Category: Discovering

My family and I just recently went on a trip to Savannah, Georgia. I’ve always wanted to go and I was beyond excited. For me watching the Travel Channel, Food Network and the Cooking channel is life. (I know, pathetic but that’s what I love!) Whenever I go to a new city or area I search what cool unique restaurants are around. I hate chain restaurants and I try my best to eat something that I couldn’t find where I live. So walking around Savannah (which was torture! It was somewhere aroun 94-100 degrees the day we went) my family and I came across Paula Deen’s restaurant. At first I was like “Yeah, let’s do it.” but when I opened the door to the place I was like “ehhhhhhhhhhh not really feeling this place” but my mom wanted to go so we did.

Walking in you see people walking up with their plates to the buffet so I was kind of turned off because I didn’t know they had a buffet. Mind you, I did not look at any reviews for this place. Anyway, the two hostesses were rude. I’ve worked at a restaurant and the company I worked for was really big on customer service so when I go to a place that sucks at customer service I’m like “really?”. Anyway they asked for my name and told me to wait in the waiting area/shop. I had to ask how long it would be which they replied 10-15 minutes and that was fine. We walked to the shop area to see what they had to offer. Paula Deen’s face is plastered EVERYWHERE! Everything had the word “ya’ll” on it and everything was about butter. I understand that’s what Paula Deen’s about and what she’s known for, but this was ridiculous. I didn’t expect her restaurant to be so kitschy, it was a complete turn off. It was nauseating seeing her bright blue eyes, huge smile, fake orange tan and white hair everywhere. I was so relieved when they called my name over the speaker.

Once my name was called we walked back over to the hostesses who were still rude and they told us to use the elevator up to the 3rd floor and we’ll be seated up there. More than one floor? That was cool. The hostess on the 3rd floor was great! Extremely sweet and helped us with any questions that we had. She sat us down and our waiter came over, he was pleasant as well. He was a vegetarian so he didn’t really know if everything was good on the menu but I didn’t mind. To start my mom and I ordered a sangria. Sangria should be good anywhere and this restaurant showed me that it really isn’t. It tasted like sweetened water and no alcohol. The waiter brought over this biscuit thing, it was a small pancake on a plate with a cheesy biscuit on top of it. I really didn’t understand what that was, but I ate it and it was okay. Nothing special. I didn’t know what to order! I didn’t want anything too heavy, I was going to get a bowl of tomato soup with grilled cheese but I could literally get that anywhere. So I ordered the Cesar salad with scallops. I figured the scallops would be great since were so close to the ocean. My sister ordered the crabcake burger and my mom ordered the asparagus sandwich with fried chicken on the side. My salad was probably the worst salad I have ever had. The greens were not fresh and was drenched in Cesar dressing. The croutons were burnt and the scallops were fishy and just plain disgusting. I ate all the scallops because I just didn’t want them to go to waste and I’m not the customer that sends food back (I’ve heard lots of gross restaurant stories). I just sucked it up and ate what I could. With the croutons I originally thought maybe that’s just how the make them but I ate one and it was so bitter it left such a disgusting taste in my mouth, I hated it. My sister didn’t like her meal either, the crabcake was drenched in oil (a big no-no) and she ordered jelly roll fries on the side. I don’t know if this is a southern thing but we had no idea what jelly roll fries were. But it’s sliced potatoes dipped in batter and fried. The “fries” were soggy and I don’t know what kind of batter they used for that but it doesn’t go with potatoes. Why can’t the make just regular good old fashioned fries? My mom kind of like her asparagus sandwich, she said it was okay and she did like the fried chicken but said it wasn’t as good as she expected. She went to the bathroom to change the baby and she overheard some ladies talking. They were talking about the food and how they didn’t like it. One of the ladies said they ordered the buffet and that was good but the other lady didn’t and she was not pleased with her food. The buffet has your classic southern food, fried chicken, lima beans, creamed potatoes, bbq pork, rice and so forth all for $16. Now I’m not going to spend $16 on a buffet where most of the food is meat which I’m not even going to eat.

Everything was around $60, we left the waiter a good tip and left this restaurant. Like I said I used to work at a restaurant myself, it wasn’t some fancy restaurant but I still took pride in what I did. I worked as a server and a cook. I would never serve food that was burnt or sloppy and I would never put out food for a server to take that I wasn’t proud of. I just don’t understand how someone could be so careless with their work. This restaurant isn’t about the quality of the food, it’s about Paula Deen’s face being everywhere and just the hype around her. I would expect that a former Food Network stars restaurant would be great but I was truly TRULY disappointed. I would have rather ate at chipotle or cracker barrel than this restaurant. It was honestly the biggest waste of money.

I really do not recommend this restaurant and I strongly encourage that when you travel somewhere prepare where you want to eat! Look at reviews and have a solid plan before you go.

Hopefully one day this place will get better or maybe they were just having a bad day. I really don’t know, but I do know that I will never go back to a Paula Deen restaurant.

Have a great Monday you guys! I know this review was negative but it is a beautiful day, make the most of it!

Love,