Joella's Hot Chicken - Mason — Restaurant in Deerfield Township

Amending this review from earlier in the evening (below): The manager of this location just reached out to me, to which I was shocked and delighted. He seems to be working toward a much better customer experience and recognizes this was not grace under pressure for his staff at this location. I appreciate this and wish him luck in making the quality of the service here match the quality of the food. He seems to have thing under control and is correcting mistakes. That is impressive and I applaud that effort. Well done.

Original Review: I normally don’t write reviews. This is only my second. But when a Door Dash repressive shows up at my door in tears from how she was just treated at a location, it moves me to do so. As a leader in customer service for over 10 years, it is truly disappointing and embarrassing when someone is publicly punished in the way this woman was. The staff yelled at her in front of customers. While I certainly understand how busy a place like this can be on a Friday evening, that is reason for leadership and grace under pressure. Not a reason to break down and yell or embarrass someone in front of customers. She was there on our behalf, picking up our order and was made to feel like she was jumping in line or acting erratic when that was far from the truth. She was just announcing her arrival and her intent to pick up our order. That’s it. Not being abrasive or combative. In the end, with all the uncertainty of COVID and places such as these at risk of another shutdown, wouldn’t you want to be very kind to these type of patrons who pick up orders for those not physically coming into a restaurant? So sad and embarrassing. The food is excellent, but not enough to overlook the aggressive way people...

July 20, 2023 Stopped at Joella's following dance lessons. They are one of the few restaurants open late enough for us to dine-in after dance. Food was good. Service was good. This isn't a complaint, our food took awhile to arrive but that was due the number of online orders that arrived before we did. The staff was apologetic for our wait. It was no big deal because we're observant enough to assess the situation. I would suggest that when dine-in customers arrive and find themselves behind a long line of online orders that the staff make the dine-in customers aware. If we know, then most of us won't behave badly and/or leave a nasty review. Staff did a good job tonight. Thank them for us.

Following is a review from a previous visit whose date I have forgotten.

I have yet to figure out how to get what I want from Joella's. I've had Nashville Hot Chicken at Hattie B's down in Nashville. That's the flavor I'm after. Next time I'll try getting fried tenders in their hottest sauce. The grilled tenders in hot sauce was fine but not the flavor profile I was after. That isn't their fault. I just haven't figured it out yet. Perhaps my only complaint is that the youngsters working their kept leaving the counter unmanned so they could text on their phones in the kitchen. Not a deal breaker, but I would have liked a straw for my drink when we left. There weren't any by the pop machine so I went to the register and watched through the kitchen door windows until I tired of waiting. Like I said, that's not a deal breaker but I see the same thing at every fast food place when the only staff members on site are...

My expectations for this place were definitely exceeded! It's your classic fried (or grilled) chicken spot with the Southern essential side dishes. They offer different heat levels and a variety of dips/sauces. The 'hot' tenders had excellent flavor but were pretty mild for me; they're hot by American standards! The spiked honey had an amazing sweet and sour twist that paired perfectly with the hot chicken, so I'd highly recommend that combo. I ended up just using that for the chicken & and waffles and ignoring the syrup. The waffles were nothing special, but got the job done. I came back and tried the classic sandwich with 'Ella's fav' heat. It had a hefty and super juicy piece of chicken, and I actually thought it was a little hotter than the 'hot' chicken. The kick'n mashed potatoes were quite tasty, and I'd be plenty happy to eat them again. The Alabama white sauce was very good and would pair perfectly with something spicy. For dessert, of course they have banana pudding, which was decent, but nothing crazy. In summary: chicken and sauces are the star of the show, and I give those an A+. You get lightning fast orders when ordering on the app (less than 10 mins), the staff is super nice, and they go above and beyond. I've become a huge...