[America's Next Great Restaurant] Soul Daddy reviews
Ubiquitous
8 reviews Rating Details Category: Restaurants Soul Food Soul Food
Rating: 2.5 Stars (two 1's, four 2's, one 3, one 4, one 5)
Southside Seaport
189 Front St
Manhattan, NY 10038
Neighborhood: South Street Seaport
(212) 269-2324
www.souldaddyrestaurant.com [LOTS of misspellings!]
8 reviews for Soul Daddy Reviews Matching:
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Soul Daddy
Review from Marisa L.
5friends
31reviews
Marisa L.
Brooklyn, NY
5/2/2011 2 photos I was so excited to go here, a fan of the show and
followed it religously so I wanted to support this endeavor. While it
didn't blow me away, it was hearty food, and I was happy to have soul
food with the healthy twist.
Food-
I only tried one main, the ribs (of course) which were tender and came
off the bone with ease, definitely made better with the sauce (I used
the honey BBQ). The sides I tried were all pretty delicious- and
light-the greens were cooked nicely, the wild rice salad was funky with
craisins and walnuts which I didn't expect , and I really likes the
cheesy grits, but I am probably not the best judge of the grits because
I have never had them before. The whole grain biscuit was a great idea,
but the cornbread waffle much better. Both could have used a pat of
butter, which I didn't see as an option.
I am curious about the chicken, and still think it would be nice to have
fried as an option.
I like soul food, it is usually a splurge that I hardly ever will choose
to eat because it is usually too heavy for me, and I didn't feel gross
after eating this. The portion size was perfect for me (I especially
enjoyed the compartmentalized plates).
I enjoyed my sweet tea but it was pretty standard.
Cost-
With a drink it wound up being $15 not exactly a 'deal' for lunch, but
it is NYC and I am happy to have this new option.
Decor-
super boring. Maybe the original purple was a bit loud, but this was
blah, washed out white walls. I didn't care much since I wasn't spending
much time there.
Service-
super fast; I barely said what I wanted and it was on the plate. Very
organized assembly line going...
I will try it again....
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Daddy
Review from Tim C.
1friend
6reviews
Tim C.
New York, NY
5/2/2011 Good - Service great for first day, kept it moving. Priced
well
Fair - Food (what I ordered) mediocre. Baked herb chicked I give a C+.
pretty dry, and sitting under heat lamp. Cheese grits A, very good.
Blacked-eyed peas stunk. Colard greens, small portion and just fair.
Will have to try ribs and pulled pork (seemed to be most popular order.
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Daddy
Review from Andrew P.
1friend
2reviews
Andrew P.
New York, NY
5/2/2011 I was a huge fan of America's Next Great Restaurant, HUGE! I
was rooting for Sudhir ever since he made the admission that his Mom
just wants him to get married. So sad!
When it was revealed in a very un-reality show like finale last night
that Jamawn's Soul Daddy had won, I was very surprised. His concept did
not seem to fall under the fast casual umbrella that I thought the
judges were looking for. That's all in the past though, and a winner is
a winner. I work close to the seaport so I ventured down the street on
my lunch break to give Soul Daddy its due diligence.
Decor: Meh (who cares? I do not)
Service: First day jitters happen, the employees all had good energy and
were nice and positive but were moving kind of slow.
Food: I got the baked herb chicken which was deece. Deece is short for
decent. As in: it conformed with the generally accepted standards of
what baked chicken should taste like. On the show Jamawn started off
with fried chicken but altered it when the judges convinced him to take
a healthier route. I applaud that. It wasn't bad chicken. It wasn't
great. The ribs and pulled pork looked good,and I look forward to trying
them on a return visit. (FORESHADOWING)
I had a sweet potato salad which again was decent and coleslaw which was
the best part of the meal (I love slaw). There was also a cornbread
waffle which was cornbread in the shape of a little round eggo waffle. I
refuse to write more about it than that.
Besides the coleslaw, the other highlight was an amazing sauce station
where they had a few different kinds of hot sauce including Jamawn's
special hot sauce which they warned you twice on the sign that it was
really hot. I'm nervous because I burned my mouth once at a hot sauce
festival when I was 16 and things have never really been the same for me
since then. I proceeded with caution. I tried a little bit, I dipped the
cornbread waffle in it, I chewed, I waited. Nothing. Not nothing, but
not anything. It was watered down sriracha levels of spice. Now I know
everyones tolerance is different, fine. But the mustard hot sauce was
great. Another highlight.
To sum it up: I'll go back and try the ribs and pulled pork. They should
get some friend chicken on the menu. Besides the sauce station the most
enjoyable part of the meal was procrastinating at work writing this
review.
God Bless New York City and Jamawn.
Sudhir if you're reading this, Spice Coast lives on in my heart.
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Daddy
Review from Christopher D.
0friends
1review
Christopher D.
KNICKERBOCKER, NY
5/2/2011 We went down to check out Soul Daddy today at 2pm...of course
we were fans of the show, we were happy for Jamawn and his family, and
we were hoping Flay, Ells, Stone, and Garcia wouldn't just be in it for
the show...that they would ultimately be sure the winner they endorsed
put out a quality meal at a value price.
Seriously.....
This had to be a joke.
Forget about the soulless decor and mediocre service.
I want to get straight to the food, portion, and price.
We ordered :
1 main of pulled pork sandwich- small amount of room temperature, bland
tasting pork sandwiched b/n an over sized, dense multi-grain bun...and
no sides come with it. All we tasted was the bun.
1 main of ribs- 4 tiny ribs..while they were tender, they had very
little flavor..just bland. and I have to repeat, the portion was just
silly.
1 side of sweet potato salad- small portion, cold, flavorless, looked
like it was cut in a wood chipper.
1 side of wild rice- small portion, very little flavor
1 side of cole slaw- was fine...and we mean JUST FINE, but how hard is
it to make it even a little better than fine when you allegedly have so
much time and expertise at hand?
1 side of cheese grits- these were good.no complaints.
Now that's 28.00 for 2 people...and we were both hungry 1 hr later. For
28.00 I can name numerous bbq, soul food places, etc. where you will get
almost twice the food and twice the flavor. What? because they have
baked chicken (which btw looked dry and unappetizing under the heat
lamps) and less salt and butter in sides ( sacrificing most of the
flavor) it's a revolutionary "new home cooking?"
We really like Jamawn...and want him to do well....but this was not
flavorful (besides cheese grits)..was not a value...the decor was
soulless...service mediocre..we won't be going back.
Now Ells can move on to stealing Sudhir's Spice Coast idea.
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Daddy
Review from Steven W.
1friend
1review
Steven W.
Brooklyn, NY
5/2/2011 I was a huge fan of America's next great restaurant as well as
many other customers who came to today's opening. Its may be around
south street seaport but its like on a street that i have never passed
by.
Food- I ordered the Ribs because i had such a craving for it lately. It
was like a 1/4 rack of ribs. It was delicious. I had it with both the
bbq sauce and the hot sauce. The hot sauce was not at all hot...
Sides - For the sides, i got the green salad and the cheese grits. I
wish they had a dressing to go along with it. I improvised and had to
put some bbq sauce on it for a little flavor. It was my first time
eating grits so i cant really review that. It was good though. It made
me feel all warm inside. The biscuit was very flaky. Soft inside but it
was kind of cold and i did want some butter on top of it.
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Daddy
Review from Tom R.
0friends
1review
Tom R.
ASTORIA, NY
5/2/2011 GREAT!!!! Its Soul food done right and who doesn't like Soul
food? I think its going to take off and spread across the country within
the next couple of years.
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Daddy
Review from E P.
0friends
3reviews
E P.
Manhattan, NY
5/2/2011 I was highly dissapointed. I was a fan of the show, watched it
every week and expected a lot more than what I experienced today. The
food was pretty bland, over priced, cold, the ribs were dry and the
portions were small. My boyfriend and I got the pulled pork sandwich and
two sides (coleslaw, sweet potato) and the rib meal (with rice and
cheese gritz) to share. The pulled pork had very little pork and was
flavorless. All you could taste was the Big flourey bun that it was
served in. The coleslaw was good but the sweet potato salad was
flavorless. The sides were also small thus over priced for $2.50 each.
The rib meal was also below average. The ribs were dry with very little
meat. We were practically gnawing at the bone. The cheese grits was good
but the rice was a little bland however it did taste 'fresh'. The meal
was over priced given it's small servings and overall taste. You can go
to places like Dallas BBQ or Dinosaur BBQ and get better tasting food,
bigger portions at lower prices. Given the credentials of the judges and
months of competition I was very surprised at the end product,
especially since the show was taped over 10 months ago. It leaves me to
believe that the fast food restaurant was created for our tv viewing and
entertainment purposes rather than for the purpose of producing a 'great
restaurant' for the consumers. Spice coast or the Brooklyn Meatball
Company probably would have faired better as fast foods i.e better
value and ability to be consistent. Soul daddy proved to me that ribs
and pulled pork are not fast foods since the meat ends up getting dry
and are no where near as good as those that are served in restaurants
where items are cooked properly over time and not left sitting around to
get dry. Sadly I don't think I will go back again. Soul Daddy lacked
'soul' in it's food and decor. I would like to support Jamawn but at the
same time I can not afford to spend $15 (including soda and tax) on a
lunch and leave feeling hungry.
On another note: why is Steve Ells opening a new fleet of South Asian
fast food joints if he didn't think Spice Coast had a winning idea??? It
all seems a little fishy to me!!!!!
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Daddy
Review from Julie H.
5friends
1review
Julie H.
Manhattan, NY
5/2/2011 so disappointed with soul daddy. food was okay, but everything
on the menu is so overpriced for the amount of food you receive. three
pieces of ribs with two sides was $12! you can go backyard chicken
across the street and get a huge rotisserie chicken with two big sides
for $6! if the prices weren't too high, or if they increase the
quantity, I'd probably go back again.
--
"If Barack Obama isn't careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the
21st century."
Ubiquitous
>Soul Daddy
>
> 8 reviews Rating Details Category: Restaurants Soul Food Soul Food
> Rating: 2.5 Stars (two 1's, four 2's, one 3, one 4, one 5)
19 reviews Rating Details
Rating: 3 Stars (two 1's, eight 2's, two 3's, four 4's, three 5's)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/soul-daddy-manhattan
Ubiquitous
>Soul Daddy
>
> 8 reviews Rating Details Category: Restaurants Soul Food Soul Food
> Rating: 2.5 Stars (two 1's, four 2's, one 3, one 4, one 5)
68 reviews for Soul Daddy
Rating: 3 Stars (six 1's, twenty-two 2's, seventeen 3's, thirteen 4's, ten 5's)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/soul-daddy-los-angeles
CoasterKev!
Seaport branch of Soul Daddy, the winning restaurant concept from
NBC's America's Next Great Restaurant show, had shuttered to focus on
running the LA cafe. Well, that was a lie. Today Soul Daddy management
says the following:
"The realities of running a restaurant are very difficult, more so
with multiple locations in multiple cities. After a careful review of
the business model and the performance of the restaurants, we have
decided that our best opportunity for Soul Daddy’s success is to focus
our efforts on establishing a solid footing in one location, building
the brand, and developing the operations from there. We have decided
to close our restaurants at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles and
the South Street Seaport in New York, effective June 14, and focus on
developing the best restaurant we can at the Mall of America
restaurant in Bloomington, Minnesota. While it has certainly been a
difficult decision, we believe this is the best approach as we work
towards ongoing success for Soul Daddy."
So, yeah. That means one month in for Jamawn Woods in both NY and LA.
A new shutter record. [EaterWire]
[Photo: Elizabeth Daniels 5/11]