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| - Not long ago, Restaurant.com was having one of their somewhat usual sales where you could pick up super cheap coupons. Southern Style Eatery happened to be one of those and I purchased a $15 coupon for under $3. If you've ever used Restaurant.com you know that their coupons really have no expiration date, and it's generally always up to the restaurant when they start or stop participating in offering them. Unfortunately, SSE seems to be a place that likes to be very selective on accepting coupons. In what would have easily been a 4 star review, the coupon eventually ended up being a fiasco and ruined our whole experience here...but I'll get back to it.
I believe Southern Style Eatery has only been around for a year or so, maybe two. We've seen it a number of times when in the little strip mall, and they're actually getting ready to open a second location inside the AMPM on Craig & Rancho, which I drive by daily. I heard that location was going to have a much more specialized, somewhat limited menu, so I figured it was finally time to check out the original. From the outside it looks like a take out only place, but they have a pretty large dining area in the space next door. When you dine in, it's full service for the most part, besides a drink fountain in the back corner. There's not much going on in the place, it's a very simple restaurant, but there's certainly nothing wrong with that. I actually really like the simplicity.
After we get seated, we start checking out the menu. It's a pretty big menu, and most of their stuff is priced really well. I was a bit surprised that they don't offer fried chicken though, especially since they offer quite a few fried items. No big deal, I like it all and we had a coupon, so we decided to order a few items to try.
Fried Catfish - With so many good reviews, this was something I had to try. For only $8, you get 3 pieces of fish. At that price, I was not expecting to get such large pieces. The cornmeal batter was just right, and had great flavor. One of my pieces was unusually big and a small portion of it wasn't cooked all the way though. A very minor setback as the rest was nice and flaky, and for the price, this is some really good fried fish.
Ribs - These were on a special that day, so we figured why not. I believe the special price was only $9 and included one side. You can a good amount of ribs, the meat was cooked well and nearly at the point of fall off the bone, but there was a little too much sauce on it for my taste. Even still, really solid for the price.
BBQ Chicken - Another item in their special menu. It came out hot and juicy, and was cooked well. My only gripe was that much like the ribs, it was kind of slathered in sauce. If the skin had any crispiness at all, it was lost in the sauce.
Sides - Since we ordered multiple items, we sampled nearly all their sides. While nothing really stood out as excellent, they were all fairly decent. The mac & cheese was slightly bland, but both the potato salad and greens were above average.
When the waitress/cook (the owner's mother) was ready to get our check, I informed her of the coupon I had. From there on, her tune changed in a big way and everything went downhill. She basically got pissed at me and told me I should have told her that we had a coupon before we sat down. She then went on to tell me she didn't know how to use the coupons and we had to wait there at least 30 minutes for someone to come back and put the coupon in. When I asked her how she didn't know, she showed me a printed one and said that's the only ones she knows how to take. I sat there and compared the printed, and one on my phone and couldn't find any difference. She insisted I had to wait until whoever knew their POS came back to input a simple code. When he arrived 45 minutes later, he had an attitude with me and told me they don't take them anymore, but would do it this one time. Wait...what...this lady just showed me someone else's printed coupon sitting next to the register, and you're acting like your doing me a favor by accepting mine? C'mon. I wouldn't find out until the next day when I decided to check, but they were still selling the same coupon. Why they wanted to cause such an issue and make me wait because their employees aren't trained properly is beyond me. How their attitudes changed so much over a simple coupon made me seriously reconsider ever coming back.
But while standing around at the counter waiting to finally pay for my food, I witnessed the lady who waited on us and assumedly cook our meal prepare food, in a way that had to break health code violation. She was answering phones, taking orders, touching the computer and making food all at the same time. Never once washed her hands, then even went on to put her pen and pad right on to the same prep station the catfish was on.
Since I didn't get sick or die, I'll hope my food was different and 2 stars is likely too generous, but I won't be back now for sure.
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