Busby’s Soul Bowls — Restaurant in Tempe

I WISH I COULD GIVE THIS NO STARS .This will be a long read about our experience but worth the read. I should have paid attention to the reviews before I went.

I visited this establishment for the FIRST TIME on 09-19-25. I was greeted friendly by the hostess and seated us promptly around 8:30pm. There were about 3 others guest and a larger party 5-6 people that appeared to be wrapping up and about to leave. Me and my husband look over the menu quickly and pretty much knew what we wanted as we had been planning to visit. We sat for a good 15 minutes and witness server (didnt catch his name but he has dreads) socializing and hugging the large party with no awarness that we were there ungreeted with no drinks. Once he was complete with the large party he came and and said," he didnt realize we were there". At this point we were ready to order. He informed us they were out of Greens,cabbage,and green beans. Although we wanted some greens we selected other "available" items per the server. We ordered a honey butter cornbread bowl with fish,Mac, yams,blackeye peas, and extra side of 3pc fried chicken. We are now around 9:00 the server comes and says, "hey fam" we are out of yams. Although this is disappointing again to hear that they are out of something else we still gave the benefit of the doubt and elected another item which was the cornbread dressing. He then explains that the food is on a first come, first come basis and they ran items. Around 9:30 he stops by the table and states that he is just waiting on the fish to be complete and he will bring out the food. About 15 minutes he brings out a plate of food and stated I brought out some dirty rice and all that they had left over. There was no cornbread bowl no fish that he claimed to be waiting on and a plate with random food. I told him that this is nothing that we had ordered and we leaving and dont want the food. He said okay grabbed food and hastily walked away.

I feel that my time was taking for granted. There was no guinuine empathy and all leading on we went through to be presented went a meal that was made up with thing he saw fit like we were getting scraps or leftovers. To be told its a first come first serve basis, I would expect that from a food truck not a whole restaurant.

The service for this fact made the visit a fail and horrible first experience. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. As much as I love to support our black own businesses I will never step foot in here again....

The establishment gets NO stars from me (couldn’t post it if I didn’t give at least one star). They were not ready for the crowd of people that come in. The wait was 20 to 40 minutes to get a table. My party waited over the twenty minutes and when I asked when our table would be ready they said that they are waiting for a reservation to come and they would accommodate after they came. I spoke to the manager/owner and I asked her about the seating and the wait and she said that they can’t please everyone 🤷🏾‍♀️. I told her politely to put or to mention that there is a very long wait because they seat the reservations first ( I can understand that part), but her response was rude and off putting. The reservation never came in…. We were seated and was told that the kitchen was running behind and it would be 45 minutes to an hour for the food to arrive. We said ok since the restaurant is a “scratch made “ kitchen. The waiter took 20 minutes to bring our water. And we waited 90 minutes for the food. They brought our food. My order was unfinished. I ordered the build your own cornbread bowl with two wings, collard greens ,and red beans and rice. They bring me a wing and thigh and no collard greens . The manager said they ran out of the collard greens, but everything else that I ordered was out as well. I told her that if they didn’t have what I ordered then they should have told me before they brought out the food. (I was disgusted by that point) I felt like I was on one of those shows and you order something and they say we ain’t got this or that. Then the manager said do I have a problem (she shouldn’t have said that) I said yes and stated my case. She said then I’ll just take back the plate and refund you your money (all while clicking her teeth and full of attitude). The wait staff was good and apologetic about what they had to work with.

For a black establishments please be respectful to your customers and some what accommodating if there are any problems . That’s all we ask for , and if you’re not willing to, think about not opening a restaurant. Very unprofessional and rude. I would think twice if you thought about going to this restaurant, because you will be...

Aura was 100%, the line was wrapped around outside but I had no wait. The place is poppin'. They had Heavy hitters in the building, like Prince Papiii, Diamond the body, Big Ivory, Rollie and Jaidyn!!! And they say they have nore celebrities lined up to come So everybody wanted to get in. Just saying Expect a wait for a popular place.

The restaurant is a whole vibe. The atmosphere was very warm on trend. You can tell they paid attention to the details when designing. Every wall was different for the social media content. The staff kept the restaurant and restrooms clean, especially how many people was in it. That's a big thing I pay attention to when I go to a place. Keep it clean no matter how busy it gets. We received our drinks really fast and was turnd for the crowd.

Now the only critiques that I do have is we ordered our food and the food didn't come out to the right people. It did take a while for the food to come but it was understandable due to it being so packed and it was the grand opening so they have to get the groove down before it could be perfect. So I understood. The one real problem I had was we didn't received an entree but again understandable due to it being the grand opening and how busy it was. But the food that we did get Slapped. I ordered the pork chop cornbread bowl and the pork chops were seasoned so good. We also ordered the oxtail cornbread bowl but that's the one they were out of. But the fried pork chops was so good will definitely be back to try the other bowls.

So I definitely recommend this spot. Just expect it to be a new restaurant and your experience should be good wait staff and management were excellent had excellent customer service and no bad aura.And by that alone, I'm sure they'll get better over time. Definitely a place I wanna be and you would want to...