The Local Fork — Restaurant in Emory

We tried this place shortly after they first opened under this name. We always try to support our local small businesses and are generally very forgiving for long wait times and compassionate about short staffing issues. Our first dine in experience was less to be desired. We came in on a weekday to avoid crowds. Restaurant was not busy. We ordered the chicken fried steak. It was a very small steak, overcooked, and cold. Gravy was like water and the mashed potatoes were not warm enough to melt the butter. We did not get any rolls and finally got the waitresses attention to ask and she said she’d check on it. She never came back. We saw her across the room and waved her down and ask about the rolls and she said oh, we are out. Sorry. She never checked on us once. We never saw our waitress again until we flagged another to get the check. I know that life is not perfect so I gave it some time before giving it a 2nd chance. We arrived on Saturday at 10:15 am. Only 2-3 other tables were occupied. A young girl told us to have a seat anywhere. So we sat at the cleanest table we could find. It still had water rings from previous drinks but it was the best available. She brought our napkins and flatware and menus. Table still dirty but she didn’t care. I wiped it off with my flatware napkin. We looked over the menus and decided on our meal. After about 15 minutes of looking around for her she finally came back to take our order. We ordered chicken fried steak and gravy, 2 eggs and fried potatoes for one meal and biscuits and gravy with eggs and hash browns for the other. We ordered a side of sausage to go with 2nd meal. Our meals came out after about 20 minutes. I didn’t mind the wait because I thought they were probably making it fresh. I’m not impatient and understand that scratch made takes time. When our meals arrived, everything on both plates was cold. Like it had been sitting for 15 minutes. Gravy (like water) covered the soggy steak and cold fries were unrecognizable as potatoes. (Potatoes were the best tasting thing of the meal) We did not recieve any biscuits or the side of sausage. The waitress sat it down and said can I get you anything else? We said, yes, we are missing the biscuits and side of sausage. She said, oh. I’ll check on it. I don’t work breakfast normally. We waited another 10 minutes and she brought 3 pitiful, cold, hard, doughy biscuits and asked, can I get you anything else? We said, yes, we are still missing the sausage. She said, I’ll check on it. She never came back. Another waitress, (who was hustling and really doing a knock out job) walked by and we asked her if she could check on sausage. She said she would ask our waitress. Finally, our server brought 2 of the tiniest pieces of “sausage?” I’ve ever seen. I mean they were pink and thin as lunchmeat. Cold and swimming in a bowl of grease. Our waitress never came back to the table. We waited about 15 minutes (after “finishing” our meal?) and just went to register to pay. So, I would not recommend this place. We work hard for our money and feel as though we should at least be served warm food and our full order we paid for. Our server should be reevaluated and put in another position if possible. People like that will ruin a business. I understand staffing shortages but sometimes it best to cut your losses. I’d rather have waited longer and been served by the other server than to get subpar service from a young kid with bad attitude that couldn’t care less. We will not be giving this place a 3rd chance. Emory has some wonderful businesses. This is not one of them. I hope this review saves someone from wasting their money and time. If you are reading this, go somewhere else, like Y’all Come Back, Sidekicks, or heck even fast food. This establishment is filthy from the tables to the flimsy flatware, and don’t even ask about the restroom. It was disgusting. (Like side of the road on long roadtrip bathroom nasty) I’ve seen cleaner porta potties at the end of the day at...

I gave this place a second shot although the first time I went in my food was cold and my macaroni was watery I figured it may have just been an off day because my server was very pleasant and she tried to fix all the issues i had with my meal, her name was Nicole and she was the main reason I decided to come back. Upon arrival I was greeted by Nicole I was hoping to get her as a server again but instead got what seemed to be a 9 year old child. He should not have been serving it’s very evident that this is not something he’s prepared for as my order had many the same issues as the last time and he did not know how to handle the situation (which is not really his fault, he is young) but on top of that he was not very kind to the other girls working I saw him braiding Nicole and the other young waitress on staff while they were trying to work following them around bossing them like he was the owner of the restaurant. I would assume he’s the owners child but if that’s the case the owner needs to get his son out of the restaurant because if i was either of these young girls I would have walked out and found a new job. The behavior out of this child was unacceptable and the food was unacceptable yet again cold and soggy. I will...

Today we checked out the Local Fork. Cute little restaurant with a good menu of southern food. The food was good but our service was horrible. Our waitress never came back to the table to refill drinks or check on our food after she apparently forgot to put our order in after we checked on it 45 minutes later. Once we received our food she never come back. I finally got up and refilled my own tea glass. We finished our meals and went to pay but didn't have a ticket. We asked for the ticket to pay. Was asked about our meal and I told her the food was good but the service was not. She got rude with us telling us there were many people ahead which there were not because there were only 2 tables of people when we arrived and people who came in after us were getting their meals. She comped our meal, although we were ready and willing to pay, and she walked away; my guess is they still didn't know where our ticket was! So if you want decent southern food but possible poor service check...