Charlotte Restaurant Week: Forchetta

I kicked off the January 2025 edition of Queen’s Feast: Charlotte Restaurant Week with a three-course dinner at Forchetta for $45.

Forchetta in Uptown

Forchetta (pronounced for∙ket∙ta) is an Italian restaurant in Uptown, connected to the DoubleTree by Hilton on College Street. While Forchetta’s menu features authentic Italian dishes, the restaurant also offers several Americana and seafood-forward options, as well.

Dress code for Forchetta is business casual. If you’re looking for a nice dinner before an evening out in Uptown or if you’re celebrating a birthday or anniversary, Forchetta’s cloth-covered tables and low lighting offer an upscale, but not pretentious, setting for any occasion.

For convenient parking, utilize the Wake Forest University parking garage around the corner. Bring your ticket and have your server validate it before you leave.

Dinner at Forchetta during Charlotte Restaurant Week

During Charlotte Restaurant Week – January 2025, Forchetta is offering a $45 three-course dinner. Here’s what I ordered for each course.

First Course

First course options included several of the regular menu’s antipasti and insalata options, such as: a lobster roll, lobster bisque, baked eggplant roulade, wedge salad, beet salad and Caesar salad. Of course, I managed to go to dinner with friends on the day that Charlotte gets a surprise snow storm. The chilly temperatures definitely called for a warm cup of lobster bisque.

The bisque itself had a rich, creamy flavor that had me scraping the bowl for every last drop. The meal technically started with a basket of warm bread, served with an individual plate of oil and vinegar. I was so hungry that I woofed down the bread and didn’t even think about saving any for my soup. My only wish for this lobster bisque was that I got more lobster pieces. My friend, who also ordered the soup, agreed.

Second Course

The second course for Queen’s Feast included menu items from the primi and secondi sections of the regular menu, such as: filet mignon and shrimp, green tea salmon, rigatoni pasta and roasted airline chicken. Braised BBQ short ribs, prime angus beef ribeye steak and pan-seared Chilean sea bass were also second-course selections, but those items had an additional price between $15-$20. The roasted pork tenderloin was an option unique to the Queen’s Feast menu as this dish, complemented by braised cabbage, roasted butternut squash and apple bourbon reduction, is typically served as a bone-in porkchop. While this did tempt me, my friends and I all agreed that surf and turf was the way to go.

A five-ounce angus beef filet is served with two large grilled shrimp, as well as a side of asparagus and lobster macaroni and cheese. While filet is not my go-to cut of meat, Forchetta’s was so tender and juicy. I ran each bite through the dollops of sauce on the plate.

The lobster mac and cheese was a slight let down, as it had little flavor and almost no lobster. Forchetta is offering a variation of this dish during the restaurant’s Valentine’s Day dinner, but it’s served with potato gratin. This would be a better option than the lobster mac and cheese on the regular and Queen’s Feast menus.

Third Course

To finish our meal, we were presented with four options for dessert: banana foster cheesecake, homemade apple pie, olive oil cake and flourless chocolate cake. If you know me, you know I went straight for the apple pie, however the olive oil cake with Carolina peach marmalade was very tempting. This cake is on the regular menu, so I might have to come back and try it another time.

The miniature apple pie, perfect for one, was served with a scoop of pistachio gelato. The regular dessert menu shows that the apple pie is typically topped with a cinnamon vanilla ice cream, which sounds amazing, but I liked the sweet and nutty taste from the pistachio.

I would definitely return to Forchetta to order from the regular menu, particularly the house-made pastas. There are even gluten-free pasta options to accommodate dietary restrictions.

Forchetta is located at 230 N. College St., Charlotte.