Phat Phillies — Restaurant in Virginia

I've been here multiple times and the food is fair, but I have to say I feel the same way about the customer service in the restaurant. Very rude, the service window layout is weird and makes it almost a confrontational experience. Earlier in my career I was a restaurant general manager for Ponderosa Steakhouse, Pizza Hut and Sbarro and I'm a frequent restaurant customer as I'm single and travel quite a bit. But the counter where you place your order is reminiscent of a prison cafeteria. Literally. I have never seen anything like it in my 50 years on the planet. Maybe this contributes to the way you're treated, but I suspect it's also because they are THE ONLY restaurant in the area (except a dirty Chinese place a block away) due to the high crime rates locally. So they probably do feel like you can take it or leave it. But, I think they probably take a lot of cr*p from the local drug addicts and take this out on everyone else.

Since I was a kid, this area has basically had EVERY national restaurant group close their operations. It's known as the city's epicenter of crack and heroin users, which is saying a lot for a town that has been devastated by drugs in the 40 years since I was an elementary school student here. The hotels are 90% unliveable horror shows, with the notable exception of the newly remodeled Motel6, which I'll be reviewing separately and highly recommend!

One more thing that caused me to drop another star from my rating is the fact that I've never been charged the price they have advertised in the window or on the menu board. ALWAYS costs a couple of bucks more than advertised, which is why I will not be going back. They really have a great opportunity to grow the business and make tons of money, but the owners need to realize that people have now become very comfortable using GrubHub and Door Dash, which now gives area diners the choice of over 100 local restaurants who deliver to this area. One word of caution about using GrubHub or Door Dash from the local hotels is that MANY stop delivering to the area earlier than other areas in the city or tri-cities area, due to the likelihood of the drivers being robbed after it gets dark. So don't plan on getting anything delivered after 10pm. 😉

In short, if they'd be a little nicer and actually charge you the good prices they have advertised, this would be a 4.5 star location. But as it stands I can barely give them a 3 star rating, with the further caveat that I DO NOT recommend them at this time due to those...

This restaurant replaces Hawks BarBQ, which was legendary for their large portion sizes and amazingly tasty food. So I had to try it out. I ordered 25 fried chicken wing dings and a large order of fries. The chicken wings were deliciously crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. The fries were great without any extra salt or even ketchup. I have been back two more times to order the same thing, to see if this is how they do things at Phat Phillies. They were exactly the same each time. It was like I was eating out of the same box EVERY TIME!! Next time I go, I plan on ordering a catfish sandwich. I will let you know what's better than a catfish sandwich from Phat Phillies, two catfish sandwiches more...

The man who took my order for p/ didn't know how to charge me for mozzarella on my fries instead of nacho cheese, so I couldn't get any. The next week I ordered delivery with my neighbors and they were able to do so. Weeks later I ordered for p/u and again they were unable to make because they had no idea how to charge me. When picked up the other and paid for the item I ordered I asked the gentleman why didn't they fill my request order when he did so on orders placed for delivery. He asked for which apartment, then he said the number of the apartment which was my neighbor's home. He then we make an exception for them, they always order and tip big. They just lost a customer. And I will tell anyone who...