mert's heart and soul

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 theirserviceuntil 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. customerservicealso 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

solid soul food generally, but probably a bit over rated. this place serves some pretty good low country/country cooking dishes, at reasonable prices at lunch, not so reasonable at dinner - the prices at lunch run $7 - $9 for an entree which comes with 2 sides and corn bread. this is not the quietest restaurant, nor the cleanest, for that matter. theserviceis hit or miss in my experience

the fried chicken (1/4 dark meat for $7.05 at lunch) is very good, the beef ribs ($8.25) are good not great, and i love the salmon cakes ($7.25 at lunch). the fried catfish is good and well priced at $7.75, and the whiting is even better at $7.55. the fried green tomato app is nice, not as tart as some, but still good. the collards are not to my liking, and i've tried them several times.

the shrimp and grits ($7.89) are nice, rich and creamy, though a rather small serving. the bbq pork ($7.30) is not really a favorite of mine - the meat is tender, but lacks any hint of smokiness, and the sauce is sweeter than i care for.

all in all not a bad place to grab some soul food for lunch if in the area, and a visit to see what it is all about should be considered but once is probably enough. this is just not a destination soul food spot despite the hype,
there is better available in the charlotte area.


-----06 jun, 2011-----

nice downtown eatery. this place serves excellent low county/country cooking dishes at reasonable prices - at least the prices are reasonable at lunch, $7 - $9 for a entree which comes with 2 sides and corn bread.

the fried chicken is excellent, the ribs are as well, and i love the salmon cakes. the fried catfish is good, any of the po' boys are worth trying. the fried green tomato app is nice, not as tart as some, but still good. the collards are not to my liking, and i've tried them twice.

the shrimp and grits are nice, rich and creamy. but, i was disappointed in the shrimp creole, was bland and watery.servicehere is excellent, even when this place is busy, which it always seems to be. the ambiance is homey, though it can get a little loud.

visiting from illinois, felt deceived. not 4 star worthy (2 at best).serviceokay, food is avg. tried the red beans n rice w/turkey (ok, not spectacular), catfish (seasoned ok), beef ribs (ok, but fatty), grits (they're grits, you can't go wrong there), greens (ok), blackened salmon (ok). overall, just an average meal. left scratching my head by the 4 star rating... don't be fooled!!

overated. mert's has bad customer service. i visited twice and have regretted going back. i will not go back at all. i wanted to give the place a second chance but the experience was the same. the food is highly overrated and not the best quality andserviceis very poor.

very slowserviceand servers came across very lazy. they let the food that's ready to sit on the counter for at least 10-15 minutes before taking it to the customers. i waited 1 hour for the food to come. greasy fried chicken. the worst restaurant i've ever been to.

tip: park in the deck at the holiday inn next to mert's. that's the only deck they validate tickets for.


-----24 feb, 2014-----

ate there tonight for my second time. first time had sausage & red beans. it was good. tonight my sweetie and i had fried chicken and bbq ribs, mac & cheese, potato salad, and black-eyed peas. cornbread comes with the meal and we also ordered soul rolls. the chicken was ok, nothing extraordinary. price's is much better. the cornbread and the soul rolls were excellent and worth another visit. the other sides were not remarkable. mert's was packed tonight, but theservicewas still fairly good. overall, the joint is ok, not great.

great food and atmosphere.servicewas not the best but not horrible. the cornbread, collard greens, potato salad, okra, yams, carolina bbq plate/sandwich and soul rolls were good. my wife liked her blackened pork chops but i found they were not seasoned well. both the chocolate and sweet potato cakes were good.

so so ... very over rated. don't get me wrong. it's a nice place and theserviceis good and friendly but the food has a long way to go.

my wife and i drove into charlotte ot give them a try. my wife ordered a grilled chicken salad while i stuck with one of the brunch specials, chicken and waffles. being a soul food restaurant, what could be better?

given that my wife liked her salad, my chicken and waffles left much to be desired. both the waffle and the chicken were grossly overcooked. the waffle was very dense in texture with no height to it at all. in other words, it was very flat. it was also cooked to almost a very dark brown.

the corn bread is very good but they may want to cut back a bit on the sugar so that it tastes a bit less like cake. still very good, warm with butter on it.

chicken was very tough and dry with a very hard crust on the outside. you definatey needed a knife to cut these babies.

being on almost a diagonal from the performing arts centers, the decor is rich in posters from off broadway shows. it's a nice decor and very homey. as i mentioned earlier,serviceis good although i would have liked a refill on my tea at some point.

at some point, i'll give them another try but right now, restaurant did not live up to my expectations or their reviews.

this was not only the best food i've had in charlotte, nc but maybe some of the best soul food i've had ever! theservicewas excellent and our waitress latosha was so phenomenal it was a true delight. the atmosphere was equally as wonderful as theserviceand meal. you must save room for the banana pudding

it lived up to my expectations; the barbecue was as good as i’ve ever had and the boys had to fight me over the mac and cheese. with some of the friendliestservicein addition to delicious food, this is a must-visit restaurant if you’re ever in charlotte.

scramble eggs were runny.servicewas terrible. chicken was good so were the home fries.

ate there this past weekend.. was expecting really good food, and at least averageservice.. not what i got. theservicewas awful and the food was worse. my wife had cajun pork chops with yams and collard greens. i had a veggie plate (collard greens, seasoned rice, green beans). each bite of my greens was ruined by a crunch of sand & an overbearing taste of vinegar. the 'flavored' rice had no flavor whatsoever. my wife said her pork chops tasted like they had been sitting in water then they took them out and sprinkled some blackening seasoning on them.
when we asked our waiter for the check, he could not produce it... he asked "i was your server right?" the manager was then supposed to handle the problem.. we did not hear from her until 10 minutes later as we were about to walk out after a different waitress figured out how to get us the bill. definitely will not go back there again.

not going back. we have been here twice. the first time was okay but not great but we were willing to give it another chance. the second time was just plain awful. these people claim to cook soul food but don't know how to season food. everything main dish we have had there was bland-fried catfish, fried chicken, salmon cakes, shrimp creole. the shrimp creole tasted like boiled shrimp with a few tomatoes on it instead of being a nice tomato sauce. the collards were gritty and one of the kids in our group ordered fries which were really small white potatoes quatered that were partially raw and had no seasoning. the first time the cornbread was really good, almost cake like, the second time it just tasted like jiffy mix.

service is not good here; they are slow, the don't come back and ask you do you need anything, you have to flag them down for refills, they don't clear the table well. you are have to hand them your dishes when you are done, they don't think to do so. if you are looking for southern/soul food in uptown, go to king's kitchen- the food is much better and they have goodserviceas well. will not return to merts.

dang good. i had the shrimp & grits. it was pretty good and was a brown gravy base.servicewas really good for our party of 7. all the plates looked great imo.

i wouldn't make a special trip but if you are in charlotte looking for something good to eat, this is one to consider.