Southern Kitchen — Restaurant in Tacoma

So truth be told, my tastebuds are pretty boring. My girlfriend's, on the other hand, are pretty top notch. That being said, I'm not too fussy where I go to eat while she is....rather particular about it. She wanted to have some good old fashion southern food and every time she thinks she has found a restaurant that boasts their cooking, she is let down (apparently the last restaurant we went to where she ordered biscuits and gravy threw Italian seasoning in it and although she said it wasn't "bad" it wasn't what she wasn't expecting. She said it was like eating a pizza crust every time she took a bite). We were out getting our coffee this morning, because, you know, we have our priorities when she blurts out, "let's go to Tacoma and get some breakfast", which led us to a cute little restaurant called Southern Kitchen. Now let's get to the good part. This was a fantastic find! My boring ol tastebuds got woken up with their Southern Style omlette (I had it without the green peppers cause my taste palette still acts like a 4 year old sometimes). By far the best omlette I've ever had. And(!!) I discovered what slush puppies are! Wow! I look across the table and I see my girlfriend's eyes lit up with joy as she had biscuits and gravy with grits and a big mason jar of sweet tea. Nothing but raves coming from her. Our server, who goes by (I believe he said) "Schizo", was fantastic. Besides the food being amazing, he truly is the one that brought our dining experience to perfection. He was funnier than hell, knowledgeable about the foods, just fun to talk to. He not only took care of our table but I noticed he gave every other table the same amount of attention (and all the other customers with soaking it up just as much as we were). At the end, I had to convince my girlfriend that she can't go into the kitchen to hug the cook. When she asked why I had to think of something really quick that wasn't as blunt as "well that's weird babe" so I stuttered around and said "er....covid concerns." :) Really. Go here. We found our new favorite spot. (The random man selfie photo was our server and truthfully, we would come back here just to hang out...

Let me preface with I came in on a Sunday around 2:30 and the place was busy with a steady flow of diners and take out orders. I was feeling so optimistic, now let's get real. The corncake and cornbread stuffing were most definitely the best things going. My original corncake came out with my meal and it was lukewarm and was still very good. They must have forgotten about my liver in the deep fryer or whatever they fried it in. The gravy made it worth it to keep working my way through the over cooked liver. I wish I would have taken a picture of the washed out, canned, not buttered corn, mushy rice and cold gravy. I didn't even try to hide the fact I didn't eat it.

Thinking that perhaps I ordered the wrong things, I ordered the 6th Ave Platter, to go, with Cajun catfish, fried chicken, collards and cornbread stuffing. The cornbread stuffing and gravy was crazy good! My palate was pleased. The catfish was broken up into more like nuggets instead of strips, they were ok, lukewarm. The wing was cold and dry, the thigh was hot and moist, and the greens. The greens tasted like Glory Greens out of the can with some onions thrown in, same juice and everything. No amount of hot sauce or pickled pepper sauce was going to make them taste good or like anything other than Glory Greens. Maybe they ran out of they normally fix, but this was my first time there and I have nothing to compare them with. I don't know if I would have come on another day and when they first open, perhaps I'll have a different result. Not sure if I'll give them another try.

The servers checked on the other diners profusely, and didn't inquire once about my meal. I think they knew they didn't serve me the best version of what the Southern Kitchen is supposed...

The food here was fantastic, but the restaurant itself was very disorganized. We got there during what looked like a lull and decided to dine in. There were only two other tables besides my partner and I, and the menu looked great. We ordered the 6th Ave plate and the fried chicken plate, as well as a sampling of their side dishes and waited patiently. That's where things took a turn, as our table's order was skipped over and over again. People were coming in and getting served before us. Multiple tables came in after us and were being served before us. The waitress was kind and continued to tell the kitchen staff to stop skipping tickets and gave us a free order of their fried green tomatoes while we waited (I learned I really do not like green tomatoes). After over an hour and a half, with multiple considerations of if we should at that point just leave or not the waitress finally went back into the kitchen to talk to them why our order kept continuing to be skipped over. Finally they got whatever it was sorted and we had our meals a short while after that. Large portions and good food. It could have been a phenomenal experience, but it made me question if they were skipping us on purpose. Was it our appearance? Were we being skipped over because we're an LGBTQ+ couple? Was it because they were just extremely disorganized? The waitress showed us nothing but kindness, but the back of the house really made me question this place and that's not an experience I want anyone to ever have to question. The waitress was again kind, apologetic, sincere, and gave us a 25% discount on our meals as another apology, but I think at that point the damage...