Marietta Melt Yard — Restaurant in Marietta

A few years ago, I visited Marietta Meltyard and left feeling it had potential but, as I wrote then, I was "not sold on the food—yet." I hoped time would smooth out the growing pains. When I heard they were hosting a Home Alone holiday pop-up again, it seemed like the perfect time to return. My son is a huge fan of the movie, and I was holding out hope for improvement.

Unfortunately, "Keep the change, ya filthy animal" feels less like a fun movie quote and more like a summary of the value proposition.

The vibe was... exactly what you'd expect. The decor hits all the thematic tropes. You’ve got the requisite memorable moments, and yes, plenty of merchandise so you can buy a t-shirt to prove you were there. If you've been to one nostalgic pop-up bar, you've likely seen these same props. To their credit, the attention to detail is clever—look up, and you might spot the iron hanging from the ceiling, ready to pounce.

The experience started well. We were greeted quickly and seated immediately, even though the place was near capacity. The front staff seemed pleasant enough. From there, however, the service was just... okay. We had to ask for extra napkins when the wings were brought to the table. A drink order was forgotten entirely and never materialized. A roving manager did pace the floor, asking if things were okay and clearing the occasional dish, but our server just felt "present." There was no warmth, no sense that they were happy we were there.

I had forgotten that these holiday pop-ups mean a special, themed menu. Gone were the tacos, the pizzarito, the bowls, and half the melts from their regular lineup. As I scanned the Home Alone-themed options, I was struck by the prices. I simply could not bring myself to pay $20.00 for a cheeseburger, especially when it costs another $2.00 to add "bacon jam." Those prices are just not sustainable when I know I can get a great burger and fries at Longhorn or Chili’s for $9.99.

We started with the hot wings. They came out quickly, but I'd rate them a 6/10. They seemed cooked a wee bit too long, leaving them tough and dry.

For my main, I landed on the Holiday Turkey Club. If you aren't prepared for pink, creamy sauce, brace yourself: the main "flavor" here is cranberry cream cheese. The sandwich was messy and just fine (if you didn’t look at it). The bacon was the only positive note, coming through in a few bites. It came with fries, which, just like my last visit, felt completely institutional. They have that strange, crunchy coating—a hallmark of a frozen food-service product, not a hand-cut fry.

But the biggest letdown of the night was the Little Nero's Pizza. My son was ecstatic to order it. We'd actually had it last year with friends, and it was a passable, oblong flatbread. This year, it arrived in the iconic box, but opening it revealed a round, sad, microwaved "skating rink" pizza. The cheese looked steamed, a pale yellow and white mess. I have genuinely seen and enjoyed frozen pizzas from the grocery store that were leagues better than this.

We really wanted to enjoy this experience. The Meltyard is local, and it still has that cool vibe and those fun pinball machines in the back. It's clear people come for the atmosphere with their friends. But atmosphere can't make up for overcooked wings, a messy sandwich, and a pizza that would make Kevin McCallister himself lose his appetite.

My previous review ended with, "Maybe with time it will become a local favorite!"

This time, I'm just calling...

Very cool atmosphere but it it would be great as a bar and only a bar on KSU campus. The food was awful. I had heard good and bad but the menu looked good We order some pretzels with pimento cheese queso for an appetizer and Buffalo chicken/fries and Turkey club/fried w queso for lunch. I should say that I do not salt food ever. Usually food at restaurants is over salted anyway. The pretzels were clearly from frozen and the pimento cheese sauce was bland and definitely did not have a pimento cheese flavor. It was also way too thin to stick to the pretzels. Both of us had a hard time eating the lunch. The sour dough bread was good but nothing else had flavor. The queso tastes closer to glue than cheese and went uneaten after trying it. The fries were doughy with little flavor (no salt on table either…but that gets into the service) and sadly even blue cheese was bad and ended up tasting like a Tabasco sandwich. I didn’t get much out of my guest about the club because it went almost uneaten. After we left she said she would never go back.

The server was so nice. And that’s the nicest thing I could say. She brought out drinks. Then app. Then meals. Outside of that she was never at our table to fill drinks until we were about to leave. It wasn’t just that she never came to our table. It was that she wasn’t ever out in the dining room which always leads you to believe they can’t use their phones on the floor so they stay in the kitchen but that’s my speculation.

Finally the price. After tip it was about $70! Seriously! Way way way over priced for what we got. I wouldn’t even go back if it was half the price though. It...

Oh lord…where do I even begin; the hour and 40 minute wait (we were quoted 30-45 mins), or the horrific service??

We were quoted 30/45 minutes. It was busy, so that didn’t bother me. What DID was waiting an hour and 40 minutes! We got there at 9 and didn’t sit until 10:40. What’s crazier is that there were multiple dirty tables and the host kept telling people “well you can sit at them, but they’ll stay dirty for a while.” Apparently, what we were all waiting on were the servers to want to take our tables, according to her, which they didn’t because management apparently schedules everyone poorly and all of them were ready to leave.

When we did finally sit down, the server didn’t tell us her name and rushed us the entire time. I ordered multiple appetizers for us. Not only did the appetizers come before the food, they didn’t come AT ALL! Our waitress had forgotten to put them in and then blamed the kitchen. We waited fifteen minutes after we got our food for refills, and we needed them when the food first came out. And when she did finally bring them to us, she completely neglected my sisters lemonade and we had to share.

SUCH an unprofessional experience. I work in a restaurant, so every “explanation” they tried to give me was obviously dumb. Like, just be honest—from the wait to the food.

The food was good. Not good enough to come back and expensive as HELL. Atmosphere was cute, if you can put up w everything else. I...