The Licking Orlando — Restaurant in Orlando

My family and I are here in Orlando on vacation. My daughter wanted to go to The Licking because of who owns the place.When we arrived I was slightly turned off by the security guard at the door. The place wasn’t crowded but for some reason we couldn’t come in right away. We stood outside close to five minutes. I tapped on the door like hello?! He motioned hold on. Then finally a waitress comes to the door and ask how many small children. We responded one. She said ok and let us in? Weird! Finally we ordered. I ordered Red snapper with two sides and I added in an extra side along with two turkey wings. My sides were Mac and yams and the vegetable rice. My drink was lemon aid. Big sigh for me. I did like the read snapper. The yams were overly sweet and the rice was slightly undercooked. The Mac had a nice flavor but slightly dry. I did ask for something else to replace the yams. I got collards. The collards had a good taste but I’m not a fan of spicy collards. The turkey wings were tough and bland. Turkey wings should be falling off the bone. The lemonade was like someone put yellow dye and lots of sugar in the water. I exchanged it for ginger ale. My daughter’s friend ordered calamari and the tilapia dinner with corn, rice and Mac. She said, she liked her food. She ordered her 4yr old chicken wings corn and vegetables rice. Her daughter didn’t eat the rice. We asked if they had plain white rice they said no. Ok so she did eat the chicken and corn. My daughter ordered red snapper dinner sides were yams and rice. She as well sent back her yams and she replaced it with lobster Mac. She was a little upset because the lobster mac was dry and it didn’t have lobster in the Mac they put a stuffed lobster on top of the Mac. That’s not lobster Mac! My 12yr and 9yr old grandsons liked their food. One got chicken quesadilla with french fries. The other got chicken wings with french fries. My 15 yr old liked his food he got chicken wings with fries. I asked the waitress can I get something else being I wasn’t happy with my vegetable rice. I asked could I get the red velvet cake. She said yes. The waitress was nice. Another big sigh for me. When I left I started to eat the red velvet. I couldn’t place the flavor but it wasn’t red velvet. It was moist but it didn’t taste like red velvet. The Licking isn’t terrible but does need...

I'm very much not impressed with this place. The wait staff is splitting their time between preparing the take out orders and taking "care" of their tables. While I don't really blame them, I don't feel like the set up really works. They barely had time to clean off the tables for people to sit down. 1) they had a security guard at the front door like they're some sort of night club. 2) the music was loud like it was some kind of night club. The set up: as you walk in you're asked if you're ording to go or dining in by the security guard. If you're dining in, eventually someone gets around to seating you. If you're ordering to go there's a line in front of the counter. The feeling is fast food meets dine in and it would totally work if they had more staff. But as it stands I had to ask my waitress for things as she was rounding the corner so do other things and she rarely stopped. ALERT: SWEET TEA isn't just sweet tea and I still don't know what it actually is. I asked the waitress (on her way past my table) if there was something else in it but she said no and kept going. And I believe it might have had a purple tint. I didn't like it but at about $4 and no free refills I felt stuck in my choice. Listen, the food was fine and maybe that's why there were more people getting their food to go, but it was pricey. And I'm not sure if was fully worth the price but people like it cause the togo line was steady. ALERT: NO KIDS MENU so if you have multi kids they're eating adult dishes and maybe they can share. ALERT ALERT: NO MATTER IF YOU HAVE 2 PEOPLE OR 6 YOU'RE PAYING 15% GRATUITY. ($56 for 1 adult and 1 child (5y/o) )The waitresses have a handheld and you never actually see the bill. So either ask for a print out if you can stop them long enough or know what you're getting into. I didn't realize (though I felt like the Bill was higher than expected) and I actually added a tip. I paid and left but it bothered me so I came back in and asked for a receipt and that's how I found out. My guess is that since they're all doing double duty (fast food orders and waitressing) then they just add tips to everything and split it up at the end of the night. So that's my review....

FALSE ADVERTISEMENT: THE LARGE BOARD HAS ONE PRICE which the manager says has been wrong for months. But no one informs you that the prices changed until you complain About the total. The manager is trained to apologize and do nothing else. This was my first and last trip. Food review: I ordered the chicken wing dinner with yams, greens and mac n cheese, a large mystery drink, with no ice but they say they cant not give you ice they have to give you ice so I got light ice (a lot of ice). Chicken wings I got plain glad I did because they were well seasoned and I got the fingerlicking sauce and lemon pepper sauce on the side. But I ate two wings and couldn't eat anymore because the overpowering season. The yams and mac n cheese is flavorful and good. The greens are too spicy to enjoy and I actually love spicy food, glad I didn't add hot sauce like I normally do on my greens but you can't enjoy them when they are this spicy so two bites and I was done with it. The lemonade was good. But for $32.30 I will go support another black owned buisness that advertises that price correctly or at least informs you of price difference when they see you looking at big price board that is wrong. Outside of price I would like to have actually been able to eat my whole meal or at least be able to go back and eat it, if I had gotten full, but the food elevated my blood pressure so I will have to trash the rest of the plate. This was a waste of my gas, time and money. Hopefully they will use some of the money to take down the false advertising prices. And hire people who won't have a nasty attitude when you ask them a question about it. I love my black owned buisness and always supporting one daily as a blacknowned buisness myself I know the importance of support but because of the treatment this one goes to the bottom of my list meaning I wouldn't recommend it nor go back. But I wish them all sucess in...