The Icehouse Restaurant — Restaurant in Summerville

Avoid this place - BEWARE- if you are a party of two or three you will not be seated, you are not a priority they don't care you showed up! Waiting over an hour and twenty minutes for a table for two while multiple tables of 5 and over who came in after my party of two, were seated 30 and 40 minutes before we were. I called around 5:30 PM to make a reservation for two they said they don't take reservations. They said the wait was 30 minutes. We showed up at 7:25 PM we were then told 30 to 45 minute wait and saw two tables that seated 5 or more which were reserved. That should have let us know how they only care about large parties. This place is the ONE place in South Carolina where they do NOT priorities first come first serve. I can't tell you how disappointed this place was. I was told great atmosphere, food is good. The food was normal, but it wasn't worth over an hour wait. Sitting there and waiting to see if they would even sit us, at this point. Once it hit an hour we went up to check the hostess with a broken foot the same voice who said at 5:30PM they didn't take reservation. She said it would be a 10 minutes longer, it wasn't. When that time pasted and another group of 6 was seated before us, we went to look for the manager. When we found the manager she was chumming it up with regulars who we noticed had their 3rd glass of wine. To be seated at 8:50 PM and then waited another 15 minutes for the waiter to take the order. It was a horrible experience. If they were honest at 5:30PM oh we don't care about non regular parties of 2, naturally we wouldn't have and enjoyed our evening somewhere else. They didn't care they wasted our time for normal pork chops, wings, and two sides. We wanted to try other things on the menu but eating heavier meals after 9PM, wouldn't have been smart. OH NO AC upstairs, only one Fan circulating the warm air. This is my birthday weekend I was told it was a good place. I will be telling the handful of individuals who told us it was a good time, that it was not. Beware - if you are party of two or three and NOT a regular/ local you will never be seated. Unacceptable service, there were seats after a 30 minute wait but since they prioritize a larger parties, they were waiting for us to leave. Two couples ended up leaving because they also, waited over an hour. Unacceptable. I am writing this experience for anyone who is just a party of two, to NOT waste your time here. I know what I experienced. It was greed and was the rudest service I've experienced for a Americana Restaurant with a poorly working Central air. I am hoping the manager who didn't care that my party of two didn't get seated for over an hour and 20 minutes, won't respond, but it looks like she will since the other 1 star reviews she shows her aggressive style. She knows how she runs the restaurant, prioritize the larger groups. If I saw a review like this I would have chosen a different restaurant who prioritize first come...

I have been a customer of The Icehouse for the past 8 years and had always had a good to great experience, until today. I was meeting up with a large number of friends (20, give or take, all older women). We had planned this for several weeks, had contacted the IceHouse a couple of weeks to let them know our plans. This is not the first time we have gathered at The Icehouse. We know they do not take reservations. We know seating is subject to availability. We know we will probably not be served our food at the same time. We were good with that. We called the day before, were reminded members of our party would probably need to wait to be seated, no reservations, etc. And we were good with that.

I arrived early to start securing a table or two. Told the hostess how many I was expecting, again told they could not seat 20 at one time, but could seat up to 10 at one time. Fine, will work with that, we will just request tables as people arrive. People start to arrive, we send people in to request a table. They come back out, and we are enjoying ourselves. There were no other patrons on the patio with the exception of one table that was finishing their meal. They were NOT busy based on the traffic I saw entering the restaurant and the vacant tables on the patio. We are having a good time chatting, the wait staff is very pleasant and helpful, and did not appear put out at all.

Then a woman who identified herself as a manager comes out to tell us we cannot be accommodated. She was unwilling to work with us, and was willing to turn away 5-6 tables of people who want to enjoy a cold beverage and lunch. She would not listen to the fact that we were not in a hurry and did not have to receive our meals at the same time. She kept saying that we were told when we called that they could not accommodate us, which is not what was communicated. What was communicated was we could be seated in small groups, but may have to wait for service. She was calling the individual who had spoken to her a liar to that person's face. She stopped serving us and told us to leave.

We settled up and went to Carolina Ale House, who was more than happy to accommodate our group. And more than happy to collect more than $400-$500 in sales on a slow Saturday, not counting the tips we left for our server.

Icehouse really needs to get their act together. If they cannot accommodate 5 tables of 4 patrons each at lunch on a Saturday, people who are buying food and beverage, how long will they be able to stay in business? And how much business are they losing due to a manager with anger management issues who cannot figure out how to manage an influx of patrons needing service. And how much are their wait staff losing...

We are newer to the area and were looking for something new and delicious and the ice house definitely delivered. We went on a Saturday, so it was busy and there was a wait, but the staff is so friendly and the food was so comforting and flavorful that it’s without a doubt worth the wait. For starters we ordered some of the butter and bread side to be brought out and the bread is fresh made and the quality of the butter we instantly decided if the rest of the food tasted as good, we were in for a treat. We also have picky kids, but not only do they have an array of options, the kids cleared their plates of chicken tenders and grilled cheese. My husband got the pecan crusted pork chops with cheddar grits as side. It was easily one of the most moist pork chops I’ve ever had and was so flavorful. I am not a fan of grits, but for these I highly recommend them. They have great texture as well as flavor. I had the filet, as well as the mac & cheese and a salad. The steak was impressively tender and seasoned well. Also some of the best mac & cheese, my daughter said it was too cheesy, but I say there’s no such thing. The salad was also amazing, fresh ingredients and freshly shaved cheese. We couldn’t help ourselves and tested out three desserts. The beignets, the creme brûlée, and the chocolate spoon cake. I had to try the cake even though it was mainly for the kiddos, it was really good, but maybe we’ll add ice cream in the future because it’s also very rich. As someone who has had real Louisiana beignets I can be kind of picky and while they aren’t exactly like my expectations I will definitely be ordering them again. They were still light and airy and they didn’t even have a chance to cool off before we had them devoured. The creme brûlée transported us back to younger memories and if you like the taste of lemon I highly recommend it. I also want to mention our waiter (Paul), because he really just pushed the whole experience to another level. We definitely left satisfied and plan to...