Hickory Flat Kitchen — Restaurant in Georgia

I almost never leave bad reviews for restaurants. If I have a bad experience, I just typically don’t go back and will share my feedback with anyone who asks. After almost 20 years working in and managing restaurants, I’ve seen every bad case scenario imaginable and always have a little extra patience and grace because of that. That being said, this was a terrible experience. I still wouldn’t be leaving a review if it weren’t for the complete lack of care and probably the worst apology I’ve ever witnessed from “one of the owners”.

We made a reservation for my wife’s birthday earlier in the week. It was the first time this group had been able to all get together in almost two years. Being a special occasion, we chose a “nice local restaurant” that advertises taking care of special events and groups of 12 or more people getting a dedicated server. We socialized and said hello for a bit when we got there at 6, but when we were ready to start ordering, our server was hard to find. It seemed she had an entire section in addition to our table, so that was off to a bad start. Once we ordered appetizers, it took almost forty minutes for those to arrive. We ordered entrees shortly after that, and it took over an hour for our meals to stagger out. At first we tried to wait to eat together but there were such huge gaps in time between our dinner dishes coming out everything would have been completely cold. The flavor of the dishes was ok, but my wife’s salmon was burned and well done, with no “caper butter lemon sauce” to be found, my shrimp were basically rubber, the fries on various people’s dishes were cold and limp, everything was warm at best and they completely forgot one of the dishes. The last meal to arrive we just had them pack to go (which we still paid for) at about 8:30. We chose not to even eat the birthday cake because it was so late and we were so upset. The server could tell we were really upset, so she let the owner know. He came to the table and said “hi, I’m one of the owners, sorry your food didn’t come out together” and walked away. Zero sincerity. Maybe this happens all the time so it’s not a big deal to him? I would have been horrified if any customer had this type of experience in any of my restaurants! Especially a group obviously trying to celebrate a special occasion!

To top it off, while we were waiting on our dinner, one of the other customers in the restaurant started choking to death, and a member of our party had to go deliver the heimlich maneuver to save his life! The people from that table and our server came over to say thanks, but no acknowledgment from the manager or owner. This blows my mind.

The live music was pretty good and the restaurant and restrooms were clean, so that’s why I gave three stars...

My wife and a friend went to the restaurant last evening for some quality friend time. She came home and shared her experience with me. I'll pass on her thoughts. First, I think it's funny/fraudulent that your place has mixed your reviews with those of the Frosty Frog. A very tainted number for sure. Reality is, you have 28 reviews, not 342. Your method shows very little respect for your potential customers. Also noticed that you respond to only your positive reviews. Tough to respond to the negativity but should be part of the ritual to address issues brought to your attention.

They ordered and received a cold appetizer of crab stuffed mushrooms and had to send them back. The meals were "ok" but were nothing like should have been offered for the prices you charge. Desserts were apparently good because it was not included in their home conversation. They also brought a take out order of the steak sandwich and mashed potatoes. The roll was good but with very little steak on the bun. Wish I had taken a picture for proof of lack of steak. Mashed potatoes were fine but a very small serving. All this for only $19.

When they received the bill a surprise $6.11 credit card service fee had been added. Who carries around $200 in cash, forcing them to pay the already high restaurant fees by credit card. And a 4% fee!!! Sorry, we had our own business and merchant fees were closer to 2.5% than 4%. Another way to pad your pocket. Not informing you customers PRIOR to their ordering seems to be an attempt to trick them, which we certainly hope is not the case. You might want to re-evaluate your thoughts on that. It's a very upsetting surprise to pull.

While I wish you all the best in your new endeavor. I hope you will grow into a better place, correct some of your issues and respect those who have not had the opportunity to try you out. Take constructive criticism like it's meant. It will go a long way in helping you...

On Tuesday evening me and my boyfriend walked in to get a meal after I got home from work. We arrived at 8:40, 20 minutes to closing and were taken care of by Joanne. She was able to answer every question I had on the new menu and provide her honest opinion, which I appreciated. However, the kitchen did not give us the same effort that Joanne did. For starters the Cesar salad with chicken that we got as an appetizer was good. The chicken was well seasoned and cooked perfectly however the salad was a little heavily dressed in my opinion. The charcuterie board was another good option with a good amount of meat and cheese for the price yet the meat was cut thicker than my liking and the cheese came in blocks with no utensil to cut it. From here it was downhill. My boyfriends burger came out with minimal French fries many that were burnt little crumbs not only this but he requested bacon and none came on the burger. He was also never asked for a temperature on his burger. My sandwich was good however I asked for no tomatoes and it came on the sandwich along with this I asked for green beans as my side and the kitchen was unwilling to make it and forced our server to come out and ask me for a different side. Throughout this experience we checked with the host and the server that they were okay with still serving us given that it was close to/past close yet they both reassured us that this was no issue. Unfortunately I think a majority of the issues were caused by the fact that it was late when we went however when spending 80$ on a meal for 2 I do expect a certain level of service and food quality that was unfortunately not met. I’ve hear great things about this restaurant however we were greatly disappointed in the...