Sweet Amalia Market and Kitchen — Restaurant in Franklin Township

⭐️⭐️Sweet Amalia Market & Kitchen We stopped in for lunch on a beautiful Saturday. The parking lot was full and we were anticipating a delicious lunch. You order at the counter and then are given a number to place on your table so that you can pick your choice of seat. We ordered: 1 clam chowder, 1 zucchini-coconut soup, ½ dozen Sweet Amalia oysters and a fried clam roll. 1 basil lemonade, 1 diet coke. Total was $63.71 with an included 20% tip. Since we went for the oysters and the food, let’s get right to it. The oysters – the oysters were very fresh, plump, well-shucked but lacking in flavor. It was a big hit of briny-salt with little underlying oyster flavor. At $21 for 6 oysters, it is $3.50 per oyster and these were certainly not worth that. We don’t have an issue paying for items if they are worth it – we have oysters frequently, local varieties, others flown in and when we are out-of-town. We have had oysters across the US, Canada, Asia and Europe – these are not at all worth the price, sustainable or not. The soups – the clam chowder was ok, nothing special and came with hot sauce added. My dining partner did not enjoy the soup and at $1.00 an ounce/$8.00 for a cup, it was disappointing. The zucchini-coconut soup was good, nice viscosity and flavor. My dining partner preferred it to the clam chowder. The fried clam roll – it was very good. I enjoyed the combination, the sauce was good and the clams and bacon were cooked perfectly and wrapped in a great, soft roll. The sandwich was a 10/10, the best thing we had for lunch. The basil-lemonade was very good as well, tart enough to be refreshing and a nice hint of basil. As mentioned earlier, our total was $63.71 with an included 20% tip. The tip would not have been included at that amount based on the service – the cashiers were just this side of rude. Curt, not friendly and as the front of the house face of the restaurant, they give a poor first impression. 2 other couples near us, were equally unimpressed with their experience. One couple had planned to meet a group of friends at Sweet Amalia and they called their fiends and told them not to come and they left to meet them elsewhere. The other couple felt – as we did – that the portion sizes and the cost for what we had was not in sync. We drove to Sweet Amalia Market & Kitchen with high hopes and high expectations based on the reviews. Great concept, great promise, very poor execution on many levels. We will not be back and it’s too bad because it’s close and we would have been frequent patrons had the experience been good and worth it – it...

The food is good and definitely fresh, but the service is pretty chaotic and the staff seemed very overwhelmed on this particular Saturday afternoon. You order at the inside counter, get a number, grab a table(outside only) and a food runner brings you your food when it’s ready. If they’re busy, be prepared to awkwardly stand around with your number waiting for someone else to finish up to snag their table. There’s tables without an umbrella that no one wants to take.

Their oysters are good, they were plump and had a nice texture. I wasn’t a fan of their mignonette though, it was too vinegar heavy and the utensils you get barely allow you to scoop the shallots in the bottom of the cup. Their oysters aren’t briny, so the mignonette just made the whole oyster taste like vinegar. I thought they were better with just hot sauce/lemon squeeze. The tuna crudo was great, it was our favorite thing. The clam chowder was pretty good also. The crispy potato salad wasn’t what I was anticipating but I actually really liked it. It was essentially a whole fried potato cut up on top of a Caesar-like salad, not your typical mayo based potato salad. They should probably specify this on the chalkboard menu though as it can probably confuse people. It’s BYOB which is nice.

The self-serve station was out of condiments and I asked a staff member if they could bring some more hot sauces out and she just went missing, got sidetracked and never came back. I had to grab a hot sauce from their market and restock their station myself. One of our items came out super late and the food runner seemed confused. It was a Saturday afternoon. The set up isn’t the greatest which is disappointing because when you order, the tablet makes you feel inclined to give a 15% minimum tip but you do everything yourself(including busing your own table). Oysters are on the expensive side at $21 a half dozen. Picnic tables are shared with other diners also, which is fine. Overall I do think the food is good, fresh, and worth a try. I’d like to come back in the fall when it’s more enjoyable to dine outside, probably less busy, and try some of their sandwiches. It’s nice to see they are doing well and are busy but their business model is starting to suffer due to their success, might be time to expand to a...

We drove out to this place after reading about it with high hopes and excitement. We browsed the store a bit, grabbed one or two things (vinegar and something else), and went to check out/order. The woman at the front could not have seemed less interested. Ok, fine, I’m usually giving that vibe myself. We ordered a sandwich, a salad, a Diet Coke, and the two market items. The total was $78 before the requested tip. I was told it’s counter service only, so I’m not sure what the tip is for and it’s very awkward to have to click yes or no with the other person staring at you.

Anyway, we go to sit down but there are no tables open. There was one table outside at a sort of bar area in the blazing sun with no chairs. There was a completely empty table just inside with a chair next to it. We sit down and start opening our drink etc when a women comes up and says “there’s no dining inside” to which I said “well this table and chair were here and there’s nowhere to sit outside”. The woman interrupts me with “I SAID THERE IS NO DINING INSIDE, you will HAVE to stand aside outside and wait for someone to finish, please get up now, we are take away only” and walks away. That’s it. No explanation as to why there was an empty table and chair inside. No offer to let us at least wait there for a table to open up. Just yelled at us then walked away.

We finally find a table with some other people, who on their own mention the rude woman inside saying she was rude to them as well. We all agreed that we won’t be back after that. The food was actually pretty good. Not mind blowing by any means and certainly not worth what we paid, but it was an experience and now we don’t need to go back. I assume this will happen less as I already dissuaded some folks in a food reviews group I’m in from going there. I’m all for small business, but there is no tolerance for rudeness and aggression. Best of luck to...