A couple years ago, the Michigan Alumni Association started gathering at South in Santa Monica. This struck me as strange, because Michigan is about as north as a state can get. Yet, any place willing to host the legions of Michigan football fans was a winner in my mind. Plus, it didn’t hurt to have Abita on tap. But in these years, I had not attempted their food until the past weekend. I heard some bad things, but sometimes you just have to eat.
South offers a brunch menu for us early risers and I found myself ordering their Fried Chicken and Biscuits for $11. Eventually, they arrived and looked delicious, if not small. You see, the menu had described the dish as coming with gravy and waffle fries, but I found that there were only three waffle fries included and they were completed covered in gravy. No, covered isn’t the right word…let’s go with drowning.
Nonetheless, I went with it and started eating. I quickly found the waffle fries to be soggy, the biscuits to be hard and the gravy to be relatively tasteless. The only redeeming factor was the fried chicken, which was good, but truly nothing amazing. I don’t get it, Southern food isn’t hard to make taste good. Sure, like all cuisines, it takes skill and effort. I’m not trying to downplay Southern food, but realistically a dish like chicken and biscuits should be relatively simple. I’m no Southerner, so maybe for some it offers a degree of home comfort, but for a Northerner looking for tasty Southern food, South is a disappointment.
But as long as they host my football games, I’ll be coming back. I’ll just do my best to eat before, as to not be tempted by the poorly-executed Southern menu.
