Huddle House — Restaurant in Lake City

When we arrived we seated ourselves. Approximately 5+ minutes later another couple arrived. Within a few minutes a waitress came and gave them menus and took their drink orders. It was another five minutes before another waitress came to our table to take our drink orders. I mentioned to her that we had arrived several minutes before the other couple, and their orders had already been taken. She told us that she didn’t know we were there. I told her that I knew the other waitress saw us because when she was getting utensils and the menus for the other couple, she looked right at me. There is no way that she didn’t see us because we were sitting at a table that was in her direct line of you to go to the other couple. When we walked into the restaurant we were greeted with, they “welcome to huddle house”, so someone knew we were there. After bringing our drinks to the table, she told us she would be back to take her order in a few minutes. At this point her and the only other waitress went outside together and I am assuming we’re going on a break. After several minutes, they came back in. The other waitress delivered the other couple’s meal to their table. Finally our waitress came and took our meal order. I think I need to mention this because it’ll show the timeline better: We hadn’t even gotten our meal when the other couple was done eating and had left the restaurant. This is the only time that I have visited this restaurant in the evening, and if this is the norm, I won’t be back. Our waitress’s name was R, but I don’t know the other waitress’s name, she was young and had long braided hair. When I asked our waitress if the other waitress had told her that we were waiting, she said that the other waitress said she didn’t see us. The waitress tried to explain to me that they take turns as the customers come through the door. And because we came in first, this was not the other waitress’s table. Hmm, if she didn’t know that we were sitting there how did she know that we were not her table. SMH

Another point I need to make, another customer came in, he was also greeted with “welcome to huddle house”. He sat at at a table and was waiting at least 15-20 minutes before the waitress came over (by this time the other waitress had left the restaurant) and said that she didn’t realize she was sitting there, the guy was a regular because she greeted him by name, and knew what he wanted to order. As a waitress, you need to be aware of customers that are in the restaurant, because you need to be sure that you are meeting all their needs. Tips are based on a waitress doing their job. I did leave a 15% tip although I thought about not leaving anything. I do like going to this restaurant because they offer both pancakes and waffles, and my grandson loves breakfast foods. I’m just glad that I had his tablet with me to keep him occupied during...

We didn’t get a chance to even eat here. We stopped here on our way to the movie theater and waited over 30 minutes to place an order but people were placing orders to go at the checkout register and it seemed like only one waitress was working on a Saturday night. It wasn’t packed but there was a constant line. Eventually just we got in line to order and still wound up waiting so we left. We had an hour before our movie started and wasted most of our time just waiting to order watching everybody else come in after us order. Even a guy that came in after us followed us to the line too and decided to leave when we did. It was just taking too long. Idk if they were short on help or if you were supposed to order at the register or what. But if that was the case they need to put a sign up letting you know to come to the counter to order, not wait in your seat like most other Huddle Houses. I really like huddle house so I’m just hoping this was just an off or bad day for them that made it impossible to get any service. The lady seemed nice enough just never got the chance to find out. We had to just go through a drive through and eat in the parking lot before our movie started. Which sucked. Did I mention that we drove over 45 mins just to get to Lake City from where we live to be able to do any of this at all. So much for a dinner and a movie. Hate leaving reviews like this but I was very disappointed not mad just disappointed that our night ended up like it did. Next time we’ll leave two hours earlier so we can sit down and eat somewhere...

Nice restaurant, good service, mostly good food at reasonable prices, and not too far off the highway. On the day we visited, we were on our way home from Up North and had just passed through that area of North Florida where there are very few food options. We were starving.

We were seated in short order, and because we'd missed the morning rush, we had no trouble finding a nice booth. Our Friendly Server took our orders and the food was delivered promptly. Most of it was delicious, though I have to say the grits totally sucked. Sorry Chef. It's true and I gotta believe someone else has noticed. How is it even possible for them to be pasty and watery at the same time? Zero flavor, with the consistency of kindergarten paste. I was truly looking forward to some good grits after being in the land where they've never heard of them. I was sorely disappointed. Though I was tempted to drop this review to 3 stars for that very reason, I'm leaving it at four because the rest of the food was very good, the place was clean and neat, and the bathrooms were well maintained and fully functional. (A huge plus when you've been on the road for two days.)

So go, eat, enjoy. Just ask if they've fixed the grits before...