Hen Quarter

I love going to Hen Quarter. It's always a great experience. It's feels cozy and the servers are kind. Last time, I brought my family and they all had fun and thought everything they ate was delicious. Our favorites were the hush puppies, deviled eggs, pork loin, fried chicken, and strawberry frosé. The only drawback is the lack of elevator. I hesitate to bring my elderly family that would love this place because you have to take stairs to the second floor to get to the restaurant (1st floor is The Rub). It's pretty much a no-go for wheelchair access (please correct if I missed it).

Atmosphere and Service: the air conditioning was constantly on full blast to where my wife was shivering and commenting about it the whole dinner. Saw other guest using the napkins to cover their shoulder/arm so we know it wasn't just us. Server was polite and good, though they were very short staffed. Only two servers for the whole restaurant and no bus boys to clean tables after so that stretched the servers to do that as well. Left us with empty drinks many times throughout the meal.

Food: Ordered Fried Green Tomatoes and Chicken Cracklings for Appetizers. For $14 you only get two thinly sliced fried green tomatoes with a plate of greens and some sort of salami/roast, so not worth the money. On the other hand, the Chicken Cracklings were amazing! Probably the best thing we had all night. $7 gets a good portion, and the sauces that come with it are wonderful.

Was going to get the Chicken and Waffles before seeing it was $30. Ordered the Chefs Burger instead which was alright, well cooked, and the fries that came with it are crunchy and good portion.

All in all, just wasn't very impressed and there's other places in Old Town that have a better food experience for the same price as here.

Walked in and found that it’s 2 establishments in one. It is upstairs while another restaurant is downstairs. Walked up the stairs to the restaurant and it took a while to be greeted. It was weird to see that the kitchen where all the food is plated and waiting to be serve is so close to guests that are entering. Hostest greeted us and sat us down saying that we had a 2 hour time limit for the bottomless brunch. Our server came by with water 5 minutes after being seated and said she would be right back. It wasn’t too busy - about half the tables were empty. 20 minutes later we were finally greeted by the server who said she forgot about us and took our order. I ordered bottomless mimosas and the server said she’d comp me a mimosa for experience - even though I purchased bottomless. How are you going to comp me a drink that I purchased bottomless on? I didn’t care about being comped. I wanted to just have a good experience and to eat. My guest that I took with me ordered a drink and it wasn’t until almost 45 minutes after that he eventually got it and that required us asking where it was. Our food came out which was alright overall. For my first time here - I’d never go back personally. It wasn’t worth it to pay 50 bucks per person for that sort of experience.

The welcome wasn't great. We kinda felt like we shouldn't be there. Very close to just leaving. The bar tender directed us upstairs only to be greeted by a hostess or someone that stated they were only receiving patrons with reservations. We decided to stay and sit in the bar area. The food was good though. Not breaking our necks to go back. The people who brought us the food were amazing. Very nice. Very personable. One person who brought us our food recommended something that wasn't on our menu, then he presented us with the Black Restaurant Week menu. Surely, this would've made it easier to order as newbies, but we weren't provided that option when ordering. We had already started ordering food from the other menu, so food from the special menu would've been too much for us. Maybe we will try again.

The food is where the two stars are coming from. My party and I enjoyed the flavor and left with full stomachs. But they fell short at service. It seems like they could benefit from a host and maybe 1 or 2 more servers on the weekend. They served our food, but we had to walk up to the bar two separate times for silverware and condiments. Also, downstairs has no music like upstairs. I don’t recommend going here for brunch without a reservation. Maybe the experience would’ve been better then.

Ate here for Sunday brunch, and it was delish! The restaurant was loud and busy, so be sure to get a reservation! I wish the fried chicken and biscuits came with two biscuits for the price, but it was so good I will be back. My sister loved the catfish and greens so much she ordered another to go!

Visiting the area I decided to stop here to eat. I had the shrimp and grits and my daughter had the salmon with grits. We started with the cornbread. Presentation was everything with all the dishes. They did real good in how the dishes were bought to the table. The cornbread was garnished with green onions. That is a big no no. Why put onions on cornbread. I had to quickly remove them before the cornbread got infused with the taste of onions. Other than that the cornbread with cinnamon butter was ok. My grits and shrimp was swimming in some kind of juice. Taste like shrimp broth but I'm not sure. It was too much juice and again with the green onions. You don't put onions and green onions in grits. That is a southern no no. Grits are met to hold their own taste. The onions and green onions along with the broth over powered the grits. Then there was no salt. The shrimp were big and well cooked. The salmon was good but the grits that came with that also lacked salt. Also the grits were a little over cooked and lacked milk. Cheese grits is usually creamy these were gummy and very thick. See picture below of how thick the grits were. We also tried the devil eggs from the starter menu. Again presentation was on point. The eggs were good just two things I didn't care for. They put the pickle radish on top of the eggs and there was absolutely no salt not a bit of seasoning in the filing. Other than that I would actually order the eggs again.
The first picture is the shrimp and grits as you can see the grits are hidden in the sea of juice. I gave them 4 stars because even though the food wasn't all on point the servicer Evelyn was outstanding very professional. She alone I would give 5 stars.

The food was good. My partner order the Catfish mahed potatoes and collard greens. The fish was light and crispy but good. There was only one piece of catfish but delicious.

We shared the bacon deviled eggs as an appetizer. They were yummy.

I ordered the chicken dinner that came with four pieces of chicken. I switched the side to the Mac n cheese and collard greens. The chicken was good but could use a little more seasoning for my taste. The portions were plenty and we took some to go.

Overall I enjoyed the restaurant and would visit here again.