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    The Cardinal

    4.4 (359 reviews)
    Closed 11:00 am - 12:00 AM (Next day)
    Updated over 3 months ago

    Order The Cardinal Takeout or Delivery

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    THE CARDINAL ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Moderate noise
    Good for kids
    Dogs allowed

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    Recommended Reviews - The Cardinal

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    Menu
    Courtnay B.

    Enjoyed lunch while visiting App State. Love the vibe here. Our waitress was great! Good selection of craft beers on draft. For lunch we had the Cardinal burger double (5 stars) with fries, Fried Chicken Sandwich (4.5 stars) and the Farm Burger (4 stars). The grass fed farm burger has a much different consistency than a traditional burger and I think I would have preferred the Cardinal.

    Drinks slushee
    Megan F.

    Pickled salad with chicken and sweet potato tater tots were a treat! They have special cocktails, mine was a blueberry mojito slushy! Very yummy! We sat outside in the patio with a covered porch. They have fans. The service was excellent! My friend is gluten free and they are accommodating.

    Stout - wish I could remember the name!
    Marty M.

    It's always the same thing with this place... Good burgers (single patty Cardinal burger Carolina style), fantastic fries, and a good selection of rotating taps. Always a good vibe either at a table or the bar. And the service has always been excellent. No wonder I somehow keep ending up here on Thursdays!

    Diandra L.

    After a 12 hour car ride to Boone, all we wanted to do was eat a good meal and order a solid drink. Enter The Cardinal, which provided both of those things along with friendly service for us. We popped in on the later side - around 10 pm and our party of 3 sat at the bar. I ordered a dirty martini and my friends got old fashioneds. Our bartender was super friendly and even went through great lengths to open a bottle of bombay that was being quite difficult. The commitment to a great martini was not lost on me. We got a pile of fries with chili and cheese. I will not lie, these did not look appealing to the eye but they were pretty good once you dove in. I think because the chili is like smothered the texture looked different from what I would expect. We also split the cardinal burger and a kale caesar salad. The Cardinal is a solid bar with solid food especially since it is open later than a lot of places in the area. It was a Thursday evening and the place was packed. I also have a soft spot for Cardinals, and I loved that the decor was filled with them.

    House Salad w/ Ranch
    Pita S.

    New to Boone, NC as we dropped off our son this week at App State. We were so happy we found The Cardinal for our last dinner before we headed back to Atlanta. Service was a 4/5 with a great drink menu and our waitress was prompt and attentive. Food 4/5: Highly recommend the Jalapeño Hushpuppies for a great starter. Our table enjoyed several items: House Salad, Sweet Potato Tots, The Cardinal Burger (one the Caroline Style& one, All the Way, & also the Chicken Sandwich. Can't wait to come back and visit!

    Joanna, the manager
    Lee W.

    Wow! I wish we lived closer to the amazing restaurant. Our friends were here a week ago and said it was their favorite meal in Boone, so we had to try it. They were having a benefit concert that night, so it was very busy, but we got a table quickly. Our server, Thomas, was very efficient and nice. They have a good selection of beer, and we had a good local amber. We ordered the cardinal burger, sweet potato tots, and the pickled vegetable salad. The burger and tots were good but for me the star of the show was the salad. I will be dreaming of this salad. It was mixed greens, pickled onions, carrots, celery, raisins, goat cheese and nuts. It is topped with beet xhips. Thomas suggested the champagne vinegrette. Omg! It was probably the best salad I have ever had. I was so obsessed I went back the next day to have more. The manager, Joanna, was kind enough to get me the ingredient list for the salad and dressing. I will attempt to recreate this at home Definitely, go check oit the Cardinal when on Boone.

    Florida Seltzer untitled art
    Amber Danielle D.

    Great burgers, I don't care for the fries but they have plenty of other good sides. We had the Shawn Collins King of the mountain burger.

    Hush puppies
    Khushboo S.

    We stopped over here for our lunch after spending some time at tweetsie railroad. Staff was sweet and welcoming. We ordered hush puppies to start with - those were perfectly cooked and came out hot (it does appear those were burnt, but it tasted just right). My husband ordered the veggie burger from special menu, and he absolutely loved it. He rarely finishes his burgers and this was one of those that he ate fully because it was so yum! I ordered blackened chicken sandwich from the special menu and I was quite disappointed. Blackened seasoning wasn't tasting any different than just a grilled chicken - for a change I ended up leaving half my burger because it was just average. Fries were quite average too. They were out of tots and that was disappointing.

    We hired The Cardinal's Burger Wagon for our wedding! What a wonderful experience! *Great communication before the event. They were able to customize the menu to our taste: burgers, chicken sandwiches, corn dogs, hot ham dip, brisbee rolls, etc. They confirmed the location/set up beforehand, making the day of so easy! They were very transparent with their pricing, which was outrageously cheap for the quality of options we had! Just overall so easy and stress-free! *The food day of, was super fresh and delicious! Everyone got a starter, main dish and a side. We didn't want "warming tray" food, and this was truly made to order! All of the options were still available at the very end of the night and they even let us go back for more, AND THEN packed up the leftovers for us. Everyone was served quickly (still faster than a buffet or traditionally plated dinner)! My mom, originally skeptical of the burger truck idea, later said it was the best wedding food she's had! Also notable: I have a sister that is vegetarian and she was very happy to not be served plain pasta or vegetables. She had a few different main options! 10/10 would do again! ...Lastly, we got married in September 2024 shortly before the flooding. I was very inspired and impressed with The Cardinal's community outreach after the storm. Shows that they aren't just a great restaurant, but also great people!

    Entry and fireplace
    Kirk S.

    We had dinner for the first time at The Cardinal. What a great little cozy place. A wide variety of menu selections and options. Ruth was an excellent server and had great recommendations on what to order. If you are in Boone, try The Cardinal.

    Hushpuppies

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    3 months ago

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    15 days ago

    The Chicken sandwich is incredible. The cardinal is a must stop if you are in or near boone

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    4 months ago

    Burgers of all sorts. Bison, elk, waygu, etc. attentive service. Very cute little building.

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    2 years ago

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    5 months ago

    Food was great, service was great overall great pick. Locally owned restaurant and a local suggested to us! We both got burgers!

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    10 months ago

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    1 year ago

    Another great meal at the Cardinal. The Hot Ham Dip is the go to appetizer. Large beer selection and fast, friendly service.

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    10 months ago

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    1 year ago

    Friendly service and wonderful food!!! The oatmeal cream pies are worth a visit alone!!!

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    1 year ago

    It was as all great!!! Service, space, vibe, food!! Everyone loves the Wagyu burger. Proportions were great.

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    Page 1 of 9

    Ask the Community - The Cardinal

    Do they take reservations?

    Unfortunately, no.

    Do they have NFL Sunday Ticket? Gonna be there next weekend and want to catch Bears/ Dolphins somewhere with good food. Love the grub here.

    Pretty sure they do! Haven't been there and not seen them playing the game behind the bar, whatever is going on.

    Is this restaurant dog friendly?

    Yes... their back porch had pups on it when we were there. Probably have to walk around the right side instead of through.

    View All 4 Questions

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    We tried to get a table here almost every day of our 5-day trip, but it was packed! We finally…read moresmartened up and called a day ahead for a reservation. It might have just been the holiday rush, but I always figure "busy means good," so my expectations were high--and The Local didn't disappoint. We started with the nachos; they were delicious, though I do wish they came with a bit more meat. For mains, the burger was outstanding--probably one of the best we've had in the entire area. We also ordered the Brazilian steak, which was cooked perfectly and came with great plantains. The quinoa with tofu was good, too, though it was a little dry and would have been perfect with a sauce. The service really stood out. Our waitress was incredibly attentive and refilled my water at least four times without me asking. Great ambiance and an all-around good experience. Definitely worth the wait!

    Stopped in here to grab a bite to wrap up our day of exploring. There was a very long wait, but we…read morewere table to get seats at the bar. Bar tender provided menus, and checked back on us after a few minutes to take order. They've got a good menu with pizza, sandwiches, burgers, and a good variety of entrees (seafood, steak, chicken, pasta), basically, they've got something for everyone. Not being too hungry, but knowing we needed something, we decided to just split an order of the pulled pork nachos. The food came out fairly quickly, looked and tasted great. They did not skimp on toppings. Staff was friendly, food was good, only complaint is it was very dark inside, and surprisingly loud in the restaurant, I can't imagine being there with live music, I assume it would be impossible to have a conversation.

    The Horton Hotel and Rooftop Lounge - Rooftop bar

    The Horton Hotel and Rooftop Lounge

    (69 reviews)

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    We stayed in one of their dog friendly room. It cost $50 extra a day to bring your dog. The room…read morewas near the back entrance. Which was nice to let her in and out quickly. The room walls are thin so we heard a lot of noise from the outside waking us up early in the morning. You also have to pay for parking at 25 a night but there was a lot of construction making it difficult to get our car out. I know not the hotels fault but definitely keep that in mind. They had really nice robes. They also had a sound machine in the room. We had a thing on the wall that would randomly flash at night and beep. We had issues with the bathroom. The door would not close all the way and We could not get hot water when we tried to shower late at night. We had to go to the front desk and they had to call maintenence which took a bit to work through the issue. Eventually they got the hot water back but an annoying time waster. They discount our stay at 10% for the issue. The breakfast was really nice full of local pastries. The staff was so nice and friendly. The lobby area and bar was super nice and had a cute vibe. The roof top is super pretty at nice with nice fire pits. The staff was super friendly. I would have rated a 4 star but the price was high plus the issues we had knocked it down a star.

    This review is for a 2 night hotel stay- not the bar. We highly recommend staying!…read more It is a quaint hotel, very homey feeling! The front desk staff is so nice and helpful. Our favorite part was the location. It was so conveniently located. They have a front door with access to king street and a back door to Howard street which was convenient. We were able to come and go easily. The rooms aren't huge but had everything we needed including a mini fridge and the shower was really nice. Of note- it didn't have a huge window in the room, just a small one towards the ceiling. There was a tv with lots of channels and a channel guide. We received some coupons and recommendations to nearby businesses which was a nice touch. Our experience was a bit different because it was very snowy so we couldn't enjoy the rooftop bar. The parking was also tricky- they have a loading zone right in front for checking in, but we circled the block several times and it was taken every time so it was kind of a pain to unload our car. We also had trouble finding the parking lot (even with the address, directions and map) which is behind the hotel, across the street and diagonal from the hotel. We had to circle a few times to find it. But that may have just been because it was dark and snowing. Our favorite part was definitely the breakfast. It is at the downstairs bar. It is complementary when you purchase the parking pass, and you order what you want from a menu. They have lots of options, including fresh fruit, hard-boiled eggs, and lots of pastries and baked goods from stick boy bakery in town. We love stick boy so this was amazing! So high quality and tasty! They also have other things available for purchase like avocado toast. They also have coffee from a local coffee shop available all day. We would go back!!!

    Daniel & The Dog

    Daniel & The Dog

    (3 reviews)

    We stopped by for a nightcap and dessert after a date night. The space is on the smaller side, and…read moretables close together, which gives it a very intimate and cozy feel. Note, however, that if you're looking for private secluded spaces, this may not be the spot. We were able to be seated immediately upon arrival, and our server was promptly by the table to go over the menu with us. We each ordered a cocktail and the skillet chocolate chip cookie. The skillet chocolate chip cookie arrived a bit before both of our drinks, which was a bit odd considering we had waited probably 15 minutes without drinks. As far as the cocktails, we ordered the Cynar Old Fashioned and the Buffalo Heard. The old fashioned was good, though I didn't notice the flavor of the Cynar at all. It was very dry, which I like, but may not be for you if you like a sweeter old fashioned. The Buffalo Heard was light and refreshing, with a nice bit of the bourbon shining through. Overall, the cocktails were quite good. It's a unique spot, and has a lot of potential. It appears they are still ironing out a few kitchen/bar/service kinks, but I think these are all small things. Look forward to visiting again soon.

    So yummy! Had the best French 75 with Vodka and Burrata Salad with fruit. The balsamic dressing…read morewas authentic with the right blend of vinegar and oil and the fruit just took it over the top! Super friendly service. John served up the best drink ever and the bar aesthetic was the perfect reflection of the earthiness of Boone with elevated sexy. I felt like I was in a secret part of Boone meant for the "in crowd" only.

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    Lily's is incredible for vegan options in Boone. The tofu bites are so good (as were their…read morepredecessor: tempeh wings). The house made potato chips are something special, and at their best (in my opinion) dipped in the house made vegan ranch (vegan Lily's sauce is a close 2nd). Today we got teriyaki tofu nuggets, Buffalo tofu nuggets (both came with the chips and a dipping sauce) along with fried pickles (we got extra dipping sauces). It has a beach/tiki bar vibe inside (albeit slightly dark) with tables and a few parking spots out front. Dog friendly (outside) and even brought a dog bowl of water. We just love this place. Friendly service. Hospitable atmosphere with clear values (pro LGBTQ, anti-racism, etc.). Reasonable prices.

    cool atmosphere with a cool crowd. Only massive complaint is the format of their karaoke on…read moreTuesday. It's supposed to be a more fair method where the emcees have random selections, however they seem to be easily persuaded to alter the order. The emcees typically let their friends go more often than others, and the removal of the typical chronological list makes the commitment to a simple night of karaoke particularly egregious.The model does not work and typically leaves patrons disappointed because they spent 4 hours at the bar just to sing once. I would appreciate if staff considered going back to the list signup so that we would know when we would be able to sing again. I think that the new setup has cost the bar significant attendance on Tuesdays, as now it is rarely full and does not cater to people who want to do karaoke within a set timeframe. It was much better when I and my friends could come and sing 3 songs in two hours and then leave at a reasonable time where now people have to wait 2 plus hours to sing between songs.

    The Cardinal - burgers - Updated May 2026

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