Earl E.
Yelp
I had heard of Red Clay Table a couple of times and this weekend I tried it out. I had great anticipation to having some good food. The location looked the part, being in older downtown Sheffield, atmosphere was nice, my waitress was very good. So, everything seemed hopeful. I ordered a Caesar Brussel sprout salad and shrimp and grits. The salad came pretty quickly, and I anticipated trying something new, different and tasty. Well.... even though I ordered this salad - in retrospect I should have known better. Raw Brussel sprouts? (that where shaved into small pieces)? It was a pretty terrible salad. Had no taste except raw brussels sprouts. No Caesar dressing - not a hint of Caesar or dressing of any flavor, that I could tell. I salted and peppered it a lot. The salt and pepper shakers didn't put out much and I shook them pretty hard trying to add some kind of flavor. That didn't help it much. It was like eating raw shaved cabbage, but worse. Next came my shrimp and grits. It was a reasonable size dish (a lot of grits and what I was say as enough shrimp that you probably wouldn't complain). Presentation was that, it was all on the plate but not much beyond that. I noticed when the dish came that it appeared the sauce looked like basic light brown gravy and nothing else in it. It was my first indicator that something was wrong. But, I was still hopeful it was going to be tasty. Well....it wasn't. Every shrimp and grits dishes that I have had, have all had flavor and spices and has always been a tasty dish to eat. I tried to add salt and pepper - but shakers wouldn't cooperate. This shrimp and grits dish had no taste whatsoever. I don't think it had any spices in it or even salt or pepper in it. The only thing that qualified it as being "shrimp and grits" is that it technically had shrimp, had gravy and had grits. But that technicality is the only thing that made it this dish. The grits where kind of dry breakfast type grits and dry. The gravy was light brown and I was guessing it may have been instant gravy. The shrimp were of an ok size but just ok size. Whole thing was just very bland. It was the worst shrimp and grits I have ever had. Their other dishes may be better? - I don't know. But, I tried to notice what other people were eating, but did not spot anything that gave me hope. I don't think I'm going to give it any future chances - I will pass on this place.
