First time visiting The Licking, and it definitely won't be our last! We ordered the fried chicken dinner with mac & cheese and greens, and the fried conch dinner with pigeon pea rice and greens. Everything was fresh, hot, and full of flavor. Ordering online was simple, and we received a notification that our food was ready before we even arrived, making pickup quick and convenient. The restaurant was clean, and we were warmly greeted as soon as we walked in. Since it was our first visit, they even treated us to complimentary drinks, sauces, and cake, which was a nice surprise. Great food, excellent customer service, and a welcoming atmosphere. Highly recommend! read more

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I was surprised to see that this was close to my hotel. I hadn't been to a Licking restaurant since 2020 in Miami and at that time, I had a horrible experience but, I remember the blueberry lemonade and the food being good so we stopped in. There are a lot of younger ladies that work the front of the house and they're all extremely polite. However, there was no one at the host's stand when we came in but they could see us from where they were behind the counter. They could have waived us over to check in there but they didn't. After standing there and realizing they weren't coming over, we went up to the counter. They said it would be a 45 minute wait. There was already a customer waiting on a togo order that was over and hour so, I started to get nervous that this was going to be a long experience. It only took us about 20 minutes to be seated and the food came over right away. That was definitely a pleasant surprise. We both ordered the baked chicken, with green beans and I had the veggie rice. I appreciated the extra piece of chicken they gave me but you could tell the chicken was old. The green beans were very salty and the rice was okay. You definitely get your money's worth in food. I would just return earlier in the day to get fresh chicken. read more

The Licking Orlando - Blueberry lemonade and water - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

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Money hungry. Incompetent. I came in at 1 pm. My total was $43.00. I had a $100.00 bill. I was told that my bill couldn't be broken because they 'just opened' (they opened at 11 am. What does THAT have to do with me when the alternative is an ADDITIONAL fee (inflation charge of 3.0%) q- a 3.5 service charge to use a credit/debit card? So you're telling me because YOU don't bank effectively and efficiently that you cannot provide me change? Nor can you remove the 3.5% fee that I shouldn't be forced to pay? Spoke with the 'manager' 'Tee' who advised he had no credentials to remove the 3.5 fee nor could remove any percentage from my ticket. Literally worth|ess. If I didn't drive 40 minutes here I would have left...that's fine though. I won't be back. read more

I really thought I was going to have some good soul food. But I soon felt like I was being robbed. Dinners come with two sides but if you want collards or Mac and cheese it will cost you an extra 8.00. (3.99 each) why? Soul food is not soul food without collards and mac and cheese. Just add it to the menu price and not make it a surcharge. They had no sweet tea and no cornbread for the greens. Gratuity was added ( which is NOT a big deal) but they actually charge you an extra 3% service charge for the use of the toast system which is their computer! cash or credit you get charged 3%. Really? That is just plain ridiculous. robbing the patrons is not a good idea. Oh did I mention someone was smoking weed and the smell came into the dining area? The servers on the other hand are great. They smile and are friendly. two of us spent 98.00. We do not mind spending 100.00 for lunch Food was good but not worth 98.00 read more

The Licking Orlando - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

The place has an awesome urban music lounge like vibe, definitely keep in mind that if you get overstimulated easily or prefer a quiet environment, it might not be the best fit for you! (Do take out if that's your preference because the food is worth the visit). Our server was so sweet and attentive. You could tell they were a little short on staffed but it wasn't too long of a wait. Great food, great energy, and wonderful service! read more

I had a very disappointing experience at The Licking near the Mall at Millenia. I ordered chicken wings and fries extra well done, and our server, Donna Marie, confirmed the request. When the food arrived, the wings were very light in color. I asked Donna Marie whether they were well done, and she assured me they were. After eating one wing, it was clear it was not prepared as requested. The second wing appeared pink inside. The fries were extremely greasy, and the seafood rice was overcooked and burned. I lost my appetite and began feeling sick to my stomach. Donna Marie did not return to check on our table, and we were never offered drink refills. We later noticed employees sitting in booths near the kitchen, eating and talking. It took quite a while to get her attention. When we finally did, we apologized for interrupting her meal and explained the problems with the wings and rice. I told her I no longer wanted the food and asked that it be removed from the bill. She said she would take care of it. Later, another employee came to our table and abruptly informed us that there were no refunds. When I asked where that policy was posted, she pointed toward the entrance and offered to have the food remade. I declined because I was already feeling sick, my party was nearly finished eating, and I did not feel comfortable ordering anything else. When we paid, we discovered that a 15% gratuity had automatically been added. On the way out, I finally noticed a small sign on the host podium stating the no-refund and automatic-gratuity policies. These policies should be clearly disclosed before customers order, especially when there is a legitimate concern about whether food has been cooked properly. Between the questionable wings, burned rice, greasy fries, no drink refills, lack of attention from our server, and the dismissive handling of our complaint, this was an unacceptable dining experience. I would not return or recommend this location. Also there policy and procedures need to be posted more clearly. read more

The food always has soo much flavor and I love the music which is hip hop and rnb. It can give a party vibe at the right time of day. The service was nice but I will say it is pretty pricey so be ready to drop a little bag. The drinks were strong but again a bit pricey. read more

The Licking Orlando - Hennessy strawberry - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

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This is truly a good and bad review... Let's start with the good. Food is flavorful, cashier was nice, clearly a vibe inside. Although I ordered carry out, I showed up 5-10 minutes after the proposed pickup time and the food still was not ready. However the music made the additional wait tolerable. The price point for what I received was not. I ordered chicken eggrolls and received rice eggrolls. The fried broccoli was greatly proportioned for the price but tasted like it was fried in fish grease (I'm allergic to seafood) so I couldn't eat them. The Asian zing sauce that accompanied the broccoli was a miss, for that amount of seasoning on the broccoli basic ranch would have done the trick. The Mac and cheese was really good (truly southern) to me, but not for the kids. I don't know if I'd come back... maybe with a coupon... but I'm frugal... read more

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Returned to pick up dinner for a friend and me. I defaulted to my favorite Lemon Pepper Turkey Wing Dinner. For sides, I chose Candied Yams and Collard Greens. The food did not take long to be prepared. The meal did not disappoint. I could only eat half because of the generous portions. The staff was very friendly and polite. Great food. Good service. Perfect recipe! read more

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All of the food was delicious and the portions were nice and hearty. One meal was enough for 2 people. The only complaint is that we weren't able to dine in. We went in the late afternoon/early evening and was told they were only doing carryout. No explanation of why, I assume maybe short staffed since I only saw one worker in the front (not sure of how many were in the back). That being said the service was a bit slow due to several people in front of us waiting to pick up orders as well. read more

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My first time here, visiting from Oklahoma and everything from the customer service to the food was great. Great atmosphere. It was so good I told one of my friends about it, and she took her family there to try it. 10/10 recommend. read more

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I honestly tried to give them a try a couple times and I can't get into the hype. The service is terrible, and the food was just as bad both times I tried. read more

The dirty mystery drink is a must try. Their food is so good it'll remind you of your grandmas cooking. Usually out of the red velvet chicken and waffles but the rare occasion I could try it was great. The service is decent they normally have a lot of people but at least there is tv and music to listen to while you wait. read more

The Licking Orlando - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

I came down from DC for a cheer competition and was looking for some soulfood. My fellow cheer parents recommend The Licking. I drove over and the place was dark. I originally thought the place was closed however someone came out. My wife and I walked in and the woman at the front counter was extremely nice and pleasant. We talked through the menu and finally placed an order to go. I ordered the Lobster Pasta with added chicken and Shrimp. My wife ordered the Fried Turkey Wing platter along with the seafood rice. I so badly wanted to give this place 5 stars. I'll dive into why I couldn't but first the good. The Lobster Pasta with the added chicken and shrimp is GREAT!!!! 5 star meal. It does come with peppers which I didn't want and had to remove. The shrimp comes with the tail still attached. I absolutely hate having to cut the tail off myself to eat shrimp. This was a partial drop for me. The portion size is LARGE and definitely filling. My wife ordered the Fried Turkey Wing platter with yams and mac and cheese. 5 stars. DELICIOUS! Fried Turkey wing was great. Yams perfect. Mac and cheese was decent. She also ordered the seafood rice. The rice was really good. The biggest issue was there was portions of a steamed crab inside the rice. Outside of the hard shell crab, there was also pieces of crab legs inside the rice. What a real disappointment. Overall I'd go here again as the food is GREAT when prepared without all the extra stuff I mentioned above. Hopefully this is fixed when I return to Orlando next year. read more

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The location is in a great location in Orlando. The restaurant was clean and it was easy to order. I had the chicken wings, mac n cheese and yams. Wings were small but they gave you enough in quantity. Also had fried fish, rice and corn. Also had the strawberry crunch cake. We went close to closing which isn't recommended. Food was ok and I bet much better when totally fresh. Food had great flavor and seasoning. We will definitely try them again. read more

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If I can give 0 stars I would the customer service is terrible the wait for food is terrible . Do not come here

This place is short staffed! Waited an hour to be seated and another for our food. I only gave 3 stars due to bad service but the food was good. I had the wing dinner and my husband had the snapper and shrimp. They give you a big piece of fish that was good perfect. The Frieda shrimp were also delicious. Wings cooked to perfection! Nice and crispy and everything was seasoned good. The Mac and cheese was delicious and the greens were really tasty, full of flavor. I was hesitant after reading the reviews because multiple people said the Mac and cheese and greens were salty. That was not the case. They were also seasoned really well! Not sure when I'll be back because the service is bad but I would definitely like to come back and try some other items. My advice to management....hire more people or schedule more people on busy days. read more

I am a 2nd time caller but i have to stop by here when im Orlando. Food is really good. I have never had a bad bite. It's good ole' Soul Food. The biggest opportunity is service. The wait time for an empty restaurant is A1 ridiculous. Sit down was immediate but getting an order placed or the receipt can add about 45min to your time in restaurant. It feels they can do an online table service to mitigate the wait time. Inside the restaurant is very loud playing hip-hop selections. read more

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The mystery drink was good but super sweet. The fried broccoli had great flavor but a tad salty to me. I ordered my steak medium and it was cooked to medium well but the it was seasoned well. Our waitress was great. If you attend, expect loud music and alot of people in the evening. read more

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The licking Orlando (4706 Millenia Plaza Way, Orlando, FL 32839) The food at The licking Orlando was good! The lemon pepper turkey wings was FULL OF FAVOR! The team were nice once you got their ATTENTION ! My order: Lemon pepper turkey wings Fried Chicken wings String Beans Collard Greens The atmosphere: Dark. From the outside (I thought they were closed) to the inside. My Review: The food was good. The superstar of the meal was the LEMON PEPPER TURKEY WINGS. Nice size, packed with flavor and they were not dry. The String beans were good the collard greens salt level were a little high and I didn't like the bones in the veggies. (Too many small bones) I can see myself eating here again but to go order at this location. I remember eating at the Florida Mall location and my experience was much different (in a positive way)! I will say the other waitress (not the lady that sat us down and took our drink order 10 plus minutes later) was Great. She looks around and at customers when she walks by tables. Y'all I'm just glad she looked at me because I really needed a refill... overall the food was good. Overall Score: 6/10 read more

The Licking Orlando - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

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Just ate there about 30 min ago ordered some of there cake slices and there was hair in both of them !!!!! disgusting. Food was mid chicken wasnt good Lemonade was disgustingly sweet. The service wasnt good either didnt check on us i had to get up and ask somebody else to bring us waters. Ion even do this review stuff but this was awful. read more

Stopped in for the wings and left loving the vibe! We loved everything. All the food was seasoned perfectly and the drinks were great. The wait staff were very friendly and attentive. Will definitely be going back next time I'm in Orlando. read more

The Licking Orlando - Dirty Mystery Drink - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

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I was in the area and mad an impromptu stop here. The place was fairly empty and I walked up to order to go. I hadn't really researched the menu but they definitely have a good amount of items and variety. I chose the Buffalo Mac n cheese. They have a text notification system so you can't be alerted when your order is ready. Mine was ready in less than 20 minutes. The serving size was huge. I was pleasantly surprised, the buffalo sauce has a nice amount of spice to it and the Mac n cheese was not lacking either. I'll def be back to try some of the other items. read more

The Licking Orlando - Menu - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

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I wanted to try to this place after seeing it on TikTok. I took my aunt and my mother there . We were met at the door with a security guard (barely spoke English) that said we couldn't come in. Ok? No list nor were we told how long it would be. Here we are standing n the hot Florida sun, waiting to be let in. Then after about 20 minutes, someone came and decided to put us on the list. We finally got in and were told someone was on the list ahead of us. Not sure why they were confused. Then once inside , the atmosphere was not it. The music was so loud that we couldn't even hear each other talk. We decided to leave and never come back . read more

The food at the licking is good but the service is lame. The hostess was rude and they need more staff. Don't go on a weekend.

Great vibe , and decent food , service however however was a little skeptical . Seating seemed to be very hard to get. It seemed to be a famous or influencer you can skip the wait versus a regular customer. read more

My experience at The Licking was very disappointing. First, the hostess was extremely rude when we walked in. She tossed the menus onto the table and abruptly told us where to sit, without offering any explanation or making us feel welcome. As first-time customers, we had no idea how things worked and expected a much friendlier introduction. The service only got worse from there. We waited nearly two hours for our meals. To make matters worse, my meal arrived well before the second meal at our table. I was already halfway finished eating before the other meal was finally served. At the end of the visit, a 15% gratuity was automatically added to the bill despite the poor service we received. While the food itself was good, the customer service was unacceptable from start to finish. Unfortunately, based on this experience, I cannot recommend this restaurant. Good food can only make up for so much, and the service was far below what any customer should expect. read more

In search of soul food and this place came up on nearby places on the maps app. The parking lot was pretty packed so we decided to do take out. The inside was pretty small and loud with the music playing through the building. Like really loud!! The ladies at the counter didn't greet us or say anything. One even seemed annoyed with our questions about the menu. So I would give customer service a 3. After ordering we were surprisingly asked to wait in the car or on the patio for the text to let us know the order was ready. It was a rainy day and there were empty benches on the inside. So this request was a little confusing. The food was below average for the price and portion. read more

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Ugh...I really want this place to win. Most times, the food is good but the customer service and business operations suck. A small group of us (3) attempted to dine-in two days in a row. The first day, we called around 8pm to see if we could be seated and they told us "no" since it was so close to closing time (9pm). The next day, we actually got to the restaurant around 7pm and STILL couldn't be seated. They were doing to-go orders only, although others were dining-in. Very unprofessional and inconsistent. As far as food, the lemon pepper wings were good, along with the Mac and greens (flavor wise). With the greens, I just didn't like the inclusion of BONES! Music was a vibe (hip hop and RnB). Probably the best part of our visit lol read more

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Sometimes it's best to give people a second chance if they make a mistake or do you wrong. Well unfortunately this Isn't the case for Finger Licking out in Orlando. After a long ride across Orlando my girl and I finally pull up to The Licking and it honestly looks abandoned. It's Friday evening around 7pm and it's about three vehicles in the parking lot so we're assuming it's closed. Once we got out the car we can hear music blasting like we were at the club We walk in and there's literally one group pf people sitting in the corner. We stand and wait to be seated and the security guard hands us menus and walls us to a booth. Let me repeat that..THE SECURITY GUARD yeah that guy with his gun and maxe, and his bulletproof vest on yeah that guy. Once we were seated...that's it that's where our night ended. We sat there for 25 minutes and not a soul came over to even say hi to us. I would say maybe 5 members of the staff walked by and never looked our way. The only waitress one the floor was taking care of an complaint from the only group that was in the restaurant. ***Edit: I was falling asleep while writing this review and posted it just so it wouldn't get erased and not saved. I'm up and let me continue. The music was so loud I couldn't hear my girl who's sitting directly in front of me. There were about four workers behind the counter just laughing and playing on their phones with not a soul in line. Someone could've came out to greet us but nope nothing. The staff all looked and acted like young adults who have zero experience in the service industry this was beyond a piss pour staff they should and will go into the Hall Of Shame as the worst ever. This is solely the manager teams fault, they hired this crew, they trained this crew and this the product that was put out here. Just so there's no misunderstanding I visited here around 7pm December 5, 2024 we ended up leaving and spending our money at Cheesecake Factory. Absolutely the worst experience I've had in a long time. No management anywhere to be found. I'm ashamed of this business pure trash. I'll never step foot in this place again read more

The food was GOOD! The collard greens was seasoned to perfection, the shrimp was seasoned and fried perfectly, the sweet potatoes were just right not too sweet and that corn bread muffin was chefs kiss! The employees were very friendly and let's not talk about the music is was a whole vibe! read more

The Licking Orlando - Fried Shrimp Dinner with collard greens, sweet potatoes, and cornbread muffin - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

Uhmm this place been through a lot coming back finally got it together. I would still stay away from the dirty mystery drink doesn't do anything for you why I ordered 2 guess I was bored. The service we had and the food was way better than before! I will be back. read more

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I paid over $13 for 6 wings and they were so dried out and small! Never again that place needs to close down and have the nerve to have a security guard! Dj kalid needs to know what kind of service his establishment is offering and his name is on the line read more

Mannnn this place is a hit! I had the turkey wings and they were falling off the bone, i mean i think about this meal often LOL. My family loved their food as well. Our waitress was very attentive and helped me figure out the best option for my daughter who has a lot of allergies. She was even able to try the Dirty Drink as the virgin kind. I wish I lived in Orlando i would be here all the time. read more

Waited 20 plus mins for 2 sides . Terrible customer service don't come unless you have time

Fun place to have lunch or dinner. Always playing the newest of hip hop and R&B so the vibe is great. Food is also good with great southern options to choose from. Make sure to try the mystery drink which can either be ordered virgin or dirty. read more

The Licking Orlando - Dirty Mystery Drink - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

Food is very flavorful drinks are good as well I give a 3 star for presentation and sometimes can be over cooked but over all good tasting food read more

this place is fire i love the food and service is wonderful and my waitress donna was very nice & was great !! this my spot fr ! read more

The Licking Orlando - Grilled Chicken Breast Dinner - Soul Food Near Me - Orlando, Florida

I cannot believe I spent $41.99 on this food. Fried lobster tail with mac and cheese and greens. Lobster tail had no meat in it!!!!! Just nuggets. The Mac and cheese was salty! The greens saltier! I was so happy to see that this place was. It too far from the hotel I was in, I always wanted to try it. But that was really disappointing! read more

I wish i could give this place a ZERO, terrible business practice. We walked in and stood there watching one guy behind the counter, one to the left and 2 people sitting at a booth eating on the right. No one said a word to us, the guy behind the counter finally speak after a couple minutes of us looking directly at him, he spoke to let us know that THE SERVER WON'T BE IN UNTIL 5 PM!!!! it was about 3:30 PM when we got there. THAT WAS ABSOLUTE INSANITY AND WOULD NEVER COME BACK AND I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE. read more