Sweet Potatoes Kitchen — Restaurant in Savannah

Sweet Potatoes, Sour Experience

Sweet Potatoes Kitchen has been a long standing Savannah favorite, now under new ownership. Sadly, our recent visit was a complete letdown.

We arrived at 11:30 a.m. for a reservation of a party of seven celebrating my father's birthday. We were seated quickly, but no one greeted us for twenty minutes. When our server finally showed up, she blamed the host and left without taking drink orders. Another ten minutes passed before she returned for both drinks and our order of 6 entrees and one sweet potato.

By 12:40, we still had nothing but our drink order. When we asked for an update, we got excuses and attitude. One staff member told us, “Baby, I am not your server. I have no idea. We have no control over the kitchen.” when locating our actual server she said our food was next, but we watched numerous other tickets be cooked and served before ever getting to ours. Due to the our seat we had a clear view of the kitchen line and knew our ticket, as she pointed at it to show us where on the line we were.

By 1:15, still no food. When asking for another update, a third server told us it was her second day and offered no help. By this point, one of our guests had already left. The rest of us still had nothing, including me, and I had only ordered a plain sweet potato.

While sitting there we had plenty of time to look around, and I am sad to say the dining space was also disappointing. Food splattered the walls and furniture. The door to the outside was left open, letting in flies that landed on tables. A digital ad screen playing Savannah Law and Medical adds was hung directly above our seating area, which felt tacky and out of place.

By 1:30, we had to leave. This was my father’s birthday lunch, and as a diabetic, he needed to eat. Our server laughed and shouted, “Well, they are now leaving,” as if our frustration was unreasonable.

The manager, it turns out had been present the entire time, and had the nerve to claim he was unaware of the delays. He did apologize and comp the meal, but only after blaming staff no shows and publicly reprimanding his team who did work that day, it seems with little to no guidance from him. No wonder the staff were all so frustrated!

We left and went to another restaurant, where we were seated, served, and finished within an hour.

This was not just about slow service. It was a complete breakdown in communication, accountability, and hospitality. Most of us never even received our meals. The two who did said it was fine but not worth coming back for. These are two people who had recommended and loved this restaurant previous to this experience. Both claiming it is evident that things have gone down hill since the change of ownership occured.

Sweet Potatoes Kitchen may have potential, but right now it is buried under poor leadership, disorganization, and a lack of customer care. Savannah...

This 4 star rating is based on our overall experience. Off the beaten path, not in the tourist areas of Savannah. Had heard about this place from a friend, so had to try it out. We had to knock off a star for the cleanliness and appearance. It appears to be an older place that may have been here for awhile. Cute place, colorful decor, pleasant and helpful staff. Found floor was slippery, not sure if it was the coating on the floor, we had really good traction shoes, but felt like I could slip at anytime on the floor, almost felt like if they mopped the water they used had an oil in it. The ceiling tiles looked liked they had some water leaks and some mold on them. I am not usually particular about the tiles, but if you put that much effort to have a nice appearance, you would be attentive to the ceiling also. But we did not go there for the building, we came for the food. So we had the meatloaf with the glaze and liver and onions. Meatloaf was a nice size portion w/ a mildly sweet glaze similar to like a chutney. It was a sandwich, but ate it with fork and knife. It was not the typical dense brick meatloaf, it was lighter with a very enjoyable taste. Not heavy, but easy to chew and enjoy the flavors. Side was sweet potato fries, come on, if you are at a restaurant named "Sweet Potatoes Kitchen" you have to have something sweet potato, unfortunately there really wasn't anything special about them. They were sprinkled with possibly a mixture of brown sugar and other things to add some sweetness to it. The liver and onions were good, I get weird cravings every once in awhile and it happened to be on this trip. Nicely sauteed onions on thin strips of liver, not overdone, good flavor. Sides sweet potato w/ butter pecan butter, and cabbage which i think was a special side for the day. I enjoyed the sweet potato w/ butter pecan, not too sweet. The cabbage had a nice flavor to it and was not too soft or watery. The biscuit, was a biscuit. Nothing special. We did save room for the banana pudding. It was good, but not sure if I would order again. The wafers were crispy, real bananas in there. It was sweet, little airy for me. Not sure if they mix the whip w/ the pudding. I kinda like mine separated. It was good, but I think I would try something else. We enjoyed our time there and the food, other people's food looked good, people seemed very happy with their orders. We would enjoy going back and trying...

I had this restaurant starred in my map. I’m a big fan of sweet potatoes wherever I go so when I saw this establishment, I knew I had to try it. Getting there was easy but you must keep your eyes peeled. I drove right by the entrance and found myself in an adjacent office complex. The sign was slightly hidden and the building is down a short driveway. Once I was there, I found plenty of parking behind the building. I was seated at a small table and given a fairly extensive menu. I was exhausted from a full day of work beginning at 5am, so by 2:30, I knew the fastest way to get happy was with a vegetable plate. I was right, within about five minutes it arrived piping hot. As you can see in the photo, I ordered mashed sweet potatoes, lemon collard greens, roasted Brussels sprouts, and a side salad. The mashed sweet potatoes were exceptional with a mild pecan flavor, I loved the hint of lemon in the collard greens and I must say, many places just can’t get roasted Brussels sprouts correct. They’re usually over crispy soaking in oil. Not these. They were perfect with just a hint of oil. A perfect combo of easy to cut with a nice texture and good seasoning. Finally, the side salad was robust with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and a mix of greens. The honey mustard dressing tasted home made. It was thick and flavorful but too little to cover much of the greens. I ordered unsweetened tea for my drink.

In today’s world, it is often hard for restaurants to find good servers. Restaurant owners often lack the skills to effectively train those servers. I know. I’ve helped owners with marketing and many times have wound up in long conversations about how impressions affect reputation.

So in this episode, the server didn’t return to ask if everything was good until I finally caught her eye as I was ending my lunch. I had finished everything but the salad. Honestly, the dressing container was half the normal restaurant size and I wanted more about 10 minutes into the meal. Now, maybe 35 minutes later, my tea glass was almost empty and I asked for more honey mustard dressing. It should have never been that difficult and the server should have checked on me while she was serving adjacent tables. She did ask if I needed more tea after I caught her eye for more dressing.

This is a reflection on the management, not just the server. However, the food was exceptional and I left feeling good. I’ll be back because I never judge a restaurant on...