Savor

The restaurant is closed. My husband and I went there Saturday night for dinner and were concerned about the lack of cars in the parking lot even though all the lights were on. He went to the door to see if they were even open. The door was opened but no one was around. As he was leaving a man came out and said they are now a venue only place — not a restaurant anymore and they are thinking of opening for brunch soon.

OK, I read the crappy reviews and and read the great reviews and thought let me give them a shot. Probably just some issues getting ironed out in the beginning. Well, boy was I wrong!!! I sat down to learn from friends sitting one table over that you were out of two dishes… before our dinner was over you were in fact out of 3 of your 7 or so entrees, one of your two salads, three of your wines, three of your beers, and one of your desserts. I honestly don’t know how you are still open? This was a Friday night! My wine glass had a lipstick stain on it and we had to wait forever for service, drinks, check, etc. The food I did get was well prepared and tasted good and fresh, but nowhere near makes up for the catastrophic mess I had to deal with the entire meal. I couldn’t even enjoy it because I was too flabbergasted and waiting to see what you were out of next and how your other patrons would react. It would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. I was looking for the hidden camera… thinking I was being punked. As I left, another couple was leaving their table after not being served. I had a full stomach, but I still was in envy of them.

I don’t see this one lasting very long. I’m an optimist for restaurants and I usually try to make excuses for them just to convince myself it’s okay.
We ordered unsweet tea, but received sweet. They went back to fix it, but it still came back sweet. I get it, we’re in the south, but it’s more of a dietary restriction, not a choice. Bottomless chip appetizer was good, but we had to remind the waiter twice that we had ordered it.
Super long wait times for a menu that didn’t seem too difficult. It was a Saturday night, BUT the restaurant didn’t seem busy. I ordered the Chicken Francesca. The sides were great (hard to mess up mashed potatoes and a salad), but the chicken itself was just 2 breaded chicken strips with sauce on them. It literally seemed like they pulled 2 chicken strips out of a Tyson bag and put them in the microwave. Underwhelming, to say the least.
The menu seemed confused. A random italian section. Tons of chicken strips.
Service was fine, but our waiter seemed completely overwhelmed. We had a party of 5 and they seated another party of 5 outside. He made a point to come over and say that there was 1 other large party, so our food would take a long time. For restaurants, I consider parties of 5 and 6 pretty standard.
Our meal took so long that, even though we wanted dessert, we didn’t bother ordering it there.

Chef Michael is amazing. He is so passionate about what he does. The food is delicious. You gotta get the Bella Pie!!! Love you Chef Michael!

Nice location, great patio and neat atmosphere. Menu has great variety. You can’t go wrong with the tomato pie and the sweet potato dumplings. Chef Michael really cares about his craft and greets each customer once they have been served. Once this place gets established, it should become a favorite for many.

QUICK SUMMARY: Food was just bad. All the smiles and service in the world (I’d rate them average on this front) doesn’t compensate for horrible food.
Details…
We ordered both of their signature sides. The bella pie (tomato pie) and the sweet potato dumpling. Tomato pie was made with mealy, off-​colored tomatoes that you’d expect to find in a fast food restaurant in January. It’s July in the south! There are great tomatoes on every corner! On top of that, the texture of the pie seemed off… like maybe it’d be been made in advance, frozen, and then reheated. The sweet potato dumplings are very rich and drenched in a bath of honey. They’re like store bought crescent roles with a scoop of sweet potato in the middle, coated completely in honey. This was the best thing on the table during the evening, but should be on the dessert menu. Rich enough that neither of us wanted more than a bite.
Then we split the burger with bottomless chips. Homemade chips had potential (thin and crunchy) and were very generous. In fact, the waiter brought bonus chips early so we could have them as an appetizer. However, they had been coated with so much salt we could barely eat them and didn’t want more than a few. And my dinner partner is a salt fiend, and they were even too salty for her to enjoy. The menu says the default of burgers is medium. I confirmed with the waiter that medium sounded great, and that’s how we’d like the burger cooked. What came out was a burnt hockey puck. Too dry to chew. The bleu cheese sauce and bacon on the burger were well done, so we nibbled on those, instead.
The restaurant didn’t have a liquor license yet (which they didn’t warn anybody until they’d been seated and handed a menu). So, they had one chardonnay and one merlot that they were giving away for free (maybe under the law of free tasting?) Props to the restaurant for trying to solve the problem and keep dinner guests with a table wine. However, the wine was horrible. I’d have been very disappointed if I’d paid for it. I hope a distributor gave it to them.
Long story short… after sampling the food we asked for the check, paid it, and left our uneaten food on the table. We ate dinner somewhere else.

Went here on Saturday arriving around 5:30 p.m. — We noticed there were about 6
tables on the patio with patrons but we opted to eat inside. We were greeted and
shown our table. When we arrived there were 3 other tables with customers. After
approx 5 minutes we were greeted by a waiter and we were asked for our drink order.
After asking for the wine menu he told us, «well we really don’t have our liquor license
yet so we have 2 wines that will be donation». My friend chose the white and I just
decided on iced tea. Finally, after about another 5 minutes, he brought us our drinks and a carafe of water w/​o ice. At this point we were ready to order so we asked for
the nacho appetizers (they only have 4 on the menu to choose from) and we also
placed our food order. 15 or so minutes goes by and the waiter comes back to tell us they are out of nachos but he will give us the onion loaf on the house.
He said our food would be out in a few minutes.
I love spicy food, but this had so much of whatever the spice was, you couldn’t taste
the onions. There were also clumps of fried batter all over.
I had drunk my tea so I pushed my glass over to the edge of the table in hope the
waiter (I don’t recall his name he was so awful) would see I needed a refill. After
wandering around the dining room for a bit, he came over and asked me if I wanted
more tea. DUH ! When he brought me the tea refill, he says the food will be right out.
We are now into this dining experience 30 minutes and dummy the waiter comes over to the table and leans over and says «where’s your food? I was told someone
brought
it out a while ago» What? He’s the waiter, he doesn’t know where our food is?
He goes off toward the kitchen, comes back and tells us there’s been a mix-​up, but
the food will be right out. So we sit and nibble on the onion loaf.
While we are waiting, we notice another of the waiters hustling back and forth from
the patio to the kitchen with food, etc. He’s really working !
By this time, 2 of the other tables are finished (they have a different waiter) and the
other table who has dummy, gets ready to pay up and I hear him tell them, «well our
credit card machine is not working properly so you will have to leave the tip on there
so it can be run at the same time he totals up the bill, because he can’t go back and
add it in.
Also, their sign out front advertized fresh raspberry lemonade and I overheard one of the patrons ordering it and the other waiter didn’t have a clue what they were talking about !
By this time, another table of victims have arrived and they are placing their order for appetizers. At no time does dummy tell them they are out of nachos and one of the other appetizers as well (All they have by now are the chips and onion loaf) as
he hears them debating nachos or onion loaf.
Now 1 hour into this visit, he comes out and tell us they are «working on our food»
and it seems as someone else’s order was very similar to ours and another waiter
delivered it to someone else !!! But he had the manager «working on it» and he was going to bring us a basket of chips!!! He was so stupid that he could not see the
onion loaf had already been boxed up to go and he wants to bring us more free
appetizers. I told him we absolutely did not want any chips and what did he mean
by working on our order? Had the cook quit? And since the manger had to go back there, was the cook going to be pissed and do something to our food?
He said he promised 5 minutes and it would be out. We gave him 10 minutes
and I could see him peeping out from the kitchen, we got up and left. (after an hour and ten minutes)
I heard dummy tell someone that they had been open about 2 months.
In 2 months I would think they would have had their liquor license, gotten their credit card machine up and running properly and had a decent wait staff.
Since we didn’t have any food, I can’t say how it was, but due to the moron they have waiting tables, I won’t be finding out because I won’t be going back to this
dump.
We ended up at HUTCH & HARRIS. They were packed but the service was impecible and the food was great !

I had an awesome dining experience here last night! I will be back for sure. The restaurant itself has a really nice patio patio and the inside looks great. Definitely a date night place but with really reasonable prices. Chef Michael came by a few times first tell us more about the menu and then check in to make sure we were enjoying everything. Out waiter seemed maybe a little nervous but did a great job as well.
We started out with the crispy onion loaf. Let me tell you, it is literally the size of a loaf of bread. See the picture for reference. This thing was huge and really tasty. For dinner I went with the beef tenderloin medallions, it includes two sides for only about $ 13. For my sides I got the Bella Pie which is their tomato pie. Get this! It was seasoned perfectly and with the meltey cheese it was delicious. I also got the Parmesan grilled corn on the cob. It was a little too mushy for me, the seasoning on top of it was good though. My friend (shout-​out Michelle W) got the sirloin, with the sweet potato dumpling, and grilled vegetables. The sirloin was excellent and I think I did prefer it a bit over the medallions, the grilled vegetables were fresh and perfectly grilled, the sweet potato dumpling was delicious but felt more like dessert to us.
We both got steak dishes with two sides and an appetizer and the bill was a bit under $ 40!
We were going to get dessert, they are only $ 3.50 but then ended up being too full. They let you sample desserts. Have you ever heard of that before?! It was awesome. We tried the banana pudding and the lemon meringue type pie. Both were really good but I preferred the lemon! They also had a delicious sounding blueberry cake.
I’m giving them five stars due to a combination of the ambiance, the service, the food, and the prices. Go and try this place out!