Carolina Kitchen — Restaurant in Summerfield

I wish I had read reviews on this location before going with my husband yesterday. I’ve only been to the location in Hyattsville one time and it was pretty good (food and service)! So I thought since this location was newer, the food and service might be even better. One thing I must note are the prices. They are beyond overpriced. We decided to order to go, so I feel $95 for 2 meals and a dessert is outrageous! The process for ordering seems to not make much sense, as we make our order at the beginning. Hubby got the chitterlings and I got the catfish strips. Hubby requested his 2 sides that came with his meal, greens and baked beans. I had to order my sides a la cart because the catfish strips are entree only—I got the mac n’ cheese and green beans. The young lady prepared our to go containers, yet we didn’t find out until we were at the register (ready to pay and get our food so we could get home), that both of our me trees are made to order so we had to wait to receive our entrees. Meaning our sides are sitting in their containers getting cold! And we have to wait for the rest of our food..we decided to wait at the booth closest to the register so we can hear the announcement of our order being ready to pick up. There was a couple behind us that also had to wait for their food to be prepared and they sat in the booth behind ours. I mention this because about 10 min later, a woman comes over (I’m assuming is the manager). She walks past me (hubby went to the register to check on the food) to speak with the other people and shouts “ARE YOU ALL HERE WITH THE EVENT? NO? WELL THESE SEATS ARE RESERVED!” Then she takes a few steps in my direction and says “Ma’am?” I said I heard you, I’m just getting my things together. But my issue is that if we are paying customers to your business, then why are we being treated like we’re an issue. We were just waiting for our order obviously, so why all of the aggression? If it were my place of work I would’ve kindly asked patrons to sit in another area (and directed them there), and expressed understanding of why they’re sitting there in the first place (waiting for food at my restaurant). So with this treatment by the manager and the disorganization of the ordering process, we were not pleased with the customer service. Now for the food: Catfish strips were decent (pretty well seasoned) and hot since they were made to order. Hubby was not happy about his chitterings, they had no texture like they had been sitting in liquid for a long time and not much flavor. And the sides, mac n’ cheese was super soggy and noodles were over cooked, it reminded me of shoppers or giant’s hot bar mac n’ cheese. Not very flavorful and of course cold since it was sitting on the side while we waited for our entrees. Hubby loved the baked beans, a little sweet to me, but reminded me of good cookout baked beans (tasted like ground beef was added). Greens tasted canned or overcooked. Green beans tasted like fresh green beans but not much flavor. Also they gave me tarter sauce PACKETS (which I had to ask for); I would not expect that for a restaurant that prides itself on “down home” type cooking, and $100 for the order price. The bread pudding for dessert was pretty good, not too sweet. So the food overall was a disappointment as well. We don’t plan on returning here and patronizing this business, we really wanted to enjoy it! Also the decor seemed over the top for food and service that wasn’t all...

Late Night Post Alert Now I KNOW you’ve been to this spot before!! Trust, it’s been a few nights that the dub ($20) in my pocket got me a fulfilling meal from this spot!! You forgot? LET’S GO!! . Where I am: @carolina_kitchen . Location Reviewed: 9185 Central Ave., Capital Heights M.D. . Menu Includes: See Website . Items Reviewed: Their Creole Grilled Salmon Platter (Grilled salmon with crab meat, shrimp, on a bed of mashed potatoes, Mac n cheese, & greens $39).

The Salmon….LIKE THAT!! A creamy Cajun mild sauce, well cooked shrimp & crab!!

The Mashed Potatoes…DELICIOUS! Good, I would’ve just chose a rice for this.

STAMP their Greens!! Full of flavor, not overly salted, tasty!!

Their Mac n Cheese…LIKE THAT!! Creamy, I tasted a multi cheese blend!!

Their 3 Piece Fried Chicken Meal (A fried chicken Breast, wing, & a drum sitting on rice & gravy, with 2 sides of your choice-yams, potato salad, & cornbread $20).

STAMP the Fried Chicken!! Crispy, juicy, my GO TO when here!!

The Yams…STAMP!! Imagine how surprised I was when I dipped into what I thought weee BEANS!! Sweet, gooey goodness!!

The Potato Salad…DELICIOUS! Yes the vegetarian salad was better…more flavor!!

STAMP that buttery sweet cornbread!!

Their Chesapeake Platter (with spicy wings, a crab cake, fried shrimp, a fried lobster tail, with 2 sides of your choice-I got their plant based potato salad, & greens just to try $60).

The Lobster…LIKE THAT!! Now the SAUCE put on this platter was super salty on this day. But the proteins w/o the sauce HIT!!

The Crab Cake…LIKE THAT!! Meaty, & well fried!!

The Shrimp…LIKE THAT!! Plentiful, crisp!!

The Wings…DELICIOUS! The sauce was sweet & tangy, I just needed them more crispy.

The Plant Based Potato Salad…LIKE THAT!! This surprised me!! Tasty, creamy, & hearty!!

The Plant Based Greens…DECENT. Hearty, but I needed more flavoring.

Their Plant Based Sampler (their faux shrimp, crab cake, bbq chicken, & meatballs. Rice, beans, mac n cheese, & chickpeas Gifted they wanted me to try it). All these items were BETTER than your average plant based food…but come in and judge these for yourself!!

Their Plant Based Chocolate Cake, & Carrot Cake ($8 each). STAMP them both!! If I didn’t know they were plant based…I couldn’t tell!! . Online Navigation: Easy . Parking: Rough . Recommendations: You can never go wrong with The Fried Chicken, Mac n Cheese, & Greens . Music:YouTube-Backyard Band Socket Series 4

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️=STAMP ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️➕=LIKE...

I'm going to start with the pros: The restaurant appears very clean, inviting and welcoming to the public. The flow and design of the space is also very beautiful. The overall experience of walking in and staff greeting customers✨ was great too! I WOULD recommend the restaurant because I do enjoy supporting and keeping the circulation of my funds amongst folks that reflect me. It's inclusive to visit with my family now because it's vegan options available. I had the sweet potato chili🔥and the curry chickpea🔥dishes but got them as small sides.

The cons: Although vegan options are available, I wish they had more alternatives that were less processed, like stir fry mushrooms or eggplant instead of all soy based meat alternatives. That vegan mac recipe needs A LOT of help!🥴🤢🤮 The staff wasn't well versed on what was what in the vegan area. Majority of my questions were answered after referring to the head chef. I'm not sure if the vegan options change daily but if they don't then perhaps having a menu and ingredient list in that area will be helpful for staff not involved in the creation of the food. Also if the vegan and regular mac salad stays in the same area then the vegan options should be labeled. Overhearing a conversation from another customer asking about it and hearing/seeing employees not sure if vegan options were on ice stopped me from getting that too!

Our exit was not as pleasant as our entrance. I'm certain all the food is freshly made but when you are a 💲💰paying customer💰💲 you WANT what YOU WANT & what YOU are paying💰💲 for. We waited specifically for another batch of fish to be dropped and brought out and one of the employees began to put fish that was already on the table in the container for our order. She, the employee, who was the most pleasant greeter✨ at the initial walk-in , said "Ms....ITS ALL THE SAME THING!...", going back and forth, she took it personal and showed in her volume and body language she was highly annoyed that we didn't want that fish but the fish that was just dropped. The other customers noticed and witnessed it who were in the store too! I hope this matter gets addressed and it be a learning experience for her to be better at expressing herself & energy (especially when on the clock representing someone else's business). This occurred approximately around 1200hrs. Thank you...