Palmetto Southern Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Asbury Park

If I could give zero stars, I would. Let me walk you through an incredibly disappointing — and frankly unethical — experience my girlfriend and I had at The Palmetto on June 23rd.

We had spent the day at Asbury Beach and decided to stop in around 4:30 PM to grab a bite. I ordered the shrimp and grits along with a banana cream soda cocktail. I had just turned 24, and my girlfriend is 26. A few minutes into our meal, she asked if she could try a sip of my drink. I said yes — a normal, reasonable request.

The moment she took a sip, the bartender rushed over and aggressively demanded her ID. As he examined it, he immediately accused her of presenting a fake, and then, bizarrely, questioned the authenticity of mine as well. I initially thought he was joking — that’s how absurd the accusation felt — but his demeanor made it clear he was serious. Calmly, I asked him to scan our IDs to verify them. That’s when things took a turn.

Rather than doing the logical thing — confirming the IDs using a scanner — the bartender got visibly flustered, red in the face, and declared, “We have the right to refuse service.” Yes, businesses do have that right — but refusing service based on a false and unprovable accusation of using fake IDs is not only irresponsible, it’s unethical.

Let me be clear: they had no scanner, no verification tool — just their own faulty judgment. I’ve worked in restaurants for over six years, and I can confidently say that no one using a fake ID would ask for it to be scanned and voluntarily call over a manager.

And that brings us to the manager — someone I had hoped would de-escalate the situation and act with professionalism. Instead, she mirrored the same accusatory attitude. She looked at my perfectly valid ID and repeated the same dismissive line: “It doesn’t look right, and we can refuse service to anyone.” Again, without a scanner or any legitimate way to assess our identification, she doubled down on the false narrative rather than take a moment to reflect or show any decency.

As we prepared to leave, clearly embarrassed and upset, I remained polite and said, “Okay, have a nice day.” What did she do? She turned around and said — loud enough for others to hear — “The IDs are fake anyway.”

That behavior is not just unprofessional — it’s disgraceful. This manager chose to publicly humiliate paying guests, baselessly accuse them, and prioritize pride over accountability. It’s a textbook example of poor leadership, toxic customer relations, and unethical business practice.

We are all human — mistakes happen. But when you double down on them instead of making things right, you reveal what your business truly values. And unfortunately, it’s not respect, fairness, or integrity.

I will never return to this establishment, and I hope others take note of how The Palmetto treats its guests. There are plenty of restaurants that serve great food and value their customers. This is not...

Updated 4/6/25: Third visit I tried the fried chicken Sammy on Texas toast and really enjoyed it. Everything tastes fresh and homemade. Excellent service by Deena, who recommended the chocolate fudge peanut butter cake, which was so rich and flavorful. I loved the Cherry Bounce bourbon cocktail too. So much left to try on the menu!

Updated 3/30/25: On my second visit, I tried the biscuits, cornbread, porkchop, and two cocktails: the honeysuckle daiquiri and the banana cream soda. First of all, the biscuits are so fresh, hot, and soft that it was like they just came out of my Gran’s oven. The porkchop was so plump and juicy that it almost tasted like a baked ham; I’ve never had a porkchop this juicy and full of flavor and the white gravy with bacon bits on top was a genius touch. The cornbread was light and airy but not crumbly and held up well in my hands so it was made perfectly. I loved the banana pudding on my first visit so this time I tried the banana cream soda as a dessert cocktail….loved every sip and enjoyed the surprise chocolate straw!

Wow! This place is gorgeous inside with an incredibly friendly staff and the food is incredible. Nathan was my server and he was so charming, knowledgeable and attentive. I had the fried green tomatoes and they were perfectly crispy on the outside and very flavorful with the pickle ranch drizzled on top. (Generous portion too!) Then I had the boneless fried chicken which had a nice seasoning combined with the white Southern gravy and mashed potatoes and green beans. (Another very generous portion which I could have easily shared.) Dessert was the banana pudding and it was so good I wouldn’t share with anyone. For a drink, I recommend the Rainbow Row — which was a light and refreshing rum punch. This was as good a meal as I have had at my favorite places down South and it really did remind me of an elevated version of what my Gran from Arkansas would make for Sunday dinner, especially those fried green tomatoes. This place also has the perfect patio and beach...

My first google review, but I was so displeased I had to share. As out of towners, my family of 9 dined here last night and were pretty disappointed. As someone who’s worked in the industry for almost 15 years, my initial thought was “this place has got to be brand new”. To find out it in fact had recently opened was not a shock. Clearly needs to work out some major kinks.

The food was our main concern. We got an array of dishes and they all were sub par. My particular dish, the shrimp and grits was terrible. I understand the “classic” shrimp and grits has Cajun spices. But this dish was a little grits, a couple very small shrimp, and basically an overpowering paprika/cayenne sauce smothering the entire plate. It was inedible. And at almost $40 I was pretty upset. The entire salmon dish was beyond dry and the fried chicken was rubbery and lacked any flavor ( as did most of the dishes we had). The crab dip said it came with pork cracklings? They were stale pork rinds I would buy at the grocery store. I was so excited to try a place with southern style food, but each dish got worse and worse.

Our server was sweet but you could tell very nervous. There were issues with our bottle of wine/wine pour and overall just lacking in basic attention from the staff- including the manager. It was not very busy so I’m not quite sure why there was such a struggle with service from all ends.

With a large group, and a large bill, I had hoped for more and was very disappointed. Hopefully front & back of the house can figure it out as they settle in before the busy...