it was SO BAD. Really should be removed from the menu and not served to anyone. The brussels themselves were very mushy and soaked in oil. It had no flavor whatsoever. The few bites I tried to eat occasionally had something very hard in it. No idea what that was. I couldn't eat it and left it untouched, which the servers never noticed or questioned. My husband and sister both got different tacos plates. They tried a few kinds, and they both only liked their boom boom shrimp tacos. The sides were initially forgotten and had to be requested. Once out, the beans had an unusual flavor, and the rice was disturbingly crunchy. Couldn't tell if it was because they were undercooked vs overly cooked and burnt. My sister's boyfriend got some sort of burrito bowl which came with a massive basket of plain tortilla chips on the side. He said it was okay, but his bowl also had crunchy rice in it. Not worth buying. Our servers were very inattentive to us (even with such few tables), and we had to wait quite a long time to get their attention for the checks. It was wild. Once we finally got them, they were totally wrong. At that point, we were so ready to leave, and just decided to pay and go. And yes, we did point out that the checks were wrong, but the servers seemed clueless. We are so confused how this is a restaurant with two locations. Obviously, we would not recommend coming here. We truly wish we would've gone a few steps down to a better restaurant. read more

Modern Alchemist - Sooooo bad. Do NOT order the Caesar salad. - Mexican Near Me - Old Fort, North Carolina

If you're hiking at Catawba Falls, visiting Old Fort, NC, you live there or are just passing through on I-40, there's a new combination Mexican restaurant and small batch distillery/brewery where the food is innovative, healthy and tasty and they serve some great craft-brewed beer and cocktails made (mostly) with their own spirits. They even also have CBD infused drinks, if that's more your thing. The location is in downtown Old Fort in an old building that they have nicely rehabbed. Not fancy, but open and comfortable, with a nice bar area. The service was welcoming, friendly and efficient. Having just finished a hike, we started with a couple of cold brews. Their selection of house-brewed beer is limited (basically light, dark and IPA, along with a cider). We opted for a dark lager, which they described as Mexican style. It was excellent. Not too dark, but with some real character and very smooth (no bitterness, no bite). To accompany the beers, we started with the chips and elote dip. I've had what's often called Mexican street corn in several restaurants in various forms (on and off the cob). Often the corn is nothing special and it's simply loaded up with cotija cheese. Here the corn itself is the star of the show. It's roasted, off the cob, and well seasoned, with only a light coating of cotija. Very tasty! For his entree my husband had the brussels sprouts caesar salad. There are lots of places in the Asheville area that pan roast brussels sprouts, usually with maple or some sort of light sugaring. In this version, the sprouts were nicely pan roasted, but not sweet. They are served warm, mixed with chicharron (pork rinds), parmesan cheese and caesar dressing, with a roasted lemon on the side. My husband loved this dish so much he said he'd drive from Asheville to Old Fort occasionally just to have this. Nothing quite like it anywhere else! He also had a sweet potato taco on the side. He said it was good, but not exceptional (at least compared to the brussels sprouts). I had a sweet potato burrito, but done as a bowl instead of a traditional wrapped burrito (all their burritos are available either way). It was very good. The pieces of sweet potato were crispy on the outside and just soft enough on the inside. The beans, rice, Oaxaca queso and pico de gallo had very good flavor and worked well with the sweet potatoes. I missed that you could add sauteed peppers and onions, or I would have added those, too. We were stuffed after the appetizer, the entrees, and the beers. Lots of great options on the cocktail menu. The people sitting next to us were raving about their granny smith daquiris. The distillery is operational now with tours and tastings planned in the near future. Their spirits are competitively priced for small-batch venues. Since there wasn't a way to taste them yet (except in a cocktail, and we had beer instead), I couldn't review the spirits yet. We'll definitely be back for more food and to try the spirits! read more

Modern Alchemist - Sweet potato burrito bowl (front), warm brussels sprouts caesar salad (center), sweet potato taco (back) - Mexican Near Me - Old Fort, North Carolina

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My wife and I tried this place tonight. It's a new place in our area. You are greeted at the door and taken to your table. The place looked very clean and nice. They brought some water to our table that was room temperature. I'm not a fan of room temperature water. The waitress came to our table was very nice and talked with us about the menu and gave her suggestions. Not a big menu and it seamed it had a Mexican theme. We started with the chips and queso which was very good. I had a pork carnitas burrito. It was okay, I hoped it would have more spice in it but it was not bad at all. I also had a fish taco that the waitress made sound so good. I did enjoy that, I am a big fan of Cod. My wife had three tacos. Pork, Beef and Sweet Potato. She enjoyed them. The prices were not bad at all. We will probably be back. I have attached pictures of the food and the menu. read more

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Awesome addition to Old Fort! The atmosphere is cozy and inviting, with a Mexican theme to their food menu. Our waitress was also extremely friendly and attentive. The drinks are great too! Will definitely be back! read more

We had an amazing visit! The food and drinks were fantastic. Our server was super informative and knowledgeable about the menu items and the atmosphere was terrific. What a great addition to Old Fort. read more

We have eaten here several times and have been very pleased but tonight--NO. We got shrimp tacos and Tacos Americano to go. I've had the Tacos Americano several times and they were made with ground beef. Tonight, they were filled with greasy steak and a little bit of limp greens. There was so much grease that the tortillas were soaked and it was pooled in the bottom of the plate! Gross. The black beans were soupy. Not sure what happened but this order should not have been allowed to leave the kitchen. read more

We thought the food was crazy delicious. The burrito was 4 inches wide, 8 inches long, and 2 inches high. It was enough for two meals for my husband. I ordered the beef in sandwich form and it was out of this world. Again the serving was so big it's enough for two meals. What I found so delicious was the salsa that they make on the premises. It is different from any other salsa I've ever had and was so, so good. read more

Modern Alchemist - Mexican Near Me - Old Fort, North Carolina

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I had to stop mid meal to make this account b/c of how good this whole meal was. From drinks to apps, on point. yucca fries are out of this world. Hell I'm writing this during dinner. Come from Marion, Black mountain, your moms house. This place is worth the stop. read more

Highly highly recommend. Every single thing we ordered was a 10 out of 10, from the chicharrones to the chimichurri steak. Beautiful industrial modern atmosphere and very attentive service. We stumbled upon this looking for Hillman's, and boy am I glad we did. Elevated yet affordable. Would come back here no question. read more