When you leave a “fine” restaurant so hungry that you are contemplating a run through a fast-food drive-thru before you make it home, then things really must have been bad. That’s how bad things went Friday night at Stella’s Southern Bistro in Simpsonville. We were there 3.5 hours. Now I know what you are thinking – it was Friday night and we must have had to wait awhile. No… we had reservations and were pretty well seated immediately. Appetizers came out quickly, but ours was so salty we didn’t want to eat it so it just sat there and grew cold. As far as our meals go; it took 90 minutes for the waiter to first acknowledge that we had been waiting too long for our order. At this point I began eating the overly salty and now very cold appetizer. It was quite disgusting but it was an appetizer so there wasn’t much to consume and I was getting quite hungry. After nearly two hours total our food finally arrives. Once it arrived, my meal was not eatable as it tasted like someone had dumped half a salt shaker across my plate. I barely ate any of it. After the salty appetizer, I just couldn’t eat any more salt. I did consume about 20 glasses of water for some reason. The company I was with shared some of theirs which was also so salty that it was nauseating. The manger came by the table, apologized again for it taking so long and removed the cost of the appetizer from our bill and offered a free dessert. We then waited more than 30 minutes for the desserts to come out. I didn’t have one as the last thing I want is to eat a plateful of sugar when I’m hungry. We took this opportunity to explain how bad the food was and then she gave us gift cards for a free lunch with I promptly gave to someone else at our table – you can tell me you will give me all the free stuff you want, but making me pay for a meal that I waited two hours for and wasn’t even fit to eat is entirely unacceptable.

Wow! That is all I can say! I was in town for business for a few days. Our supplier took us here for a business lunch. The food was awesome! I would go here again! The menu was New Southern and quite inventive, IMHO. I did not expect to have food this good in South Carolina.

Food is amazing. Had the pork chop with greens and the squash casserole. So on point! Not Applebee's pricing but not expensive either. Give this place a try. I will definitely return on my next visit to the area

Came away hungry and upset. Portions on the $30 menu were 'doll' size. Price was high average and an issue over desert was not handled professionally, and was not resolved. Its never good to embarrass the customer! Will not return.

Great fresh food with just the right portion sizes! Our server Sammy is very personable, knowledgeable and made our 1st experience here very enjoyable