JL H.
Yelp
Ambiance and Service are 5-Star!
Food not so much.
Canned Black Eyed Peas, decent, only because they added green and red peppers but you could taste them not being freshly made. Big disappointment.
Cabbage - NO seasoning at all! Fail and Cabbage is easy!
Collards - Had carrots sliced inside and braised done in turkey broth. Edible. Cooked down well but needed MORE love! Must have some type of smoked meat or smoked salt and peppers and onions, otherwise, bland!
Mac & Cheese - although the Elbows were not al dente, they weren't too badly overcooked. The Cheddar cheese choice was good but it became grainy, which is usually cheap cheese, especially when there's no Bechamel to melt cheese evenly into. This Baked was "my" type of Mac & Cheese preference but without the graininess.
Fried Chicken was decent. Could stand a good Brine first, as it became less flavorful closer to the bone but overall, not too bad. Thigh and Breast stayed juicy all of the way through.
The Waffle was standard Belgium-type.
Baked Turkey Wings are on steroids, humungous. They were underseasoned and underbaked. Had to take home to add seasonings and bake an additional hour. They do give a nice portion, had 3 large wings.
Potato Salad was inedible. Way Too Much cheap mayo, definitely NOT Hellmans or other premium (Duke's, Blue Plate, Sir Kensington, etc.) Has a splatter of frugal relish and no seasoning, mustard nor eggs.
The Cornbread tastes like a mix of Jiffy, a Cake Mix and extra Cornmeal. It's VERY sweet, cake-like texture but was again, grainy, which means the batter wasn't mixed well enough.
The Apple Cobbler, although we appreciated the al dente apples, meaning, they don't cookdown their fruit, it had that canned gelatin glaze and the crust, which seemed homemade, was undone and ruined it. It was raw! Overall, the Apple Cobbler's flavor wasn't oversweet and apples used were good. Macintosh, Pink Lady or something. (Not Gala or Granny Smiths, softer, milder apples were used.)
The "canned" Peach Cobbler only faired better than the Apple because the crust was cooked! It still needed flavor. Barely-to-none of any cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. used. The Peaches were al dente too, which was perfect for us. We understand why Cans are used but they MUST be treated properly, to pull off a real Homemade Cobbler.
I know food costs are crazy but if a place takes a "prudent" route with ingredients, they MUST be able to sufficiently hide the bargained depreciation of it all. FLAVOR STILL MUST be met, especially when it comes to Soul Food! Cornbread's has a few locations and a cookie-cutter menu. It shouldn't be hard to put WAY MORE Love & Soul into the food!
We were in the neighborhood and had been waiting for a long time for this place to finally open and for our Southern Family, it's a hard pass.
It will fit the needs of others, as there's a limited selection of these type of restaurants.
It is HARD to find consistently decent Soul Food in NYC!!! Only a handful (Peaches - Brooklyn, Melba's & Amy Ruth's - Harlem..Das it!)