Cotton Patch Cafe — Restaurant in Rockwall

Our last visit at this location was terrible, we visited on January 12, 2025. We have always come to this location and has always enjoyed our outing especially the green Fried Tomatoes... Serveral unpleasant things were definitely noted on this visit.

1. When we walked in the young lady asked “How Many” we said two, she politely said just a second, she then walked to clean off a table within view of where we were standing, and returned and said “fellow me”. She passed the table we saw her cleaning and took us to a dirty and uncleansed table.And then said “ Oops I’m sorry “, she then took us to the table we saw her cleaning... noticing another couple walked in right behind us.
2. Once seated, a waitress came in took our drinks order and the Green Fried Tomatoes appetizer, we always ordered, again noticing the couple also been seated that was behind us. Blocking out the other people sitting behind us with no service ( drinks or anything)
3. After a while l begin to notice that waitress taking drinks orders to the Caucasian couple that walked behind us when we walked in, and the African American party behind us still had no service
4. Then another waitress came to our table ( very nice and pleasant) and asked have we been served? And can she get us our drinks orders? I then said “ we did give them to another waitress” she apologize and said I can get them, so we gave her the same older again ( drinks and appetizer).. noticing now the people behind us finally got their drinks as well, and the other couple actually getting there food order.
5. We got our appetizer and place our main order for dinner.. l noticed While eating our appetizer, salad, and waiting for our main entree but some reason the taste of the Green Fried Tomatoes wasn't the same as before. We were discussing a discriminated case that took place in Mesquite at a IHOP, and was praying that Cotton Patch is above that type of service, because we’ve always been treated as valuable customers in the past... We agreed that something was just off today, maybe short of staff or something inside was going on,..
6. Sometimes later the nice waitress came back to our table and said they were out of meatloaf and do l want to order something else.. but at this point we decided to go have dinner elsewhere, and asked for our ticket, but unbeknown to us the nice waitress came back and said, we didn’t have to pay “ which was very nice of whomever was in charge “ but we wanted to tip her anyway, because we saw her going to the table behind us and others.. Don’t think we will be going back to this...

Cotton Patch was quick to respond on this negative review with an apology. HOWEVER, I contacted them as they requested with no response from them.

I will start by saying that we went on Veteran’s Day expecting it to be busier than normal and it was. The dinning room was not full but there was approximately a 15 minute wait. After being sat at our table, we waited at least 10 minutes before our waiter, John, showed up. At this point, he dropped off some rolls and said he’d be back. When he returned, we were ready to order. I asked which meals were the Veterans special and he showed me my two options. I immediately ordered my meal. My husband ordered the Shiner Bock fried Flounder with fries and hush puppies. John asked what two sides he wanted with that. We were a little confused because usually you do not get sides with fish and chips. John asked if he could get back with us because he had a table that hadn’t ordered yet. Asking questions about sides was clearly inconveniencing John. I said that we’re ready to order and we just waited well over 10 minutes for him to even come to our table. Approximately 15 minutes later, John returned with a menu and explained that they were out of the fish. After being at our table for over an hour, we asked the host if we could speak to the manager because we could not find our waiter. She returned and let us know that they were both busy but would try to come over. 5 minutes later, John brought a refill to out table. Our daughters tea had been empty for at least 15 minutes. Looking around, there were numerous tables with no food and most of them were looking a little irritated just like we were. I asked for the receipt for the tea we drank because we were ready to go. Not a single apology but he was full of excuses. The service is never great but this time it was beyond lousy. What really did it was him asking if he could get back to us, mid order, because he was irritated with us...

I’ve lived in Rockwall for almost 18 years but have only eaten here 4 times. I wasn’t impressed the first (dine in) time (14 yrs ago) but liked the second (takeout/pickup) visit (in February 2023) because my vegetable plate items were fresh & piping hot, food was very good. The third time (dine in, in April) on the recommendation of my server, I chose chipotle maple chicken. It was heavy on the sauce & very spicy hot. I expected some spice (hello, it’s chipotle) but not so much that I couldn’t eat it nor taste my sides. My waitress never questioned why I left nearly the entire piece of chicken (less 2 bites) & the bed of rice it was on. She never offered another entree or reduced the price. She didn’t say anything at all about it; she just handed me the check which I paid & tipped 18%. The spice caused nausea & pain, intense & unrelenting pain. So I spent the evening in pain & hungry because that was the only thing that I had eaten all day. To give Cotton Patch one last chance on May 1, 2023 (takeout/pickup), I stupidly ordered the same chicken dish without sauce thinking it wouldn’t be spicy. That was a huge mistake!! Even without the chipotle maple sauce, the chicken was very spicy again, my sides were only room temp which completely ruined the fried okra (soggy & not crispy) & didn’t help the green beans with its load of pepper. And while waiter was helpful in giving me 2 rolls instead of 1 (which happened on my 2nd visit, 1 roll), he forgot the butter! So no part of my meal was good. And to add insult to injury, because of the spice, I’ll be in pain with nausea & possibly vomiting for the next several hours!! No restaurant is worth enduring hours of this and having to pay for the privilege too! I will not return to Cotton Patch again. But I will say one good thing, the sweetness of the maple compliments the chicken...