I once came to this restaurant years ago back when they were doing brunch and it was fantastic, so yesterday when our usual choice for soul food was closing soon and we were looking at an hour wait, my wife and I (at my suggestion) decided to go downtown and go to Southern Fire which I had hyped up to her for years that it was so good.

The first inclination that this was not going to go well was the confusion that occurred while waiting to be seated. We stood there at the sign for about 10 minutes waiting for someone to show up to take our names or take us to a seat or something. While waiting in the growing line, a waitress saw us and took it upon herself to take us to a table and we started walking...only for the one whose job it was supposed to be suddenly showing up, admonished her and backed us up because there were already people waiting to be seated behind. Like I said, a bit of a cluster to start but she took our names and after about another 10 minute or so wait, we were seated.

From there ensued some of the most "One Stooges" antics we have seen. The waitress (whose name escapes me now) came over and introduced herself and brought us two waters, gave us the menus and left. 15 minutes later she comes back and we order drinks. Another 15 minutes later she comes back with those drinks. Already seeing the "writing on the wall" here, we decide to order the appetizer and the entree's at the same time to speed things up. Another 15 minutes later, she comes back and tells us the food should be up in a few minutes and sure enough, some guy comes over and gives us the appetizer and my entree...my wife entree is nowhere to be found...okay, no biggie...it has to be coming so we start in on the appetizer (steak tips) and my meatloaf and potatoes with mac and cheese and collard greens...aside from the collard greens, NONE of it was particularly good...just OKAY...10 minutes go by, 20 minutes go by, 30 minutes go by...no entree for my wife but the waitress comes by twice in that time and we tell her we never got it...EVENTUALLY she came back with a plate with about 4 or 5 shrimp on it...only thats not what we ordered and says "I will be back with the rest"....um...WHAT the f...??...we say "NO" and she goes back and brings the entire original order fish and shrimp with the mac and cheese....while she is dropping that off FINALLY, I ask for refills on our original mixed drinks...(by the way we NEVER got any more water the rest of the time there)....10 minutes go by, 20 minutes go by....she DOES come back by and then asks us "if we need anything" and if "we would like another drink". So when we just STARE at her and say "WHAT?" she remembers that she still owes us the two drinks we asked for 30 minutes ago and says "I will be right back"....you guessed it...she never COMES back and when she does, she asks if we are ready for our check....HELL YES we are ready for the check...lol...but the check comes WITH THE TWO DRINKS ON IT THAT WE NEVER GOT...so we walk up to her and the manager and tell them that there is something wrong with the bill and we are being charged for drinks we never got. Her explanation? She only says " Oh, she was supposed to bring those to you"....WHO the f is "SHE?" Our waitress was HER not "SHE".....at any rate, they corrected the bill by applying a discount removing the cost of the other drinks (which I still think was shady because it looks like we drank them and we didn't) and we just left. I actually HATE that they automatically applied the tip because that little girl/restaurant did NOT deserve one at all. Oh, I didn't even mention the people they sat next to us that were loud AF and talking about "na this and na that for almost an hour of our time there...and THEIR order was messed up TOO I might add...and to top it all off on the way OUT of the parking lot, some young Thundercat decides that he is going to leave his running car in the middle of the lane and he just GETS OUT and walks into the restaurant to pick up either his food or a doordash....I will NEVER go to Southern Fire again.