Little Palm — Restaurant in Charleston

I came in with a group of 5, one of us is celiac. We let our server know upon sitting down about the allergy, and she (I can't remember her name) told us off the bat that their fryers are contaminated, which is fine, and then that the only gluten free option was the salads. My friend asked for just plain grilled chicken, which was listed several places on the menu, and she tells us she will check if it can be served hot instead of cold. She never came back to let us know before ringing it back. I was expecting a manager to come over and check on the allergy and explain options for us as is standard with something as serious as celiac, but nothing. No concern at all.

We were given pretty much ice cold chicken with some parsley on it. At this point we couldn't find our server, another runner comes out and we ask for hot chicken again. At this point we're concerned if the food is actually going to be gluten free and not cross contaminated. The server comes back to FINALLY give us other options of what my friend can eat- which should have happened immediately upon learning about the allergy.

At this point everyone else has eaten, over 30 minutes has passed, and our friend is still hungry. We finally get the singular piece of hot grilled chicken and by this point, my friend was embarrassed as our server made it seem like an inconvenience or a request that was too hard to understand. There was no apology for the wait, or the mix up, and after all this the chicken was miraculously still on our tab. The server was dismissive while closing us out- still no apology or acknowledgement of how rocky the whole interaction was.

I've worked in F&B for years- customers regularly have allergies and there is ALWAYS an accommodation that can be made in the name of superb service. This girl did not care, and neither did management, or the kitchen. Really the only reason that I can come up with why they were having such a hard time, and hesitant to even give us something that should have already been completely gluten free, is that their kitchen does not practice proper cross-contamination procedures in the first place. There is absolutely no reason why someone with a legitimate life threatening allergy has to ask THREE TIMES to be accommodated over something as simple as a piece of chicken- especially at a restaurant as "established"...

I have given Little Palm a chance 3 times now. I was hoping that they were just having an off-day, but every single time I've been there the service has been inconsistent, un-hospitable, and insanely awkward. The first time we asked the bartender upon arrival if we could split our tabs and he said, "Yes." When one of our group asked to close out the bartender printed the entire bill and said he couldn't split. We brought it up to the lady manager on staff and she blankly stared at us and said they never split tabs. The 2nd time, I sat at the corner of the bar with a group of friends... we all split our tabs... The third and FINAL time I will ever be going to this place was last night when we went with a group of 10 co-workers (who all work in hospitality, BTW) for after happy hour. When we walked in we said we were only there for drinks. The host hesitated and said he wasn't sure if there were enough tables... The entire restaurant, outside bar, and patio was EMPTY except for 3 people... We said we didn't need a table and could just get drinks at the bar (either inside OR outside, on their newly renovated patio) but he told us to wait. The same manager came up to us from before, looked at our group and said she could push some tables together. I told her I could help since we were standing right next to a bunch of tables, but she said, no and pointed to some tables in the far back corner near the kitchen. We asked if we could sit out on the patio and they said, "No, you need to order food if you sit out there." This was also inconsistent from time I went before. The tables the manager pushed together had our group squeeze together and scoot down a giant wooden booth so that if one person had to go to the bathroom everyone had to get out. We got one drink and closed out and the bartenders gave us a dirty look as if something were our fault... I've worked in F&B before and was always taught to be hospitable to your gests and treat them with respect -- apparently this overpriced tiki bar is too...

A true disappointment. I was planning my cousins bachelorette party this past weekend and had about 10 girls travel all the way from Wisconsin to enjoy a nice dinner out downtown. I made a reservation over a month in advance for a Poolside Table. A few days before our reservation I had called to confirm our table, and to let them know that we had 2 less girls for dinner (if that mattered). Upon arrival, it was very obvious that we were not going to get our Poolside Table because there was a very large private party going on in the pool area. Instead, they took us back to the backyard where we sat at a fireplace COFFEE table. I did not question the Poolside Table but I did become very irritated when a couple of our people didn't even have a place to sit and had to settle with the concrete fireplace hearth. I asked the hostess if they expected us to eat at that table and her response was "I can grab my manager, these people all put in reservations so we don't have a dining table available." Mind you, this was 8PM on a Friday night and finding a place for dinner for that amount of girls was almost impossible. Despite my frustration, we decided to stay for one round of drinks, which ended up costing us over $100 (5 drinks). We received our check almost immediately after we ordered our drinks, which was racked up on extra fees, and then waited an additional 12 minutes to even get our drinks. While at our lovely coffee table, I went back to verify my reservation was in fact a poolside table, but turns out when I called to tell them I had 8 people instead of 10, they completely changed my reservation without notifying me - which put us in the backyard. To top it off - as we left, we counted 6 open tables without a reservation tag on them. All in all, I'm extremely disappointed with the customer service, lack of communication, and service recovery from this establishment. They really put us in a pickle and the fact that they even consider that fireplace area a dining table is ridiculous. 0/10...