Fancy's Southern Cafe — Restaurant in San Carlos Park

I came with 3 of my female friends for brunch on a Saturday. The dining room was full, so we sat in the bar at a bar table for 4. The tables are long and narrow and rather cramped for 4 people to sit at. We got there at 11:45am just after the lunch rush started. We got our coffee and water promptly, and our order was taken. The food took a while to come out, but with it being the busiest time of the day, that was not abnormal. The food was delicious. I had the crab cakes with fried green tomatoes, roasted corn relish, and orange petal sauce. My side dishes were collard greens and cheese grits. Everything was cooked perfectly and was really tasty. My friends got the French toast, homemade donuts, and fried green tomatoes, all of which were delicious.

The problems started when the food was brought to the table. The food was plated on large, long, narrow plates and big square plates, and there were lots of plates. We couldn't fit all the plates on the table and had to pull side dishes off plates and put them on the table in front of us and have the large plates removed and then had to have the salt, pepper, cream and sugar caddy removed off the table along with our bottle of water for refills. Even with that, the entire table top was filled from side to side with dishes and coffee cups, and with the cramped seating, it was very difficult and uncomfortable to eat.

Our server stopped back once to refill our coffee, and then we were left alone. After enjoying our food, no one came to clear the dishes from the table, and we had to sit with all these now empty plates crowding the tabletop as we were trying to finish our coffee and conversation. We sat like this for at least a half hour waiting for the server to return so we could get our checks.

We finally waved her down and asked for the split checks, and ten minutes later, she came back with the wrong number of checks, and they were all incorrect. We waved her down again to let her know, and she went back up to correct them and brought back the checks with the wrong entrees and drinks on everyone's checks again. She came back a third time, and only one of the checks was correct. We were so fed up with the bungling of the checks that we just gave her our cards and figured out what we owed each other to make the check amounts right for our orders. She came back and put the checks on the table, and one of them was missing with its credit card. Ten minutes later, we were able to get her to come over again, and she then had to go back to the bar and hunt down the check and credit card. It must have taken us 30 minutes to pay our checks! Meanwhile, all the dirty dishes were still all over the table. We couldn't even find a spot to sit our check holders down to sign our credit card chits.

Needless to say, the service left a very bad impression. The server was just inundated with tables and bar patrons sitting at the bar and obviously needed help. The management could have done more to help her and should have. She was obviously in over her head and very behind.

All in all the food and atmosphere were so good that we will be back. But the service left much to be desired. Hopefully, this was an isolated event and...

First off, I am an experienced diner and review restaurants based on their segment, not against others that really do not apply to the experience. We called on a Sunday afternoon (yesterday) to make sure we could get in because it is a 45 minute drive. They said come along. We walked in, entrance is in the bar. Someone at bar said host will be out in a moment. That moment turned into 7 minutes, with an almost empty restaurant. Two now at bar just talking and complaining about work, versus stopping to help. My son literary had to go get someone. Finally she arrived, unprofessionally dressed as a host but seated us in the back corner of the restaurant. It is a small restaurant just fyi. So about 10 tables open and she tries to sit us in the corner behind another occupied table and we could not even get in. We moved ourselves, and she brought a bottle of water and said someone would be with us. Another 5 minutes goes by and still noone. Several walked by but that was it. Then server comes over, first time anyone showed any guest service skills, to that point, all others were indifferent. As we viewed menu, it seemed like this might get better. The menu said "Lump Blue Crabcakes", so two of us ordered that, along with "Home Cut Fries". Wife ordered Pot Pie. They have good water and Tea, and served brought lemon automatically which was appreciated. No appetizers this day. Now it goes down hill. There was no lump to be found in this poorly done Crabcake. None at all. It was made with clawmeat and maybe a little backfin. My wife's chicken potpie lacked depth and flavor and was not seasoned very well at all, In fact she could not eat it. I put a picture of the French fries on here because these are not home cut French fries in fact I have to say these French fries would be something I would expectat a bowling alley. The green beans were canned green beans that had been flavored with bacon. We Skipped dessert because we did not feel it was worth the risk. I'm really not sure what's happened here at this restaurant I have an idea that they were serving great quality food for some time but it seems like at this point in time it is not being taken care of. The youth and the restaurant are completely indifferent to any resemblance of great service. This was definitely a wow experience for us because we really did not have any idea how poor it would be. Back to my opening remark I try and review restaurants based on their segment and in this scenario they really did a...

Cute place, terrible service. We were very optimistic as the hostess who definitely appeared to be hustling sat us faster than anticipated. We waited about 10-15 minutes before our server arrived. We ordered coffee and breakfast. My husband got the New Orleans style French toast and I had the biscuits and gravy with eggs. In a few minutes our server brought us our coffee. I drink mine black so no issue but my husband likes his light and there was no milk or cream on the table. We waited for our server to come back, and finally asked another worker for half and half. It took about another 15 minutes for our food to arrive. It was delivered by a polite very young man. We had not seen our server in AGES. We asked the young man to tell our server that we would like more coffee. I think he inadvertently told the wrong server, but that made another worker bring out a carafe of coffee. They served me as I drink regular and my husband was still sitting and waiting for decaffeinated coffee. Finally our server came over and my husband asked again for decaf and ketchup for my hash browns. Instead of refilling his cup, she brought him a new one. She disappeared again. No ketchup. We saw the hostess and advised that this fresh cup of coffee had lipstick all over the rim. She took it back did not apologize for the error and brought back a fresh cup of coffee. No one asked if he needed any sweetener and by then there was no sugar packets left. No ketchup ever arrived.

My portion was huge. I could not even finish a full biscuit. It was good, but not great. My husband would say the same about his dish.

We paid and left. On our way out we saw that there was a significant line waiting for tables. Yet there had to be at least 6 to 8 tables empty at this point.

We’re not sure if our server had other responsibilities because she spent the vast majority of her time in a back room. Perhaps she was answering the phone and taking orders, but I think there was also an issue with training as the few times she walked through the room she did not make eye contact with anyone or check her tables.

Perhaps they need to focus a bit on training and hire more people as the service experience...