Tupelo

I have eaten at Tupelo’s twice (both lunch visits). This place is cool, and the food (at least the few dishes I have tried) is pretty decent. The one item you must try is the Chicken Gumbo. It is full of chicken, fresh ingredients, and boat-​load of taste. I get it every time. I have also had various sandwiches whose names I can’t recall right now, but they were all fresh and tasted great.
For some reason, the last time I visited it was kinda’ empty… not sure why. I plan on returning.

The good: Pulled Pork Sandwich was smoky and moist with an excellent bun.
Same for the burger. Delicious and fresh.
Both sweet and regular fries were also perfectly cooked.
Price was awesome.
The so-​so:
The grits had no seasoning. I see this in a lot of restaurants. I don’t get it.
Portobello Sandwich had too much cheese and the veggies were overcooked. Definitely not made by a vegetarian. Helloooooo, vegetarians want fresh lightly cooked vegetables in a light and balanced meal.
Great options for kids too

Food was good, service was great, décor– tired and run down. Bathroom needs a complete remodel. Cheap feeling flatware, same tables as when it was Tijuana flats. by the time i got back to finish the review, they are gone!

Went to Tupelo for lunch today.
Food quality = 4 stars
Food flavor = 3 stars
Service = 3.5 to 4 our waitress tried to be very attentive, and provided good service
Ambiance = 3.5 it’s just ok, but for bbq and a bar it’s ok
Price = 4 stars
I got the brisket sandwich. The brisket was ok. Not even close to the best brisket I’ve had. Their homemade bbq sauces are ok. Nothing really stood out to me though.
We also got the pulled pork nachos appetizer, which was very good.
We would recommend a try. But we won’t be rushing back.

Went to lunch with the office and had the beef brisket sandwich, It was very good. One of the girls were celebrating her birthday and was given a free piece of homemade bourbon pecan pie, made by the owners wife. She really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to go back with my husband.

Let me start off by saying this place is highly under rated. We went on a Saturday night around 8 pm and it only had a handful of people in it. Whenever I go to BBQ places I judge them off of their brisket or pull porked. At Tupele I tried the brisket and must say I was not disapointed. They have good sides but I wished they crusted the mac n’cheese a little more.
They have a full bar and it doesn’t have a lot of competitors in this area so hopefully that will pick up. The pricing is fair and I certainly plan to come back here.
The owner let us know they do a pretty big brunch with a lot of benedicts so that might be my next trip.

Fantastic place all around. Great BBQ, great service, great ambiance, and absurdly great fried key line pie for desert.
Very reasonably priced, and thoroughly awesome. Had the smoked chicken and tried my dad’s pulled pork. Both were awesome, Mac and cheese was great as were the greens.
Would come back for sure.

A little empty, not decorated, and awkward.
Microwaved BBQ at it’s best. If you get take-​out, then maybe you will not notice as much. Mandy places re-​heat the BBQ, so this is nothing new.
The Pulled Pork Nachos are why I come to Tupelo. Also, the bucket of BBQ sauces— the mustard base being my favorite. To make the nachos taste right, the BBQ sauce must be put on top.
«Somebody arrest this man for impersonating a Cracker.»
I could not help it, I know it is a very rude thing to say after watching Doctor Detroit so many times during my childhood. But, the guy that walks around in the Brooklyn baseball cap, while he is very kind, sounds like he has a fake Louisiana country accent. While I often work vigorously on hiding my southern accent in social situations, it sounds strange to hear an accent seemed forced.

I would come back here again and again. The nachos are sooooo good.

We tried this for the first time tonight. My son says one of his teachers at GHS owns this restaurant with her husband and she told him they make an awesome whiskey sour. After our visit tonight I have to agree. Since I’m not a beer drinker I always judge a good bar by their sour mix. The bartender said they don’t have a sour mix, they make each drink individually with fresh fruit juice.
We started out with the pulled pork nachos which were amazing. In house made tortilla chips and a real from scratch cheese sauce over great, smokey pulled pork. We then decided to share a Tupelo cuban sandwich with sweet potato fries. The sandwich was perfect with ham and pulled pork on a crunchy pressed cuban bread. The sweet potato fries were also great, thin and crunchy and hot from the kitchen.
I know this will become a regular hang out for us. It had quite the eclectic crowd at the bar, where we sat, but there is also a dining area on the other side. For those local to Gainesville, you may remember this as the old location of Las Margaritas. The layout is the same and includes outdoor seating when the weather is nice.

Horrible. My food wasn’t hot and everything didn’t come out at the same time. The pork was very dry … Then I tried it again on Sunday the brunch was disgusting and what BBQ place serves breakfast? I much rather of gone next door to a real breakfast house. The 43^rd street deli.

I thought the food was very good and the menu definitely unique. The homemade sauces were each excellent. Tupelo’s is a great alternative to your typical Gainesville chain restaurant that is working with frozen items. This is a good, local restaurant and the taste will bring you back. Good prices and service as well.

I love this place as the food is great! Last night I had the best Tuna ever and that is on top of the incredible steaks

Being this was a newer place I was hesitant about the food and what to expect, but I was very happy and surprised with the food. I loved my beef brisket, and everyone was happy with what they ordered! I would highly recommend the brisket, but also tried the ribs, which were delicous!
Vegetarians, have no fear, there is also something for you! My dad had the portabello sandwhich and it was amazing!
Will def be going back soon!

It took me a while to try Tupelo, but I’ve been there about five times now. Out of the dishes I’ve tried, I think their brisket has been the winner for me. My least favorite dish I’ve tried was their hamburger.
With everything I’ve tried, I have been impressed with the quality of food you get for the price. This food tastes homemade, and there hasn’t been a side I’ve tried that tasted like it came out of a can. But while the sides do taste fresh, I think they need to work on them a bit more. The most impressive side was their greens (generally I can’t get more than a few bites into a side of greens) and the most disappointing side was their grits (a little cheese wouldn’t hurt). I’d love to see some boiled peanuts and cornbread added to the menu.
I’ve heard that they have been working on tweaking their sauces, and as of the time my wife and I tried them, we were impressed. Out of all the condiments I was most impressed with the ketchup, which they make from scratch. I don’t think I’ve ever had fresh ketchup in my life, and was pleasantly surprised by the added complexity of the flavor.
The biggest disappointment about Tupelo is the atmosphere. They haven’t fully made the space their own. It feels like they invaded Las Margaritas and are temporarily serving food there. I know it would take a pretty penny to renovate, but they have to find a way to inject some life and personality into this place. The restaurant needs to strive to represent the quality of food that they’re striving to make back in the kitchen.
Overall I’m happy with my experiences at Tupelo. It looks like they may have stolen my business from Adam’s Ribs.

So many delicious things to choose from!
The meat is smoked on the premises, the desserts are made by the owner, and everything I have had has been delicious.
For example, the crab cakes. Until now, any crab cake I had was a lot of binder and other things with some crab in it. Tupelo’s crab cakes are full of crab! Mmmm.
Yesterday I tried the sweet potato fries and wish I could eat them every day. Delicately crunchy outside, creamy smooth delicious inside. Try them with the dill dip!
Looking forward to my next visit!

I just had lunch at Tupelo for the first time since they opened. Went in optimistically and was pretty disappointed. We had actually stopped by to check it out a few weeks ago and were discouraged by the look of the interior and the general feeling that they weren’t really ready to be open yet and chose to go to Ichiban instead. I was hoping that maybe they just needed some time to get things together, but nothing has changed since then. When you walk in, it looks like Las Margaritas took everything and left, and Tupelo moved right in with no renovations or changes at all. It’s very bare and kind of strange if you used to eat at the old Las Margs.
As for the food… we ordered the tamarind «baby back» rib appetizer. We received TWO small spareribs on a plate. For $ 7.00. This would be fine if they were amazing, which they were not in any way. We also ordered the pulled pork dinner. The pork was fine, a little dry, the sides however were spectacularly bland. Edamame and corn salad seems like it was made there, but they completely forgot to season it. The coleslaw was flavorless as well. I usually avoid extra salt, but I had to add it to both of the side dishes in an attempt to give them any sort of flavor. It also came with one slice of toasted bread… not garlic bread or texas toast, just a toasted slice of bread. Everything was just SO bland and unremarkable, I can’t believe they’re trying to market it as an upscale bbq restaurant.
On a positive note, our waitress was very nice and attentive and the food didn’t take too long to get to the table, although it was pretty empty in there so I have no idea if you would experience the same short wait time if they were ever busy.

Originally went a few weeks ago; following up with a review now since Unilocal still doesn’t let you do that from your phone. (Why!!!)
My original quick tip was: Duck special w cherry glaze, garlic mash and green beans is super tasty; they need to add this to the menu.
This is definitely true. It’s really good. However when the bill arrived, it was $ 18 — which while not terrible, was not what I was expecting given the pricepoints of the other stuff on the menu. But in terms of tasty — it was great, and I’d love to eat it again.
The rest was OK. Our pulled-​pork wontons were a little overcooked /​tough on the outside, dry on the inside… but the dipping sauce with it was lick-​the-​bowl good. My husband ordered… something… that was a sandwhich, and was apparently forgettable since I don’t even recall what it was. The sweet potato fries on the side were as good as I expect them to be, and the optional dill dipping sauce was really nice — says the girl who usually hates dill.
We were offered dessert, but then they were out of what we were going to try.
All in all, this place is OK, and I can see some potential. I may go back, since these could just be growing pains — the prices aren’t awful (though not fast-​food cheap), and the chef clearly knows their sauces. So if they can get the rest down, and speed up service, this may be a decent place to go.
I’m going to give it a few months before I go back, though, to let them get the kinds out.

I’m not sure why this place is getting killed on Unilocal.Yes it’s a new restaurant and yes they have kinks they need to work out. I will say this before I write any more, I’ll be back to give them another chance in the future.
An example of being new… they only had 2 high chairs. Sure what are the odds that 5 groups with high chair aged kids are going to come in? Well, it happened while I was there. Some of the moms were doing the balance the kid on your knee act throughout dinner. Again, growing pains of a new restaurant. The manager did go over to the tables and appolgize over and over, which was nice to see.
To the food… I was happy with my pulled chicken sandwich. I got the sweet potato fries with it and they were great. I will say that the prices here are outstanding for sure. The sauces they offer are also great. They have a sweet heat that I loved.
Everyone I ate with enjoyed what they ordered… all except for the mac & cheese. If you can’t make it well, just take it off the menu. Plus, people are really particular about their mac & cheese it seems!
Like I said before, I will be back… but it’ll be a while. They just need to work out the kinks.

First time there tonight. I got the pulled chicken, with baked beans and collard greens. Hubby got the ribs, with the edamame succotash and mac&cheese.
My food was okay. The chicken was nothing exceptional. I didn’t like the beans. Cold and too sweet. The greens were okay.
My husband ordered the ribs. Was told they weren’t ready yet. So, he switched his order to pulled pork. Then, they came back and said the ribs were ready, did he still want them? This was dinner on Friday night. I kind of think you should be able to manage getting the ribs cooked in time for dinner service.
So…anyway…the ribs were okay. I thought they were kind of bland, but they were tender. The mac&cheese was not great. The succotash was interesting, but was dripping in butter sauce.
The prices are low. But, I don’t think we’ll be running back there any time soon. There is definitely room for improvement.