We always loved the food truck so we were excited to try their new location, but unfortunately we had a pretty terrible experience. We arrived right before 8:00 on a Friday night. When I told the host, who was also the manager on shift, that we had a party of nine, I was a little worried they were going to tell us they couldn't accommodate us. It took several minutes for them to search the restaurant (upstairs and downstairs) and talk to several different people before they finally told us it would be a 10-15 minute wait. We had no problem waiting, but after we were finally seated it took over 5 minutes to have our waiter even greet us. When he did come over he made a comment about not being happy to have a larger table. This was the first thing that made us uncomfortable. We ordered drinks and it took close to 10 minutes before they came. He kept leaving and would just disappear for long lengths of time. We had to wave him down just to be able to order and at that point we had been seated for close to 30 minutes. When he finally came to take our order he made a distasteful joke about our friends children being of mixed race and assuming what adults they belonged to. It gets worse, then he told our entire table that he doesn't need to ask black people how they like their steak because they always order it well done. His exact words were, "I don't know why, but whenever someone black orders steak I just automatically write down well done because I already know what they're going to say. I swear. I'm not judging, I guess I'm just, what do you call it? Oh yeah... I guess I'm just stereotyping." I honestly couldn't even believe someone had the nerve to say something so distasteful.
Once he finally took our order about 10 minutes went by and we hadn't received our salads (that came with our meal). When we were finally able to get him over to our table I clarified that our dinners came with salads and he said, "oh y'all wanted your salads? Uh yeah, I'll get those." The majority of the lettuce were brown, stalk pieces and everyone who ordered ranch agreed that it did not taste good and left a horrible aftertaste. Completely inedible.
We continued to wait and wait and wait for our food, at this point we were the only table there and the restaurant was closed. We sat and watched everyone clean and when our food finally came out, several of the orders were wrong. The steak (even though it was tough) and vegetables were delicious, that was the best part of the meal. We asked for siracha and once again he disappeared and we ended up having to get up and find another server to get us some. The rice (white and fried) was either under or over cooked and every single person at our table mentioned that the rice was hard. Most of us didn't even eat it.
Here comes the most frustrating part of our meal. After our server disappeared again we had to ask for our checks. When he presented the hand held card reader he didn't offer an itemized bill, he only told us our totals. Not once did he tell us gratuity was included and it was not listed on the menu. Our friends paid first, left an extra 18% and he handed me the card reader next. I asked him if gratuity was included and he said, "um, I don't know, actually I think so" and my friend, who just paid, explained to him that she didn't realize that and she didn't mean to tip extra. He made a nervous laugh, walked around to the next person paying and totally ignored the remark about the gratuity. The last person to pay had to request a receipt because one was not offered to any of us. At this point we all asked for a receipt because this was starting to feel sketchy. He walked off and went behind the bar and never brought us receipts. We individually had to walk up to the bar (where his vape was chilling on the counter) just to ask for our receipts. He acted like he didn't realize we even asked for them.
At this point we walked downstairs, asked for a manager and got the extra gratuity back. By the time we left the restaurant we had been there for two hours and fifteen minutes and we didn't even linger after our meal. Absolutely ridiculous. This area needs new, local restaurants, but this was just a horribly disappointing and frustrating experience.
As far as ambiance goes, I was excited to see how they renovated the building. Downstairs definitely had a take-out vibe, but upstairs is very modern and looks nice. The couches are not very practical, the way they sit compared to the floor and table just feels off. Besides that, the restaurant looks very nice.
Overall, I doubt we will be back anytime soon. read more