I’ll start this by saying, if I owned this place, the name would be Narobia’s Gravy & Grits. The grits were good. But the gravy was absolutely banging. This was the third attempt to try Narobia’s – the first time we went, they were closed on that day and the second time, they were closing for the day. So, today, driving back home from SSI, we were in prime time for making this happen. This is a small restaurant, over on 36th, and it was packed. We headed there on a recommendation, in Garden n Gun, from Mashama Bailey (at the Grey), about their fried chicken. So that’s what I ordered.

Everything seems to be served with grits and eggs, so my wings (wasn’t expecting those!) came with scrambled eggs and grits and a giant biscuit. This biscuit should not be overlooked – in retrospect- it was light, fluffy and flaky, which you don’t always find in a biscuit of this size. The skin on the chicken was very crispy and whatever the seasoning was gave the wings a purplish glow, but they were good.

And my lovely bride ordered shrimp, which came atop the grits and covered in a brown gravy.

This gravy looked terrific and I asked one of the servers (who actually turned out to be Narobia) if, since it was in the name, I should try the gravy. She gave me that “bless your heart” look (that I know so well) and said “I’ll bring you a bowl.”

This gravy was excellent. It was very good on the biscuit. But it was exceptional on the grits. This was definitely a shrimp and grits style gravy, and I’d put it up there with my favorite shrimp and grits I’ve ever had, in the restaurant in the lighthouse on Hilton Head. I devoured my bowl, scraped the biscuit to sop every bit out of the bowl and stared at my wife’s plate until she shared some of hers…. I am not ashamed. This was definitely worth the third try.