Southern Oak

Server either had too many tables, was new or just not attentive. For an upscale restaurant (or at least the prices indicate that), the table should be throughly cleared between each course and the individual’s dining should not have to request removal of the dishes between each course as we did. Also, service was slow!

After a long, hot, but successful football game at Auburn that day, it was very pleasant to dine at the Southern Oak at the Marriott. Lots of distance between tables, quiet, and cool! We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. Steaks were very good, and my salad was delicious. Waitstaff were very friendly and helpful.

This was an 'off' night at Southern Oak. We were a group of 9 but it was rather quiet in Southern Oak. Other eating areas in the hotel were busier and this may well have impacted the service in Southern Oak. Drink orders were slow to arrive at our table but I think they were filled at the Splash bar, outside, and thus, took much longer for our server to order the drinks and then get them to us. Similar for our food orders - guessing food orders from Splash and from room service took time away from fulfilling out order. Each plate came out separately with about 6-8 minutes between each service. -- for 9 people, that's a lot of time. Same thing happened at breakfast in the morning -- more than 20 minutes between "two eggs over easy" placed about 7 minutes apart. Would have been much nicer if someone could have explained the problems. Server took the complaints but I don't think this was her fault at all.

The menu was limited.My wife and I both ordered a filet but hers was over cooked.
It was a nice room. The music was not to our liking so they turned it off. The prices were high. We had breakfast the next morning and it was excellent with reasonable prices.

We were unaware a buffet was the only food choice. At $65 per person it was definitely not worth the price and a very unpleasant surprise when the bill came. Overpriced for decent food.

Way overpriced. Awful food. Do not recommend. Not even the chicken fingers were good

Easter Brunch

We waited more than 30min for our food and it came out cold and tasted terrible. We sent it back and paid for appetizers and drinks. The food looked good, it just didn’t match in flavor.

The food was excellent. The service was just ok. The atmosphere was a sophisticated comfortable.

The food and overall atmosphere of this restaurant was great. My husband had the filet and I had the salmon. Both were wonderful. Great view.

I made a reservation for Saturday February 13th for dinner with my dad. When making a reservation I was given an option to opt in or out of the valentines dinner that was $60 a person, which I did not want to pay so I opted out of it, knowing that I would be pleased with the original menu provide on the website. When arriving, we were seated and then told that the only menu they have that night was the valentines dinner menu. When given an option to opt out of this, I was very angry so we left. Why was an option given to me when making a reservation, if there was not an option at all?? Very angry with all of this to say the least

The service was awful. The food was just average. Would not pay that much to eat there again. Never received drink refills. Was our first time there and will not go again.

No reception at hotel entrance or welcome. Employee dress sloppy, even on NYE. Restaurant receptionist could have cared less and very sloppy.
Food average. Service prompt and good in terms of table service. Will never go back.

Wonderful place for dinner. The food was wonderful and the service was excellent!

It was perfect for a great evening with my mom and sisters! The waiter was fabulous! My sister wasn’t very pleased with her Truffle Fries, but other than that, everything was great! We will definitely dine there again.

Stayed at the Marriott so the convenience of having Southern Oak right there was nice. They were under staffed but Seth, who was the hostess, waiter and busboy, was the epitome of great service. The Salmon I ordered on my Caesar salad was cooked perfectly. They have a new menu so they are still transitioning and the salad is changing to a grilled Caesar which should be even better from the very basic one I was served. If you are at the Marriott it's worth trying even if just to avoid driving the dark, winding roads of Opelika for someplace else.

Absolutely terrible. Don’t waste your money

Valentines

delightful service could not have better outstanding food at fair price small but nice wine list maybe a little over priced

The food was good, but not excellent. Menu was a bit boring and very much the same as many restaurants - nothing stood out. But more annoying was the fact that one of the entrees, short ribs, was sold out already and we were among the first guests that evening at 6pm! Also the wait staff was unaware of this until several minutes after the order had been placed.
The wait staff, although pleasant enough, were quite inexperienced and young and not as knowledgeable as they should have been at this standard of a restaurant in a top hotel.

Host attempted to squeeze a party of 5 into a tight area between two large parties at a table for 4 with an extra chair at the end, even though the restaurant was half empty? I have a picture. Very poor decision which i had to ask for a correct size table not very far away that was empty. Waitress was distracted most of the time talking to co workers and i had to find her chatting in the service area to get the desert we ordered 15 minutes prior that she forgot to bring out. Not a well managed restaurant, surprising as this is a 5 star Marriott and run by teenagers. Won’t return

Wonderful meal with friendly service. Food took a little while to come out but staff checked in often to make sure we didn't need anything. Great laid back, comfortable space with nice ambiance. They had live music in the lobby for entertainment. Will definitely go back!

Very nice staff and an amazing breakfast buffet.

Way understaffed!!
On an Auburn game weekend they need to figure out how to deal with full capacity hotel. It’s not a surprise!
Attendants are nice just overworked. Bigger restaurant is needed.

We actually never ate and we walked out because they did not know what they were doing. It was Sunday 11am we wanted breakfast were told by hostess breakfast was over so we sat down with lunch menu then told food would take longer because they were switching over we walked out but before we did spoke to manager that said we were told incorrectly. Too much confusion and poor customer service

Just average breakfast buffet for the price:/

The food is average and if there is a golf group in there, the noise level can be pretty extreme

Ordered Cesar Salad and only found out when it was brought to the table that they we out of Romaine. So I had a Cesar with Iceberg lettuce! My husband ordered a club sandwich and had chopped up (cubes) meat. We had a third member of our party, a relentless FLY.

Took our reservation. We drove out 20 minutes with the whole family. Manager tells us the chef is not cooking from the dinner menu but we can order from the pool bar menu. No thank you. Happy Father’s Day. 😠 won’t return

The Mothers Day Brunch was outstanding. Buffet with breakfast and dinner entrees, a dessert bar to die for and an individually made bouquet for Mom. Well done!

We had a great server- however, we thought that, for the price, we’d be receiving a cooked to order meal. Instead, we arrived to find a buffet meal with a hefty price and whose selection didn’t match the cost. We were the only table in the restaurant on Auburn graduation weekend- I am guessing that many share our impression of this restaurant and went elsewhere.

We ordered a fish and a chicken entree. The rice that came with the fish was cold. The cornbread/potato dish that came with the chicken had no flavor. Also, the white wine we ordered was almost warm. It was not a good experience.

We have enjoyed breakfast on several occasions.

The main part of the restaurant had closed early due to lack of customers at 6:30 PM and we were seated at the bar, where the bartender occasionally popped out to see us. The food was okay, but not great. The chicken tenders were basically over cooked and primarily the breaded part, little meat.

Great New Year’s Eve dinner!

I will start by saying that the food was eventually great once they fixed a couple special request (ie. no dressing and a medium-well steak which came out rare). They did try to reconcile by offering another free take home steak rather than reduce the price. Prices were on-par with a high end steak house ($36 for the filet, $21 for salad with Chicken). Other things were a bit annoying, like having to ask 2-3 times for missing items or drinks. The servers were remarkably friendly however, something was just a little off here with the overall service level.

The venue is spectacular and worth a visit to walk around the property. I hope that they get it right at their restaurant.

Some food was hot, some was cold. Felt more like a conference room than a restaurant

Food was good but service was lacking. Took forever to place a drink order, then took another 10-15 minutes for it to arrive. We also placed an appetizer order - it arrived 30 minutes later - when the rest of the meal also arrived! Only 4-5 other tables were occupied in the restaurant when we arrived for a 7:30 reservation - should have been a strong clue that something wasn't right.

Our first time here. We live in auburn and we’re very pleased. Stayed for the Knights concert too after our server recommended it.

I don’t even know where to start, it was that bad! Should have known there was an issue when there was no one in the restaurant at 6pm on a Saturday night. This restaurant was nothing more than an extension of the pool bar.

We had evaluated the menu online before booking, it had 6 varied entrees in addition to burgers, etc.. As we are handed our flimsy paper menus, there are only 2 entrees and a ‘chicken tender basket’ that had been added from ‘something else’ section of the online menu. We decide to stay against our better judgement thinking, this is still a Marriott.

We order drinks. The beer can was given to us unopened with no offer of a glass. The appetizers come with no plates. The gumbo arrives without a spoon and have to flag waitress down to get one, much less crackers or hot sauce.

We order the Filet Mignon - medium. Our meals were served with nearly liquid ‘whipped’ potatoes, that were cold. The filets arrive WAY past well done. The entire meal was almost comical.

Have to flag waitress for a second round of drinks and finally for our check. Awful experience- don’t waste your time or money.

I enjoyed the restaurant overall, I was a little disappointed in the food. It was not as good as I had anticipated.