Charlotte's: A Simply Panache Cafeteria — Restaurant in Hampton

Today July 9th at about 12:40pm I had an experience of dining at Charlotte’s: A Simply Panache Cafeteria. I meet up with my Sister that was visiting from out of town. I was very excited because I had the pleasure of visiting Mango Mangeaux maybe about 3 maybe 4 years ago. I was raving about Mango Mangeaux to my Sister, but the wait was to long for Mom. We went to Charlotte instead and I was excited at first because I said to myself that they should have the same great ambience and delicious food as Mango Mangeaux. NOT SO BY A LONG SHOT! The ambiance was nice but the food was left much to be desired. I tried not to get disappointed when I first walked up to get my food, seeing that the food looked dry and some was just undesirable, there was no light to see the food that they was serving you. The nice ladies did take the time to explain everything. After we picked out our food we went back to our table with Over baked seafood lasagna(or should I say hunt for the seafood lasagna),over cooked baked chicken, fried chicken that was undesirable, (how can you mess up fried chicken) fried catfish cold and not tasty at all, baked cod fish ok according to my husband but cold, most of the hot food brought back to my table was cold, black eyed peas no flavor, cabbage terrible, mashed potato’s and carrot soufflé was ok. I was not going to speak to the manger about anything and just move on. You know, been there down that! But my husband ask if he could just have the baked cod warmed up a little. It looks as if they may have been a little short handed so we waited and waited then finally the manager came over. I really was not satisfied with the baked chicken and the cabbage so I asked what could be done. The Manager told me that the cabbage is not the traditional cabbage that I would taste in any other place because of how they make it. (with Thyme and other seasoning) (By the way my cabbage is not traditional either but it taste really good though) also the baked chicken was made with thyme. She also expressed that she could change my vegetables but not the chicken because my taste buds where not to used to there chicken. Wow! what a response! Well my taste buds are not used to BAD FOOD. The chicken I had was overcooked and pastee. Most places try to accommodate the customer but if they already have your money don’t expect to be accommodated. This place for me went from Been There Done That-to- BEEN THERE NOT EVER GOING BACK!!!!! I am just so sorry my sisters from out of town (NY Where there is plenty of good places to eat)had meet us there and their food was not good as well. Please, please, please stop assigning flies to each table in the place, does not make a great dining experience!!! So sorry I went. Had a better dining experience at Denny’s...

Purchased seafood lasagna, with a side of cabbage (too greasy), and Texas garlic toast. I drained about a tablespoon of oil from my side dish.

1.) Food: [1-5] 1 Food was cold and overcooked

2.) Decor: [1-5] 5 Ambience and decor: beautiful, clean and vibrant.

3.) Price: [1-5] 1 Quality of food and portion size does not match pricing.

4.) Customer service: Understaffed; polite and professional. However, food was not hot! My party and I (total of 6) were at Charlotte's before the door opened and the food, (fried chicken, baked chicken, seafood lasagna, spaghetti, and the meatloaf) was cold and dry (too much heat lamp on food)

*Charlotte's Cafeteria is a hit or miss. Unfortunately, my dining experience today was a miss!!!

[1-5] 3

Overall...

I like to support black businesses and all but some black businesses don’t deserve my business especially if the customer service is bad this restaurant was nice inside as far as the set up but the food was horrible the chicken was dry the mac n cheese was mushy and their food wasn’t fresh and tepid warm plus my friend nicely said the fish they were serving wasn’t good and nicely ask could she choose another meat or be refunded and the manager or owner declined and wouldn’t budge on accommodating the horrible choices they had available i’ve had some good soul food and this was the worse i was visiting out of town but if i ever come back this won’t be a place...