tupelo honey cafe

there's nothing like being slightly lost and very hungry in a strange city. as we wandered around trying to get our bearings we found ourselves in warehouse row. it looked like an interesting place so when we spotted tupelohoneycafe we thought we'd give it a try. . we didn't know it when we went in but tupelohoneycafe is a chain with  several restaurants in the southeast. according to their website the food is described as "new south flavors" and goes on to say they serve "traditional southern fare that is creative, inventive and satisfying scrumptious".

tupelohoneywas great for brunch! the new staff and new menu has greatly improved the restaurant. i had the sweet potato pancakes! delicious.

went into tupelohoneytoday for a salad that i have gotten a couple of times recently and really loved. the service is always terribly slow but i was craving the salad so i decided to ignore the usual slow service. this salad in the past has been around 15 dollars with a drink which isn't cheap but it's typically good. i get it today and the salad is half the size and only has half a chicken breast on it. i say something to the waiter and he says they got new bowls but it's the same size. i finish the salad which i've never done before and am still hungry. definitely not the same size. they also charged me for the goat cheese which i'm not usually charged for because all the other salads come with it. they also charged me for an extra dressing. my bill was a little over $18 dollars for a side salad with half a chicken breast. needless to say i won't be going back.

theirhoneyand biscuits are fantastic, and breakfast for dinner was perfect.  daniel had the chicken and biscuits, while i tried the country breakfast and jack had the kids sweet potato pancakes. my only complaint about tupelohoneyis that they change their menu and don't always have the same breakfast offerings. i can always count on goodhoneyand biscuits though!

perfection!. the food and service was perfect! first time i was impressed with my dinner out in several yrs. tennessee smith was in the kitchen and i would have liked to tell him how pleased i was ,he left before i finished my meal. our server, julia, was fantastic! tupelohoneycafe is now my favorite dinner out place!

great experience.. came on a monday night for dinner with a friend and was seated immediately. our server was very friendly and attentive, quick with suggestions about the menu and explanations of new items (the menus have recently been redone, but as this was my first visit i couldn't tell you the differences).

we had the fried green tomatoes starter, which came on a bed of the goat cheese grits. heaven on a plate, seriously.

to help balance that out a little i ordered a veggie plate, choosing the mashed cauliflower, black-eyed peas, and asparagus. it came with a biscuit on the side - a bit dense for a biscuit, but with a good flavor and some excellent blueberry jam and real tupelohoneyfor toppings. everything was wonderful, even my leftovers when reheated the next day. it was nice to have a slightly healthier version of down home cooking with fresh options available (even though the asparagus was likely the only healthy thing on my plate, as anything as tasty as the mashed cauliflower has to have some unhealthy things added in to make it taste that good!). i'll definitely be back!

i went with a friend on sunday night. i had the southern fried chicken saltimbocca with country ham. it was delicious! i wish there had been just a little more mushroom sauce. the biscuits andhoneywere great!

must try!!!. during a recent visit to chattanooga a friend recommended that we visit tupelohoneycafe. both the food & service were great! if you visit them, you must try the homemade pimento cheese & tortilla chips first, then go for the root beer molasses glazed pork tender w/smoked jalapeno sauce & green apple salsa. don't like root bear? don't let that stop you. no root beer taste at all!!!

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 andhoney(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).

my husband and i had been looking forward to visiting tupelohoneysince 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.

some good parts, some meh. our group of 8 girls tried out the new location of the tupelohoneycafe 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 tupelohoneyand 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.

good flavor profile/poor service. well let me first say i arrived @ the restaurant @ 7:20 and waited until 8:10 to be seated, (after being told 30 - 40 minutes) all the while looking at 4 tables on the patio , and 3 inside open the entire time we waited. i get it, your new here with a new staff, but this was definitely a ploy to make you think it was a higher demand than supply .. and if you let your kitchen dictate your seating instead of the hostesses that's cool too ... but don't make me wait too long after i am seated to order, or eat. service was bad,slow, and just plain poor. the outdoor table was tilted and wobbly and hostess didn't want to move us to another area ( restaurant was 50% full at his point there were options but we didn't want to inconvenience her any further, so we ate at this table like we were on a boat ) server was new at serving and it showed, she was also very nervous and introverted, non attentive, and was no help at helping us decide on a dish. she took our order and then returned to the table much later apologizing that no side came with the meals we ordered. approximately 35 minutes later we got a refill on our drinks and our appetizer at the same time. food quality was good, but not worth the price honestly ! 8:45 p.m. we got our food ! fried chicken was moist and hot, ... but gravy & biscuits were cold and plated way before the chicken that's for sure, biscuits were as old and hard as the ones served earlier withhoney(good flavor profile but served poorly, out of temp, and not fresh maybe in a steam box too long ?) this was my birthday dinner, i admit i was expecting a lot more from this place with all the accolades in asheville .. i guess it just goes to show ya , the original is always the best. i wish i had gone to champy's and got bird and brew for half the price , and same or better quality. the atmosphere was too bright, music was good, very clean, but no personality its kinda like applebee's meets mt.vernon.

tupelohoneycafe is bringing something sorely needed to the chattanooga food scene. over the years, i have been constantly perplexed at how difficult it is to find a restaurant that does good southern food well. i’m sure folks will disagree with me on that. and, if you do, by all means, let me know. i hope that i am wrong. but, mostly, what i have seen is just restaurants that do a thing or two (like fried green tomatoes, or fried chicken) well or restaurants that are trying way too hard to put new-fangled spins on southern food or restaurants that think “southern food” means that absolutely everything needs to be deep fried, or the dreaded.. buffet-style.. southern restaurant. tupelohoneycafe is a refreshing change. i love the atmosphere. i love the concept. i love the staff. i love the food. it’s good, simple southern food. and lots of it. the menu is huge. there are a ton of delicious things to try, and virtually every meal i have had has seemed like the epitome of comfort food i