Carolina Kitchen Bar & Grill

Reviews 4

AS

Ashley Johnson

I remove stars from this review because while the location is much bigger and better than the Largo location, the prices are higher, but the food is exactly the same. I always get a certain menu item that costs $8.99 at Largo, but $13.99 at Hyattsville, and I get the same amount of food which tastes exactly the same as Largo. Avoid this location if you can, and get your food to-go from the Largo spot. You will not want to dine in at the Largo location once you see the Hyattsville location, but the point of the restaurant is to eat, which is what this review is about. This is my review of their Largo location: This is hands down my favorite soul food place in the Washington, DC area. The taste of their food is always consistent, hot, fresh, and the price has not been raised since their opening. I have eaten at this restaurant since the day they opened, literally, and have dined in and taken out at least 200 times over the years. While I personally love this place, I can’t stand the constant yelling of “Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!”, which is their signature greeting, that they shout every 2 minutes. Its fine when it’s done in restricted moderation, but they go overboard with it and the ringing of that darn bell. It gets really annoying after waiting in line for 10 min. I wish they would calm it down, as I’m sure the eat in diners that have been in there much longer have got to be even more annoyed than the take out line. I always get the spicy chicken chunks, extra sauce on the side, mac and cheese, collard greens, and a side of baked beans. Half of their menu items are made to order, so I would highly suggest calling in your order if you will be taking out, otherwise you will be waiting at least 15-20 min, and it is not a comfortable wait since the restaurant is too small for comfort. Also, I don’t ever take the to-go cornbread that is wrapped in those bags. They always wrap the cornbread while it is still hot, so it sticks to the paper. Instead, ask for your cornbread in a to-go container with the honey butter spread. If you only have one meal, you will only get one cornbread, so ask for two in the to-go container and pay the extra few cents. Trust me, it tastes significantly better. Their cakes are also very good, but too overpriced at $5 apiece. I personally love the yellow cake with chocolate icing and only get it when I’m feeling rich. Otherwise, the spicy chicken chunks meal, with my 2 cornbreads, and extra side only come to about $15. Two meals with 2 extra sides, come to about $27. It is well worth the price. Try to take out as much as possible, since it can get pretty cramped when dining in. The restaurant is too small and gets too loud at times. Eating your food at home will taste a lot better than in the restaurant. Happy Eating!

PE

Peaches S.

I really enjoyed this location. The indoor decor is on point, I absolutely love the color scheme and layout. The bathroom was also clean as well. I always use this as a judging factor in my rating. If bathrooms arent clean I feel like other areas arent either. But Ill point out some downers as well. I expect, not hope, Carolinas Kitchen to be packed during their peak hours. But I suppose my not having eaten all day added to my slight irritation after waiting for what seemed like forever. We arrived at 6:50 and was told our max wait time was going to be 40 minutes. However at 7:30pm I knew that time would be exceeded. We werent seated until 7:40pm. You know I definitely understand the hype with this venue. Im a true Southern Girl, you cant get deeper than Georgia, as Florida isnt a true southern state. Lol. I gave them a hall pass for the additional wait time though. I do think they need a better wait system. They have the hostess walking around the restaurant calling out names when its your turn to be seated...this wastes very valuable time when a beeper or pager would prove much more useful and resourceful. Our waitress, Yvette, had to be new. The poor thing never once smiled and clearly looked taxed and stressed to the max, with two finger snaps honey. She had to be reminded to change the TV channel for us so we could watch the game and to to bring out our bottled water. One of the managers even ended up helping her out. She brought us more drinks and cleared our tab for the night after waiting for our waitress, since we werent sure where she went. Our meals were absolutely delicious though. I ordered the Catfish Tenders as an appetizer. They came out hot and looked more like an entree, with the amount and size. I was glad I had help eating them. They were soooo good. Our entrees consisted of the Creole Salmon and the regular grilled Salmon. We both ordered macaroni & cheese and collard greens as sides. My Beyoncé that I ordered was super scrumptious too!! I drove an hour just to satisfy my inner soul food craving and they didnt miss their mark. Mmmmm mmmmm. Very nice.

A

A Private User

Ive been to Carolina Kitchen a couple of times and my first experience was pleasant. The food was pretty good however the staff were extremely slow. My last visit there, I took my family (visiting from out of town) for dinner. I was telling them about this place all weekend long. When we finally got there it was a total disappointment. Starting off with the waiter (named Jay, who is also the wait staff floor supervisor). His attitude was extremely nasty he got upset with our order choices (my dad wanted to order chicken and he would not let him order it - saying you can have chicken anywhere. I sort of agree but thats what he wanted). The list goes on with his attitude - i.e. he threw our plates down when our food arrived, got snappy when we asked for refills on our drinks (we were waiting 20 minutes before he came back after he served us our original drinks), and then he proceeded to talk to his friends at another table for an 1/2 hour before taking anyones orders.On top of that when I food finally arrived, it was awful. The greens tasted burnt, the cabbage was watered down, the chicken was dry, and the macaroni and cheese was bland with lots of cheese piled on top. Since I have been there a couple times I recognized the owner (with his overly fashioned green addidas sweatsuit and gucci shades). When I approached him about the awful service, he replies that he was not on duty and that I should contact him the next day. That really pushed my button. If you owned an establishment, you really dont have an off day. If people arent eating then youre not getting paid. Overall my last experience was very disappointing especially because I try hard to support my people. Sometimes its not that easy. Just my two cents.

AR

Artranda Hicks

Oh man...where do I even START?! We xame to Carolina Kitchen to celebrate my best friends bday. So we when arrived we waiting for about 15 minutes and then we were seated. Got to the table food ordered. So about 45 minutes later our server came back, and said "your food should be coming, out let me go check on it". So she came back and informed us that there was only 1 steak left. Mind you 3 people had ordered steak at the table. So the table over from us said she oredered steak too and that she had gotten the last steak?! Were thinking how is this possible and wth is going on?! So of course we asked for the manager she cane over and said she was sorry and that, there was a mix up and she could take 20% off and our food would be out in about 10 minutes and that it was a mix up. Okay thats fine. BUT 25 mins rool around and now its about 10:30 and we STILL havent gotten any food. So while shes trying to clear up things at the next table, our food comes out. Well Im still upset because first you had a mix up and now the steak problem is fixed. Well thats just not okay because weve been here for 2 hours with no food. So I wanted to talk to the manager so she came over with the host Im assuming and he told us "maam I personally went to go to Safeway and got these steaks" You did what?! Yes, I appreciate the effort but you went to safeway paid $15 and gonna charge me carolina kitchen price?! They guy (host I guess) said he had to call the gm to see if they could give us more 50% off. Wait you have to call to see if thats okay?! You lied and ruined my bf bday. Needless to say I got up and will not be returning. Awful way of handling everything.