Miss Toya's Southern Kitchen — Restaurant in Washington

Soooo.... i wanted so bad for this to be a 5 star experience or even a 4.5 would've sufficed.

My Wife and I decided to have dinner on Juneteenth at a Black owned restaurant, so we chose Miss Toya's and also because it is near our home.

We waled in and waited at the hostess stand for at least 3 mins; keep in mind 3 mins is a long time not to be acknowledged by staff upon entering an establishment. I made eye contact w/at least three employees while waiting; one happened to be the bartender and the other was the manager (as i later learned). After some time, the hostess came and greeted us. Her tone was very meek and when my Wife asked two questions and one of them being could we select our seats, she shook her head w/no verbal responses. I'm thinking to myself, we're about to leave because this is going downhill and there are too many restaurant options in the city.

Let me add as well that, as we were waiting at the front to be seated, I noticed it was rather warm. I chalked that up to the fact the door was propped open.

We were finally seated at the front by the windows. Let me tell you, our server was the saving grace. (Light skin w/piercings) So sorry i forgot her name. She was pleasant, informative, and had personality.

The manager came over and said he heard we had an issue upon entering. My Wife explained and i then added that we will more than likely not come back here and will probably travel to Silver Spring to try that one. He said, " Me too i go there too" and then said, since we live in this area we definitely wanted try this one because the southside needs community support when it comes to the restaurant scene. He then said, " Me too i live over here too".

I then mentioned how it was uncomfortably hot in the restaurant and didn't seem like the AC was working. He never addressed that issue.

I basically gave him my observation of the service and restaurant including how the windows and overall glass was filthy. If i noticed it, im pretty sure the manager should've noticed it as well. He said, " Now that i can help you with." The sarcasm from the manager was a complete disappointment, but somehow i am not surprised. He was a short brown skinned guy w/a Louie pouch chain hanging from his waist.

Overall Vibe: we expected a nice low key dinner. Bar was way too loud and IMO, the bartender was doing way too much. His entire conversation flowed over to where we sat. Ie: i knew he went to Ocean City and let someone have it (referring to telling them off)

It was pretty much giving, trap house soul food vibes. (Which if that's what you're in the mood for, go for it!)

Food:

Fried green tomatoes: the consistency of the crust was good. The batter used to fry was not flavorful. The saving point for this was the sauce and the lil additives such as the corn and tomatoes. We also added crab meat. Don't ask why about the crab meat, my Wife just had to! 🤦🏾‍♂️

Oysters: Charbroiled-Perfect!

Lamb chopS: i had this dish and was impressed since honestly a lot of restaurants serve lamb chops and i really be underwhelmed. Mac & cheese & greens: Bussing out the bag, especially the greens

Blackened Catfish: my Wife had this and let me try it. Too salty! Catfish is a tender seafood and w/seasoning apparently you can go wrong really quick. Her cornbread though was like dat!

Dessert: Peach cobbler & bread pudding. Let me say IDK what that brick of a flavorless bread was but it was nothing pudding about it. The peach cobbler, i liked! Sweet and crusty.

DrinkS:...

On February 27, 2025 I chose to give this establishment a try after being told that the food was “so good”. It definitely wasn’t. I spent $50.00 on the wing dinner (7 party wings) and it came with 2 sides. I chose the garlic mashed potatoes & Mac and cheese. I also decided to give the deviled eggs and seafood egg rolls a try. When I tell you that the deviled eggs & so called garlic mashed potatoes were freaking disgusting 🤮. The mashed potatoes were soupy and had absolutely no seasoning or substance at all. I thought they gave me baby food 🤦🏽‍♀️.

The seafood egg rolls had so much cheese that you can’t even taste the seafood. It was like eating a cheese egg roll with sprinkles of the smallest amount of seafood EVER. Now, let’s get to the less than impressive chicken wings. They gave me wings that I know now for sure that they didn’t take any time or effort into cleaning. The feathers and hairs sticking out are enough proof of that a they 2 lacked flavor. I decided after seeing the feathers and hair on the chicken that I didn’t want the food and it was going back after I finished working for the day. Now get this. I had eaten 2 of the deviled eggs & taken 2 bits of the seafood egg rolls.

When I got there I experienced nothing but attitude from the lady at the front. She said “a refund”!!! I said yes and explained the issue. The manager only refunded me $38.00 because I had eaten 2 of the eggs 🤷🏽‍♀️. So I had a issue with it and she said that she kept $7.70 because of it so I said then give me the other 2 eggs but she threw them in the trash when I went to use the restroom. This place is not a place that you or anyone else should eat at. I actually was speaking to another customer after what I went through and she to informed me that she had to return her appetizer as well. I wanted so bad for my experience to be good because I wanted to take my friends but after this, NEVER AGAIN!!! Mind you that the host suggested everything...

I stopped by around 9:15 pm on Saturday, 02-24-24 to make a take out order. They were still quite busy to be closing within the hour.

The young man at the door was interrupted at least twice while I attempted to give my order, once from someone who called in an order but ended up hanging up; the other time by a young lady who was packing orders near the kitchen who'd brought an order and discussed some system not working.

I ordered the blackened shrimp deviled eggs, a side of mac & cheese, and banana pudding. It was about 30 minutes between when I placed the order and when I received the order. The host told me I could sit at the bar until my order was ready. I sat on the far left side. I'm not sure how the host didn't see me as big as my coat was, but he apologized when he brought my order to me.

The bar staff was excellent. Aside from enjoying watching them make various drinks, two different bartenders checked to see if I needed anything. It was one of the bartenders who noticed that I'd been waiting for a while when he tracked down my order.

I have mixed reviews about my order. Had I known I'd be paying $13 for two deviled eggs (4 halves), I may not have ordered. The shrimp size did seem to be colossal, but I expected more than 2 eggs for the price. The mac & cheese had a lot of cheese like I like, but it seemed to be dry. The banana pudding was a good portion size, but there was more whipped cream than I prefer. Also, the bananas were all brown. I kinda gave a pass on that since it was the end of the night.

I would return again when in the area, but maybe just for drinks as it seemed that everyone at the bar was happy with their drink orders. Not sure if they're just for decoration, but most appeared to have water spots, giving the appearance of not being clean from...