Doolittle's — Restaurant in Anderson

My wife and I had a date day and we decided to drive to Anderson from our house in northeast Georgia. We had no idea where we were going to eat and I saw Doolittle's driving through historic downtown, a couple of miles from the "main drag" of Clemson Highway where all the chain restaurants are that we've eaten at a million times. We stopped in a parking lot a block or so away to look at the menu online. The food is reasonably priced and we each saw several options of what we might want so we drove back and went in.

We ordered fried calamari for an appetizer and it actually came with a few breaded fried green beans mixed in (which I wanted to get but deferred to my wife) and some breaded hot peppers as well. We put those to the side. But the calamari and green beans were great. I got a club sandwich on sourdough and paid the $2 upcharge for she crab soup as a side and both were excellent. In fact when my wife tried some of the soup she immediately regretted getting the side she got! She said her shepherd's pie was really good too, although I didn't like it...but I didn't like it when she got it in Dublin, Ireland five years ago either...hahahaha.

The atmosphere was great. It was dark-ish inside even though it was like 3:30 in the afternoon. The lights were dimmed in the booths. It created a nice, romantic atmosphere for us to relax and enjoy each other's company even in the daylight. If you're on a date, get a booth. The backs are up high and as I said the lights are dimmed. You'll feel like you're all alone in the place even though in our case there was a lady sitting behind us eating by herself and a couple in the booth behind her. It's like they weren't even there.

We ordered a vanilla creme brulee to split for dessert. I normally don't like it and just try to steal the caramelized sugar off the top while avoiding my wife's fork trying to stab my hand to stop me but this creme brulee was excellent. We told our waitress that and she said it was from the cook's family recipe and the only dessert made in house.

My wife and I will come again and as we said to each other while eating our entrees, we will most likely bring our nephew up. He would...

Very disappointed to say the least.

We just ate here, and we couldn’t be happier to be walking out the door.

First off, the hostesses never greeted us. As soon as walked in, we were told to follow. We sat in a very awkward table at the front of the restaurant. The whole seating situation was very awkward because we weren’t even greeted. If they removed this table, aesthetically, the restaurant would look great and no one would feel cramped by the constant people leaving and entering. There were perhaps 80% open seats and no reservation setups but we had a very awkward seat. The second part is that the online menu on the website is different from the actual website. Some of the things we wanted weren’t offered.

The food itself would be rated a 0 if I could.

$12 for 6 pretzels pieces and a crab pimento cheese. It was luke-warm at best, but it tasted as if it had been sitting out. This did foreshadow the meal unfortunately.

I ordered the salmon. It was fairly OK at best. Not seasoned at all. A little undercooked, but I don’t mind it being towards the raw, fishy side (fish is delicate to cook so as a chef, I get that). However, very very bland because of the no seasoning. It looked quite naked as there wasn’t any seasoning or anything on it. Even fairly faint grill marks. Couldn’t eat the green beans as they were very crunchy (and cold). The mashed potatoes were warm and that was the best part.

I also ordered a she-crab soup. It was at best, room temperature. My spoon (literally) stuck straight up. It tasted more like a loaded potato soup that sat out all day. We declined to eat this after a few bites.

She ordered shrimp and grits. Hers as well was at best, luke warm to room temperature. It was OK but very mediocre. Very disappointed.

Lastly, our silverware was dirty when we unwrapped it.

So overall, it wasn’t a good experience. Maybe it was an “off” night, but a Saturday evening with not many people should provide ample opportunity to not “rush” food or let it sit out. From running a kitchen staff, the smaller things like just double checking temperatures make a world of difference. There’s a lot of room for...

I’ve tried this place once before, and I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt after having a poor experience. I came at dinner with a large party, and I will say that our waitress was very nice. They were out of the meatloaf special, which was fine, so I ordered the steak with potatoes and green beans. The rest of our party ordered similar items, with nothing complicated. However, it took over an hour for the food to arrive, which was crazy since the restaurant wasn’t crowded at all. The waitress even came by once to say that our food was ready but the kitchen was still preparing some other dishes so it would be a while. When our food finally got to the table, we could tell they had our food under a warmer, because it was extremely lukewarm and almost cold. The steak was so tough I could not finish it. The roasted potatoes and green beans were nice, though, but if I’m spending that much on an entree and I order it medium, I don’t expect a tough, cold, unseasoned steak. Everyone else’s food was almost cold as well and not very seasoned or flavorful, and a member in our party ended up getting sick that night after eating the salmon. For the price and quality of the food, I doubt I’ll return. However, the wait staff was very friendly and our waitress...