WORST SERVICE IN THE HISTORY OF SERVICE. I apologize in advance but I HAD to!!! I'd give 1/4 of a star if I could! My party of 5 went to this spot on Sat 11/21 for their Reggae Rhythms & Blues Brunch they were having from 11-4, I believe. We all RSVP'd to this event prior to the day. Apparently, for a table you had to email them in advance, which we didn't do because they said they were packed but it did say they were taking walk-ins. They were offering a $25 pre-fix (T&G not included) for an appetizer, entrée & beverage.
So 1 of our friends arrived at 1pm to get our name on the list; the rest of us arrived at 145. We get there already knowing we may be waiting at least 45 mins-no more than an hour. It's a dope looking bar, nice size, but it wasn't overly packed. The host tells us @ 2pm that once they get all the 2pm reservations in, we'll be seated. Mind you there was only 2 other groups that came in after us that had reservations.
Since no on one really paid us any attention, we finally were able to get some seats at the bar itself and placed our order w the bartender since who knows when we'll get seated! Literally 5 seconds after we ordered-the host says they have a table. We tell the bartender sorry, we'll go with the table so its more private. We didn't get seated until 3PM EXACTLY, even though I saw several parties leave the party so I'm so confused as to why we weren't seated prior. ANYWAY---at this time we're STARVING so we get to our table, pour OURSELVES water(even though other tables we observed while waiting got their water poured FYI). We have no menus at this point but approx. 10 mins later a flustered looking waitress makes eye contact with us after helping another table saying she'll be right with us. So now there are 5 hungry black women at a table, which is not something you want to see LOL
Luckily the bartender from earlier walks over w the drinks we ordered and told us that she put our food orders in for us. THANK GOD because clearly our waitress couldn't care less that we didn't even have MENUS this whole time. -___- When she finally decides to come over,(she doesn't even apologize for the wait)--my friend adds on a side order of fries to her meal. Its now 345PM..there's NO FOOD at our table, but wait, here come's the order of fries ONLY, which was ordered after the fact.
15 minutes later, a side salad comes for a second person. 10 minutes after that an order of wings. Literally, another 10 minutes and grits came out. So apparently, only one person can get an appetizer at a time at this establishment. I ask for the check at this point because there's no WAY we're waiting an additional hour for that to be handled after we eat. At this point, the table to our left who had about 8 women are apparently complaining to one of the hosts about the service as they seem to be having the same trouble as we are. As good management/customer service SHOULD be--I hear him tell them they get a round on the house. Okay--so there may be hope for this hell that I'm currently residing in... but NOPE- no one comes to our table to apologize. NOT even our waitress who last came by 1 hour ago!! At around 4:15---all but 1 of my party had their entrée. At this time we're just pissed, so we start figuring out the bill. 3 of us put cash down, 2 put down debit cards. I respect the service field and consider myself a generous tipper. None of us planned on giving ANY tips today for the mess that was happening at this place. Waitress finally comes back w the checks from the debit cards. Apparantly she added an AUTOMATIC tip of 18% to the debit cards! #bishwhere MIND you its about 4:45, the 4 of us are finished eating and my other friend STILL NEVER GOT HER ENTREE. So we're even more pissed.
We call the owner over to discuss because not only was the service crap, the customer service crap--but an automatic tip was added to the debit cards although no where on the original receipt or menu says anything regarding tips being added automatically to parties. We explain that we don't understand why there's an automatic tip to the debit cards. So the owner already looks like he's had a bad day mind you. He starts getting 75% loud talking about what do you me to do. You want me to take off the tip? I"l take off the tip. Tip is automatically added to parties of 6 or more. (MIND YOU ITS 5 OF US). But that's not the only point--you can't "automatically" add a tip bc its a debit card. After this trash of service, you and your staff should get a 2% TIP. What kind of owner talks to his customers like this? I don't care HOW your establishment may be busy--even though it wasn't even that busy at this point as before. You NEVER treat your customers that way. He finally comes back with the checks that he "voided" the tips. Just to make a point we say, "look, our friend still doesn't have her meal while the rest of us are already finished with ours". He then catches an a read more