Soul Food House

My partner and I went to this place with high hopes, but left rather disappointed. We had an 8:00pm reservation, and got there a little early and the restaurant was slammed so we were invited by the staff to go upstairs to the lounge owned by the same people on the 9th floor. We had a drink and went back down to the restaurant when we noticed “Cash or CashApp only,” which I thought was strange since CashApp isn’t used in Japan. Also, the sign on the restaurant says they take credit cards and they definitely had credit card machines (I later overheard a staff member explaining to another customer that they have had issues with credit card processing but that it ‘should be fixed soon’). We ordered and then we waited, and waited, and waited. It took an hour and twenty minutes to get our food. We ordered the cat fish appetizer, I ordered the Nashville hot chicken, and my partner had the country fried chicken. Both the mains come with mashed potatoes and an additional side. The Catfish appetizer was freshly fried and nice and crispy but honestly didn’t taste that different than fish and chips and I felt that the batter lacked flavor (some spice would have been great). The mashed potatoes were definitely not the best I have had, and overall both my partner and I felt that the chicken in our main dishes was good, but nothing to write home about. It also took three tries to get a refill on beer. While the staff were nice, they were overwhelmed and not super attentive. The restaurant suffers from a lack of organization and proper management. I would probably go back, but I would have to really be craving some fried chicken before I would bother with the stress of trying to eat here again. I will also add that we made our reservation online a week in advance and it didn’t get confirmed until two days before… I noticed the restaurant having to turn people away while we were there because the guests thought the y made a reservation, but it was never confirmed which customers didn’t understand and then subsequently had be turned away by the restaurant. If you are really craving soul food then give this place a try if you have a lot of patience, but if you’re someone who has limited tolerance for disfunction then perhaps save your craving for the next time you’re in the U.S.