mert's heart and soul

hidden gem. tucked away on the first floor of an office building on an anonymous downtown street, mert's is a hidden gem. the brightly decorated interior is entertaining and a little noisy, with table clustered pretty close together and a small lunch counter by the open grill station. the menu is a showcase of southern comfort food. i opted for the day's special, a delicious oyster po-boy. sandwiches and entrees come with a choice of 1 or 2 sides (there's a great list). i picked the red beans, which were excellent: well-cooked, rich, and spicy. a delightful meal.

yummy!!!. if you are ever in charlotte, nc and have a taste for soul/southern food its a must!!!

mert's isn't necessarily what you'd expect to find in the middle of uptown, but man the food is excellent! it doesn't lack that casual southern character that makes you feel at home, especially with all the waitstaff in t shirts and jeans.
my girlfriend and i came in for lunch, decided on our orders and were pleasantly surprised when the food arrived in just 2-3 minutes. with nearly all of the food made ahead of time cafeteria style with just a quick sear needed to finish off some items and no finishing touches for most others, you might worry that the quality suffers but it did not in our experience! i ordered the salmon cakes with collards and mac & cheese and she got the chopped bbq with green beans and mac & cheese. the salmon cakes were amazing.. no other way to describe it, just order them! the remoulade on the side makes them even better too. the chopped bbq was very good as well. for the sides, the collards and green beans were both tasty choices but the mac & cheese stole the show. so gooey and cheesy, classic baked macaroni & cheese like mom/grandma used to make. the cornbread was good but nothing special. i would have guessed that the salmon patties or mac were what mert's was famous for rather than the cornbread tbh.
overall, the food was fairly inexpensive and came out very quickly, but the taste was amazing and the portions were very large. add on the fact that the waiters were friendly and that's about all i ask for in a restaurant experience!

great mac and cheese & banana pudding. pass on the shrimp and grits. i found them very disappointing. you can't go wrong with the pulled pork sandwich, mac and cheese, banana pudding, and anything from the dessert case. also, the shrimp salad is huge and delicious--i get it with the vinaigrette dressing and grilled shrimp.

my mother, aunt , and i ate here today. i've eaten there plenty of times before, however today, our waitress gave us horrible service. after bringing our cornbread, it seemed as though she forgot about us, to the point where we sat there with watered down sweet tea. finally got our order minutes later. we waited about 45min for our food without being checked on. complained to the manager and received no apology. i loved their service until today!

omg...... love love it........this place is southern comfort food at its best. so very pleased that we ate there today. food was just as good as anything my grandmother or my mom would cook. and they both are fantastic cooks. customer service also great..... our waitress was victoria.... she was very helpful about the menu and took excellent care of us. the food really took me back to my grandmother’s home and that was always the best place to be

my girlfriend and i, along with another couple, were in town for a show the night before and were about to head back home the next day and stumbled across this. we’re all foodies so we were looking up places to try out. some real hole-in-the-wall type places. and we could not find any. every place we came across was very modern and fancy schmancy and there’s nothing wrong with that but wasn’t us at all. then we found this place ... y’all ... my entire soul was happy finding this place. we placed our order to go but my girlfriend and i had to use the bathroom while waiting and their hostess was nice and pointed us in the right direction but just walking through that place took you back in time to after church when they had the dinner plates for sale and everybody was lined up to get one and a piece of cake with a lemonade to go lol. it felt like there wasn’t any air circulating in there, everybody had on church clothes and was fanning themselves, kitchen wide open so you can see the cook throwing down, and old timey picture hanging up. if you don’t feel at home when you come to this place then you gotta find somewhere else to go. the cornbread alone tasted like it was made by somebody’s old southern baptist grandma and i am perfectly fine eating all that cornbread. it’ll get you right. everything else on the menu’ll get you right too. all in all, in the midst of so many modernized and gentrified places to eat downtown, mert’s is the hole-in-the-wall, southern comfort, good eatin food you’re probably looking for. don’t miss out y’all!

great soul food. the sides are excellent. i had the fried soft shell crab as a special. it was exceptional. this is my first time in downtown charlotte and i was not disappointed. outside dining too.

if you like soul food in a welcome joint, this place is great.  food was hearty and they don't skimp, so bring a healthy appetite.  i enjoyed the chopped bbq and mashed potatoes while others at our table had a good representation of their menu.  nobody was disappointed.  check it out.

this place is great. atmosphere is unique and the food is really flavorful. we will be bringing visitors to this place when they come into town. fast service, friendly staff.

this is the second time that i have been to mert's. both times food was prepared excellent. i had wings first time, the seasoning was just right. second time had catfish, it was good as well. atmosphere is also great. i will definitely done here again in the future.

the fried chicken was awesome. i also had the mac and cheese as well as the black eyed peas, both were very good. they serve you a huge hunk of cornbread with your meal and it was good as well. next time i will make sure to save room for dessert. they have a bar full of cakes that look very good.

had breakfast once and it took 35 minutes. i was disgusted but said maybe because it was busy that's why they were slow and our food was cold. tried again, this time lunch and it was worse. everything had a strong vinegar taste. no flavor and again our food was cold. they bought me my side dish and 15 min later they bought my food. they had to reheat my side again. we will never go back there. they no nothing about southern cooking or hospitality for that matter

the food was fine, i had the salomon cakes with yams and mac and cheese, the corn bread tasted better than 2 other soul food places i have visited recently, the cashier at the door listed the deserts out to me soo fast that i gave up on adding the non nutrient to my meal because she told me a total before i could follow up with a decision or question, i ate take out

overrated. the food was ok. nothing to rave about. the best thing about my dining experience was the corn bread. won't be going back unless i'm in the area.