Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop

We went on Mother’s Day around 5:00, was crowded and had to wait about 45 minutes, but well worth it. Drove home to Ohio from Chicago trip and had heard about this place. Stopped in with my wife and nephew and his wife. I am a very picky eater, do not like southern food, but my wife and the other two do and they loved their meal. I settled on pulled pork sandwich and fires. It was the best pulled pork I’d ever had, cooked just right and just enough BBQ sauce, not overwhelming. Our server was very nice and responsive to our needs. I’m working on scheduling another trip just to go to the Dixie Kitchen. I would highly recommend this place.

Met some friends here for dinner on Saturday, April 23, 2016. HORRIBLE! It took forever for our server to come to the table and greet us. By the time she did we were ready to order dinner. The food was good. The drinks were good. But the service was horrible. It took almost 30 minutes for our food to arrive. It took 15 minutes for our drinks to arrive each time we ordered. The waitress did not clear off unused dishes. The silverware was dirty so we asked for more. She again, brought us dirty silverware. So we asked for more. And on the third time she still brought out dirty ass silverware. So now I’m looking around the restaurant and all I see are dirty tables with dirty dishes. Dirty floors. Crumbs and food all over the floor. No wonder this place is empty at dinner time on a Saturday night. And here’s the killer. As of 5÷17÷16 they will no longer accept credit cards. It will be cash only! Who does that? I give them till the end of the year and they will be out of business.

Really? Seriously?
Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop — But boy oh boy! Jambalaya with no sausage. That wasn’t Jambalaya. That was SOUP!
A cup of cold spaghetti with fish. No water refills. Zero. Tried to talk one of us out of a salad she wanted.
1 of us had to wait 30 extra minutes to eat because ‘Michael’, the waiter claimed someone stole her meal. We asked to turn on the music. He agreed. 15mins later… nothing. Mother asked again and he says he forgot. Even 2.5hrs later he never turned on the music. Really?
NEVER cleared the table. Shucks! 8 of us and loads of dirty dishes, napkins, warm water where the ice melted since no refills, bread plates but no bread, and so call muffins which were sweet cornbread that looked like tiny pancakes, Really?
Then when it came time to pay, we gathered our money and gave it to one person in our party … the one who had to wait 30 more minutes for her food because supposedly soneone stole her meal. LOL! They refused to comp her meal for her inconvenience. WOW!
She wanted to use her debit card. We were told that their merchant account (the one that allows them to take debit/​credit cards) system was down nationwide. LOL! So our friend was told to go find a bank and come back to pay with cash. OMG! She had to leave and drive to HER bank to get cash!!! REALLY? We stayed behind. Not once were we offered a drink or even any water or even a CLEAN table while we waited for her to come back.
2.5 hours we sat in that restaurant staring at a table filled with dirty water glasses, bread plates, dinner plates, napkins, and on and on and on.
The bottom line is do NOT go to Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop in Lansing, IL. The people may have good hearts and good intentions, Unfortunately No one taught them (waiter Michael and manager Karen) how to wait tables, manage a restaurant, communicate with customers, retain customers to avoid high turnover and get inexpensive referrals from existing customers. Quite frankly their service is severely sub-​par and their food is average. DONE! DONE! and DONE!

I was visiting the south suburbs for the weekend and my friend wanted to take me out to lunch. Checked Unilocal for some suggestions and saw this place listed. I hadn’t been in years so I figured I should give it a try again because I was craving fried green tomatoes. Well the FGTs were still delicious so thumbs up on that. For my meal I had ordered the jerk chicken breast dinner minus the bacon. It was okay but I wouldn’t order it again. I ordered mashed sweet potatoes and baked mac and cheese. Once again, just okay. I will say that our server was awesome and very attentive.

Went here with my granny, great aunt, & 3 month old. Hostess was VERY RUDE, she seemed over wheeled between the phone & the arriving guests. She literally led us to our table then immediately walked off while on the cordless phone. We arrived around 11:35am, so just around lunch. Our waiter took about 20 minutes to acknowledge us. We requested water, which didn’t arrive til the very end once my aunt reminded him. The sweet potatoes were trash. They tasted like canned sweet potatoes, plus they were mashed. The fish was delicious, bartered perfectly. The greens had way too many tens, but were seasoned pretty good. The mac & cheese tastes like it had sat out too long, or they used old cheese. The red beans & rice? GOOD. If it weren’t for me feeling a little forgotten by the wait staff, they’d probably have gotten a 4. I won’t be returning. Customer service is key!

Quit going years ago and I see it’s no better now. I’ve seen cleaner garages, the service was terrible most times, and I didn’t like most of the food. Maybe another location would be worth trying, but not this one.

Food is excellent and wait staff is awesome! On Friday, Saturday and Sunday they have a DJ who plays olé school steppin music… If you like Cajun food with a southern feel!!! My favorite is the fried green tomatoes and the whole baby Catfish with the Mac and cheese!
A lot to choose from on the menu so you really can’t go wrong. This place is very laid back and a good family spot, or just to simply feta quick bite to eat!

If you enjoy Southern cooking, you will like Dixie Kitchen. Delicious fried green tomatoes! The Southern Sampler is a good start, if you are undecided on what to order. Try the Key Lime pie for dessert.
They don’t do separate checks, which was a bit of a problem for us, so I couldn’t give five stars.

I absolutely love this place. Everyone is super friendly and food comes hot and ready to be eaten. Travis is the best server!!!

Can I do zero stars? Used to be my favorite restaurant, but I. Not coming back again. I will make my own macaroni. After I finished eating, I pulled a humongous piece of grey hair, or blonde hair from my mouth. Too done. Offered me an extra macaroni or to take one off of my bill. Why would I want more food. The extra food is for a friend. How embarrassing if there is hair in that?! So you go my money for the last time. Whatever happened to the days when you got a full refund. These nappy locs did not produce a straight long strand of hair. Hair to the naw. #byeFeliciaandFelipe

Food was cold AND not seasoned, then to add insult to injury the manager Karen was curt and unsympathetic. Her response was akin to calling me a liar because «they don’t sell old (which she misunderstood my concern) nor cold food and found it more important to educate me on their food prep protocol for Mac&cheese and catfish batter than to ensure my satisfaction as a long time customer who is also a creature of habit and orders the SAME thing. I vow today that I WILL NOT BE BACK AND DO NOT RECOMMEND SPENDING YOUR DOLLARS HERE. This of course could have been addressed if the waitress Allicia had checked on us in a timely fashion and/​or was in the area to respond to our attempts for attention from others. The waitress immediately resorted to summoning the manager without at least asking is there anything she could do. She later stated she would’ve had them give me another piece of fish had she addressed the concern but per protocol she had to get the manager/​owner. Any establishment that does not want a satisfied customer is not one worth dining.
Btw the fried green tomatoes were, as always, scrumptious.

I love the fried fish and smothered pork chops from here. There sides are good as well. I hate that hyde park revamped everything and got rid of Dixie Kitchen. The service is not as good and I’m sure the food isn’t either. The location is probably 4 times the size of the original HP location. The service is ok, you definitely have to keep reminding the service for certain request. They also have a full bar at this location with plentiful parking.

This is the first time I have been to a restaurant and it was like signing a contract. What I! mean by that is read the fine print on the menu. There are a few stipulations actually marked on every page. The one that got to me was that a party of five, yes I said five, or more would have 20% gratuity automatically charged to their bill. I have never seen this set so low as to a five person party. There was also a stipulation if you are caught sharing drinks you would be charged.
OK don’t think that this is a complete rant of the rules because the food was pretty good. A bit upset that a place serving Louisiana inspired dishes did not have any boudin. I order the jambalaya and it was good. I was not expecting it to be as soupy as it was because many of the jambalaya servings I experienced it was thicker and more of a rice mixture. Hey everyone has their recipes and that is part of the fun of trying new things. It was flavorful but did not have a kick that I was hoping for. After living on the gulf coast for the past gew years i like some spice. There was a fair share of chicken and andouille in the jambalaya which was nice. The portion size for $ 10 was amazing only made better by the taste.
I also had an order of fried green tomatoes that were excellently seasoned.
If you use your GPS to get here don’t be frustrated. It will lead you in the right area but this place is in the corner of a very small strip mall and behind a bank which will block your view depending on your approach angle. Overall a good place to go for a bite to eat and I would make the drive to eat their food.

I used to frequent when they were located in Hyde Park but since relocating to Lansing, it’s a bit out of the way. Nevertheless, the food is good and if your time allows go support them.
All diners receive a basket of Johnny cakes to nibble on while waiting to order. The first basket is free and you must pay for subsequent orders. As an appetizer, I ordered the fried green tomatoes. I really enjoy how the taste of the green onion mingles with the cornmeal seasoning and brings it all together. On this visit I chose the jerk catfish with two sides (plantains and collards). Only 4 plantain slices came with my order and my collards had been drained and not very much juice on them.
My hostess Elantra (hope I spelled it right) gets cool points for 1. Learning what simple syrup was. 2. Bringing me some simple syrup freshly made for my iced tea. She was attentive and managed the small crowd with a positive attitude.
On to the entrée. The fish, although «jerked» didn’t have a lot of jerk flavor. Elantra brought me a small container on the side and it did enhance the flavor. Standard order is one filet and I order two and struggled to finish the portion. The greens and plantains were cooked to my satisfaction and I enjoyed them.
I took off one star for the annoying 20% gratuity for a party of 5… not 8 and the looming warning on each page of the menu about drink sharing and if they «catch» you; you’ll be charged. Definitely got a giggle out of me as I read that. If you’re watching me that hard that means I better not run out of anything while dining… lol

Where do I start first we wanted a booth there were many booths available but the hostess said that she had to go in order and didn’t want to overwhelm the server
Decided to eat in the bar area ordered a mai tai the bartender said it was premium liquor six hours later I had the worst headache therefore I knew it was not premium liquor… the food was only OK I had a pork chop that was tough like leather mashed potatoes that taste like out the box fried Green tomatoes on the mushy side the peach cobbler was good though I will not be coming back thank you

The food was amazing… l had the catfish, mac, and the planetines… and it was so great! At first I was kind of
skeptical about going because of the reviews. but I’m glad that I went.

Visited twice in one week. The food is that good. Each member of our party ordered different food each time and was just as blow away.
I can endorse the Gumbo, Jambalaya, fried chicken, chicken wings, Mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and greens. My wife commented that the red beans and rice were a little bland, so no glowing review there, but no place is perfect.
Honestly, the only reason I didn’t throw 5 stars their way is that the service is heavily on the slow side. Not bad or incompetent; just slow. If the servers put a bit more pep in their step and got those jonnycakes out faster (a welcome deviation from biscuits or bread), I wouldn’t be able to say a bad word about the place.
Large portions, so come hungry!

This business makes plenty of money, so there’s just no friggin excuse for this!
Yes the food is good. Yes, it’s difficult to get a seat in this restaurant, because of the constant flow of people. Everything on the menu is good. I can see why President Barack Obama loved the Hyde Park location before it closed down, but… this is clearly NOT the Chicago location! My food was actually not all the way done, but that was the least of my problems. The dishes were dirty and scratched up.
I took my Mom in there yesterday and we were beside ourselves with the condition of the place. Also the staff promised to seat us at a table (because my mom is disabled) and never got back with us as we sat at the bar and eventually ate our food.
Our bartender was gorgeous — bless her heart! She had the kind of body that made wives uncomfortable and husbands want to put on their sunglasses and stare. She wore a low cut top and her boobs were fully on display. Her pants were extremely tight and low cut where you could see the pelvis dimples in her hips. Personally, I found nothing wrong with it, but the stares she got from couples ha ha ha I don’t know if it’s a good idea for the before 6pm crowds especially older conservatively dressed women. I’ve dealt with those stares myself, but I think there should be a point of wearing outfits based on the shift. Later shift low cut and early shift neat.
So we enter the restaurant /​bar and we are talking and eating out of no where they turn on loud music! It was so loud for the rest of dinner I either had to lean over and yell in my moms ear or signal that I would just tell her in the car. The music wouldn’t have been so bad if the volume wasn’t so high. You go from no music to blaring loud music, why?
At the end of the day as an African American woman I asked myself why are they making so much money, but won’t…
— fix and clean the bathrooms
— replace the dishes
— replace the bar stools
— or etc
The reason why is the patrons are mostly African American. If in spite of these things these people rate this place five stars and frequently patronize it they have no reason to invest the money to improve. I don’t live in the South Suburbs, but this is the fifth restaurant in the area that I’ve patronized with the same problems. It would be different if the place was frequently empty, but wake up people they are telling you and anyone else who decides to eat there that you don’t ask for or deserve better!
I will never step foot in this place again and I’m sorry so many people like getting cut up on torn chairs and holding it since the bathrooms are under standard.
You will never see a restaurant in this condition downtown or on the Northside.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to this place.
But now I remember. And always enjoyed my visit’s. I can start off by saying the johnny Cake not sure if I’m saying the name right. Lol but anyway still hot and fresh and so good and I just really enjoyed the unique butter that you get on the side. We ordered them 3 times to our table.
Now when it comes to my food.
My lunch was good. Lots of flavor and kick just like I wonted. The Crawfish was giving my taste bubs a good time. But it took so long for it to come to the table. Please do better with that the next time
I think it was a great size portion for the price.
I will be going back and will be trying some more of my back in the day From Chi Town hype park area Dixie Kitchen finger licking good smother chicken with fried Green Tomatoes. Yummy yummy
And the Mac & Cheese
Need I say more

After having a not so great experience at the Hyde Park location I was a little leary about giving this spot a second chance. I must say the food was absolutely wonderful and our server Julian was attentive and fun. I will definitely be back!