Hickory Tavern — Restaurant in Columbia

I must start by saying I was really disappointed. We were giving rave reviews about this place and were not pleased at all. My family and I came into Columbia for an event at the Colonial Life Arena on Friday after the event we were told this was a great place to get something to eat. Now we had never eaten here before so we thought it would be great to try since we were provided so much good information about the place. I have a family of six. We called in the order to go pick it up and come back to our hotel to eat dinner. When we called the young lady that answered the phone advised us once we placed the order with her to go ahead and come in as they would be closing in 30 minutes which was fair as she let us know ahead of time. Per GPS our hotel location was 6 min away and it was correct. We called the food order 2 orders of wings with ranch and fries, a shrimp po boy sandwich with extra shrimp (that was $6 extra as she advised which we were fine with as well), a couple of sides for the younger children and a cuban sandwich was the request of my oldest son. We were advised they did not have that as it was almost closing time so no worries he chose a philly cheese steak with fries instead. Cool we head over to get the food and guess what we have no cuban which is okay we were told that but we also have no philly cheese with fries. Once the mistake was discovered we were then told they could not prepare the sandwich as the grill was closed. As a mother this just does not work for me. How do I feed all of my family except one! So, we went up to the local Ihop and got additional food to ensure our family was fed. We we got back we noticed bleu cheese in the wings and the po boy sandwich was not good at all even with the extra shrimp. We understand it was close to closing but if whether it is the beginning of the day or end of the night each meal should be prepared as if you care about the product you are serving. Ihop saved the night and I could have simply ordered Ihop but we have one of those here so we were trying something new and also we have eaten at that Ihop several times when we come in town and they never disappoint. However, I would not necessarily compare a meal from Ihop to one at Hickory Tavern as the venues and the menus are of two totally different categories. I was curious as to why my bill only came up to about $61 as normally when I feed my family at a place like this it is easily $75 or more so I immediately realized something was wrong I am just sorry they did not try to make it right. I always leave reviews and I try to leave good ones but this time I must say I was not able to do that. I hope this helps someone else and their family in the future perhaps some changes in taking call ins at a certain time will keep the staff from rushing to put out food in this matter but that is just a suggestion. Unfortunately, my family and I will not be trying this restaurant again. ...

This place has its ups and downs, and I think I’m done struggling through the downs. Food is typically top notch, but service is always ROUGH. It was particularly rough at our last visit.

The restaurant was 80% empty and each waitress had maybe one table each. Still took about 10 minutes for someone to take our drink order after being seated immediately by a wonderful host.

We ordered a small nachos deluxe from the menu for an appetizer, one of the only 2 menu items named “nachos” (the other being bbq chicken nachos).

About 25 minutes later, we were brought a small platter of chips, maybe 10 kidney beans and 2-3 ounces of ground beef. No sour cream, jalapeños, tomatoes, green onions, and hardly any cheese. Just a sad drizzle of canned chili or something, I’m guessing.

We asked if these were deluxe. Waitress says “you didn’t order deluxe”. We asked what other regular nacho item was available on the menu, she said “you ordered regular nachos”. We asked for her to show us the menu, so she brought the menu over and of course couldn’t find any “regular nachos”. We had about a 3 minute discussion on the nachos and realized we weren’t getting anywhere.

The waitress comes out 5 minutes later and apologizes with “the chef made you a custom recipe. I’m so sorry, my mistake”. The “who” made the “what”?

The next table over got their nachos a few minutes later, and of course they looked amazing.

I know the customer isn’t always right, but I felt like we were in a SNL skit last night.

Half our entrees were delicious (mine was phenomenal), and the other half was mediocre.

I’m done rolling the dice with my time and money at this place.

Owners: please work on consistency...

My experience at hickory tavern was amazing! Back in April I was looking for a space to host my uncles 60th birthday celebration in June and landed on hickory tavern.I Reached out and got immediate response from management (Chris/Joel) They confirmed the date and time ,answered any questions to make sure I had no problem before and day of the event The day of the event the patio was blocked off for us to decorate how we wanted , they helped us arranged the chairs and tables how we wanted as well . Amelia (one of the managers ) was a big help ,answering questions , accomplished any request we had , along with other hickory tavern staff members to make sure we had everything we needed !

As far as food 10/10 We had appetizers catered Catering was set up on the patio buffet style The wings were Amazing they were fried and sauced to our liking and the chips ,salsa , and queso was delicious Wing Recommendations : Try the Lemon Pepper BBQ Teriyaki Carolina Gold

As far as the Atmosphere 9/10 The patios was clean and spacious My only complaint was there was no air conditioning on the patio, but management provided fans to help with the heat, We were also allowed to bring fans of our own

As Far As Service 10/10 Along with catering, our guests were allowed to order off of the menu We had Great service provided by our server Yasmin Yasmin And the other staff members did a great job maneuvering with the Large group and made sure everyone had the correct food, drinks, and receipts

With that being said, thank you so much to Hickory Tavern for providing us with great service and making sure that my uncle’s birthday celebration...