Popi's Place (Port Manatee) — Restaurant in Florida

We’ve eaten here a few times and the last 2 times have been really poor experiences. Given COVID, we’ve ordered for pick up so we don’t have to bring our kids inside somewhere right now. The last time I ordered, I got a simple croissant egg/bacon sandwich. My croissant was stale and the entire sandwich was cold. Cheese wasn’t melted. Egg was cold. I was very reluctant to try again. My husband raved about his biscuit sandwich, so I thought we could give it another try today. Ordered 3 sandwiches, small side of grits and side of sausage online through their website, which directs you to a third party site, ChowNow. I go inside to find that NONE of the staff are wearing face masks, gloves or any other PPE as required by the CDC and all state/local guidelines at this time. I get home to find there were no meats on any of the sandwiches and no side of grits. So I call, thinking we could bring our order back in since they were simple enough to remake and have them replace it with fresh food, as now over 30 minutes have gone by since I picked up the order. The woman then tells me a bogus excuse of how “their system has changed” and that was why everything was incorrect. They don’t offer to remake the anything as most restaurants do when they mess up an entire order. It would’ve been different if was one thing they got wrong, but it was the entire order and it was a SIMPLE order. So instead, we are offered to have only the meats made for us and we had to go back a second time, to pick up the missing ingredients for our food. So basically we had to remake our own food at this point. My husband was greeted rudely when he got there and handed a greasy bag of breakfast meats so we could make our own breakfast, which I wouldn’t have ordered take out if I wanted to make my own breakfast. No one apologized or said anything to try to rectify the situation. They didn’t assume responsibility for screwing up an entire order and blamed it on a “new system”, when it’s their responsibility to check things for accuracy before allowing it to leave their restaurant. I’ve worked in restaurants for years and it’s how every place is—except this one, I guess! I’m just very disappointed. I’m not sure we will be back for dine in or take out at this point! Also the biggest concern is the lack of face masks, at the very least!!! It’s the MINIMUM thing you can do to protect those who enter their establishment, and they’ve chosen to ignore STATE MANDATED requirements for them to be operational during this time. Pretty unbelievable...

I’m perplexed by all the 5-star reviews. Maybe this place specializes in breakfast and that’s what gets them so much acclaim? We had dinner, and unfortunately it was pretty bland. Service was super-friendly and prompt, and the place has a nice, homey vibe. Maybe I should blame it on an inexperienced, underseasong line cook, but the meal was a little substandard overall. The chicken tenders were cooked perfectly, but the breading lacked seasoning/salt. The bbq dipping sauce was a disgusting, gloopy, gelatinous, watered-down mess. The glazed carrots were bizzare; the texture was off and it tasted of sour orange juice and honey. Stick to the basics, please—brown sugar and butter is all you need lol. The french fries were fine: your average frozen fries, well-prepared. Mashed potatoes and gravy were obviously from a dry mix. I’m a big fan of Greek food, so I was excited to order the chicken pita. Unfortunately it was flavorless. After adding a generous amount of salt and their tzatziki sauce, it was pretty good! Anyway, overall this place has good cooking techniques and great service. Im always rooting for a local mom-n-popi chain to success (forgive the pun), and—with a bolder flavor profile—this place could be a step above your...

I’ve been recently frequenting this place on Sundays for the last 2 months.Between 9-9:30. Somehow I’m seated in Gena’s section most always. Today was one of the most subpar meals I have had. The drinks took a while to arrive we had 2 coffees and an OJ. We asked for water which never arrived. After a bit of a wait our order was taken. I ordered steak and eggs. Steak rare and eggs poached hard with a biscuit and home fries. The steak was perfectly prepared soft, flavorful and rare. However it was barley warm the poached rags were runny and cold. Gena asked if they were okay I said yes I will make it work as it took about 30 mins for our meals to arrive and I was not going to wait that long again. When we were finished it took another 20 mins for the bill. I did not leave this establishment until 10:50. I...