Georgia Boy Cafe At Park Circle

Went by Saturday night and the restaurant sign has been taken down, windows in bar covered in butcher paper, and everything is clearly closed.

I loved our meal! Not understanding the lower ratings. This is good home cooking not advertised as something else. Appetizers of pork rinds and crawfish tempura were good. Followed by ribs, and the best fried chicken I’ve ever had! Top it off with a sweet potato bread pudding and bourbon ice cream. Oh so full and so happy!

My fiancée and I have been tackling down restaurants all over the east coast that were featured on the Food Network, so we decided to check out Georgia Boy Café. I should mention that this restaurant was featured on Restaurant Impossible. We had the southern fried chicken and shrimp and grits. It was delicious! The design and décor was very modern, warm, and welcoming. Their menu is simply good southern food. It’s a hole-​in-​the-​wall kind of place.

Went there for dinner and had the whiting with greens and mac and cheese. We started with the fried green tomatoes. These look exactly as they do in the picture on their website. Delicious! The whiting doesn’t come with tartar and doesn’t need it. It was delicious and I usually hate collard greens but these were fantastic. Topped it off with sweet potato bread pudding which was out of this world. My only recommendation is to serve some bread to the table, perhaps corn bread. And let diners know if there is alcohol in the dish, like the bourbon ice cream which came with the sweet potato bread pudding, but I didn’t touch. Otherwise, great dining experience!

I was disappointed. I came all the way from CA because I saw the restaurant on Restaurant Impossible. There was no one there and there was a notice on the door saying they had lost their liquor license. The food was not good. So disappointing

This place has drastically improved since Restaurant Impossible.

After their appearance on Restaurant Impossible, Georgia Boy was revitalized. New menu, new attitude with owners and staff, and drastic change in décor. We had gone a few times prior and although some of the food was good, the service was just horrible. We were lucky enough to attend their grand opening night last year and were pleasantly surprised at the turn-​around at what had been just an average local dive bar and restaurant. The décor is stunning, however, the bar was not remodeled until after the show and it wasn’t done well. At present, their bar section has been closed for several months due to the loss of their liquor license. The new menu has some wonderful additions which we have enjoyed on several occasions. The chicken pot pie is good, the cheese and grits are fantastic (and this is coming from someone who does not like grits), and the greens are out of this world. To be honest, its the grits and greens that keep us coming back. I think we have tried just about everything on the menu, as the menu has been down-​sized and their options are more limited. The food quality is much better than it was before. The main dining area is very hip and inviting. The desserts are also yummy including the bacon brownie with ice cream. The service, although much improved, is still not stellar. The chef/​owner, Chuck, is very nice and offers a lot of specials and creative concoctions like the stuffed pepper soup we had one night. They have a facebook page where you can see some of their daily offerings and I believe they are now open for lunch as well. It’s a worth a trip if you like down-​home southern cooking and have some time to spare… as some of the items like their famous fried chicken take time to prepare. Even if you aren’t a grits and greens fan… be sure to try these as they will blow your mind. The location is nice too, as you are just a hop, skip, and a jump from Hagerstown’s City Park.

My boyfriend and I went to Georgia Boy on Sunday. We were nervous at first because we were the only ones there. Soon after more patrons came in. We consider ourselves «foodies».
We had an awesome lunch!!! We had the fried green tomatoes, grits and greens, fried chicken (with some of the yummiest Mac n cheese), and shrimp and grits. All of our food came out timely and perfect!
We had two of the sweetest servers you could ask for. We decided to take some dessert home, since we were so full. We took the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing… scrumptious! We shared a bowl of the bourbon ice cream… oh please!!! It was fantastic! We’re still talking about it. Sweet, with cinnamon, then a kick of cayenne… HEAVEN!

I don’t know what happened, but this place has changed and not for the best!
I will not be going back there to eat. The service was slow, I think the waitress was the only one that day, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
But then, the food oh no! The greens were horrible! I am sorry to have to write a not so good review, a few yrs ago it was Much Better to eat here, But not anymore!

Had wonderful lunch with chicken pot pie. My wife had fried chicken. Food was tasty and service friendly My second visit since robert irvine remake.

Had lunch with my husband, he had the catfish and I had the shrimp and grits. Catfish was fried perfectly and very good. The black-​eyed pea chowder was very flavorful. Shrimp and grits were good but from a previous visit I was a little disappointed that they no longer tasted like they were Georgia wild caught shrimp and they were smaller. But the dish was still good. Will definitely go again.
As a side note to the owners I would recommend cleaning the cigaret butts up in the parking lot before opening, making sure the windows are clean and sprucing up the planters outside. Also I would recommend opening by 11:30am during the week and making a good lunch menu that’s easy to prepare.

My husband and I visited Georgia Boy café in early December 2013, after watching Restuarant Impossible. The service was great but the food was very disappointing. We started out with the fried alegator appetizer. This was overcooked and I felt that the coating tasted burnt. My husband had the fried chicken which was one of the dishes featured on the show. His chicken was raw inside and was returned for a cooked piece of chicken. I had the shrimp and grits which was not seasoned with salt. Bland! It was in interesting experience to try a resturant that was featured on the show. Patrons in the restaurant that day were all talking about the show. I don’t see how they will make it, if they don’t improve the food.

I was really excited to try this place after I saw The Restaurant Impossible episode. I’ve visited twice in the last 2 weeks and have been disappointed both times. First, the exterior of the restaurant needs some attention. The sign is only half lit and it’s confusing trying to figure out which entrance to go into (and if the restaurant is even open). Not to be too terribly picky, but the exterior door to enter the dining side needed windexed badly (perhaps just a personal hang-​up). On my first visit, the restaurant was empty aside from one of the owners watching football in the bar. We sat in the bar and I’m not sure he even knew we were there. We were told that some of the appetizers weren’t available so I settled on the fried chicken and my bf had the chicken chesapeake. My chicken was ok… nothing great and the portion of the chicken chesapeake was tiny. On a positive note, the beers were fairly reasonable at $ 2 a pint. Last night my bf and I decided to try again for «wing night». When we arrived at 7:00, the restaurant was empty besides one small table in the dining room. Also, the restaurant was eerily quiet and we both felt the need to whisper as to not be overheard by the staff (perhaps some background music is needed). We asked about the wing special and were told that it was $ 11.50 for 8 wings and 2 sides. Really?! Not sure what kind of deal that was exactly so we just decided to ordered a beer and go elsewhere.
As someone who frequently eats out and prefers patronizing local establishments, I’ve been less then satisfied with my experiences at Georgia Boy and won’t be returning. I thought that this place may get a windfall from the recent publicity but sadly the times I’ve been there the past 2 weeks, the restaurant has been vacant. And as far as wing night goes, I’ll continue to go to Hempen Hill.

First time here, food is good but still room for improvement. As this place gains momentum and works out all the wrinkles, I will happily add stars to my review. The staff should be more attentive to the needs of the diners. A ten minute wait in an emptying restaurant for a drink order is a turn off.

It really breaks my heart to write a bad review about a place I once liked. I tried and tried again, even once after the Restaurant Impossible make-​over. But, something is very wrong.
My last meal there started with a salad drowned in vinegar, which caused me to cough so much I could only have a bite or two. My mom had a different salad, and the vinegar did her in as well. This is such a simple thing. Either the chef has lost his taste buds, or he’s letting his kitchen staff run wild in the without a hint of training or direction.
Then, the shrimp and grits. Oh dear… I adore shrimp and grits. Creamy, or cheezy, or buttery and bacony, I love them. These, however, were tasteless. Completely bland. They tasted like cream cheese. Really??? Missing ingredients and bland food seem to be a trend on the reviews. Ick. And the shrimp! Ugh! The only spice I could detect was cayenne. Just cayenne. A little heat, but zero flavor.
My mom had a terrible steak which was prepared well done when she ordered medium — an yes, you guessed it, the dried out, leftover mac and cheese.
So, you see, nothing has changed. The chef is obviously not tasting his own food and couldn’t care less for consistency and quality.
And I have to say, the taste of the Restaurant Impossible designer is tacky, ugly, and lacks any sort of theme statement. It was horrible before. Dingy and dark, and only half decorated. But now, it just looks cheap. Shame on Restaurant Impossible.
These guys never did have seem to have a sense of identity. They never seemed to know who they were as restaurant owners and what they wanted to project. Is it Southern? Memphis Blues? Georgia? None of the above?
Eh. I hope for their sakes they take some time to really discover who they are, what they want, and how to get there. There was really potential here at one point.

Not a bad place but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there. The location is kind of shady and the exterior is far from inviting. The interior is very nice and modern. They have reasonable drink prices and friendly employees.
We tried the gator bites and a warm spinach salad. The bites were tasty but the portion was very small for the money. The salad had a strong vinegar taste which was not balanced by the goat cheese as well as was intended.
I might go here for drinks but with the prices for food there are better options in town.

Mac and cheese were very dry
Green were little under cook, corn in 3 oz container looks like it just came directly opened from can. It was over price the service were so so…

Fried Zucchini-​ok, BEPC-​good but ask for the sauce separate, catfish-​great and make sure you get the sauce listed on the menu, and shrimp/​grits-​good but heavy cream cheese was noticeable. Overall a good time, Owner was very accommodating, staff friendly, but the kitchen was slow. Will come again.

Ok so this place was one of those, you know it use to be good, but the let their standards slip kind of places. I got the shrimp and grits while both the shrimp and grits were cooked properly the shrimp was cold before it got to me but the grits were hot and the sauce was gelatinized bland and ruined the dish.

Their chicken wings are TO DIE FOR. That is, if you wanted to kill yourself from high cholesterol and obesity caused by overeating, their house chicken wings are totally the way to go. The sauce is made in-​house, and they fry their chicken at a low temperature for a much longer time to keep it juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. It’s incredibly, out-​of-​this-​world delicious.
I also had their pulled pork with a side salad and potato salad– all of which are made in-​house and really tastes like it. We were glad to hear that everything is made there by the cook– no cheap, packaged flavors! My husband had friend shrimp with sweet potato fries, and he was blown away as well. We don’t eat this heavy kind of food often, but the next time we’re in the mood for a blissful bellyache, we’ll think of Georgia Boy.
It’s true, the building and décor isn’t the best– it smells like a motel room and the Bob Marley and Jim Morrison posters make it look like a dorm. It’s not gross; it’s definitely a local joint, not a date place. But the homemade, delicious food makes up for it, and after you stuff yourself you can go for a stroll around the city park.