State Fare

We went last night and the business is closed. Sign on the door says Permanently Closed. Disappointed that I didn’t even get to try it before they shut down.

We had to try out the new kid on the block, or restaurant row in this case. We went on a friday got in with no wait. The menu is interesting. You choose a main dish comfort protien (roasted chicken, chicken fried steak, ribs, ect). Everything else on the menu is family style and unlimited. These items included bread, gravy, greenbeans, bean lentils, and mash potatoes. Everything was ok, just over salted. The meal was ok, just not something we would return for.

Was great at first but not so good anymore. Won’t last long in current set up. Wait staff was rude. Menu does not show share charge. Would be acceptive of the charge but should be shown on menu. Shared with two children. Didn’t request refills on the sides so it was as if only two meals were served. Sides are small no matter how many meals are ordered. Was out of beer can chicken at dinner time. Meal ended up being more pricey than it has ever been. Plates and eating utensils look 30 years old… Not good for a new establishment that never has more than 4 – 5 cars out front at one time. Also, do not believe this place has a manager to look after associates. Would be helpful to have manager checking ok guests to see where improvements can be made.

Friendly weight staff and clean environment. We had fried chicken and tenders with the sides they offered along with biscuits and salad. The biscuits were good but the salad had brown leaves in it and all of the food was over salted.

I had gone there for lunch a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be neat place to take my wife for dinner. We were promptly seated & our waiter came right over & took our order. He was a pleasant & comical young fellow. He brought our drinks out & bread & salads followed shortly after. We’re ten minutes into our experience & all is well. About ten minutes later a family of five was seated next to us. 15 minutes after they were seated, they had there whole meal sitting in front of them & we still had not seen our food. We are now about 35 minutes into our experience. Keep in mind this Restaraunt serves their meals family style. You have a choice of 6 different meats to pick from when you order but every table gets exactly the same sides. That being said, they have to have giant vats in the kitchen filled with all of the side items. The only part that might be cooked to order would be the meat course. Our waiter had not been the table in a while so Tammy went to see if she could find out what the hold up was and since we were right at the front of the dining room, she just asked the host at the front counter to check on it. 10 minutes later, the waiter informs us that he forgot to place our order & that the meal would be free. We both thought «well ok then, simple mistake». Our waiter was obviously avoiding our table for the next 10 minutes & then the manager stopped by to apologize and assured our food was on its way out. 15 minutes after that, while 3 tables of families around us that came in after we did, had finished their meals, we still had no food. We got up & walked out. Even though our meal was going to be free, we were too disgusted with the service to waste another second there. We were there over an hour. We just drove across the street to Colton’s and ate there. Don’t waste your time with this place. They won’t be in business long.

Terribly disappointing.
I was so excited to try this place out when it opened, but it really stunk. Service was some of the absolute best I’ve had locally, which was a surprise. This, however, couldn’t compensate for a poorly thought out menu.
Nothing really screams «state fair». Had visions of something very different than what the real experience was.
Service was slow, menu disjointed and inconsistent with the theme, execution severely lacking (food was overcooked, biscuits way off and undersalted, I could go on and on), and overall was a place I went in WANTING to love, but just couldn’t. Oh, did I mention the price? Good lord… The problem with this place isn’t just the menu or the food, it’s that at the price point it is at, it is competing against just way way better options.
Was it not for the service and cotton candy for the kids, this was a 1 star experience.
Eat for half the price at Williams Soul Food just down the street and you’ll be way, way happier.

Not a bad place to go with the family The selection is limited, but for the quantities, that is to be expected. Overall not too bad, though the ‘drunk chicken’ is much better than the normal chicken when it comes to flavor.

Good family vibe food was alright but not the best
Chicken is dry but sides are great nice family environment tho

When we walked in we weren’t really greeted. A teenage boy with a popped collar just looked and acted like he didn’t know what he was doing. A waitress walked by and told him that she was back on the clock and to seat us at table 52, but to make sure that it was clean first. He then proceeded to yell across the restaurant at another server to see if the table was clean. At that point, I looked at my fiancé and told him that I was ready to walk out. If that was going to be our experience, I wanted to end it right then. We should have left, but then another person said that the table was ready and we were seated…
We waited a few minutes and then our waiter came to our table. He was a weird fellow, to the point that I think that it might have been his first job as he looked very young. (Most of the staff appeared to be high school age.) Our drinks were delivered promptly. I ordered the chicken tenders and my fiancé ordered the catfish. The salad came out and definitely appeared to be straight out of a bag. The ranch dressing was pretty good though. The waiter said that they had run out of biscuits, but that he would bring some to our table when they came out of the oven. Our food was delivered and the food was okay. The chicken tenders didn’t have a bunch of breading, which is what I like. However, no sauces were offered to dip the chicken strips into. About halfway through our meal, I inquired about the biscuits. Our waiter said that they weren’t out yet (at this point it had been close to 25 – 30 minutes). I had asked for more sweet tea, the waiter took it to fill it up, proceeded to drop something off at another table, take care of their check, and then brought my tea back. I thought this was weird. At this point, my fiancé asked for more mashed potatoes as the sides are «All You Can Eat.» He was informed that «Normally, you can get more, but we are out right now.» We then paid ($ 30, too much considering all facts), and left.
Also, the music was only playing some of the time. It would play for a few songs and then stop, then about 10 minutes later it would come back on and then go off. What I assumed was the manager, needs to train his staff some more and make sure that the kitchen can keep up. There’s no reason that something that should come with every meal should run out. Overall, the food was okay, but the experience was awkward. We won’t be returning.

Well this Fare is Fair. I know it’s new but I would have thought dinner service would have had more than 5 tables of people. That should have been a warning sign, but we proceeded to check the place out.
The menu is fairly simple and short which is normally a good thing as a restaurant can focus on quality. Not so much here. With only a few items on the menu it seems that the chef was taxed in providing a decent meal.
Let’s start with the «salad» aka ice burg lettuce and shredded carrots. They offer two kinds of dressing (yeah one is ranch so don’t fret) and the other a balsamic vinaigrette. Here’s the catch though, they put dressing into 1 ounce cups and refrigerate them for an unknown length of time. The vinaigrette is made of oil and vinegar so guess what an open cold space does to it? Come eat here and experience you’re very own science project.
Now all the sides are served «Family Style» which is perfect for any American Dysfunctional Family. The sides come in small soup bowls so 4 adults have to battle to the death to get a serving. No refills were ever mentioned. If you disdain any type of seasoning on your sides then this will be heaven. They did have «gravy». Again science is this places’ mortal enemy as the gravy became more like lumpy Jello than actual gravy.
Oh the main courses. Here’s where all the seasoning went. The ribs had so much seasoning and were so dry that they were one minute away from achieving jerky status. Again, that damn science gets in the way.
Be sure to check out the $ 5 kids corn dog. You will get the feeling that you are really at the fair. That state fair feeling that you have paid way too much for something deep fried.
If you’re wondering why two stars and not one it was because of the service.

I had high hopes for this new restaurant. Keep it simple. Six entrees and family style sides. Great idea. How could you go wrong?
Let us count the ways. Simple salad. It’s simple lettuce and a choice of two dressings. Simply not salad.
Skin on mashed potatoes. No one does that except Dixie Land café and I don’t eat there because of that. Peel the potatoes before they are mashed.
Creamed Corn. Whole kernel corn in cream sauce is not creamed corn but was still best of the sides.
Purple hull peas. I suppose somebody likes them but there are much better choices for a side dish.
Country biscuits and gravy. Both mediocre at best. The gravy begs for some sort of flavor other than flour and milk (or water?).
Entrees: We went there for country fried steak but learned it was two 4 oz. pieces for $ 14. I have more meat than that on a sandwich. Eight ounces for my dinner is a solid NO.
Fried chicken is four pieces for 13 bucks. All white meat two dollars extra. Another NO.
Pork ribs sounded good but I wasn’t in the mood.
Fried catfish is not on my favorites list and for chicken tenders I’ll stick to Chic-​fil-​a.
So here we are. Beer can chicken is a whole chicken for $ 14. It was fabulous despite the awful overdone black spice mixture coating the entire chicken. Fortunately the chicken was cooked to absolutely amazing tenderness and the skin could be easily striped off and cast aside.
Bottom line? Great idea but missed the mark. Great sides could make a lot of difference. Someone gave State Fare 6 months. My opinion is it will depend on how much money they are prepared to lose or if they are willing to make adjustments.

This place is so great! The service is excellent and everyone has an almost, made-​for-​TV, charm and friendliness about them. The «Beer Can Chicken» is magical and all of the sides tasted like they came right out of Granny’s kitchen. The presentation and detail of each dish made it, not only an A+ dinning experience but we found everything tasted so good that we all had to share among ourselves. Thanks guys for the «home run» experience and here’s another well deserved 5 stars. ;)
–William Earl

Great concept, great execution. Family style comfort food with all you can eat sides and a centerpiece entrée. My wife and I shared a huge serving of chicken fried steak that was well seasoned. Our server was nice and the atmosphere was pleasant. I don’t get the reviewers that complain about price, we walked out of here well-​fed for around $ 20, which is more than reasonable for a sit-​down restaurant.

Fried chicken felt like it had been sitting for quite a while. Sides were ok but over all, definitely not worth the money.

Was set promptly; however we set for over 5 min with 4 different servers walking past with no acknowledgement. Finally a heavy young man said hold on someone will be with you soon. Two minutes later a lady waited on us. Once our food arrived she gave me a lesson on southern cooking while we had food in front of us getting cold. I am from southern Alabama so think I am aware of southern cooking and manners. Once she got done talking my wife and I got to start our meal which was no longer warm. Family style, small menu, need some work on the cream corn. Was plain canned corn with a cream sauce not typical creamed corn which is cut corn they did have bacon grease in it and flavor was good but the appearance was needing. Ours had been warmed too long it was brown. My wife’s chicken tenders were cooked a little long as well as my chicken fried steak. No honey mustard for chicken tenders? The purple hull peas were not served; was told they were too salty; no compensation was made. All in all not too bad for being open only a week will give them another chance in a few weeks to see if they have resolved some of these opportunities.

Tried this amazing new place last week and loved it! Such good food and a fantastic family atmosphere! Can’t wait to go back and try more amazing food at this family style restaurant!

Local craft beer and fried chicken that was delicious. The purple hull peas were the best I’ve ever had. Can’t wait to go back and try the chicken fried steak.

What a bizarre concept. $ 13.99 for chicken tenders and then a $ 4.99 fee if u decide to split a meal. Very weird. Only six things on the menu.
Food was not great at all. I would put it on par with the bob Evans that just closes down. Canned and gummy food.
Won’t be here long. I give it 6 months

Served family style so remember when ordering that all meals can be split and you will still walk away full.

Local (YES) Comfort (YES) — Fried Chicken is good as any in the south, scratch mashed taters, cream corn, purple hull peas and country biscuits and gravy or how about a lb. of Wangs for $ 7.99 or local craft brew $ 3.50 for the Master’s of Ozark, Core, Bike Rack, Bentonville and Diamond Bear … if that’s too much — never fear Pabst is on tap for $ 2. Chalk Walls and hula hoops for kids and hippies and kissing booth for the endless romantic. Yes Sir, this is a gem. Soon the 72′ TV will be hosting a packed house calling our beloved HOGS!