Popi's Place — Restaurant in Sarasota

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Recommended: Yes Pros and cons will come after the experience.

Update (June 28th, 2023) Server was Debi. The food was fantastic. I've never had a bad meal at this Popi's Place in Sarasota. It has always been wonderful experience and excellent food. I've updated images from this visit.

Server/Service (update 12/08/19) I have been back quite a few times since this review. I didn't know the name of my server for this review when I wrote it but I do now. Irene was my server during my first visit and she is amazing, always friendly and a joy to speak with during my meals. She leaves me alone when she sees I'm busy and takes her time to have a wonderful conversation with me when she sees I'm bored regardless of how busy she appears to be at the time. She always takes time with all of her customers. This really is a great place to go and you cannot beat the price for the food and service you receive.

Experience This is the fastest service I've ever had in my life. I've eaten at an insane number of restaurants across the world. I had a meeting starting in less than 30 minutes.

I walked in at 9:02 a.m., I asked the server behind the counter how fast can you bring me out two eggs over easy, hash browns, a side of sausage links, and an unsweet tea because I have a meeting in less than 30 minutes.

I sat down, she brought me my tea, I put sweetener in the tea and stirred the tea. I took one sip of my tea and she brought out the food and put it in front of me. I have never seen food come out that fast fully cooked. Fast food restaurants are not even that fast with their food. I ate my food and left at 9:14 am. I made my meeting without a problem.

Pros: fast service, friendly service, Great tasting food, low cost especially for the amount of food you receive, bathroom was clean, countertop, booths and tables were clean, dishes were clean, food was cooked perfectly and I even came back the next day and order the same thing and the food was again cooked...

UPDATE: This place now downgraded to 1 star. Here's why: Servers repeatedly try to pass erroneous costs on to customers when they hand you the bill. They charge extra for items already included in menu price, e.g., egg whites for a side order of eggs. This has happened multiple times. Also, they've returned change based on the higher credit card cost, even when paying cash (meaning you get less money back when they give you the change). You need to really be on your toes when you eat here, to avoid getting ripped off left and right. Yes, Management recently introduced a surcharge for paying by credit card (3.28% on our last bill). On separate occasions, they've disclosed a different number. Most unappreciated, that is, if you even notice the extra cost itemized on your bill. The clientele is predominantly working class people, hard working honest people. What owner apparently doesn't realize is that, for every customer they lose due to the credit card surcharge, they'll need about 30 additional customers (on average) to break even for the lost revenue on that one customer. They can do the math. This is the post-Covid era for restaurants. We expect better service than that. There's just too many better alternatives for eating out in Sarasota.

Original review: Wonderful hometown diner experience. Top notch breakfast entrees. Highly...

Very unfriendly staff when we first walked in. The lady cleaning tables looked angry when we walked in like she didn't want more customers and then proceeded to look like she was at a funeral the rest of our visit, it was alomst comicsl how miserable she looked. I got the fried chicken and gravy biscuit. It was less than mediocre. The sausage gravy was bland and they didn't give enough of it at all. The chicken was ok but it was clearly frozen and not hand battered on site which is what I was expecting from a diner... but the worst part were the biscuits. They weren't buttery and flaky, they were very dense and gummy. Almost as if they had only been cooked halfway. The potatoes were burned but they tasted ok. My friend got the scrambled eggs and bacon and it looked like a kids meal it was so small. We were brought water and never asked if we wanted to order drinks and then we never got refills on our water... Definitely do not...