Not So Soul Food

The date for this visit was actually March 6, 2010.
I decided to go to Wilma's yesterday for lunch with Kaylon.  I'd heard so many things about the food and I just had to try it for myself.  I've been in Northwest Arkansas for almost five years now and there are only two places that I know of the classify themselves as "Soul" restaurants here in town.  Mama Dean's and Wilma's.  I've eaten at Mama Dean's. Let's just say that I am willing to give her another chance.

I heard about Wilma's a couple of years back while working in sales at AT&T.  At that time they were located near Drake Field on the south side of town.  They've since moved to a location on North College Ave.  Prior to eating here I had not been impressed by "Soul" Food restaurant offerings anywhere even back home in Chicago.  Well when the opportunity presented itself to me to try out the place I decided to go ahead and do it.  We got there and were promptly seated at a table in a small but open dining area. There were two large wooden tables that reminded of my grandma's house and Thanksgiving at first glance.  We were given the lunch menu, even though we arrived after 2, and then the standard menu.  I think that there was every dish in the Soul Food category being offered at Wilma's.  They have the dishes split up in categories based on, I'm assuming, prep time.  Word to the wise.  Don't go there on your lunch hour if are not sure of what you want to eat.  The wait time here is the absolute worst!!  I will go into more detail later.   After checking the menu out I wondered how they were able to offer so many different and complex items every day.  They had greens on the menu but funny thing is I didn't smell greens in the restaurant.  As a matter of fact I didn't smell anything. Odd.  In my kitchen and every other "soul" kitchen, if greens are cooking you will smell them. Well anyway Kaylon and I placed our drink  orders, Wilma's "famous" Sweet Tea.  There is a disclaimer of "extreme sweetness" before the order is actually written down on paper.  Odd.  After getting it and taking a sip I understood the reason for the warning.  This was the sweetest tea that I had ever had any my life.  Diabetics beware.  This puts a black eye on Southern Sweet Tea. I think that at least one cup of sugar is poured in each 12oz glass of tea. After recovering from sugar shock we went ahead and placed our orders. We both ordered what we thought would be safe, pork chops, mac and cheese, collard greens, corn bread.  I mean there were at least thirty choices on this menu and two people working, the waiter and Wilma. I didn't want to overwhelm her with anything too complex.  After 5 minutes of conversation and two more sips of brown sugar water I began to wonder why I still couldn't smell or hear my food "cooking". Odd.  I did hear the sounds of buttons being pushed and the opening and closing of what sounded like a microwave.  Yellow flag. We're approaching the 10 minute mark and Kaylon and I were starting to become concerned about our orders.  The waiter came by and assured us that our orders were on the way and offered more tea.  We respectfully declined.  More water please, thank you.  20 minutes still no food.  25 minutes no food.  There was one other party in the restaurant at the time and they had already ordered their food before we arrived.  Midway between placing our order and receiving it their food arrived at their table. Our meal finally arrived after nearly 30 minutes of waiting.  It wasn't worth the wait. Wilma came out to greet us and asked how everything was going.  A sweet and humble little woman with a very pleasant personality. She reminded me of my grandmother.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that the service sucked and that the tea was horrible.  I hadn't tried the food yet so I went the easy route by saying "everything looks great!"  She fired back by saying looks are great but she wants it to taste great.  I wonder if she's ever eaten her own cooking.  For the length of time that we waited I had high expectations for the quality of the food.  I was let down hard!! Bland flavor with little to no heat.  When  I order hot food I expect it to be hot not warm.  The food was at least palatable.  The worst part about the entire experience was receiving the bill.  Can you say ROBBED?  Needless to say this place will not get a second chance.  I've heard about their wait time and experienced it first hand, this alone will prevent me from going to Wilma's Home Cooking ever again.

Don't get caught by my poison pen!

DiDiOnTheStreet