Garfield's / Fatz Cafe / Queenstown Bistro, 1420 Colonial Life Boulevard: 2010 13 comments
While the Queenstown name rather intrigued me, with its New Zealand connection, everything I ever heard about the place led me to believe that it was way too seafood for me. I do seem to remember it getting rather good reviews though, and thus was a little surprised when I drove by a week or two ago and noticed that it was gone. Judging from their sign, the new operation Mayflower Bistro (just given as Mayflower in the phonebook) also seems seafood heavy for my tastes.
Before Queenstown this spot was Fatz Cafe ("Our secret sauce? Mayonaise!") a totally generic or worse place that I have never been able to warm up to despite its SC origins.
This little strip mall, Colonial Villiage across Bush River Road from Dutch Square and on the access road (Colonial Life Boulevard [which used to have a different name, I think]) for I-126 has never really seemed to thrive with about the only constant being the stalwart Melting Pot fondue restaurant.
UPDATE 20 July 2011: Added Garfield's to the post title based on the comments.
UPDATE 31 August 2020: Update tags, add map icon.
13 Responses to 'Garfield's / Fatz Cafe / Queenstown Bistro, 1420 Colonial Life Boulevard: 2010'
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Jonathan
19 Jul 11 at 7:43 am
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Wow! I was planning to go there too.
alicia
19 Jul 11 at 8:25 am
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The Garfields was there in the early to mid-90s. There aren't many of them around anymore--not that there were ever a whole lot. There used to be (and maybe still is) one in Spartanburg, and one near Asheville. I had been to the Queenstown, and despite its name and NZ theme, it didn't strike me as much different from any other somewhat upscale Oriental restaurants around town. I don't know whether or not they had a full-time buffet, but the times I went there, I know I ordered off the menu. I got kinda irritated with Fatz when I asked if their cheese fries (blend of three cheeses, so the menu said at the time) used melted cheese or cheese sauce. I was informed "melted cheese," and of course when it arrived, it was covered in Cheez Whiz. Maybe there were some scraps of cheese underneath it, but I never saw it.
badger
19 Jul 11 at 9:16 am
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Long ago there was an old fashioned diner downtown called Mayflower Grill or Diner or Cafe or some such. I believe it was on the northeast corner of Main & Richland
Dennis
20 Jul 11 at 4:54 am
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I went to Mayflower twice and was lead to believe it was simply a name change from queenstown to mayflower, seemed same owners and menu and such. I believe the mayflower menu even had an entree called queenstown chicken. pretty decent food, give you ALOT of food if you order entree and dine in they give three sides. Was all good except the breathing down your neck owner who hovered our table the entire time so that he could clear our soup and salad plates as soon as we finished. Was a bit much pressure to finish our food so he could have our dish.
Peter
20 Jul 11 at 9:58 am
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Fatz came to close when during an early morning robbery the female manager was shot and killed. On a different note Queenstown just sucked- the only thing that carried their business was the late night drinking crowd and it was not "a pretty crowd"
Kc
21 Jul 11 at 12:26 pm
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I am looking to see if I could find a case of the manager murder but I found that a manager was murdered at the Fatz Cafe at 5590 Forest Drive in 1997 right as she was to start a new job as a new manager. While I don't think this is the same one as I felt the Fatz Cafe at Colonial Village continued on until ≈2001-03 but this is still troubling :(.
Andrew
21 Jul 11 at 6:43 pm
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I remember that this Fatz Cafe was closed when they opened a new location on Broad River Road in Irmo. The manager was murdered at the Forest Drive location, not this one.
Dick
24 Jul 11 at 10:29 pm
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@ Dennis: The Mayflower you're speaking of was run by Harold Corley. It was next to a Winn Dixie my fa
ther worked at. We weree family friends. It was a great place to go and I would love to have the food he served today. There's no connection between it and this restaurant.Pam
24 Jul 11 at 11:03 pm
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I would note that the neon sign is exactly the same as the old one save the change from Queenstown to Mayflower.
Larry
25 Jul 11 at 12:53 pm
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Funny but true, you could see the sign for a Weight Watchers place from the door of Fatz Cafe!
Tom
26 Jul 11 at 8:39 am
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I don't know why, but the name Queenstown, to me, sounded more like a New Orleans cuisine....
Barc777
17 Apr 12 at 6:01 pm
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My husband was just telling me about this location.
Alicia Roberts
17 Sep 22 at 2:40 pm
Prior to Fatz, it was a Garfield's.