Shoemakers - Lynchburg

First time to Lynchburg and found this place to be perfect for a quiet romantic dinner. The menu is not large but includes everything anyone would want and our lamb shank and filet were perfect.

This was our second time eating at Shoemakers. The first time was excellent and we were excited to bring a friend to experience our new favorite restaurant. Unfortunately, out second time at Shoemakers did not match our previous experience. Although the portions and presentation of our meals were very good, all three of our dishes were slightly over cooked. We shared our feedback with the manager who was appreciative and gave us a 15% discount against our ticket. We stayed after our bill was brought, and visited at our table until most other guests were gone. We were not rushed at all which was nice. That said, no one from the staff visited our table again to ask if we wanted our water glasses filled or additional cocktail drinks. Not a big deal, but both ladies at the table had empty water glasses when we left. We assumed that the two large parties in private rooms needed their attention and was their priority. We will go again and hope the quality of food matches our first visit.

We chose Shoemaker's for dinner to celebrate my son's graduation from Liberty. The hotel and restaurant were beautiful, with exquisite grounds and tasteful decorations. Unfortunately, this was where it ended. Every item we ordered was sub par. My son had the potato leek soup which came out bland and slightly cold. The soup was very thick and gummy. As a previous reviewer mentioned, the caesar salad resembled bagged lettuce and had that pink tinge that old stale lettuce gets. The corn fritters tasted like “fair food.” For my entree, I chose the pork chop. It was good, but a bit dry. The polenta served along side was tasteless. The crab cake bread pudding tasted liked canned crab and was inedible. We were so disappointed that our special dinner out was ruined. After tip, our total bill was close to $200 and we left without eating a majority of the food served. We won't be back.

As always, Shoemaker 's delivers a wonderful dining experience. If you haven 't tried the lamb shank, it 's 'fall off the bone ' wonderful! And the serving portion is more than enough for 2 adults to share (we actually took some home because there was a lot).

While the venue appears to be top drawer, appearances are deceiving! Await staff that is friendly and well meaning, but poorly managed and ill informed is a good indicator that things are not as they should be in the kitchen. The hostess had no idea what the soup of the day was nor could she recall all of the specials. The glasses of wine we ordered took forever to be served due to a bartender that was unfamiliar with how to utilize the espresso machine which we were told delayed the service to our table. The Caesar salad we ordered was chopped romaine from a bag with something vaguely approaching Caesar dressing. We waited forever to receive the bread we requested. It came with a selection of three whipped butter blends featuring pesto, Bourbon and some other unmemorable substance. When asked for plain butter, we were informed they didn't serve butter. As a consolation prize we were served heavily salted olive oil that was unsatisfactory to our palette. We inquired about the pork chops and the told by our waitress that they were very good. So, my wife ordered a second glass of wine to enjoy with our pork chops. This time the wine arrived promptly, yet, a little later the same waitress returned to say they had sold out of pork chops. Really? This was at 7:45pm in a restaurant that not only prides itself on grilled meats, but was less than half full. When my wife and I informed our server that we wanted the bill, she left briefly and returned with the bill an an offer from the chef for a complimentary dessert. Why on earth we would we want dessert when we hadn't had dinner? Any first class establishment wouldn't have charged us the $68.00 for three glasses of wine, a bag of salad, bread and olive oil. They certainly wouldn't have offered us dessert to ameliorate their poor performance on every level.