Cocktails 101 — Restaurant in Vicksburg

I'd like to give this place the benefit of the doubt but it was a Saturday night (peak time) at a place that wants to cater to parties, and when my small party tried to dine, our experience was so bad, we left early in favor of Wendy's. One server used the excuse (although didn't specify what the apology was for) that a party took them by surprise 🤔) - I saw said party. They were leaving after we were sort of seated. It wasn't that large, and...if a mid-size party throws your whole restaurant off, you might want to reconsider your business model.

The host stand was behind the door, so we couldnt even tell when we arrived if we seated ourselves. Once we were finally seated, we weren't given silverware...or EVER. Our server never even tried to take an entree order until long after our appetizer arrived (by then we'd decided to leave). They were out of chicken, for one thing. Out of chicken....on a Saturday evening. The Buffalo chicken dip was a spicy tomato bisque at best. The mango margarita was the weakest I've had in over a decade (I understand cost cutting, but for a drink with 3 liqueurs, I should taste SOMETHING). Even the menus were disappointing (flimsy home-made paper copies for drinks and laminated 1 pages for the food, clearly not taken care of).

I'm saddened to say I don't see this place surviving in a town and region that demands (with reason) top-notch service and results for their dollar when dining out, if they can't better plan their kitchen, train their staff, and polish up their overall presentation.

Like I said, we got our appetizer, realized there was no chicken (unless it'd been pureed), and opted instead for Wendy's. I'd suggest, if you want to dine in Vicksburg, go to a trusted establishment like Rusty's. I...

So, my 9yr old and I were walking around in downtown Vicksburg, MS and he, of course, was hungry as usual. With the name of the restaurant being Cocktails 101, I was hesitant to take my 9 yr old in there, but they were having a special on wings.. "Wednesday wings;" we decided to give it a try. There was only one customer at the bar when we entered and I didn't know if it was because of the quality of the food and service or because it was a Wednesday evening... So, right off, I noticed the items on the menu were a bit pricey for my tastes! But, we were here and we had sat down so we were at the point of no return!! The food is pretty good. My son said, " Mom you ought to go into the restaurant business because this tastes exactly like your food!" I don't know about you, but if I'm going to pay an arm and a leg for a meal, I want it to taste better than the meals I normally cook! So, I thought some items on the menu were a bit overpriced, but the food was good. The service was great because we were the only people eating in the restaurant. I'm not sure how you can mess that up. Of course we got all the attention of our server, and that was nice. The atmosphere was really laid-back and a few locals drifted in and sat at the bar. It was very quaint and clean. It ended up being a really nice time and my son decided that we would come back to Cocktails 101 at least once a month so we could enjoy a nice meal together in a fun, upscale...

Dinner with friends at Cocktails 101 was delicious. We were a party of three and ordered fish tacos, bowl of gumbo, and Cajun seafood pasta. The combo was definitely a meal size bowl that received a rave review. The person ordering the fish tacos (It was Taco Tuesday.) Looks forward to returning again on Taco Tuesday. The size of the bowl of Cajun seafood pasta was outrageous. The to-go box contained enough pasta for two the next evening. It was just as good warmed up the next day with a little chicken broth as it was in the restaurant. The service was excellent. Enough attention that we didn't need to flag our server down but were not...