Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Raleigh

This is the first negative review I've written, and to be honest, I really tried not to, but I keep getting notifications to write a review. Welp here it goes:

I've seen alot of paid for, sponsored adds on my timeline, for the record I have no problem with that, I worked in advertising myself. The pics of the food, plating, and atmosphere looked great 👌🏾, so I took my family there (wife and daughter 👨‍👩‍👦). I'll preface this with this note: all 3 of us cook, all 3 of us have very different taste pallets (I'm from Jersey very urban city, my wife is from Mass very old school up bringing, our kid is from NC, a southern taste).

OK let's dig deeper. We arrive at the location, there's a small line (that means business is good, the food must be good) only to find out they're only taking reservations, we get turned away 🏃🏾💨. Ok hey that's showbiz baby 🤷🏾. I'm also a truck driver 🚚 so I had to wait till the next time I came home to book a reservation (5 weeks 🕒) so we return. Its a Sunday morning 9:00am we get in order mimosas for the ladies... We're informed that we can't order them until 10am... Ok. We order, I get the Sriracha honey Chicken and Waffles, the ladies shrimp and grits. The atmosphere was great, it's clean we're kinda separated from others 😘 🤌🏾... There's a bar area we never got to see, cool. We notice other tables getting served before us eventhough we were the first ones there... That's fine I'm not that petty... But then the gap started increasing. 🤔 Man this food MUST be worth all the hype and wait. The food finally comes.

I tear into the Sriracha honey chicken first, all Sriracha no honey. Great texture, but the flavor was was Intro To Cooking 101. My ladies smelled it and didn't even try it. Now the waffle was actually excellent, almost like Metro Diner, 1-1 so far. My ladies shrimp and grits, not really MY thing, but neither one of them liked it, so we all ate my waffle. $87 bill, actually less than average compared to what I usually spend on a meal for my family, but ultimately it was an $87 waffle. We didn't finish one plate, and left.

The kicker... I'm in an Uber asking about restaurants to try out here in NC (again I'm not from here) I ask the driver about Tupelos... She said her daughter took her for mothers day... The food was bland and basic, she won't go back. Which brings me to my point..

Today we're in a culture of wanting to be seen as but not actually that. It's a culture of filters, photoshop, autotune, deep fakes, anything to skip actually doing the work. This place is all presentation, no delivery. It's literally gentrification fried chicken. This is like when everyone is doing the electric slide and there's that one person like "aaaaand 5,6,7,8..." the chicken tasted like it wanted to speak to the manager, and y'all... Know what I mean.

Hey go there to hang out cause of the aesthetic, but I would look to them for a...

I called and made a reservation for a rather large party for a special occasion. The host, not hostess, let me know that a 20% gratuity would be added to the table, on one check only. I agreed to the gratuity but most guests needed to pay separately, I was told specifically that would be fine. I also asked if it was alright that I sat immediately at reservation time, to set up my table and greet my guests properly. I was told that was fine too. I arrive promptly at my reservation time, but was told I couldn’t sit at the table with my mother until at least half of my party arrived. It was pouring rain for most of the morning so guests were being careful driving. Myself and one guest were there, already damp from the rain. I asked again to be seated and I was. Then, as guests took only about 30 minutes after the reservation time to ARRIVE SAFELY, that my party and I received the absolute worst service we’ve ever encountered from Alyssa, to whom all are Muslim. She mentions the grat/one check need and I told her what I was told was fine. Our service got worse and worse from there. We apologized many times for the delay and whatever miscommunications were made, began ordering as soon as possible as well and were still met with visible disdain, eye rolls, curt responses, and long delays in service that were not observed with other tables. Alyssa also made dismissive comments and avoided basic courtesies such as greeting us properly or ensuring our needs were met. When questions were asked about halal or dietary accommodations like no alcohol or pork of any kind to our table, which I also communicated to the host upon making the reservation a week prior, they were met with dead pan eyes and indifference. The overall tone and body language throughout the experience conveyed disrespect, making our group feel unwelcome and targeted because of our religious identity. We managed to ignore this behavior and enjoy the food and our gathering. We then noticed none of our checks had the 20% grat. Alyssa, we all still tipped you but we tipped you what we felt you deserved. It was deeply upsetting to feel singled out and disrespected in what should have been a welcoming environment for all patrons. To Alyssa and this TH location, discriminatory behavior based on religion or cultural identity is unacceptable. We hope you take this matter seriously and address it appropriately with all of your staff, corporate, and especially Alyssa. We would appreciate a response regarding how this situation will be handled...

Myself and some friends had an opportunity August 9 to stop in for lunch @ Tulepo Honey. I always read the latest reviews before I dine at any establishment. They were kinda iffy..but the food looked amazing! So, we decided to try it out. I wish I could say that the recent reviews were wrong. It was a debacle really from the beginning to the end. After being seated we were greeted by our server. We ordered 3 sweet teas (1)x w/extra ice w/lemon and (2)x sweet teas extra extra lemon. Once she returned, let’s say drinks were not correct. So, moving forward we had asked her for suggestions about the menu. So upon her suggestion we ordered the biscuits with blackberry jam and butter along with the Crispy Brussel sprouts as a appetizer. She returns with the appetizers, but with only two plates, and it’s three of us..the biscuits were extremely dry and the brussels sprouts were crispy with absolutely no seasoning.. we added salt. Which gave it a little bit of flavor. It was just not a great way to start out our meal. I ordered the lunch Nashville half sandwich, mac & cheese, and collards. One friend ordered the smash burger with broccolini cheese and fries. My other friend ordered the sweet and spicy chicken and waffle. Two out of the three meals were extremely disappointing. No sauce that I could detect on my Nashville sandwich. I tasted more cheese and the ranch (I think it was ranch)…Burger was tasteless. When asking for a few things like extra napkins/lemons we realized that our waitress was barely attentive to what we were asking… not sure if she was preoccupied with other things….when our bill comes we asked for three separate checks. I requested that the brussels sprouts and the biscuit and jam be placed on my ticket. She returned back to the table after processing my payment and informs us that she accidentally rang one of my friends meal on my debit card accompanied with the a voided ticket (look at picture). My friends paid for their lunch with cash. I was the only one using my debit card. She explained to me that her Manager stated that the charge should come off by the end of the day. I understand things happen. But a mistake like this one is not ok. It was all around disappointing…but hey at least our food looked good 😒

Update 9/21: I emailed the individual that responded to my review twice. Actually I resent it the second time due to the length of time with no response. Still no response. Poor customer service support.

I stand on my original review. I would not...