Shantell's Just Until Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Sanford

My wife and I decided to try Shantell's tonight. For myself, I ordered their daily special, which was a smothered turkey wing,. Instead of rice, I requested fries, a bit on the crispy side. As for my wife, she grudging chose their shrimp and grits. I say grudging because my wife's expectations of shrimp and grits requires divine intervention in the culinary process to garner average marks.

Once we ordered, we decided to walk around for a bit while the meals were prepared. After about 15 mins, we returned only to find our paid for meal was given to a another person. Minus 5 points in my book.

The young lady at the counter profusely apologized for the mishap and quickly put in another meal order (to the gentleman with our order, the fries were burned on purpose!). Plus 6 points (sh*! happens, good save).

We, now, decided to meander over to The Throwback Bar for take out drinks while we waited. On our walk over to the bar, we cross paths with no one other than Shantell, who confidently inquired as to how we enjoyed the meal.

With heavy hearts, we explained to her that our order was donated to a third party and another was being prepared as we spoke. Without a second thought, Ms Shantell jumped on her over-sized Harley Davidson, promised us immediate justice and rode off into the sunset (actually back to her restaurant, which was less than a half block away, but a sight to see no less).

After we retrieved our carry-out beverages, we headed back to Shantell's with high hopes of finally scoring the coveted meals.

Walking back into Shantell's (a third time in less than an hour), we were pleasantly surprised with not only the meal prepared and ready, but a heart-felt apology from Shantell and an explanation for the lines crossed. She stated that she told a homeless person to go into the restaurant and have the daily special for free. The person walked out with our order and scored a shrimp and grits as a bonus.

I guess Shantell not only takes care of first responders in perilous times such as this but also those in need. Plus 10 stars.

As for our meals, the smothered turkey wing was outstanding. The fries wonderfully burnt. The green beans and cornbread was ok. My wife absolutely loved the shrimp and grits. As a bonus we were given banana bread pudding and peach rum cake. Both sugar-laddenly scrumptious.

In summary, the woman has a big heart, great personality, cares for the community, and the food is actually quite good. Stop by...

Cute Spot, But Big Letdown

Shantell’s Just Until is a cute restaurant with potential, but unfortunately, our visit came with more regrets than joy. We understood the long wait—it’s a small business—but we were about ready to leave. I literally had to convince my mom to stay, and honestly, I wish we hadn’t. The food looked good in the photos, but reality didn’t match. The presentation was deceiving.

We ordered the chicken and waffles, and that was the highlight—crispy, flavorful, and very tasty. But that was where the good ended.

I was excited to try the jerk chicken Philly, thinking it would be a fun twist—sadly, it didn’t live up to the hype at all. It lacked flavor, balance, and that jerk kick I was looking for. It was just a salty, heavy mess.

The jerk chicken meal, which my mom ordered, was equally disappointing. As a Jamaican and a chef, she was appalled. The chicken was drenched in an overly salty wet marinade—no grill marks, no dry rub, no smoke. Just spicy and salty. It didn’t resemble authentic jerk in any way. The yellow rice tasted like plain water.

The collard greens were decent, and the catfish was good. The mashed potatoes were okay. But the fries? Completely burnt and overcooked.

Drink options were a whole other issue—just sweet tea and tap water. Once the ice melted in the water, the taste was unbearable. I took one gulp and immediately regretted it.

The kids’ menu is limited, so we ended up ordering adult meals for the kids—costly and frustrating.

Suggestions: • Ease up on the salt • Grill the jerk chicken for authenticity—jerk is a method, not just a seasoning • Improve drink variety—sweet tea and bad tap water isn’t enough • If you’re low on stock, adjust the menu accordingly

We came ready to support a Black-owned business and really wanted to love the experience. But unfortunately, it fell short in too many ways. With the money we spent, we could’ve enjoyed the food truck festival instead.

Hopefully, some adjustments can be made, because the potential is there—but we left with disappointment instead.

We eat our food and not complained we came from church and switch our usual spot....

I pray this review gets to the Ms. Shantell because we want to see your restaurant prosper! We saw the article on Facebook that Shantell was raffling off her Harley Davidson motorcycle because the pandemic really hit her business hard. We decided to go to support her by having breakfast this morning. We arrived at the restaurant this morning at 11:20. A young lady walked up to us saying, "Are you gonna dine in"? We said yes then she said we could seat ourselves which we did. She didn't return to get our drink orders for 15mins so we were going to leave but as we were preparing to leave she walked up to take our drink order. We ordered our food at the same time. The waitress was weird, she acted as if we were imposing on her day, and she kept mumbling through her mask to us making it very difficult to understand what she was saying. She exhibited a bad attitude! Which is not good to have when her employer is fighting for her establishment...it turns people away! After getting our food she never came back to the table to see if we needed anything nor to ask about how our food was or if we'd like more water or that delicious lemonade. My husband ordered The Big breakfast and I ordered Tilapia fish and chips. The bacon was good but the mystery mock meat sausage things were over cooked dry and not edible, as was the mock butter oil stuff given for the waffle, but the rest was fine. My fries did not taste fresh and they were grease soaked, leathery, and limp. The Tilapia was good as was the lemonade. The water was good too. The waitress never gave us her name and didn't have a name badge on either, but she wasn't the waitress who wore glasses. We went to have a great experience and help out Ms. Shantell's establishment especially after reading her story. But, sadly, we were left feeling like we'd never go back to a place where we felt uncomfortable and were treated as if we don't matter. Food can be improved on but bad service is a restaurant killer. We wished we had come prepandemic it was...