Itta Bena — Restaurant in Wetumpka

🛑 I visited Itta Bena on October 29, 2022 for my sister's birthday. I had visited it the restaurant back in September of 2022 I had a great experience. I live in Atlanta Georgia, but I have military family located in Montgomery and therefore I made reservations for my sister's birthday there on October 29th. Upon arriving and being seated at our table after about a minute we all began to see ants on the table. Our waitress came over and her name was Jasmine we told her the ants were there and she just looked away and continue to take orders from each person at the table. We then complained again and the GM Travis came over and moved us to another table. After being seated at the ANOTHER table our food came out at different times. We had to ask for orders we had previously made that were never brought out. We also had to ask for bread and water over and over again. There was never any eye contact with the waitress Jasmine. Her appearance for an upscale restaurant was a zero. Remember this was for my sister's birthday, and her birthday never was mentioned by the waitress. I was so embarrassed because I had brought my family to Itta Bena after bragging on what I thought was such an upscale restaurant until this experience. After we all stomach the meal that was nothing like what I had experienced previously. My brother herbal chicken had no taste. My sisters pasta was horrible and overly priced. The fried green tomatoes we're not to taste. The service in fact was just horrible. I asked to speak with the manager and they sent this person over to our table and his name was Dee Underwood. He was so obnoxious not dressed professionally he could not articulate himself very well and my disenchantment grew even further. He offered us all an appetizer card to come back and buy two entrees as well as the coupons expired in December of 2022. Go figure that I live in Atlanta why would I have drive back to Montgomery Alabama and buy to entrees to get an appetizer that expires December 22 after such a distasteful experience? I called and spoke with the DM about the matter on or about Nov. 3 he said that he was embarrassed. He also said that they had problems not just with our table on October 29th but others had called in about the food and the service. Travis also said that they would like to make it up to my family because of the bad experience we had, I have not heard back from Travis to date and I spoke with him on November 3rd 2022. I also called the regional director before I call Travis and left a message with him his name is Brian Wooden, and I still haven't gotten a call from him to date. Be cautious when visiting places that has the ambiance of it upscale restaurant but serve you as though you're eating off of a dirty plate. I will be posting this info on all of my social media pages. 🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾. Owners I believe is Hill Street Blues LLC. Also we as black people should never treat each other the way that these people treated us and start investigating who you patronize your 🤑 with. Think like a Jew when it relates to 🤑. They do if you know...

This place was our third choice for the night. The other two were booked up. TOO BAD for us! First of all, I ordered the fried green TOMATO (singular) appetizer for $15! It was literally ONE THIN PIECE/SLIVER of a tomato with a mound of "very good" pimento cheese with other unnecessary garnish on it. The presentation was beautiful but the flavor of the tomato was lacking and it was room temperature at best. My husband ordered a salad. I wish I'd taken a picture of the limp greens that probably were on its last legs and should have been thrown out. The ranch dressing was basically mayonnaise with a hint of vinegar. When he asked for bleu cheese the server said they didn't have a bleu cheese. I had the absolute worst shrimp n grits I've ever tasted! The grits were thick n pasty, unseasoned and supposedly had Gouda cheese in it. The shrimp were swimming in some kinda red sweet sauce NOT savory Southern style like shrimp n grits should be. I immediately sent it back. When the manager brought my replacement sirloin he asked what was wrong with the shrimp n grits and we told him but there were several other complaints which he seemed to get annoyed with. But one thing was the dressing. We were floored when he said the main dressings they serve were bleu cheese and a vinaigrette. Umm, the server said they didn't have a bleu cheese? He did replace the ranch and the bleu cheese was better, but the salad was inedible! I asked for regular butter to go with the rolls that were brought out in the middle of the meal, they had none, only the weird tasting honey butter that tasted like honey and shortening! Anyway the sirloin was decent. The vegetable accompaniment was NOT! I finished off my husband's vegetables from his meal. He had a delicious Ribeye. Although it was VERY good, it was not worth the $55, even with the large serving of mashed potatoes and vegetables that came with it. Unless you're going for the ribeye, steer clear of this place. We will NOT be going back here again. I can think of few other things to waste $117...

I can not recommend this restaurant. We were one of about six or seven tables seated, so not a busy night. We waiting 10 minutes after being seated for our server to stop by our table. She took our orders and we did not see her again until our soup was delivered and that is the last time we saw her.

We ordered an appetizer, soup, and main dishes. We waited 30 minutes for our appetizer, the shredded duck bruschetta which was the best part of the meal. Our soup was brought at the same time as our appetizer which was disappointing. The She Crab soup was good but not great. The beer cheese soup was mildly warm but not hot and too salty.

Five minutes after our soup and appetizer were delivered (we finished our soup and had just started our appetizer) our main dishes were delivered. The blackened fish was very good. The crab cakes were mediocre at best and the sauce on the plate had a film on the top from sitting too long under the heat lamps.

Once our food was delivered (by a different waitress), nobody stopped at our table for the next 20 minutes to check on us. I finally flagged down the manager and asked for our bill. Others at tables near us simply left money and walked out because they couldn’t get anyone to bring their bill.

The manager took our appetizer off of the bill without us asking or mentioning anything which was thoughtful but it was still a terrible experience. Every table seemed to the having the same experience as us.

Unfortunately, the terrible service and mediocre food come nowhere near meeting expectations of a $30+/entree type restaurant.

I highly recommend trying one of Montgomery’s other fine dining establishments and avoiding...