Kem's Restaurant

The staff and food is good. I always look at staff satisfaction. One member has a concern with direction. It is ok with having differences, the concern I have is communication on the direction and staff understanding of the direction.

Conveniently located in the lobby of the Holiday Inn I decided to eat/drink here tonight after a long drive today.Started off ordering my standard bourbon/diet coke. (Those of you that follow my reviews know this and understand why this is my standard drink). (Again if you follow my reviews, I am sitting at the bar). Dan the bartender brought me the menu after he brought my drink and explained the dinner specials. When he told me there was 4 specials for dinner tonight, I immediately tuned him out. I eat out nearly 700 times per year and the word "special" has mixed emotion with me that ranges from "good buy one day only at the local market" to "we have so much of this crap left and you really need to push it". When you have 4 specials for the night, I do not even want to think why regardless of how it sounds. Any restaurant that has 4 specials on one night has to be severely mismanaged. I decided on the standard sirlion steak with a side of mashed potatoes. Plate arrived with 2 steaks on it (one large and one miniscule), scoop of mashed potatoes and mixed vegtables (which I did not order).Observations....if I order a steak, do not bring me two pieces. Especially if they are two different thicknesses. You can not make a steak to the same temperature if they are not the same thickness. The smaller piece was thinner, seared to a crisp and over done. The thicker piece had a decent sear on it and was good.The potatoes were served with an ice cream scoop. A perfect half moon. A sign of a restaurant that does not care what the presentation is. There is noting wrong with scooping with a ladle on to the plate. I expect Denny's to use a ice cream scoop but not a place that charge $17.00 for sirlion.Additionally I was assured that the potatoes were real. But the taste screamed boxed flakes to me. Even after mentioning it to the kitchen I was assured they were real. Not going to argue, but they take fake and the gravy way definatively out of a jar. The whole side was bland, seasonless and devoid of any taste. Did not attempt a second bite.I will say however that the evening was not a waste. Dan proved himself to be a master of customer service and is an exceptional bartender. He was willing to replace my steak that was supremely overdone and replace the potatos with another side.I do not waste food and declined his offer and paid for what I ordered. I just do not feel that the next time I stay at this hotel that I will order food from here. I will however sit at the bar and drink any time Dan is behind the bar.Food gets one star (and that is generous), Dan doubles the star to two. If I came here solely to drink at thw bar and that was all my review was based upon, then I would give 5 stars!We will see if anything changes on my next trip through Columbia to deserve an update to my review.

Located behind the main lobby in the Holiday Inn-East hotel, Kem's Restaurant has a reasonable selection of food and drink options. The food is great, and the service has been excellent.

I ordered from Kem's using Mr. Delivery here in Columbia not knowing what to expect because it was a new addition to the list of choices. But I will try anything once. The food arrived and the first thing I noticed is that as described from the menu, the pita chips where warm, and the hummus was blended perfectly. I ordered the salmon with broccoli and mashed potatoes. The salmon was just right. The potatoes were very good, and clearly not instant. I was pleasantly surprised and how good and fresh everything was and I will be ordering from there again. Another surprise is that I don't live far from there so I will be visiting the dining room soon.

My dinner was very very good and service was second to none!! Portions were unexpectedly generous, more than I could put away. Had the Southwest chicken and shrimp penne and I don't think Olive Gardens could've​ done better!! I'm not a drinker so can't comment on that. Looked like customers were happy with the service, tho.

This is a horrible restaurant with horrible attitudes starting with the restaurant manager. I was staying with a large group of high achieving high school students on a school function, and we ordered in sandwiches to eat for the night. Rather than eat in our rooms, I decided we should eat together. I knew that it was probably unacceptable to eat brought-in food at the restaurant (even though it was 7:30 on a Wednesday night and only 1 couple in the entire restaurant), so I asked the front desk manager if we could eat all together in the hotel's large lobby. Even though he agreed, the restaurant manager ran out to us yelling that his restaurant extended into the lobby and we were not allowed to bring in outside food. The front desk manager was upset at this, and I overheard him comment to one of his employees why the restaurant manager "has to be such an a$$hole". Besides that, the food at the restaurant his very average at best. I had some hot wings that were rubbery. The next morning I had a cinnamon roll that tasted like it had been bought at a gas station and heated up in a microwave. The final straw was the last morning: I got a cup of complimentary coffee from the lobby of the hotel, but then a minute later I decided to have a half order of biscuits and gravy from the restaurant. When I got the bill, they charged me for the free coffee. This restaurant annoyed me so much that I doubt I will be back to the hotel.

We came in toward the end of the night so it was nice and quiet, us and one other party. We ordered the buffalo wings, Tuscan chicken penne, and the sirloin (rare). Everything was delicious and cooked very well. The sirloin was so good, we actually ended up ordering a second. Waiter/chef was alone for the evening but was very attentive and helpful to us. Great evening!

Great food and awesome service! A little too expensive, $7 for 8 mozzarella sticks for example. Their Caesar salad and the vegetable pasta plate was very good and I ended up taking half of it home because there was so much on my plate! My boyfriend especially liked the bacon burger and their pink lemonade. If I'm ever at the Holiday Inn again I definitely will stop by again!

Always great food and the bartenders couldn't be nicer. I stay here every time I come to town and the food is consistently good. Good drinks. Very reasonable prices. Can't go wrong

We got room service from this place while staying at the Holiday Inn. For 15 bucks we got 3 sliders, a giant pile of fries and a huge ice cream sundae. All the food was Delish and the service was friendly and prompt.