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The Leaning Tree

4.2 (33 reviews)
Open Open 24 hours

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Leaning Tree interior.
Ben M.

Unique house style restaurant in the small town of Bailey NC. Pleasant, friendly, relaxing, and tasty. Always have had great food and drinks here, have come here multiple times for business dinners with out-of-town guests and they've always been impressed. Great selection of delicious meals and very attentive staff. My boss from out of state always asks if we are booking the Leaning Tree for team dinners. It is well known far and wide.

Tiramisu
Lori A.

Went here with a friend and didn't have a reservation. They luckily had one table open (make sure you call ahead and reserve bc it's starting to get popular!). We both had the weekly specials: seafood risotto and wild mushroom ravioli, along with the pear Gorgonzola salad and tiramisu for dessert. They split the app for us. The service is incredible, the atmosphere charming, and the food spectacular. I was also impressed by the pricing, especially since the food was far better than that of Italian restaurants I've had in downtown Raleigh with much higher pricing. The restaurant is in the middle of nowhere and in a renovated house, but it is a gem! So worth it!

Delizioso!
Sean H.

Cute spot in Bailey of all places. Wine list pairs well. Fa venire l'acquolina in bocca!

Nice example of backyard of Leaning Tree restaurant
Mike O.

It has all the stuff that can make it great, it just isn't unfortunately. Friends referred it to us so we decided to see for ourselves. There's no parking spots exception two that is the "homes" driveway. See, it's an old southern historical home in a neighborhood , kinda. It's been converted into a restaurant which seems pretty nice but it wasn't. Parking is across the road at a bank. The owner a nice lady greeted us as we stepped up onto the front porch where she was sitting back , smoking and enjoying the night air. We walked into a small parlor area where a little booth was for greeters. We sat down and ordered two glasses of sweet tea and my tea had a bug in it. I told the waitress and she chalked it up to bugs liking sweet things and brought me another one. Asked specifically if they used fresh fish and when was it delivered? Was it frozen? Etc. I was reassured it was "fresh" and never frozen. Since we live inland I expected this to be a lie. See, we lived minutes off the coast of Florida and are used to fish being caught just five or six hours earlier. So I got frozen fish which was loaded with large chunks of half cooked garlic. Very potent to the senses. The food was not good, the plate was sloppy and the ambiance of the place was loud and uneasy. If a chef hand delivers your food then it's either because you are very respected and well known or because they messed it up and talked out what to do and the choice was to check and see. Maybe they'll like it spite the ten cloves of raw garlic chunks in it? Not sure but it was a let down when one thing after another happens. Overall we had two dinners and two glasses of tea minus a bug, and they charged us $72 before tip. My tip should've been, leave the garlic and the bugs out of our dinner but the only half way decent thing that night was the one staffer and honestly she couldn't do much. Overall a disappointing night but the drive there was nice. The ceiling had food on it and it was in grungy shape. The table adjacent to ours had several drunken and obnoxiously loud folks loading up on liquor a la owners friends I guess. The sitting area is in a narrow and long room and the tables and chairs were rather cheap camping type of chairs. House is great on the outside with a nice picturesque back yard with fountain and stone paths. Small but well designed. I get the feeling they are just going through the day to day paces and have long since given up on above and beyond with everything being lackluster and semi sad. The fires long since extinguished in the employees hearts and it reflects abysmally in the final product as well as the atmosphere.

Chicken Marsala
Kim W.

I love everything about this restaurant. The owners are lovely, kind, interesting Italians who cook in the northern Italian way. This is a chance to experience what Italian food is REALLY like! The wine list is wonderful, the desserts and coffee are perfecto! If I were getting married or hosting a party I'd want to have the event here. You don't need a passport to enjoy the flavors and hospitality of Italy, just go to the Leaning Tree.

Lemoncello cake and crème brûlée

The food, service and atmosphere were absolutely wonderful. The prices were very reasonable. We will definitely be back. Parking it is not at the facility, but at the bank behind the Mexican restaurant across the street.

Lucy M.

My mother decided to treat my sister and I to dinner and she decided to give this place a try based on wonderful reviews from other diners. We were greeted immediately upon entering the restaurant and shown directly to our seat. Our server was extremely knowledgeable about the days specials as well as the regular menu options. We took our server's suggestion from the wine list and ordered a bottle of Moscato. A basket of bread with olive oil and minced red peppers were brought to the table while we waited for our appetizer. We decided to try the prosciutto wrapped mozeralla with balsamic vinegar. The prosciutto was cooked just enough to have a slight crispness. The balsamic vinegar was just tart enough to add a wonderful tang. All the flavors were wonderfully balanced. Our entrees were a sheer delight. Upon our servers recommendation we ordered the Chicken Francese with grilled vegetables, Cavatelli con Zucchine e Broccoli in Vodka Sauce, and Ziti Al Forno with meat sauce. We all sampled a little from each plate and decided we had to come back and try more dishes! Everything was cooked to perfection. My mom's chicken was sautéed perfectly and had just the right about if sauce. The flavors of all our dishes were such a delight that's all we could talk about. PLEASE SAVE ROOM FOR DESSERT. We tried the crème brûlée and the limoncello cake. Everything was fresh and wonderful. The amazing balance of flavor is evident in the desserts as well. The atmosphere and decor of the restaurant made us feel like we were dining in someone's home rather than a restaurant. This created excellent dinner conversation and a relaxed atmosphere. After our meal, the owner came out and talked to us for a little while. She is a delightful Italian lady who is passionate about her food and that her customers have a great experience. She informed us that she only uses locally grown produce. She also told us that the pasta she uses is directly from Italy as well as the olive oil and wine. My family and I enjoyed the entire experience and cannot wait to return.

Check from The Leaning Tree

I'm giving them 2 stars only because the food was good and waiter was very friendly. HOWEVER, my friend and I will never go back. While we knew there would be an extra charge to split a salad, we should have read the tiny print on the menu more carefully. They actually charged us 20% to split a check. It was added to both of our checks. Now, what exactly does it cost a restaurant to write up 2 checks? It's not like there were 10 people at the table that wanted their own checks. There were 2 of us . When we questioned it, another waitress quite rudely pointed to where it said in the small print about splitting a check. I've eaten all over the world and am mew to NC. This is a crappy way of treating customers and I will share this miserable experience with as many people as are willing to listen. BTW, my friend and I BOTH tipped the waiter nicely because he was pleasant. Like I said, I cannot say the same for the rude waitress who treated us like we were 12 years old. With so many restaurants struggling to stay open these days, I'm still sitting here SMH. Maybe she thinks she's working at the Learning Tree and her customers are stupid.

Scrambled carrot cake

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13 days ago

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5 months ago

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2 months ago

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5 months ago

The Leaning Tree offers Great service; 4 sure great food & a wonderful staff that's always available @ the leaning tree!

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6 months ago

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3 years ago

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5 months ago

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8 months ago

Very friendly staff. I enjoyed the shrimp scampi, red wine, and creme brulee. Highly recommended.

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7 months ago

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3 years ago

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11 months ago

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4 years ago

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3 years ago

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2 years ago

Great, authentic Italian food...just lika momma made! Desserts (limoncello/tiramisu/chocolate) were to die for!

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3 years ago

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3 years ago

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4 years ago

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4 years ago

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4 years ago

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2 years ago

Nice place in a small burg half hour from Raleigh. Hidden gem. Good food, service and atmosphere

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3 years ago

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6 years ago

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4 years ago

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3 years ago

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3 years ago

Insipid food ~ bad service. Wine dinner with the chintziest pours. Lots of potatoes and bland beef. Won't be back.

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4 years ago

Beautiful Home and Lovely atmosphere! Delicious food,all around wonderful and beautiful evening! Hidden gem! Highly recommended!

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4 years ago

Food is excellent. Authentic Italian food. Nice atmosphere. Owners are very involved and walk around. Will be back.

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4 years ago

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7 years ago

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Review Highlights - The Leaning Tree

Their wine list consists of all Italian wines and we chose a bottle of Pinot Grigio which was crisp and delightful.

Mentioned in 4 reviews

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V’s Restaurant and Catering - Grilled shrimp, green beans and slaw

V’s Restaurant and Catering

(5 reviews)

Absolutely love the catfish basket and shrimp appetizer will be coming here more often.read more

We went here on friday...we sat down and waited 20 minutes to out on a drink order. So we decided…read moreto just out our whole order in, because they only had one waitress and she was super busy. We finally got our drinks and waited for our appetizer which was the blue crab dip. Kept waiting...the waitress was running from table to table, to answer the phone and ended up asking us what we ordered, again...so we told her. A whole hour goes by and we finally got our food and it was cold...the hamburger steak was extremely hard and dry. So I reminded her that we had ordered the blue crab dip a that our food was cold and the waitress said "I apologize because it is cooked as soon as we place the order" So she insisted on giving us our meals for free. We paxk our boxes and she said "I'll take everything off except the crab dip". Ok, cool. We stood waiting to pay and still waiting for the crab dip. It took so long to bring it she said it was free as well. I didn't feel right taking all that food and not giving them something so I handed her a 20 dollar bill. We get into the car to drive back home and open up the box to taste the crab dip and we see corn. I've never had crab dip with corn in it. Then we taste it and low and behold it NOT crab dip, bit spinach and artichoke dip instead. It was awful...the entire meal was awful when we warmed it up at home as well. We had an awful experience.

The Leaning Tree - venues - Updated May 2026

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