Four of us came here for dinner after a full day at the ark. We were greeted promptly and seated in a comfortable booth. There were both large and small tables available. The menu is large and varied. It ranges from appetizers to entrees and even had a variety of desserts. Our waitress was precious and delivered great service, checking on us several times. Our table got Country fried steak, a burger and meatloaf. All selections were delicious and the portions were more than enough for us all. The sweet tea was good! We were too full for deserts. There's a small shop with homemade sweets and breads at very reasonable prices and some gifts. There's plenty of parking as it's in a large strip mall. We all agreed we would eat here again. read more

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I'll start with September 23 - 25 2021, our 1st visit to the area & Ark. We live in WA state. We found Kelly's our first night. Went in for dinner & had a wonderful homemade meal. Kelly told us about their little dinner theater on Fridays. We went back for dinner & the play. The day we were leaving to continue our trip we went in for breakfast. That's how much we enjoyed Kelly's. Now let's get to today October 27 2026. A friend & I are on girls trip to the Ark. I've been talking Kelly's up & telling her what great food we had in 2021. So disappointed in our visit this evening after leaving the Ark Encounter. There were 2 booths with 2 people in each one. We were seated given menus. Our drinks were delivered we asked for straws. She said we don't have any. The waitress started telling us everything on the menu they were out of. The list of what was available would have been shorter. I ordered the chicken bacon blue cheese salad & fried green tomatoes. My friend ordered the Mexican chicken salad. Our waitress came back & told us they didn't have blue cheese for my salad or the dressing for her salad. I decided to skip the salad as blue cheese was a big part of the salad. So very disappointed I hope this isn't what Kelly's has come to. I asked the baker guy if Kelly still owned it he told me yes. We went to the register to pay the hostess. Another young waitress came up & started complaining loudly in front of us to the hostess; that she seated people in the other girls section & not in her section. I said you can deal with that after we pay & leave. The hostess asked me if I wanted to leave a 18 - 20 or 25% tip. I told her I wasn't leaving a tip. And we left. I apologized to my girl friend that we didn't have the same experience my husband & I had in 2021. Needless to say we will not be back to Kelly's in the future. That makes me sad this was such a BAD experience. read more

Was in the area and decided to try Kellie's Homestead. Place was pretty empty. Stood there waiting to be seated for about 15 minutes while the one waitress walked back and forth and just stared at us. Floors were sticky. Food was sub par. Wife's burger was decent. Tried the burgoo. Awful lukewarm warm and so salty it raised my blood pressure 20 points. Worst pork tenderloin sandwich I've ever had. Tough and no seasoning . Fries and Saratoga chips were ice cold and soggy. Don't waste your time. Waitress was a sweetheart when we finally got her attention. Only high point to the meal. Don't waste your time at this place. read more

Please go somewhere else! This experience was THE worst dinning experience EVER! Waitress tellls us that they were out of many of the items on the menu. Out of straws, when the beverages were served. Ordered one item only for waitresses to come back and say, "we're out of that. Food was brought out, placed on the table and no utensils. No napkins. Waitresses brought out some brown towels from the sink or restroom. OMG. That just frosted it for me. I am a very tolerant person. It takes a lot to fire me up, but it is apparent to me that this establishment has little regard it comes to customer service and satisfaction. Do yourself a favor, go somewhere else. read more

Stopped by Kellie's Homestead near the Ark Encounter and had a great experience overall. The food was solid Southern comfort, crispy fried catfish, sides were flavorful, and everything felt homemade. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, and the service was genuinely friendly. Only downside was I was hoping to order steak and eggs, but found out breakfast is only served on weekends, which I didn't realize ahead of time. And they were out of an item we initially ordered but got something else. Still, really enjoyed the meal and would definitely come back. read more

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Please seat your customers as promptly as humanly possible. We waited about 5 minutes to be seated and watched 1 employee simply stare at us without offering service and watched what was probably the only waitress walk back and forth from her table/tables to the kitchen once with a glass of tea and once with a spoon. She never glanced our way so we left. read more

Good selection of food choices. Friendly service and good food. Unique atmosphere. Good for couples or groups. read more

Kellie's Homestead Restaurant - Smoker Duo (Brisket and Pulled Pork) - Southern Near Me - Dry Ridge, Kentucky

We did pick up Thanksgiving dinner.... $47 for two. It was a ton of food and all of it was delicious. If she has a deal like this for Xmas, get it! read more

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During our trip to visit the Ark Encounter, we stayed in Dry Ridge, KY, which is conveniently close to the attraction. One evening, we decided to try a local place, Kelly's Homestead Restaurant, and unfortunately, it was a disappointing experience. We walked in and found the restaurant fairly busy. After waiting at the entrance, the host simply asked, "How many?" then grabbed menus and walked off toward a booth without saying "Follow me" or offering any kind of welcome. She tossed the menus on the table and walked away--no greeting, no "Your server will be right with you," nothing. We sat for 15 minutes without a single server acknowledging us or taking a drink order. Looking around, we noticed other tables had drinks, but hardly anyone seemed to be having their orders taken. Eventually, we left and headed to Cracker Barrel, where both the service and the food were fantastic. Based on our experience, I cannot recommend Kelly's Homestead Restaurant. read more

Best fried chicken in 30 years, just like mom! G/F options as well. Decent buffet as well.

Silverware dirty! Plates dirty! Floor sticky! Desserts were stale and food was horrible.

Update: I live local and come here occasionally. As stated in other reviews, if you go to Kellie's, just give yourself time. You are probably going to wait a while to be seated/place your order, and wait a while to receive the order. Some of their food is really good. I've said it before, but their brussel sprouts are fantastic. I would go just for them (and I almost always order them). And some of their seasonal menu items are also really fun. If you're going to go, just be patient :) read more

Waited to be seated. One lady kept looking at us- no one ever came to seat us!!! Soooo rude! We left and ate at Cracker Barrel!

Sad Dining with flies. We should have known as we pulled up to the restaurant.It's sandwiched between two businesses available for lease. The Lease agent's sign was delapidated too. and empty one biz sporting a President's day sale sign in the 1st wk of October. And it gets better.My husband was trying to get me into the building with my wheelchair.And we were struggling due to the lift in the entrance. The young woman standing at the host to stand watched us struggle rather than come hold the door. So first and second impressions were awful. Next were seated at a table of our choice. Our server seemed distracted. Maybe not feeling well. My first choice entrée was unavailable due to ingredient shortage. I then chose Reuben which was delicious. Would give zero stars if possible. read more

Got to the register for seating. Hostess left to get silverware, but did not return w/in 5 minutes. When she did it was without silverware but checked out a customer paying his bill. That customer told us the food was cold, the service was poor, and 4 separate requests for silverware were all dirty. Nuff said. We left. They used up their 3 strikes. read more

Got a 8 piece fried chicken to go. No sides. 17.95 Ok. I will pay for good food, no problem. Chicken tasted overcooked. My friend told me she went in for buffet and it was awesome. Could have been a bad day read more

Silver ware was dirty. We asked for new silverware and it didnt come. We had to go to another table an take some. iot was dirty. Food was cold and asked them to take it back to warm it up. My cousin food was almost uneatable according to her. ait wasa waste of time and money. Milton, New Orleans. read more

I am of color, when visiting there they couldn't seat my conp and myself with open tables stating that we had to wait after seating a family right before we were asked if we could be helped. Reverend John disappointed read more

Don't go here! It took us 30 minutes to get our drinks. After 1 hour and 30 minutes they brought out the wrong food and told us they had run out of another. After 1 hour and 40 minutes they finally brought out sub par food. And then they had the nerve to charge us a 20% gratuity. Another party was smarter and left early due to no one coming to wait on them. I wish we had done the same. read more

Food was great, priced well, and it was clean. Server and hostess were very helpful. Would 100% recommend.

My wife and I are traveling through on the way to New York. Terrible service. Really nasty bathrooms. Men's room only had one light working and stunk badly of urine. My wife said that women's restroom was real nasty and there was no hand soap. I had a simple meal of the $10 burger with fries. Fries were old and very stale. Requested fresh order of fries. Took for ever to get, but they were hot and fresh. Just be aware of this place while traveling near Dry Ridge, KY. Nice deco, read more

Very Disappointed with Our Experience My husband and I were really looking forward to dinner tonight, but unfortunately, the experience was extremely disappointing. We both ordered the fried chicken, which the menu states takes about 20 minutes to prepare. We understand and expected that--but it ended up taking an hour and 20 minutes before our meals arrived. When the food finally came, my chicken was cooked well, but my husband's was extremely overdone--three out of four pieces had an almost burnt crust, and the meat was dry and tough. We had both ordered brown gravy for our potatoes, but were given a very small portion. When we asked for more, we were told it had to be brought from the walk-in and warmed up, which was fine--until the additional gravy arrived and was so salty it was inedible. Our waitress noticed my husband's dissatisfaction and said she would have the manager speak to him. She later returned saying she had spoken with Kellie (the owner/manager, I assume), who claimed she didn't see how his chicken could be bad since it was cooked at the same time as mine. As business owners ourselves, we know that if there's an issue, it's important to take one minute to speak directly with the customer--not dismiss their concern without even seeing the problem. The waitress did offer my husband dessert (which he declined) and later offered a deep-fried boneless chicken breast to take home, which he accepted--just so he could have something to eat from our over $50 meal. Overall, the service delay, poor quality of my husband's meal, and lack of genuine management response made this a very disappointing experience. read more

I don't recommend this restaurant. Go to Cracker Barrel in the same shopping center, instead. The waitress failed to tell me that the kitchen prepares everything from scratch and thus would take an unusually long time for me to receive my order. I waited forty minutes for my meal! She didn't bother to give me but one update on the progress of my order. I had mediocre fried chicken livers, Brussels sprouts, and apple walnut slaw. Definitely not worth the wait. read more

We waited 20 minutes and never saw 1 server but as soon as a table for 8 sat down the where there taking drink orders. Won't go back if this is how they treat their customers read more

Terrible experience. The staff seemed rude and inconvenienced by our presence. My husband's chicken was completely raw in the middle. The owner was at the restaurant, and she came across as quite rude. I do not recommend eating here. read more

Worst place to eat in dry ridge it took 40 minutes just to get are drinks poor service and food all over the floors.

Food is fabulous and service exceeds southern hospitality! Come hungry! They have great buffets! read more

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I bought tickets back in February of this year and the show was cancelled in April and rescheduled for June and was told just 2 days before this show in June that it is now cancelled as well and I have emailed them that I want a refund and no response and before this they had said they were sending a 25 dollar gift card for the trouble of rescheduling these shows which I never got nor do I want since I will never be going to this place now, never even got to go to a show and took 2 vacation days that were wasted that I could not cancel. I would like my refund of 63.60 and not sure why that is an issue! read more

My and my family just left the ark and was excited to try this restaurant. Big disappointment . Waited over and hour for cold food and my dish which I was ready for, very dissatisfied!!!!!! My food was cold and my potions was nowhere near what it looked like from the last customer had on their page. Mines looks like kids happy meal portions. Not ever coming back. read more

Kellie's Homestead Restaurant - Beef liver and onions - Southern Near Me - Dry Ridge, Kentucky

Waited over 45 minutes for food at the buffet to be filled, manager extremely rude, food was dryed out and did not taste good. Extremely poorly run restaurant. read more

Food was cold and Salad bar was almost empty no mashed potatoes No Orka Service was not that great We don't live here we came from Texas read more

Kelly's is a hometown restaurant and family owned and operated. There was a gift shop as you walk in the door with the local items for sale and swag for Kelly's. We were seated and immediately had a waitress come for the drinks and returned right away. She was awesome with the service. The order came in a reasonable time. The food was good and the place was well spaced so that it didn't feel like we were crowed and could talk and hear each other. Everyone was friendly and helpful. read more

Kellie's Homestead Restaurant - Pork loin sandwich - Southern Near Me - Dry Ridge, Kentucky

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I had high hopes for this restaurant. However we were sadly disappointed. We showed up at 4pm on a Thursday after a long day of driving. The restaurant concept is a cheap version of Cracker Barrel that was still under construction. We had 3 adults and a two year old in our party. We were not offered a kids menu. The waitress just rattled off what they had. Had I known I was going to pay 8.99 for the 3 bites my two year old had I would have gone a different direction. They were out of fried chicken, brisket, napkins, white gravy and desserts. This is very odd being as they still had dinner service ahead of them. We only found out they were out of things as we ordered them. The restrooms need some serious attention. Both the men's and women's were sweltering and smelled of sewage. It was a large restroom with only one bottle of watered down soap available. The waitress stated Fourth of July for shortages that was almost 6 days ago. Then she stated it's a "from scratch restaurant" and they had a truck mix up. Not having napkins is unacceptable go to Walmart. The food we received was good. The coleslaw was served on a warm plate so that was questionable. They need to clean up and be transparent about what they have available prior to seating customers. read more

Fantastic food liver was awesome!! Will definitely be back for some good ole fashion food.

Service is very slow we have been here for a good minute now. Man this was a little disappointing my liver was fried to hard . Green's had macaroni in it. I couldn't eat it all just made me mad. I know next time not to eat here. I'm not from here this just disappointed me. Friendly people but like I said service was slow food was not hot. Ambiance was ok. We felt like are food set before it was brought out to us. read more

Kellie's Homestead Restaurant - Mix greens, liver and broccoli salad. - Southern Near Me - Dry Ridge, Kentucky

Excellent homemade food at a reasonable price. The servers were friendly. It wasn't busy and I don't know why because everything was good about our experience read more

Cracker Barrel is across the shopping center. They have what you want! -Great value Cracker Barrel Store -Sticky Tables -No Kids Menu, Waitress had to tell us- Was $8-$9 Ea. -No Kids Cups -Salad bar- Fruit Flies -Tried to Order Fish- No Tarter Sauce -Settled for Chicken Fried Steak -They brought out without gravy! Haha -Out of White Gravy- they seriously made it even though they were out of white gravy! -Asked if would take brown gravy, I gave it a shot, but it was a no go - I tried the macaroni and cheese, which our party of 4 each ordered , absolutely disgusting, just overcooked cold noodles with a light coating of yellow something. -I didn't eat and either did my daughter who ordered kids chicken and Mac n cheese -Waitress was very nice, but said she couldn't take anything off the bill without manager or Kelly Lots of other little nasty bits too, but I regress. All in all I didn't let it ruin our day, actually just have to laugh about it. Like I said, just go to Cracker Barrel!! read more

We traveled from Texas and ate at this restaurant. The food was delicious, especially the Brussel Sprouts and Fried Green Tomatoes! Even though they only had 2 waitresses the service was very good! The staff is friendly and attentive. I highly recommend Kellie's! read more

My stomach hurts and it took them over an hour to deliver that experience. I don't usually post reviews, but this was a truly poor experience. The service was very poor and slow. Over half the menu was unavailable and then it took an hour and almost a half to get my food. I was hoping the food would be the saving grace, but by the time I was done I felt sick to my stomach. Will not be returning. read more

Kellie's Homestead Restaurant - Shaved steak sandwich with side of fries - Southern Near Me - Dry Ridge, Kentucky

We stumbled into Kellie's the other night as we passed through town in the midst of a storm. The place was fairly empty- just a couple groups when we arrived, about an hour and a half from closing. We were surprised when the friendly hostess informed us that Mondays were Family Style friend chicken night. I was unsure about this, however the dinner surpassed my expectations greatly. The chicken was deliciously lightly breaded and perfectly fried. The sides (green beans, biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw) were generously sized and tasty. I was happy to see they had sweet tea on the menu! Throughout our meal, our hostess/waitress made sure we were constantly supplied with whatever we might need- drinks, refills on sides, etc. There is a little shop attached filled with all the things you could hope to find- soap, children's toys, lotions, decor, etc. The bathrooms were quite clean and well stocked. I'd like to try this place again when their full menu is available. read more