Crazy Pig Southern Kitchen — Restaurant in Mandeville

So I got the oatmeal. I’m writing the review because for $9 the oatmeal should have been huge. It should have been brimming with toppings. I should have been wowed for that price. But once again. Another place where the prices are so high these days and the food presentation is unremarkable and disappointing (portion for price not the design).

The taste was amazing. Which I’m guessing simply because it was drowned in brown sugar. Which was very enjoyable!

Now, the toppings were blueberries, strawberries and pecans. If not something more I can’t recall. The strawberries were well on the way to over-ripe. For these prices use better quality. I was a pantry chef. Don’t send out garbage fruit. Use quality fruit. If your components aren’t pretty your customers will notice. The plate was garnished with 4 pecan halves, our garbage strawberries at about 4.5 very small pieces and about 10 blueberries. A bowl of oatmeal should have a midsized amount of fruit garnish. This was closer to a meager amount. Oatmeal was a 5/10. Flavor was definitely there but the portion and presentation was lacking greatly.

I also got a biscuit. I gauge a breakfast place heavily on their biscuit horsepower. It was over cooked and not very full bodied. Maybe because it was closer to a darker-golden-burnt than a lovely golden brown? Biscuit rated a 4/10. Appearance was nice but taste and body was lacking.

The Serving size was for a small child. Maybe place it in your menu’s children’s section?

I didn’t get coffee and thank goodness for that. I saw the waitress pour it for another party member and it looked like slightly browned water —blech. Where is the strong coffee for $2.50-3.00? Crazy busy typical now for a drink.

I had a great time. The waitress, can’t remember her name, was kind and attentive. And they have many staff walking around ensuring a good experience. They were kind, for the most part, and did decent work. I say most part because at 8am on a Sunday morning one of the waitresses, a senior one by all appearances, was snarky with her coworkers and bleak with the table she was actually serving, she was not at our table section.

My buddy enjoyed his steak and eggs at about 19$.

I would recommend the place for sure. I just had a gripe about serving sizes. I worked at Nuvo’s for years and once tried to send out a medium sized salad (what I thought was right) and my chef, doing his actual job, came over and said, “Give them more than that, dude. That’s a 15$ salad!” I never forgot that and corrected myself from that point on.

We can do this, team. Keep up the fine work and thanks for...

As I told the staff: They know their food, so they know why I'll be back. Even if that slipped, they spiel the specials. They spiel the drinks. This doesn't just increase sales, it's a way of the house telling you that the service is knowledgeable of the product, furthermore they actually appear to appreciate it. Also of note: They check quickly after you get your food. The young in this restaurant are helpers. As it should be. There is experienced service at the bar and in the dinning room. Often, and worth note, when we pay, the check always ends up in front of me, even after my fiancee puts her card down. Not here. A decent waiter takes the second to read the name and returns the check to the host of the party. I was not surprised to see the correct thing happen here. Not far off from true upscale service and not far off the typical price of food in the area. All that's missing is a crumber and an expensive uniform. T We keep threatening to get one breakfast and split one of the homemade baked goods, like the cinnamon roll. Looks amazing. I ordered a side of biscuit gravy. It was separated slightly on top. Perhaps it set for a moment before food was served. But, it had actual flavor, and was brown. Just like it would be at home. What it wasn't was from a bag, or a just add water flavorless white sauce. I think we can count on the crazy pig to make everything they can in the face of food reps trying to "save them money". Expect to wait for a table, as...

After enjoying a few breakfasts at their other location in Covington, I discovered CPSK's Mandeville location is one I won't return to, especially considering there's several other, much better breakfast places only minutes away. The best part of breakfast today was my very accommodating server, whose only fault was allowing the kitchen to send out unsuitably prepared portions, in particular, bacon that had been partially pre-cooked, greasy, and worst of all, floppy. When politely sent back with a request for crispy, the kitchen next sent out burnt strips (seemed spiteful, IMO), so back that also went with details to aim for a result between the first 2 attempts.

Furthering the kitchen disappointment, a $4 upcharge garnered a whole 8 candied pecan HALVES on an otherwise OK waffle. Not certain that the syrup was actually pecan, as described on the menu. By request, my server came through once more, this time offering a small condiment cupful of pecan pieces.

Eggs were as requested and coffee was fine as well as regularly refreshed. Took stars off atmosphere for cold room temp (recommend wearing long sleeves and/or light jacket) and loud speaker overhead. Didn't mind tipping my server nicely for the extra effort, but even that won't justify a return.

Look up Toasted Yolk and Liz's Where Y'at before choosing CPSK's...