Mert's Heart And Soul — Restaurant in Charlotte

Maurice Is the Reason This Place Deserves ZERO STARS …….Let me be very clear….this review has nothing to do with the food….. we never got to try it inside. This is about Maurice, the so-called “manager” at Mert’s Heart and Soul, who gave us one of the most disrespectful, frustrating customer service experiences I’ve ever witnessed. My family of five came in for our first-ever visit, genuinely excited after hearing great things about this place. We walked in with smiles, ready to support a local business and spend money. Instead, we got a slap in the face from the front door, courtesy of Maurice…I asked what the wait time was. Maurice barely looked up and said, “An hour and a half.” I politely asked, “Can we order to go then?” and he took off his glasses, stared me down like I insulted his mother, and said “It doesn’t matter…. it’s still an hour and a half because we prioritize in-house guests.” Huh?? For a to-go order?? We then asked if we could at least put our name down. Maurice snapped back, “We don’t have a list, it’s first come, first serve.” I followed up by asking, So how do you know who’s next? and he straight up ignored us and called up the people behind us. Didn’t even acknowledge the question….At this point, the disrespect was loud and clear. We stepped outside to cool off, and guess what? A patron came out and told us they were taking names and did have a list. So Maurice either lied to us or just didn’t want to deal with us. Disgusting…. We ended up ordering on Uber Eats, and magically, our food was ready in about 10 to15 minutes. So the hour and a half wait excuse? Total nonsense. The same kitchen that supposedly couldn’t handle a takeout order somehow had it boxed and ready in minutes… all because we bypassed Maurice…..Maurice, if you’re reading this: you owe my family an apology. You were rude, dismissive, and flat-out dishonest. And if this is how you treat customers, you have no business managing a hot dog stand, let alone a respected soul food restaurant. To the owners, If you care about your business at all, remove this man from the front of house. He is driving away customers faster than your kitchen can plate a meal.

This was our first time at Mert’s…. and thanks to Maurice,...

When I say I left here full and satisfied!!! It is an absolute understatement. I had food to go home and much on. Everything was seasoned to the T! We were visiting the Charlotte area for the weekend and was in the mood for some comfort food. I got the vegetarian sides (black eyed peas, stewed okra and macaroni and cheese). I was shocked at the black eyed peas and okra actually being so flavorful. While these are easy dishes to make, they are often very bland at comfort restaurants. The macaroni was good and cheesy (I'd give it a 7.5/10; I prefer egg in my macaroni and cheese so I'm often a rough critic for that).

I also opted for the shrimp and grits ( I thought is was going to be Cajun style) however that gravy had the perfect t combination of spice and flavors. It was too good (I'm smiling just thinking about it). I was too full to eat the corn bread and we left the next day and I forgot it in the fridge. My cousin got the BBQ beef ribs and catfish combo, and let's just say she ain't talk to me the whole time she was eating so I guess its safe to say she enjoyed her food as well.

Although Google says there is street parking at this location, it was almost non-existent and honestly its not that far of a walk from most of the hotels in the area. If you absolutely must drive, there are park by the hour parking lots in the area which will range from 15 dollars and up for up to 2 hours and possibly more after that.

I'd definitely recommend for small groups to mid size groups that don't exceed 10 people because the size of the restaurants is not that large.

The atmosphere was calm with some music playing but not too loud that we needed to speak louder across from each other. Our waitress was also super attentive and professional (Sorry I don't remember her name, she had a short hair cut, dark skinned and a...

So we went here because the soul food place we wanted to go to is closed on Mondays. I'll start with the soul rolls, they were OK but all I tasted were the black eyed peas, they didn't have any chicken in them. The turn off was honey mustard drizzled on top! It just threw the whole "soul" thought out the door! We ordered the red beans and rice, shrimp creole, fried chicken w greens and mac. The rice in both dishes was not cooked! I was biting on kernels of rice straight out the bag. The flavor was good but I like my rice cooked! We told the waitress about the rice & she asked if I wanted something different because they were not making anymore rice that day!😏 I ordered the shrimp and grits. While I waited, I tasted the chicken, mac, and greens. The chicken had zero seasoning and was not fried in flour or anything to make it crispy. The mac tasted good, but was thick as if it had been sitting there or left in the oven too long, the greens were topped with chuncks of onion and tomatoes, which was weird and didn't have any flavor! Once I got my shrimp and grits, I wasn't sure they brought me the right dish! It was covered in brown gravy. Now, the gravy was very tasty but never had grits like that. The grits were not cooked, they were gritty and I could taste the grains. We didn't finish anything we ordered, it was just all bad. The waitress did give us a percentage off our food, which we appreciated. Unfortunately, that was a one and done. The food was that bad, we won't be giving them a second chance. Maybe we went on a bad day and others will have better luck. Just not what I expect when I go to a "Soul...