Emerson B.
Yelp
I have heard about Herman's for years and years, but I never got the chance to try it out. Today, I opted for a visit, because I was in the mood for a soul food Sunday!
When I walked in, I felt way under-dressed, until I realized it was Sunday afternoon. The servers were quick to clean off a table and seat us, and the restaurant was pretty packed out with the church crowd. Thankfully, we came a little late.
Sitting down, I noticed that about 20 people were waiting for food, so I prepared for a fairly long wait. Unfortunately, there are no appetizers or things you can get to snack on (we were STARVING).
The menu is primarily full platters/meals and a large selection of 15+ sides. All the sides made it hard to select. Haha. My friend got the country fried steak, and I ordered the fried catfish (you can get it whole or as filets).
After we ordered, we waited for 30 minutes, and they kept our drinks full. About that time, our server kept coming by every five minutes saying "Your food is almost ready". After 15 minutes of that, they brought out our food, and we were so happy!
... but it was food for a different table... which they promptly removed from our faces and took to the correct table.
The ladies one table over got the "Your food is almost ready", but they were a bit more savvy. The older woman asked, "what did we order?"
The server stood silent. "You lied to me..." she jokingly replied. She kept it all good humor, but it's obvious that the servers had been coached in that reply. I can appreciate a restaurant wanting to keep their customers engaged in long waits, but a 45 minute wait is fairly significant, and an apology is better than a blatant lie.
So, we waited more. Fifty minutes after we ordered, the restaurant was really starting to thin out to about half full. The to-go orders seemed to be a steady stream, and apparently I didn't get the memo that to go is the way to order. (The reason this review is so long is because I need something to do while waiting here for so long, and I don't live-tweet. )
After 49 minutes of waiting, the server changed it up, "Ok. They're working on you right now! I promise!" I just laughed.
Ummm. Ok? What's that actually mean?
After 56 minutes, they brought out our food, asking us to move to a different table, as well, to accommodate another party.
Overall, the food was all fine, solid soul food. Neither of the fried meals were piping hot, making me wonder how inefficient the kitchen operation must be. Within five minutes, both the country fried steak and fried catfish were lukewarm. The sides were all hot. The cheese and broccoli was really good, and the black eyed peas, green beans, and turnip greens were all fine, just nothing special about them (which I'm ok with -- I love to add hot sauce).
The menu says tomatoes and onions are part of the meals, as well as a choice of breads. We asked for cornbread four times, or more, but we got rolls. Maybe they were out of cornbread, though no one told us that.
Overall, I'd say the meal was a decent value for the cost, but didn't offer anything exceptional. Don't come around Sunday lunch (we got here at 2:50 pm), because it is WAY TOO SLOW. Our meal took an hour and a half to complete, but 2/3 of that was just drinking ice water and waiting.