Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Upper Arlington

Local delivery driver!!!!….. let me do the honors of peeling back the problems with the manager in training (Mary) on February 21 approximately 6:15 PM. I had a delivery pick up that was scheduled to be completed by on the restaurants, side by ((6:29pm))! The items on this order were very simple probably about enough to feed two! From immediately walking in the door, I noticed that the host booth was immediately too close to the door coming in, which is a big turn off if the restaurant don’t have things together It has to be the most uncomfortable situation for groups coming in with reservations! There’s no seating in between the threshold of the first and second door !You’re not going to be able to get groups seated right away all the time and only working with two host who has the balance getting other stuff for tables they have nothing to do with and trying to balance delivery orders 🤦🏽‍♂️ I can tell by the 20 minutes I stood there waiting for the order that should’ve been ready by the time I arrived !!! no excuses !! Now for those of you that know this time for a restaurants can be a very difficult time because it’s in between shift change most likely and we all know how that can go!🤨 so I didn’t mind the wait it’s kinda how the game goes !!! but here’s where my main problem lies at with Mary manager, so-called in training. I can tell by your attitude towards delivery drivers! When I hadn’t said a word to you, & your host already updated me on the order ! Thanks you to her! As she thanked me for my patience,😇but you felt the need to come over and look at your wrist and tell me that the order that you didn’t even ask me who I was there for that it will be done at 6:41pm as if that’s was the time it was supposed to done! Or something 🤦🏽‍♂️ and had the the nerve to say in a disrespectful way, your host were standing right there and watched you disrespect me ! Turn around and go back to the kitchen! Your host took care of the situation and you came over there and completely caused a problem for no reason you are confrontational. And I hope this restaurant take heat to this situation to prevent this in the future !!!! also it seemed as if you got a problem with delivery drivers standing in the restaurant. There is nowhere else for us to stand or to properly wait for an order If that’s the case, y’all need to figure out if delivery services is something that you guys should even deal with the restaurant looked as if y’all were shorthanded or don’t like dealing with third-party orders if that’s the case y’all do have an option to turn those services off!! so y’all don’t have to deal with Drivers standing there making it hard for customers to come in and be seated. this exactly why I appreciate customers who tip !!!!!🙏🏾🙌🏾 because dealing with situations like this is very frustrating for something so simple as just picking up someone’s order 🤦🏽‍♂️

Things this restaurant need to change

#1 the manager Mary’s attitude

#2 the front entrance host booth needs more room from the booth to the door, even if it sacrifices two of the tables by the door behind the booth station wasn’t nobody trying to sit by the window anyways during the cold times

3# let the host do their jobs and what they were assigned to do especially during busy days! So they can be able to take care of the people coming in the door and should be able to update drivers on...

My friend and I went for lunch yesterday (Sunday). I've been here multiple times. I usually enjoy the staff and my food. Yesterday was atrocious. We had reservations for 2, and were seated immediately and brought water by the host . It took a while for the server to get to our table then he told my friend and I that we should just wave him down when we were ready to order. Not realizing he meant to wave him down everytime we needed something. Though he was serving multiple tables and seemed pretty attentive to everyone else anytime we needed something my friend had to literally wave him down. He didn't even check to see if we enjoyed our food. Nonetheless we ordered salads w/ grilled shrimp. It took over 30 minutes to come out. SALAD. with only 4pc of grilled shrimp. Then the shrimp was absolutely disgusting. It didn't taste fresh at all and it wasn't even warm. Again the server never checked on our table after food was brought out. My friend was missing a dressing we assumed he'd be right back with it. No, I was more than half way done with my salad and her dressing still was not there. My friend requested a manager. He came over, was friendly and offered to take the shrimp off the bill. He also brought out the dressing for her salad. Great. Again no server, my friend had to wave him down every time. We ordered drinks and the fried tomatoes. A different server brought our food out and when I asked for silverware she was completely dismissive like I annoyed her because I asked for silverware (ours was taken away with the salads) instead of grabbing silverware which was two steps away from her she goes to our server of whom we have to wait for again to bring us silverware. Honestly her nasty attitude about the silverware ruined the entire experience. Maam did you not just bring the food? Maybe the attitude was because we weren't her table? Not sure but she was disgusting. You could just tell she didn't want to help.

Had to wait another 20 minutes after we finished eating for the bill. I've just never encountered dinning in where the guest is expected to wave down help every time something is needed. The occasional check in would have been appreciated.

The restaurant was not that busy especially toward the end of our visit.

Also my friends bill was not corrected with the removed shrimp. So we had to wait even longer to leave.

Overall this was not my ideal experience here. The manager tried to rectify the issue. But the inattentiveness of our original server then the nasty attitude of the second server and that nasty shrimp was enough to leave a bad review.

Drinks, Salad, Tomatoes were good, shrimp was just foul and tasted as if it had gone bad and was not even hot. Waiting over 30 minutes for salad and the shrimp isn't hot? I don't...

I ate a delicious "late lunch" [or "early supper"] earlier today [10-26-2022] at the recently-opened Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar at 1678 W. Lane Ave., directly across the street from the "Shops On Lane Avenue" [formerly known as the "Lane Ave. Shopping Center"] in Upper Arlington.

I have been aware of the eventual opening of this restaurant for the past six months or so; several months ago, I had added this restaurant to the "43221" section of my list of restaurants at which to eat "on behalf of Google Maps" and then waited for them to open.

Several news outlets had announced that the official "Grand Opening" of Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar had been yesterday; I decided to wait until the middle of the afternoon today so that they would be less crowded.

I am glad that they are now open because they are certainly a great place to eat.

My food choice for earlier today had been "Smothered Chicken" [boneless and skinless honey dusted fried chicken thighs, milk gravy, basil], served with two farm fresh sides [my choices for sides had been (1.) Collards with Bacon and (2.) Parmesan & Rosemary Potato Cracklins].

I had studied the menu on their website in advance of my visit and had spent quite a while making my food selection before arriving at the restaurant.

My food arrived quickly, perhaps ten minutes after I had ordered it, and had been absolutely delicious.

The "milk gravy" that had been served on the "Smothered Chicken" reminded me a lot of the gravy that is usually served on the familiar-to-me "sausage gravy and biscuits"; the "Collards with Bacon" had been tart and had been quite flavorful; the "Parmesan & Rosemary Potato Cracklins" had been completely new to me and had been a particular treat.

I spent a pleasant hour or so eating at Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar while also talking with several of their staff members as well as with one customer who had walked up to me near the end of my meal and had insisted that we know each other. Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar is definitely a friendly place.

My server had previously worked at Local Cantina Upper Arlington [located 150 feet or so to the east] and had remembered me from the one time -- more than six months ago -- when I had eaten there.

If you are in Upper Arlington and you are looking for some delicious "southern" food, I strongly recommend Tupelo Honey Southern...