Lizard's Thicket Restaurant — Restaurant in Irmo

This ain't no Pepperidge Farm commercial, but I remember Sunday supper at the cafe in the town where my Momma was born and raised in the Carolina pines. I done gone to Texas nigh bout 40 years ago.

tldr; flounder, chicken fried steak, banana pudding, collards.

Eating at the Lizard's Thicket tonight brought back all the memories. Kimmie was sweeter than the tea, which coincidentally was the best I've had in years. The fried flounder was so good and crisp and crunchy, I skipped the knife and fork. THEY HAVE REAL COLLARDS!! The black eyed peas were perfect.

Momma hasn't been eating as much but she cleared the plate of chicken fried steak and rice and gravy. Y'all ... the white pepper gravy was not from a mix. Cornbread was just right and not sweet. The tea, by the way, was so good. It tasted different from what I'm used to in Texas - stronger, but not dark or bitter.

The staff were wonderful. Learned a little about the history and the family that started it, so be sure to ask about the decorative plates. There's a family story in those decorations. Everyone was so nice and helpful; it really was a family atmosphere.

I'll have to update this once I eat the blackberry cobbler. Was too full to eat it there. Mom also got a banana pudding to go.

(Update: the blackberry cobbler was great, but the banana pudding was awesome! We went back several times and tried different desserts... but I would recommend the banana pudding over everything else. The pecan pie was great too but I'll miss the 'naner pudding the most.)

We will be back and will make this a regular stop on our trip to Columbia.

It's not a happy trip for us, as we're making some difficult decisions, but thanks to Kimmie and Lizard's Thicket, Momma and I shared memories of home and remembered what real Southern cooking should be.

Thanks for making this a better trip for...

The wife normally sees this place packed in the evenings, on her way to taking our son to Karate. So we decided to try it... Now, off the bat, we're not from South Carolina, so maybe we have a different taste than the general local pouplation.

Anyway, while the service was awesome, the food was a vary different story. I had a plate of Country Fried Steak and "mashed potatoes", with a side of collard greens.

Let's start off with the taste of the mashed potatoes, they were horrible, theyre not even real mashed potatoes, rather, they're some form of cheap potato spud mix. They tasted even worse than KFC's nasty mashed potatoes, and I honestly didn't think that was possible. The country Fried Steak wasn't even warm or crunchy on the outside, it got to me lukewarm and very ridgid. It had a texture and taste of a low grade beef Patty with wet/moist breading.

The collard greens was the best tasting side on my plate, and that's not saying much. All around, the meal tasted no better than a $3 low grade frozen meal found at your supermarket discount frozen section.

The weird part is that we were also recommended this place by other people...? Needless to say that I was personally very disappointed in, not only quality, but the taste of the food as well. Our server was very friendly though, and she did a great job, so we left her a good tip. It's not her fault our food tasted like a discount frozen dinner. We won't ever come back this place, that's for sure.

I'll let my wife write her own review , but she also didnt care for her food, either. On the plus side, they do have free WiFi and the cornbread was pretty decent.

The price vs the quality of food, even though it wasn't very expensive, still leaves something to be desired.

This place is so bad, it should be call "The...

The food was amazing. Me my fiancé and son all cleared our plates plus got dessert. (We were super hungry from a long day at the zoo. ) we are not from this area we were just in town for a day trip so this was our first time here. Our sever was frank. Our entree was supposed to come with bread but instead of asking weather we wanted cornbread or rolls he rang up on the receipt “no bread” i didn’t want to cause any issues or it be awkward so i didn’t mention it. But when someone’s entree comes with bread you don’t just ring it up as no bread. We got there at 730 and their closing time is 9. After ringing up our food frank immediately brought us our receipt before our food came and he started cleaning up for closing time. Asking us for the butter off of our table and everything. We had to ask for dessert instead of him offering and it kind of felt like a bother. Then he had to go and make a new receipt with the dessert on it. He also spoke so fast i could hardly tell what he was saying. My son ate a waffle and he made comments like my son will be up all night long and also some sort of rude gesture about how quickly we all cleared our plates. Can’t remember what exactly it was but something like a sarcastic WOW. You just don’t do that. He made us feel really unwelcome and not the experience we were looking for. If it weren’t for frank I’d have...