tupelo honey cafe

great experience. went with my husband on a saturday nite about 7:45. we were told there would be a 30 minute wait, and then after about 5 minutes we were offered seats at the bar looking into the kitchen, which we gladly took. interacting with the kitchen staff was fun, and they even gave us some samples. i had the shoo grilled cheese, have mercy with the cheesy onion bisque. my husband had the meatloaf with mac and cheese and asparagus. the food was delicious! the biscuits were really good too. i will say we tried two of the cocktails, a pimm's and the benton's bacon manhattan, and weren't that impressed.

i was kind of nervous about going since i read some really bad reviews on here, but our visit was great. we will be returning soon as there were a lot of menu items i wanted to try. this place will definitely be my favorite for a little while.

loved it. i couldn't have been happier with my first experience at tupelo. my server, mary anna was so much fun and gave my family the best service possible. we loved the complimentary biscuits and the shrimp and grits!! we can't wait to come back for more!

the service here is absolutely miserable. the place will be empty and no one will talk to you. if you're there you'll probably have to initiate conversation to get your order in. i wish i could write in a negative tip because of how poor and wretched this service was. this place should go out of business. but i don't care, i'm never going back.

just ok. i gave this a thumbs down. it wasn't outright bad, but i was excited about this place and it paled in comparison to some of the other eateries around town. between us we tried the tomato soup, scallops, fried green tomatoes, and the pimento cheese and havarti sandwich. my favorite item was a piece of pickled okra that came as a garnish.

finally!! thc!!!. i finally made it to my beloved tupelo. the grand opening madness lasted much too long. getting a seat in under than 30 minutes has been near impossible since they opened. needles to say, this place has become an instant favorite (as expected). so my first visit was with my mother. we were sat in the big comfy chairs by the kitchen (like billvol). i hadn't even looked over my menu 2 minutes before our server walked by with a tray of dirty dishes that she tripped and literally crashed all over me. hey, no worries. i needed extra blueberry jam anyway (she was very sweet and couldn't have apologized more and i told her my story about the time i spilled an entire oval trey of hot sake and sapporo all over a woman who had just come from a funeral....i mean in the grand scheme of things her incident was a dribble in the hot grease compared to my chemical war bomb. not a big deal. we restaurant folk gotta have each others backs even when we're not in restaurants anymore :) so my mom and i ordered and shared the misse's asheville veggie melt with their tomato soup, a side of grits, rosemary peach tea, and pecan pie for desert. of course we asked for the biscuits and blueberry jam and honey (complimentary btw and limitless). their biscuits are really great. they are simple and savory. the outside is nearly crunchy with a fluffy and lightly dense inside. the sandwich was open face, hot, and wonderful. with as many people that pack the place, tupelo is excellent at getting food out fast and hot. don't ever expect a long wait. if you do encounter a long wait here, better grab your waiter because that's not normal. the soup was just like i remembered, the grits were *bite my knuckles* amazing and i could drink them in my screw top coffee mug in the morning and be happy forever, and the pecan pie was warm, rich, and perfectly satisfying. don't forget the rosemary peach tea! uhg. rosemary peach tea. like, genius. our server was very sweet, accommodating (even in the rush madness and spilling of things). had a delicious and memorable first of many visits at my favorite restaurant in all of chattanooga. (p.s., glad you had a better experience, bill! i knew you would be a fan!!)


-----20 sep, 2013-----

billvoll: cheese. they have havarti, gorgonzola, cheddar, and the oh so lovely, pimento. the only thing i can think of on their menu that has goat cheese irrevocably amalgamated is the grits which are absolute divinity. give them another shot (ask if you can taste the grits and they will bring you out a ramekin. i promise you they don't ooze goat cheese. it's very subtle). this place is way too tasty to turn your nose up to because of one type of cheese. and try the rosemary peach lemonade. haunts my dreams how good it is. you will be a hipster before you know it ;)


-----19 sep, 2013-----

goat cheese..... if you don't like goat cheese, ask. for. it. off. what!!?! what a novel idea!!! can't wait to go here. went to the asheville location and the food and service was fantastic. food and atmosphere for every genre of society (not just hipsters, but hipsters rule so let's just establish that right now).

new player in town. they opened their doors in chattanooga about three months ago. the food is fresh and tasty. we split the po' boy roast beef sandwich and got an extra side and it was perfect. the fried okra is light and the beet salad was crispy and full of flavor.

great experience!. we were greeted most pleasantly by the hostess who immediately seated us in the bar area. kloe, our server, was the "bomb". her recommendations were spot on. i must commend the chef, the food was very flavorful. even though the food prep took longer than some of the chain establishments, it was a great trade off for the freshness and quality of food. we will definitely return to experience more of the diverse menu.

service is excellent. prompt, thorough, friendly servers. atmosphere and decor is nice. food, however, needs much improvement. for an inflated price (probably 20-30% too high for the quality), you get a dish that will have you proclaiming, "meh". especially overpriced menu items include their entree list ($14-20 for lunch) and $15 salads with chicken added. sides such as black eyed peas taste canned; grits are overly loaded with cream. better food can be found at nearby public house, terminal brewhouse or southern star for much less dinero. the dessert menu is uninspiring as well.

had the fried chicken blt sandwich and it was amazing.
also loved their onion cheese soup!
service was good
good environment
and good value for your money

disappointing. veggie plate...sweet potato fries not near as good as urban stacks...mac&cheese not near as good as roy's grill or mt. vernon, fried green tomatoes too grainy of corn meal batter, chard/kale...even i can do better. bananna pudding...custard was awesome but the glob of dark banannas was disgusting to even look at. when a friend told me not to try the shrimp and grits (way too much goat cheese) or the tasteless pecan crusted chicken i should have just not gone!

don't waste your time. choose a place with experience. i recently had a terrible experience in chattanooga. i met a friend for lunch on saturday, october 18. it was her first time dining at thc; however, i had visited the previous weekend. as we set down, the waitress took our drink order. we both ordered an alcoholic beverage. naturally, she asked for identification. after glancing at both of them for several moments, she said she would have to verify the authenticity with the manager. this is an issue neither of us have incurred, as we have traveled all over the united states with the same licenses, including airports, without a dilemma; however, she was doing her job. all was fine until her manager returned stating she couldn't accept the licenses because they appeared to tampered with or invalid. the issues were as follows: the year for by dob was partially cut off (1/3 of the 5 for 1985 was cut off); my friend's license wasn't listed as a current ga license in their state license book (nor was it expired) and it had been in the washing machine, leaving the plastic film bubbled in one area. the waitress also stated her ex-husband hand the same problem with his license dob and i could have it fixed at the dmv. very useful piece of advice. rather than taking that advice, i will not return to thc. they are inexperienced and inconsistent. the previous weekend (at thc), i was carded both at the bar and at our table without an issue. the location is 50 minutes from my house and was a complete waste of my saturday. i am glad to know that thc is a martyr for license fraud and holds higher standards than the federal aviation administration; i will certainly sleep sounder at night with this new found knowledge. if you chose to visit thc, be certain your license is the most updated version and is in pristine condition.

my husband and i had been looking forward to visiting tupelo honey since several of our friends had given it rave reviews. we arrived around 8:00 on a sunday night. the restaurant was crowded but we were able to sit inside immediately. i noticed that we were closer to other tables than i was used to but chalked that up to the homey, southern kitchen atmosphere. my husband went to wash his hands and in the couple of minutes he was gone, i realized how loud it was and that whatever conversations we hoped to have that evening would be impossible. a server never came by so when the hubs returned to the table, we headed to the bar.
we first ordered the pimento cheese appetizer. it was barely warm and a tolerable representation of the dish that really was a melted glom of cheddar cheese. the barely warm presentation was unfortunately a theme for the rest of the evening. the vegetable plate caught my eye and i went with the sesame seed asparagus, turnip greens, and macaroni and cheese. my husband chose the meatloaf. as i said the restaurant was busy, however a 30 minute wait on main courses that required minimal preparation was frustrating. to top that off, it came out luke warm as if it may have been hot a couple hours ago but had been basking in the rays of a heat lamp since then. my husband said the meatloaf had a good flavor but the tepid temp dampened his enthusiasm. my turnip greens came out in a bath of soy sauce. i tried to salvage them by removing them from their bowl but a lot of the damage was done. the asparagus was also drowning in sesame oil and seeds. the macaroni was uninspiring for a girl who grew up on grandma's home made concoction.

don't give up. we went in a thursday night for dinner. service was good food was great. let them get over the opening hump and i think they'll rock.

some good parts, some meh. our group of 8 girls tried out the new location of the tupelo honey cafe in chattanooga, tn last night. for some reason, i thought it wouldn't be as classy as it is, it's really a very nice place, and while it has a laid back vibe, it's attached to a very posh boutique shopping mall. inside, the tables aren't too close together and the noise level is low, great for talking. they also have these upholstered chairs and a short bar right by the kitchen if you want to be near the action. be prepared to wait before you can see any of this however; after being told it was a 45-minute wait at 6:15, we waited a little over an hour for a table large enough, but then things really cleared out about 8:00. you can reserve a table ahead of time, but only for parties of 10 or more (and i was thinking around 7:30 that maybe we should have done that.)

our server was kind and even took the time to take a picture of us all. and the long-awaited biscuits were as good as advertised. they come with some tupelo honey and one of their branded jams, which i think was blueberry. these come complementary to the table as the bread service. i ordered a garlic chicken dish and was much more enthralled with my sides than the chicken. while the peach bourbon sauce was tasty, the chicken itself was kind of tasteless. there were three small palm-size filets and i ate 1 & 1/2 of them. the mac & cheese however was decadent and the asparagus with swiss chard had a great crisp bright taste. on other plates, the fried okra was above average, the home fries off the breakfast menu (served all day) were amazing, and there were reports of good bacon, nutty fried chicken and shrimp & grits from other quarters.

i would love to come back and try other dishes--a trout with capers and some shrimp tacos sounded good. it would be a great place to visit and try out their extensive drink menu and some appetizers, and our waiter almost had us tempted with offers of root beer, cheerwine or nehi floats, and i'd bet they do a decent pecan pie and banana pudding as well, which were also options.

all show nothing else. the food and service is terrible. they say everything is just wonderful. obviously, they don't eat their own food. had lunch there, took forever while watching my sandwich sit on warming shelf for 20 minutes while they prepared the rest of my tables meals. okra popcorn tastes like they bought it at sams club in the frozen food section. they need to get it together. poor management, food quality and unprofessional mediocre service. their description of what they are and serve in no way resembles what you get when you go thru the doors, and give me a break, don't come to my table in a t-shirt and charge $25 for an entree and $10 for a cocktail. your not that cool! i will not return.