Palmer's Village Cafe — Restaurant in Georgia

Palmer's Village Cafe 223 Mallery St., St. Simons Island, GA

5 Stars

Whenever you have a world-renowned chef manning the kitchen in a restaurant, there is a 99% chance that while the food is going to be outstanding, there will be little quirks elsewhere. A case in point is Palmer's Village Cafe on St. Simons Island, GA. Helmed by Chef JB (John Belechak) of DC, Atlanta, and a three-time invitee to be featured in the James Beard House Foundation, you know the food is going to be an amazing combination of Southern Comfort Foods and Haute Cuisine. Palmer's Village Cafe is another in a long line of restaurants serving 5-star grub while employing nonsensical staff and enforcing whimsical rules. I guess if you're creative you're allowed a few quirks?

Susie was my waitstaff member today, and she is a discombobulated eccentric who, at 7:30 in the morning, comes off as unpleasant. She is so bizarre that I had to ask her is she was the owner. She was not and directed me to the chap at the counter. The owner has a very strict rule that doesn't allow one to pay at the table, rather, you have to stand in line and approach the register one at a time. To make sure you follow the rules there are no prices on the check. That said, let's get into the food!

I did manage to finagle an order for some of Buddy's Banana Pudding Pancakes, a Chicken Pot Pie omelet, and a biscuit out of Susie. While she returned with my order, I snapped some pics and relaxed, enjoying the serene atmosphere that is life on an island. Everything just seems to slow down a tad when living on or visiting an island.

Within a modicum amount of time another gentleman returned with my foodstuffs. I must interject here that the smells were spectacular and the looks enticing. I direct you to the pictures. First up on the Big Boy's palate was a taste of Buddy's Banana Pudding Pancakes. The addition of the crusted 'Nilla wafers to the southern staple of banana pancakes was what set these apart. The pancakes themselves may be no better than average, but the creative use of wafers separated them from the competition.

The Chix Pot Pie was a leap beyond Buddy's Banana Pudding Pancakes. This was truly spectacular. Consisting of a three-egg omelet, white cheddar cheese, crumbled biscuits and chicken pot pie, it brought immense joy to my taste buds. Finding it hard to move on, I snuck one more forkful in and then turned my attention to the biscuit.

While the menu offers you the opportunity to build your own biscuit by adding items such as eggs, sausage, bacon, country ham, etc, I opted for a plain biscuit in order to get an unswayed taste. One bite and you knew it was the real deal. This was no plug-and-play frozen puck warmed in the oven. This was made fresh in the back and was just about the most perfect biscuit I have had. It was a golden brown and so flaky and airy on the inside that I thought I was eating a cloud of pastry deliciousness.

While trying not to commit felicide here, I just have to say, “With Chef JB running the ship, this place is 5-star all day (they are only open for breakfast and lunch). While certainly not the best pancakes in the country, Chef JB's creative use of haute cuisine touches does make them...

I really wish I could add to the great reviews of this place because some of the food was very good but I experienced serious issues when I dined there last night. This used to be a breakfast and lunch joint but they started opening at night a couple months ago. First, the dinner menu was not posted outside the restaurant so we had to ask for it after entering.

After looking at the menu, we decided to give it a shot. As I was looking over the menu, I noticed the Yelp deal. Right before I was going to hit the purchase button, the owner came to tell me that he does not honor it at dinner time although it is not mentioned anywhere on Yelp you cannot use for dinner. As an ultimate coupon clipper, business that do not honor the discounts they put out there is really a pet peeve of mine but I was on vacation and I did not feel like fighting for $10.

They do not have a kids menu so they offered to cook some pasta with shrimp for my three kids. They also described the specials and no mention was made of the price. I ordered the full portion of the shrimp and grits and it was very good. My wife took the fish special in papillote which was kind of bland. The kids portion turned out to be really tiny, with a litlle bit of parpadelle and a few shrimps tucked in a very small bowl.

So the sticker shock came when I got the bill and saw that they charged me $14 each for these tiny teeny kiddy pasta bowls, broken down into $9 for the parpadelle and $5 for the shrimp, just a couple dollars shy of the adult portion. Also, the bill was hand-written and really messy and it took me a while to figure things out although I am pretty quick at that kind of things.

Although some of the food was good, this did spoil the experience for us and I really hope that Palmer is following reviews and...

Well first of off I would like to say how rude the people were there. Mostly the one guy that was addressing people when you first came in. When we arrived and came in there was nobody at the door to greet us. We preceded to sit down at the table to the right of the front door. There is no sign saying outside that you can or can not seat yourself. The waitress called out to the waiter to see if this was ok for us to sit there. She made some snarky remarks when my wife asked her a simple question. Another couple came in with their kids and once again there was nobody or no sign saying you could not seat yourself. The same guy came back while they were trying to sit at the table and proceeded to tell them that you just don’t seat yourself ! He replied that he was sorry and it was their first time there. They guy had a snarky tone with the people the whole time. They proceeded to go and wait outside. We had our food within a few minutes. The breakfast potatoes tasted like Old Bay Seasoning. A lot of Old Bay Seasoning !!! The eggs were drowned in salt. The steak was subpar at best ! I couldn’t finish my meal ! I paid the bill and proceeded to leave and was stopped by the couple outside. He asked me how was it and I told him it was by far the worst breakfast I’ve ever had ! The waitress we had only came to get our order and then deliver our food. We never saw her again. The couple said that they were not going in and decided to go to the Sandy Bottom Bagels place. That place I do recommend to eat there ! I will not be darkening the doors of Palmer’s Village Cafe...