FATZ Cafe

Honestly, stay away unless you for some reason like it here. There are nice enough people that work there but we were just rolling through town, menu looked good but the food didn’t deliver at all.
There speciality is calabash chicken. This is just a chicken tender. They said when I asked, «we take a lot of pride in them». When ours came out they were mushy with a slightly funny after taste.
Just not quality eating. Like I said early nice people who were working there the kitchen is most likely not strong enough to pull off the menu items effectively.

Food was good, service was slow. First time at a Fatz, enjoyed the rolls and Calabash chicken.

This was my first trip to Fatz, despite being a native of Anderson. As anyone from the area knows, no one in Anderson cooks on Saturday nights and every place will have a long wait. When we pulled in, we noticed a couple of groups waiting outside, which was expected. However when we moved into the bar to get out of the way, we saw FOUR dirty tables. It was more than 5 minutes before anyone even began cleaning them. And cleaning seemed to take forever — no urgency whatsoever. The bar floor was extremely sticky!
We also noticed there was no bartender. After another 5 minutes or so he showed up but was slow to ask for our order. We had drinks while waiting on our table.
Once seated (close to the door, which will come in handy shortly), our waitress was pleasant and brought water to us quickly. We ordered and waited for our appetizer. Instead we got our salads. They were out of the dressing I ordered and instead I received something not even close. But whatever, I ate it. We were told the appetizer should be out soon.
The pimento cheese plate showed up and it was actually really good. The bacon jam was superb.
My husband ordered the rib/​calabash chicken combo, I ordered the chicken pot pie, and the third person had calabash chicken. The two orders of calabash chicken were so different, it was concerning. My husbands was obviously left over from an earlier batch. They were small and darker brown than the other. His side of Brussels sprouts was excellent.
What was bothersome was that the entire time we were at Fatz, there were at least 4 people standing around the hostess area. Sometimes up to 6. And the entire time there were dirty tables and people waiting. I’m not sure if there was a manager working the night we were there but there should have been.
So much for high hopes!

Calabash chicken all the way! They delivered to our hotel and the food arrived piping hot. Shrimp and grits are decadent. Side of green beans were fresh and definitely not from a can. The calabash chicken was good but wish we hadn’t make it a combo with popcorn shrimp because the shrimp were not very tasty which is the only reason they lost the 5^th star. Prices seem reasonable for what you are getting and it also came with some mini hot rolls that almost tasted like donuts… who can argue with that?!

Had the chicken pot pie, was not bad. Came with a side salad that was not small so it was a good value for the money.

Don’t expect much. This was the worst meal I’ve had in 15 years of eating out. Upon sitting down at the booth, I touched the table and observed a sticky ¼″ film of residue on the table built up from lack of cleaning. After waiting a normal amount of time after ordering, the food came out piping hot; the waitress handed me a scorching hot plate — with no warning… And then repeated nearly burning my husband. To add insult to injury, my entrée salad lettuce was wet with rotten leaves. YUK!!! On a good note, the yeast rolls were tasty, as well as the fried green tomatoes. Finally, it took over 20 minutes to bring us our check. The atmosphere was ok for larger group. Overall, major disappointment for folks like me who support local businesses.

Was on a road trip and decided to stop by. They gave us the poppyseed rolls which were great and I don’t even like poppyseeds. I was disappointed by the ambiance and the table were dirty and we had to ask for the table to be wiped down and for utensils. The wings I ordered were hot, the way I like it and tasted good.

Fats has a great menu and delicious food but, they performed well below average today. First off, the tables need to be replaced. The lacquer finish on the tables has largely want to weigh and gives the sticky feel that it is dirty. It’s only from tables being left with wetness on them making the lacquer finish tacky like it is covered with A sticky substance.
There were small bugs flying around our table the entire lunch.
Feds has over estimated the value of their food. Today I got a small portion and paid a large price for the lunch menu calabash chicken. The fries were lukewarm and tasted soggy.
They always charge too much for nonalcoholic beverages.
The waitress rushed us, asking if we wanted to-​go cups and a box for to-​go foodstuffs when were halfway through our lunch.
They really need to overhaul the whole business model in my opinion.

Traveling on I-​85, we decided to stop for lunch at Fatz, Exit 19-​B. It is just off the exit (but does sit back off the road a bit). We have never been to a Fatz restaurant before, and we were not disappointed.
Our server, Liz, was wonderful. Great personality, very professional and attentive. As soon as we were seated and ordered our drinks, she brought a basket of deep-​fried poppy seed rolls, along with honey butter, to the table. They were really so good, I probably could have made a meal out of them!
There were three of us, and we all ordered the Calabash Combo, which has both chicken and shrimp. Calabash is soaked in buttermilk for 24 hours, then breaded and fried. One side dish was included in the very reasonable price of $ 10.98. The portion size was good.
We would definitely come back again!
Great food, great service, and only one drawback to our experience. The food took a very long time to come out of the kitchen. We visited on a Monday, and it was not very busy.

We stopped here while traveling, and the service was amazing. We had to leave our dog outside while we ate, and the servers took her water and gave us updates throughout the meal. The food was great, and the service even better!

I’m not a fan of chain restaurants but when traveling with others, sometimes you have to give in.
We had dinner delivered to our hotel since nothing on the hotel restaurant menu was jumping out.
The blackened chicken pasta was a little spicy, which I actually didn’t mind, but it was too much spice for my friend with whom I was sharing. The linguine was a little overcooked. The Ceasar salad was basic, acceptable. Overall just a very generic meal, not a big surprise.

The to-​go service was speedy quick. But maybe too quick. 1) I didn’t get the «wonderful poppy seed roll» that everyone seems to rave about :(and was supposed to come with my parmesan encrusted fish dinner and 2) no eating utensils or napkins.
As far as the fish dinner, it was kinda bland and it was basa fish any way (as scary as eating talapia!)

For starts, they bring you these rolls. Da Bomb!
I ordered the fish filet, it was great. The tarter sauce was perfect. Service was great. Couldn’t really ask for a better place to eat.

Ordered delivery to a hotel around the corner. Ordered a salmon salad with balsamic vinaigrette and a water. Received a chicken salad with bacon vinaigrette and no drink. Salad was ok just not what I wanted. The delivery girl was super nice and the delivery was very fast.

Totally loving this place!!! Start off with the poppy seed rolls and honey butter!
The calabash chicken is great! Both my kids loved it! Wings were really great too! Mild sauce is yummy!
The bourbon ribs are the most amazing find in this place! They are fall-​off-​the-​bone delicious! Finger-​licking-​good!!! Just put the fork down and indulge yourself!!!
If you are looking for a salad dressing, the balsamic is the best! But the ranch and honey mustard aren’t too bad either!

Food was great! I had a burger & my husband had calabash chicken & ribs. Service was good!!!

Every time we travel up 85, we stop and eat lunch at this Fatz. Today’s service was exceptional. Our server, Austin, was fantastic. The GM, Jody Hawkins, was full of great information about the local area. Our meal was as good as usual.

Today, February 15, 2015 was not FATZ’s best day for lunch. Two members of our party had combo meals including the medallions and they were quite over cooked. One person had the baked potato and said it was hard and underdone — but it could have been overcooked. Either way it was inedible. On Sundays I always go for the turkey and dressing daily special and that was disappointing today. The turkey slices were very dry and cooked to a crisp around the edges. We pointed out the shortfalls at the end of the meal and did not accept the offer for a do-​over as we were a party of six and didn’t want to hold up the meal. The service was good, although our table did not receive the usual visit from a manager.
This location usually earns at least a three star rating from me and sometimes four stars. We’ll probably give it another try but not right away.

«And I baked you fresh poppy-​seed muffins too.» — BASEketball (1998)
Having heard good things about this chain from my friend, Trevor, I decided to check them out on my recent business trip. I was dining alone so I brought my iPad so I could read while I dined.
The place was practically empty — so getting a booth was no issue. But I was seated right next to a large group of six instead of isolated. My waitress was polite and she got me an iced tea right away.
While I tried to digest the menu, I gave up and read some reviews to help reduce some choices. That helped. I ended up choosing a combo-​type plate. Before I knew it, she brought out those heavenly treats — poppy seed rolls! Served with a light cinnamon butter. Sweet and savory; both. Just delish.
My plate came which was buffalo wings, cheese fries and Calabash chicken. The wings were fine, however, the fries were pretty good, but the moment I hit cheese whiz, I was done eating those. Gross.
The chicken was pretty good — perfectly breaded but not fried quite enough for my taste.
I’ll be back again and try giving them another shot to impress me.

I’ve been to almost every Fatz Café in existence (but they keep adding moreee), and by Fatz standards this location is just ok. Fatz is famous for two things: Calabash Chicken and fried Poppyseed rolls with dreamy honey butter. You can literally make a meal out of both, though I tend to save the rolls for dessert.
Salads here are crisp, but the service is sometimes off and the Calabash chicken just isn’t quite up to par with the rest of the Carolina locations up the way. They do, however, prepare some amazing Sunday blue-​plate specials.
The last bastion of Fatz in South Carolina off I-​85 before you hit the GA State Line.