The Peach Cobbler Factory — Restaurant in Huntsville

TPCF was super hyped up before it opened. I've heard that in the first few weeks after they opened, lines were out the door and they regularly sold out because of how badly people wanted to try them. However, I also heard a lot of less than stellar reviews. Due to the crowdedness and mixed opinions, I put off visiting for a long time.

A few months ago, it was announced this location was under new ownership/management. I heard slightly more positive things. After a nearby dinner with BIL and SIL, we decided we'd finally try this place out for dessert. Unfortunately, it still didn't wow.

Located in a small shopping center with Teriyaki Madness and some Huntsville Hospital-type office, parking is a mixed bag; it can be tough going when the center is busy, but we lucked into a spot on a Saturday night.

The inside was clean, but still looks oddly...unfinished, I guess. Lots of bare white walls, not a ton of tables. The menu is on two different televisions that are mostly above the ordering area. There's an upright cooler with drinks (iced coffee, peach tea, and milk). Every time someone opens or closes the entry door, there's a super loud, really grating buzzer.

They were quite busy on Saturday. Not really anywhere to sit inside, but luckily we were more interested in sitting in the car anyway. Service wasn't super friendly, but they weren't rude; I think they were a little overwhelmed. We covered a good variety of the menu with our orders and it came out quickly enough.

SIL got a cinnamon roll, BIL got some kind of cobbler (wanna say cherry, but I can't remember), husband got a chocolate chip cookie, and I ordered Nutella banana pudding. You can also get banana pudding shakes. Each category of treat has a lot of different flavors/versions, which makes the menu a little overwhelming.

Prices are pretty high, but portions are also pretty large. I'd be more willing to accept that trade off if I'd liked my dessert, but...I didn't.

SIL seemed to like her cinnamon roll best. She said the outside was dry but the inside was warm and moist and she enjoyed the frosting on top. She gave it a 3.5/5. BIL gave his cobbler a 2/5 and said it was about as good as what you could buy at Walmart, but that he did appreciate the convenience of it. Hubby gave his cookie a 2.5/5. I sampled it and would agree -- it was pretty dry and crumbly, though the icing drizzled on top was decent.

My Nutella banana pudding was definitely the worst item. It was insanely sweet -- like, I have no words for it other than saccharine. There were no discernible banana pieces (but a faint, artificial banana flavor). I think maybe there were ground up Nilla wafers in there, but they were ground so finally as to basically just be a weird gritty substance, which made the texture unpleasant. Whole Nilla wafers and banana slices, please! Additionally, even though it was supposed to be Nutella banana pudding, I tasted almost no Nutella but for a few small dots of it that I had to go digging for in the body of the pudding. It was so disappointing. I ate maybe 1/6 of it and threw the rest away.

I guess I can't say I would never go back -- the menu is so expansive and everything sounds good enough that I might be enticed to try once more...but this visit was certainly not auspicious and I wouldn't order anything...

Update: It's been quite a while since I first tried this place and a friend recently brought a sampler of cobblers and puddings to a group dinner (little individual cups which are a great size). It was good, and the friend was pleased with the price for what they got. I'll probably go by and try some more cobbler, and I'd like to try a cinnamon roll at some point as well. I think the banana puddings are a little too sweet for my taste, but a lot of our friends liked them. It did now seem like there's actual banana blended in. Definitely improved, which is great, and also understandable since my first visit was their first week open. Bumped up to 4 stars!

Original: I was excited for this place to open, and am solidly disappointed. First, the good: I don't mind that they've run out of things - it's their first week open so that's understandable. They still had most of their cobblers when I went, so I was happy. There was a long line at 3pm Wednesday but it moved fairly quickly. Staff seemed friendly.

The disappointment came from the food and the prices.

I intended to get a couple family size items (both cobbler and pudding) so I could share with my coworkers, but evidently they aren't currently selling the larger size since they've been running out of things. So my only option would have been to order individual ones for each person, and they are a whopping $8 each. For a cup of pudding. Or cobbler. It would've been over $100! You can do catering to get a pan, but that requires an advance order and i have no idea how much it costs.

So I scrapped my plan to share with the group, and I got 2 cobblers and 2 puddings (you can see in the photos) for just a few officemates to share and it was $40 (2 cobblers and 2 puddings!). I thought "this better be the best damn pudding I've ever had"! But alas, it was not. Cobbler was decent, very average. About on par with the frozen ones you can find at the grocery. I agree with other people that it has a very artificial flavor. The blackberry peach was better than the caramel apple. The pudding was another step down, again tasting very artificial, and was comparable to a box of powder mix with whipped cream and vanilla wafers. No real banana (that I could tell). The bourbon pecan was better than the oreo. Everyone agreed that it wasn't terrible but wasn't great, and absolutely was not worth the price.

If it were $3 or $4 it would be worth it as a quick way to grab dessert, or if you have a craving for something specific. At $8, I honestly can't imagine ever going back.

As tasty alternatives, I recommend the blackberry cobbler from Baumhowers and for banana pudding, I recommend Apple Lane Farms. They are both cheaper and...

Tl;dr: The food is really good, worth coming to try it once. It's expensive, 2/3 of the staff were off-putting, they clearly don't clean the tables with any frequency (not once in the hour we were there), and the communication/signage is very lacking.

We heard of this place through the coupon book in the mail, so we took some friends to give it a try around 5pm on Friday night. There were a few people that came through while we were there but not many. Walking in, you are greeted with clanging bells on the door and a very loud alarm sensor going off, and no staff to be found (they stay behind a curtain). I went to order 2 dessert flights with the bogo 50% off coupon and the guy working the counter had to ask someone else about it and she came out and they sat and talked about how they had been ringing it up wrong all day like I wasn't standing there. The flights are $16/ea so we ended up being out $26 with a coupon. I asked if they came with ice cream and he said yes, two each.

We grab a table and wait, around 8 minutes later they brought out our order and set it on the table without identifying anything and put two ice cream containers with spoons and napkins down with it. I asked about the ice cream since there should be 4, she says it's one per two cobblers, not puddings (we had ordered 4 of each total). Okay, nbd.

The food was very good, but I understand other reviews frustrations about not knowing whose is whose or what is what, since we ordered 8 things and got no guidance. Our friends ordered cookies and a normal cobbler and said it was all quite good.

When we were done and ready to leave we were just kind of left scratching our heads as to what to do, because there's no trash can in the guest area to throw stuff away, and the staff just stays behind the curtain unless a new customer walks through the door, so we bussed our table as best we could and left our stuff on the counter. The staff made no effort to clean any of the tables that got used in the roughly hour we sat there.

I could see coming back in the future because the food is quite good, but they could do to work on staffing and...