Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Franklin

Well, we were excited to try Tupelo Honeys chicken & waffles. Coming up from Atlanta for a wedding and use to Chicken & Waffles restaurants like the Atlanta Breakfast Club. We thought we were in for a treat here in the Franklin area.

Service: The service was good we had a 845 reservation and our table of 8 was waiting for us. The waitress was nice and professional. Very attentive to our needs, refilling our drinks and making suggestions to out party.

Atmosphere: Nice place and spacious. Typical decor nothing really fancy.

Food: Ok, I ordered the regular Chicken & Waffles, my wife had the Sriracha Chicken & Waffles. I like to have the regular Chicken & Waffles, this gives you a better understanding if a restaurant truly knows how to cook/ throw down Chicken & Waffles and be creative. The Waffles are 2 small squares with a piece of chicken sitting on each square waffle. The Crust looked good dark brown almost like a rub. I really wanted this to be good. And butter on the plate with thier house brand syrup.

I spread my butter on the Waffles. The Waffles were warm at best. Not really HOT like it should be. Same as the Chicken. No biggie but now for the disappointment. Poured the syrup and cut a piece of waffle and chicken and OH NOOOO!! The Chicken had NO Flavor, No seasoning in the meat. The Crust looked the part but was a pure let down. The Waffle itself was ok, nothing that made you want to come back though. I looked at my wife and my party of ate as I couldn't lie. It was just plain Jane, Vanilla for me. Nothing like I am use too.

Like famous places such as Roscoe out of Los Angles , Auntie April's in San Francisco or one of the top places in the Southeast The Atlanta Breakfast Club. Thier Chicken & Waffles are outstanding in every word of Chicken juicy great crust, flavorful and the Waffle has great flavor, sweet and blends in with the saltiness of the chicken. Great syrup.

My wife felt the same and the Sriracha was too over powering she couldn't even taste the meat it was just pure hot that's it. She stopped after a couple of bites.

From my standpoint the management really needs to visit the Atlanta Breakfast Club or Ms Iceys Kitchen & Bar to get a taste of the competition. I am a foodie from the West to the East and I know good Chicken & Waffles places. Tupelo Honey really needs to step up thier game if you want to have this type of dish on your menu. Especially when you tout Chicken being your signature dish. Season your meat thru and thru. From the crust to the meat, juicy and tender. This was no were close to making me want to come back.

I really wanted this place to be a hit. Sadly this was not the case. Please go out and scout the competition.

Both of my daughters thought the same it was Meh!!

This is the Southeast please up your game and...

We were visiting Franklin, TN for a concert and decided to try Tupelo Honey to get a taste of southern food, specifically the fried chicken, and it looked like it had great reviews!

All of the drinks we tried were amazing! Our group tried different ones and all were delicious! We liked both the southern hospitality and blueberry lavender agua frescas and the kiss of lavender lemonade. Never knew that I would like lavender in a drink so much. It smelled good but tasted even better, I don't think the lavender was overpowering in any of the drinks.

All of the food that we ordered was also equally delicious. I have never had chicken and waffles before and now I'm afraid I've ruined them for myself because no other place will be as good..

I tried the Asheville hot fried chicken with mac and cheese waffle (I know mac and cheese in a waffle doesn't sound like it would work but it does!) It was hot but not overwhelmingly hot, it was a nice long lasting kind of heat, but it was paired nicely with the sweetness of the syrup and the occasional bites of mac and cheese in the waffles. The fried chicken itself was great, nice and juicy, with good flavor/seasoning, and the breading was also well done. I tried the fried green tomatoes and well, that's the only kind of tomato that I like now lol it was delicious and fried well. (I don't normally like tomatoes in anything unless it's like in a sauce or something like that.)

My friends had the pimiento grilled cheese and the sriracha honey fried chicken and waffles. The Sriracha chicken was a bit hotter than the Asheville hot fried chicken but it was a good kind of spicy and a little sweet with the honey.

The service was great, our server Sierra was super friendly and had a cool vibe. They were also attentive without being overly bothersome checking in too much.

The atmosphere was I guess I would describe as farmhouse chic? I am not super into the farmhouse decor trend thing but it was fitting in this restaurant of course. The lighting created a nice warm atmosphere and it wasn't excessively loud despite the close proximity of some of the tables. As a pretty obvious LGBTQ+ person I never once felt uncomfortable or unwelcome, which I was a bit apprehensive about being in the south and stuff. The wait staff and host were very welcoming and well made you feel right at home.

In summary: 5 stars! Everything was delicious (the food and the drinks), the service was great, and the atmosphere was nice. Sierra was friendly, attentive, and prompt. If I'm ever in an area with a Tupelo honey I...

We were surprised by not having to wait for a table when we arrived at 6:30p tonight. The food was phenomenal. Server was lackluster. We sat at the table for almost 10 minutes before ever being greeted by our server Nickolas. When he arrived, we placed our entire meal order along with our drinks as well as orders to go. We were told a few minutes later they were sold out of the pork which was disappointing but understandable. We ordered the fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits, meatloaf, and Asheville hot chicken and Mac n cheese waffles. The fried green tomatoes came out before the server ever brought our drinks by the bus boy Ryan. We watched our server close out the tabs at the other tables upon arriving and we were his only table for a while. Ryan cleared the tables of all the plates and cups by himself from those tables. We received our meals before we ever got the coffee we ordered and was told it was being brewed fresh and it was ice cold when it finally arrived. We were finished eating and told that the to go meal would be out shortly. Almost 20 minutes later, we received the check and told again the to go order would be out soon; however, we watched him put in the to go order before printing out our ticket. Almost 10 minutes to by and the server is just standing in the bar talking to the bartender and hadn't even come back by for our check. I flagged him down and told him we no longer wanted the to go order. He said okay, then went to the kitchen and came back out with the food and said it was ready. I told him we still weren't interested due to the lengthy wait and wanted it removed from the bill. He finally removed it and I paid in cash because we didn't want to wait any longer. The server never had more then 3 tables at any one time and all were staggered in a manner where customers never had to wait to place their orders but had to wait for everything else because he was never around nor attentive. He kept playing off his mistakes with some excuse. Food was great. Kitchen was prompt at getting food out. Ryan was great and delivering food and clearing tables. Server spent more time chatting with staff then chatting and taking care of his customers. Next time, we will just call in to go orders and by pass the in house dining experience. Hopefully, the restaurant will promote Ryan to a server soon as he would definitely do...