Vanel on First

The best soul food in the village. This is what they say. And I quite liked the food actually, the chicken was delicious and the sides too. The crowd was a bit too loud and the service is slow. I liked the pictures on the wall. It is worth a try if you live in the area. Reservations are recommended if you are more than 2 people, as there is not that much space

HOLY CATFISH UnilocalMAN!
I really enjoyed my time here. And the owner is a friend of a friend and fabulous eye candy that tides me over until my food arrives. The food took awhile … a long while. But it was worth the wait. I’ve been craving collard greens for a long long long time. So I was super pumped to consume my feast of catfish and greens. The catfish was so good. So good. Why was that like the best catfish ever? Perfectly seasoned. Tender and juicy on the inside, crisp and bangin’ on the outside.
The service was slow in general. Besides the delicious food taking a long time to arrive at our table with no one in the restaurant but me and my 3 future roommates. The waitress took awhile to place our order. Never offered to refill my glass and we went without silverware until our food arrived. She took days with the bill and years with the change. Thursday girl’s pretty and all but she’s sort of not efficient. Don’t go starving.
Will return for brunch cause what I really wanted was catfish and grits … mmmm.

If this review were solely based on atmosphere then Vanel on First would easily score a 4 – 5. It’s a nice setting and I went with two friends and enjoyed the atmosphere. Unfortunately we didn’t go to just hangout and we needed food too. My two friends have said that they thought the food was ok, personally I thought mine was ok too — though my fried chicken was on the dry side and there wasn’t much chicken to speak of.
I had a bigger issue with the portions/​pricing. There wasn’t much food and while the charges were not exorbitant, I should leave any eatery feeling full after two appetizers (which we split evenly) and my own dinner — especially after dropping 30 bucks in the process.