Our party of 12 visited the Sandy Springs location for my daughter's birthday on Tuesday night. We heard great things about it, and I will say the food was delicious! The hostess stand was great! What wasn't so great is it took each of us (4 separate vehicles) about an extra 15 minutes after arriving to Rumi's Kitchen just to turn into the parking lot. The first part of our party arrived about 30 minutes early of our reservation, and said they had no problems. My husband and I were second to arrive 30 minutes later. It was busy now.
The traffic cop would make cars turning into the restaurant's lot wait while he let all of the traffic on the other side on Roswell Road pass. There were only 3 cars in our lane. And even when he signaled we would be next, we still waited another 5 or so minutes. But, after he let us through he switched and started letting all of the middle lane where we were through. Now, our other party members on the right side of the restaurant had to wait even longer than we did. Then, after we turned in, we had to wait about another 5 minutes for valet to approach us. And get this, the traffic cop asked my daughter how long she waited. When she told him, he said "That's ridiculous!" When he was part of the problem!
They definitely need a larger space and a better system. Maybe more attendants and an experienced traffic cop.
Okay, back to the food and restaurant service. I had the salmon fillet, dill and fava bean basmati rice and a glass of white wine. Although the fava beans were a little overcooked and slightly mushy, overall the dish was still delicious. Others in our party had the Lamb Shank, chicken kabobs, Persian Vegetable Stew, and so on. Everyone loved their meal!
Now, our server took forever to take our order, but the wait wasn't too long for our food to arrive. Prior to this, she brought drinks to two little girls four years of age. For one, she put her drink (Sprite) in a plastic cup with a lid and straw, but for the other (lemonade) she gave her a tall glass. We asked for a plastic cup same as the first one, she said okay, but she went MIA. Never came back. Meanwhile, the glass of lemonade is just sweating with ice melting. I asked the lady at the hostess stand and she immediately went and grabbed the cup and straw for us and brought it to the table. I figured our server was just busy and forgot.
Once our food arrived, she went MIA again. Not once did she come back to check on us, ask if we'd like another drink, or even refill our water glasses. My daughter wanted to order another glass of wine herself, but gave up on waiting. I gave her the rest of mine.
Once we finished eating, our server returned and she along with bussers did clear our table. She brought us boxes for our leftovers. We had a cake in which she took to light the candles and presented it to us. My family and I sang happy birthday to my daughter. So, all of this part was nice.
She asked us how we wanted the check and we told her, but there was a miscommunication between her and the busser who brought the check out to us so he had to take it back to her. Now, she came back within a reasonable time with this and took the rest of our cake back to bag it for us. After we paid our checks, she thanked us with a smile, but forgot to bring our cake back out. She was kind of in a hurry to leave and finish her side duties I guess. Now, a party as large as ours of course already had gratuity added in. So, I guess that's why the service was lackluster. Because she'd already earned her tips, so...
Back to the parking lot....
We waited another 15 minutes! Now, this time it wasn't busy. We were the only ones waiting (our party). The valet attendant asked for everyone's ticket except mine. When I realized this, I made him aware. My car was right across from me and I could have just gone over and got it myself, but I waited. Then, guess what? The valet attendant asked me if I'd like to just go on over and get it! He said something about "So that you don't have to move your seat back up." Strangely though, someone had already done this for me when they parked the car. I assumed that meant I didn't have to pay the $2 fee, but no, he asked me for it. I went ahead and gave him the $5 bill I had in my pocket that I planned to give him anyway.
When I got home, I couldn't find my garage door opener (for this car it's not programmed in, so I keep it on the visor). For some reason, it was on the back seat floor. I don't know how in the world that happened. Maybe the first valet driver jerked the car into a hard stop? In any case, it still worked and my car seemed fine thank goodness.
So, again, loved the food, but not the service, except for the hostess stand. And they said that Tuesday night wasn't even that busy. The hostess told me on Saturdays it's much busier double the amount of guests. I'll make sure to find out which night is the least busiest, or maybe just try another location. read more