Brantley's Village Restaurant — Restaurant in Oriental

We stopped at Brantley's for pie while visiting my mother-in-law. She was going on about how Brantley's was in some magazine for their pie. I'm guessing it was some kind of local magazine. She said something along the lines of the owner/owner's gets up every morning and makes these pies that are so good. Do not quote me on this. She just kept talking about going to get a pie for dinner.

My husband and I went to Oriental to grab some coffee and walk around. We decided to go try some pie while we were there. We only ordered a slice of each pie. There was chocolate, lemon, and coconut. Now, I am not a pie person. I typically do not enjoy the consistency of pie, so this review is mostley not based on that. I did eat a lot of the chocolate pie, because it is basically chocolate pudding in a shell. Mixing the chocolate with the coconut made the consistency a little better. The lemon had a great flavor. It was tart and tangy, but sweet. I would say it was very balanced. However, I do not like the consistency of pie. So, it was all around rough for me.

The place had a buffet and a large menu. It was very much a local, homey place. The staff seemed friendly. It was not super busy when we went, but it was mid-week. There were some locals coming in for lunch, and they seemed like they had frequented the place. I would say it was not a lunch place for me. You would want to go hre hungry and ready to eat.

My BIG concern was the freshness of the pie. We decided to buy one when we went to check out, since my mother-in-law had been going on about buying a pie for dinner. There was a table by the door that had one of each pie on it. I don't know how many are made daily, or how they are kept in the kitchen. It was around noon when we were there, and it was the beginning of August. It was HOT outside. We purchased a coconut pie, and the server took the pie from the table and gave it to us.

All I kept thinking was how my husband's mom said she got up early to make these pies. So, in theory, if she finished the pies at 8:00 AM, they have been sitting out for 4 hours. If she finished them at 10:00 AM, they had been sitting out for 2 hours. I don't know. I would say that the temperature in there would not have been considered "room temperature." They were also in boxes, rather than air tight containers. I'm not a food expert, but I just think these pies should be...

We’ve been here a couple times recently. The place seems to be popular with locals, and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why. I have not tried the seafood, which is what most people rave about, but the other entrees have been somewhat disappointing. Unimpressive sides, including flaccid canned beans, and watery Mac and cheese, do not contribute positively to the experience.

The wait staff, Renee especially, are friendly, but often cannot be attentive to customers because there are so few servers working at any given time. They also apparently are tasked with ringing the register, further distracting them from being able to serve the customers, despite their best efforts.

We had issues with all of our meals, to the point where they could not be eaten. The owner, who is ordinarily friendly, appeared offended that we had a complaint, and became somewhat confrontational. He offered to re-make meals, but not refund them. After being in the restaurant for over an hour, we just wanted to leave, rather than waiting longer for food to be re-made. Apparently, comping the meals (which would have left us as satisfied customers), was out of the question.

The physical condition of the restaurant is also concerning. The vents in the ceiling are covered with black dust, as if they have not been cleaned during this century. A smell of mold & mildew also pervades the restaurant. In fact, a member of my party with a severe mold allergy was itchy during our entire stay, and broke out in hives about an hour after leaving. Beyond the poor aesthetics, this is a health issue that should be urgently addressed.

I enjoy patronizing local establishments, as I prefer supporting the business owners in the community whenever possible. I’d love to see Brantley’s make some changes. This place could be outstanding, rather than a disappointing, has-been local eatery to which I...

If you love steak, this is not the place to be, if you love fried seafood, this might be the place for you. A quarter of my dragon boat crew and family members decided to eat dinner here after a day of racing at the River Dunes Marina, based on the suggestion of the race organizer and the fact that the restaurant has a 10 oz Ribeye steak dinner special. 1st of all, the service was slow, probably due to insufficient staffing, even though the race organizer had called in and informed them there were two groups of over 10 people coming to dinner. Then, came the bad news of the night, they ran out of Ribeye steaks. How can you run out of ribeyes on a Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.? The waitress suggested two 5 oz sirloin steaks instead for the same price. I said okay, I'll try them. I told her medium-well. over 30 minutes later, the dinners gradually came out to our group. I got my steak--they were well done and only warm to the touch. I showed the waitress and she agreed it was over-cooked and would bring me another. This time, only took 5 minutes for the replacement steak. I don't know what's worse, a well-done or a medium-rare, bloody steak. I don't like either. I know it's not the waitress' fault. I told her to let the manager know to only charge me for one steak. When it was time to pay, I told the manager at the register what had took place. With no apology or any kind, he begrudgingly charge me for one steak. Good thing we were just traveling through. Most likely my team and I will return next year for another dragon boat race, but you can count on me that I'll not recommend Brantley's for dinner. So...