South Kitchen & Spirits — Restaurant in Florida

Went to South Kitchen last night for dinner. The overall atmosphere is pretty nice - they appear to be going for an upscale modern country kind of feel and they mostly manage it. They have a nice mix of interior and exterior seating and I noticed that the windows in the front of the building are designed to open up to the outside seating they have there, so on a nice night, it could be a pretty pleasant experience. Parking, at least close parking, is somewhat limited. They have one row of spaces in front of the building and if that's full you're relegated to the side. It's not a long walk, but in the rain it can get you pretty damp if you didn't come prepared.

To start off with we ordered the Crispy Chicken Legs. This gets you four good sized chicken legs coated with a pretty tasty sauce that seems to come down somewhere between a BBQ and a buffalo sauce. It actually smells spicier than it is. The legs were moist and tasty and a nice change up from wings. We both enjoyed them. Unfortunately, the waitress apparently had no sense of timing and the meals arrived nearly right on top of the appetizer. When I mentioned it was bad timing, I just got a puzzled look.

For dinner, my wife had the Bold City Beef Tenderloin Stroganoff. The waitress warned us up front that dish was somewhat small and it is, but that suited my wife fine, but for the price, there really should be more - you get a dozen or so small-ish pieces of beef, five very large and thick noodles, and a handful of mushrooms in an "ale beef jus" that's really no more than a very watery gravy that is far to thin to cling to anything and ends up just a soup broth at the bottom of the bowl It didn't taste bad, but it certainly wasn't anything special. For my meal, I got the Cowboy Cut Bone In Pork Chop. Normally, this comes with a sweet potato, but I subed out the mashed potatoes, which was a mistake. The mashed turned out to be very firm mostly tasteless potatoes that were not really any different than you'd make from flakes. The chop also came with green beans that were quite good - well cooked with ham and some onions. The chop it self was a good size chop, cooked just right - still nice and juicy and not at all over or under cooked. The "fancy BBQ sauce" that coats it is also quite good and adds an excellent favor while not overpowering the pork.

Overall service was both friendly and awful. When the waitress (Lindsay) showed up, she was friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable about the menu. Unfortunately, after she took our order she seemed to be done with us. To get a refill on my soda, I actually had to take my glass up to the hostess station, where the staff seemed to be just hanging out chatting, to ask for a refill. Apparently, this must happen somewhat often as nobody there seemed surprised that a guest was coming up asking for service. My normal 20% tip was reduced 5% for the bad timing and 5% for the need to hunt up a refill.

So, overall, I'd say that they're a bit over-priced for what you get, the food varies from so-so to very good and the service is just plain bad (but friendly). I...

Sadly this used to be a favorite place to eat dinner any night of the week. In the last year it’s taken a downhill slide. Several times we’ve frequented this location for dinner and the signature items have been out or missing ingredients. Tonight was another misstep. After being seated at a perpetually sticky table, we moved ourselves to another one, yet experienced the same tacky feeling. My husband asked the server if he could use the spray when she was done wiping down another booth. She wiped ours down again, but with an already moist cloth, and as you can imagine, the table was still sticky. We went to the bathroom to get wet paper towels to wipe it down again- nothing worked. Not the server’s fault, but the management. After waters arrived, albeit 10 minutes after we sat down and anyone addressed us , the waitress gave my five year old the glass mason jar, then asked if I’d like a kid cup- to which I replied yes, but never got during the whole meal. Onto dinner. No Nashville hot sauce- a signature item. I was offered Buffalo instead, which also never made it on the plate.(last time it was no waffles- again signature item) I counted five times the manager circling the tables and not once did he address us- even though I saw our server talk to him after our sticky table issue. Dinner is served; we wait on a new knife because the one in my husband’s pack was dirty and had smeared food on it- again- I cite manager issues. The server gave us another one but didn’t even check before handing it to us. (Side note- last time we were there- we got food before we got silver ware and napkins and couldn’t find our server, the same manager strolled over and looked at us and our uneaten food to ask if everything was fine and we sort of exploded because he couldn’t even notice that we did not have utensils and our drinks had been waiting at the bar so long the giant ice cube had halfway melted by the time they made it to our table )-All of our food was luke warm when we got it, but we didn’t send anything back. We were pleasant, tipped 20% because it wasn’t the server’s fault, and wanted to share our experience. I used to love this place but until it is better managed, staff trained to be attentive to detail or common sense concerns, we will not be back. A manager should check many of these basics, ensure ordering is done to prevent being out of signature items on Friday, follow up with staff and even approach customers who are experiencing dissatisfaction. I encourage you to speak up to management if you see something that really should not be ignored. It cannot become the ‘new norm’ to have perpetually sticky tables, unchecked utensils, haphazard delivery of luke...

[Update January 2025] I used to love this place to eat and it has changed quite a bit. The menu has changed and the cooking has changed. Today I was there and yet disappointed again. I ordered their phenomenal Fish and grits. Used it be one of their best meals .... U get a piece of fish the way u want it, I usually take mine blackened. Then they have a side of this amazing to die for Gouda grits and a separate side of the most amazing unique tasting collard greens ... They used to be separated as they are both very unique and amazing tastes ... They made as with so many other dishes a mess out of it ... Smeared the colllard greens on top of the grits (See picture) and that didn't only look like horrible, but also tasted only half as good ... The greens were not as good as usually as they had grits in them and the grits were mixed with colllard greens ... Why in heaven would you ever mix that .. this is not the first time they ruin one of their best dishes ... I am getting really tired of it. .. they used to have this dish with these wide home Made noddles and a amazing creamy sauce with scallops ... Perfectly portioned ... They started using spiral noddles, way too many, the amazing sauce didn't even come out anymore, looked like somebody puked into the plate ... From perfect to less then average ... Super disappointed!! Will think three times to go back there for food ... Still amazing people and great atmosphere ... But the food feels like a new chef is needed, one who can keep traditional recipes and not screw them up ... So sad

[Original review] Comfortable place, great food ... Really liked it ... Just the timing of the food was totally off. She brings the salad to eat first as we asked and right after she brings the food so it gets cold while we enjoy the salad ... hate when that happens ... They bring the appetisers with the entree ... That's why I gave a four out of five ... If they get that aligned I would do five in a new york minute. Update: I went to visit this restaurant many more times. It was a one time occurrence. Raising rating to 5 ... This is one of my wife and my favorite restaurants. Great bar area to chill ... And great service. absolutely love it ...