Serve — Restaurant in Franklin

We're a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 kids) and it was our first time here. We live closeby and were looking forward to it after looking at the menu online and all the amazing reviews. They were very busy, there were alot of customers and not enough staff. The hostess wanted to seat us at 4 person table and pull up chairs and I asked for a booth, as there were several that were empty. Seated at the booth, took a while for anyone to come up to us to get us started. Ordered lemonades to drink. Several minutes go by and we are told that they are out of lemonade. We order different drinks and then they brought us plastic cups that weren't even half full of warm lemonade that was not good. We got chocolate milk for the kids, and when they came they were full of ice. It was at this point already that our waiter started disappearing and the manager was also "helping us", which continued the rest of the night and it was clear that they were not communicating. We finally got the other drinks and ordered our food. I had been planning on ordering crab cakes, since it's on the online menu in several different places, but was told they didn't have any and I had to re-decide what I wanted. The food took awhile and didn't all come at once, and we had to ask for things a couple of times that had been forgotten completely. The menu is entirely comprised of simple things. After a long wait and things already being confusing and disappointing, we were just hoping the food would be good, but it wasn't. My kids ate their burgers and liked the fries. My husband ordered the philly sub and said it was bland and flavorless. His pasta salad was swimming in vinegar and oil and was inedible. The only thing he said was good that he ordered was the garlic knots with dip. I ordered steak, it was ok. My side of broccoli was almost an entire head of broccoli uncut and unseasoned it was not good. My food was so disappointing that I asked for my salad which hadn't appeared. When that came it was also weird. The carrots were in long peels, and the onion was not entirely cut and stuck together none of it was mixed, I had to work to be able to eat it and ended up giving up. At one point we had 3 different people serving us, bringing us double of drink refills or whatever we had asked for several minutes prior that someone else had brought. We sent back alot of food, which we never do. We always bring home leftovers. Said no to boxes. No one asked us (keep in mind the manager was serving us half the time as our server kept disappearing and wasn't checking on us and everything was taking forever) why we weren't finishing the food or why we didn't want boxes or why I obviously disappointed or for any kind of feedback at all. Ordered dessert and it was taken out of the cooler by the front door by the manager who walked it to the kitchen and we waited minutes for it to be replated. The cheesecake was ok. I couldn't finish the banana pudding, it was mostly pudding but the bananas had gone bad. The service was lacking. The food was lacking. We spent $99 on food we could've made better ourselves, usually when we go out we spend $60-80 for the 5 of us and leave full and happy. All the food came on little baking pans. It's obvious they're trying to be different, but it's not in a good way. After reading such good reviews we were extremely disappointed and will not be back. Everything was way overcharged for what we got. My husband got a $10 drink from the bar menu and it was almost entirely ice. Wouldn't recommend and they have alot to work on. Saw them seat other people at too small tables even though there were booths open or they could've put tables together. Why would anyone want to eat like that? We are nice people and were polite about it all, we aren't too picky about things. But the time and money we spent here was ridiculous I was really surprised by the disorganization and wait times, and then the food didn't make up for it. The floor is also coming up in several places....

We went to Serve the night that Franklin had 4th of July fireworks, which was Wed night. They were extremely busy, since they were the only restaurant open downtown after 7. (Which still just makes me want to shake my head on why other businesses closed early when they could have made money staying open.) We had to wait over 20 minutes for a table, and if I hadn't have came back to ask how many more minutes we had to wait in line we would have never been seated. Our name has been crossed out without calling us. Anyway, we were seated and approached by a nice waitress named Kylee I believe. (It was hard to hear in the restaurant due to the volume of people.) She was very pleasant and didn't try to rush us for our order and was very responsive for our needs. I ordered 2 craft beers that didn't disappoint, my spouse had the same craft beer as I ordered. The teens had soda. I ordered a petite steak with creamed spinach and a salad. My spouse ordered a flat bread pizza. One of the kids ordered a Philly cheese steak and hush puppies and the other one ordered a hamburger and fries. My spinach was on point, not overly cooked, with some crunch in a light sauce. It was very enjoyable. My petite steak wasn't as good as I have had in the past at Serve. It had a lot of marbleization, but it was very stringy and impossible to chew. Although it had a good taste, it wasn't cooked medium as I asked, but more on the medium well done. I know they were very busy and it wasn't a big deal so I didn't complain. I should have said something about the stringy steak, but I didn't. If I get it again and it is the same way I definitely will mention it. I packed up my salad for home because I was full. My spouse really enjoyed her flat bread pizza. It had a sweet sausage meat on it that was very flavorful. It had a good amount of cheese and wasn't covered in running tomato sauce. The pizza was still crisp on the bottom which isn't always the case with flat bread pizzas. I didn't taste the Philly cheese steak or the hamburger, but both were finished and we were told they were good. The only thing that was an issue was the hush puppies. The 1st batch came out still gooey in the center. I asked for them to be sent back. When a new batch returned they were fried just right and they had a wonderful flavor to them. You could taste just the right amount of onion flavoring that brought out the cornmeal taste. Lastly, we ended up with dessert. After the kids heard chocolate cake with chocolate icing that was it! The cake was a rich chocolate with a nice layer of chocolate icing. I wasn't offered a bite from either piece of cake, LoL, but I could tell it was moist and rich. My spouse had a pineapple upside down cheesecake. It was half cake and half cheesecake with pineapple. She liked it and was pleased. I am not a big pineapple upside down cake lover, but my bite was good. I got the winner of the night dessert, it was a raspberry cheesecake with white chocolate chips topping. It was delicious! Very creamy texture with the right amount of flavoring and the chips gave it an extra texture. Honestly if we were going straight home I would have ordered another piece just for home! In actuality we ordered our desserts to go, so we wouldn't miss the fireworks. Yet after seeing the desserts we ended up eating them all at the restaurant in the to go containers! We ended up missing a few of the fireworks, but the desserts were well worth it! As usual we had another delightful dinner at Serve. This place has never let us down when it comes to eating out. I only wish they would stay open a little longer on weekend nights, or at least their bar area. It sure would beat the only other place in town that has an...

I am very glad I returned to Serve after they had a “reordering” of kitchen management. As far as “Main st Contemporary Eateries” serving on tap small brewery craft beers and IPA’s - Serve stands out to me. The waitresses tend to end up “in the weeds”, but considering the size of the town this is to be expected by those of us who enjoy travel. It’s a slower pace out here. We have as of yet to meet one who hasn’t tried her little heart out with a smile for our table. We can appreciate that they stay pretty busy. The food though… that’s Serves magic trick. Most of the dishes (yes I leave room for a couple that can/do fall a little below my expectations), are on a level above most local eateries. Don’t know what they’re doing back there in the kitchen, but someone at Serve has a passion for fresh, clean, and mouthwateringly good foods. Best suggestion for Serve? Be patient and kind to the wait staff, they’re working hard, But most importantly- try out their limited time menu items. THATs where the kitchen guys are practicing their trade with pride and try. I stand by my decision to apply 5 stars here even tho I find room for improvement in a couple areas, because for what Serve is they stand out to...