The Alley Music House — Restaurant in Addison

I went to Alley Music House for the first and last time. I was happy and looked forward to going to this venue. A friend of mine told me about it back in May. I am a spoken word artist, poet and lyricist with a huge following. I even advertised Alley on my entertainment page. I am well known and have been performing since the 90's. I decided to go to Alley's on Wednesday 06/04th with a friend. We had to first figure out exactly where it was we saw the Alley's sign but didn't see the entrance someone told us we had to go upstairs through the Improv. The ambiance was nice it wasn't hardly anywhere there. We sat at a table that wasn't reserved. The waitress came over and let us know that it was a $5 entrance fee and that she could add it to the bill or we can go to eventbrite. I told her to add it to the bill. I felt good when I was there me and my friend took a few pictures and ordered food. The employee Mike was cool he took pictures of us. He said he was a poet also just never got on the mic. Me and my friend ordered our food. The waitress asked us if we wanted to leave an open tab. I was skeptical at first but than I said ok. I left my card and regretted that I did from here on out I'm going to start using my cash app card or cash. Alley Music charged my card $150. I couldn't believe it when I saw $150 and was never informed about a previous authorization for that amount. I talked to the manager Shawn and he said that they just started having the pre-auth for the $150. I told him that the waitress never told me that and I was pissed !!! You can't just charge some one card a $150 like that and don't let them know. Another thing when a tab is left open you don't go ahead and charge the card plus the waiter put the orders together. My order was only $45.96 and she never asked if we wanted it separated. She finally separated it and brought us separate receipts. I told her to close out the tab so she can bring me my card back. She brought me back the wrong card and went back and got my card. This just ruined it for me. The $150 pre authorization did fall off while I was there because I told Shawn that needed to come off before I left there. I want be back there and I was going to perform but with all that happening. I wasn't feeling it and the few artists that was there left. We stayed til 11p and left. This was a horrible experience and I see a lot of room for improvement on Wednesday. I know they have a crowd on the weekends. I hope your waitress don't forget to let them know about the $150...

Like others, if I could give a 0, I would. First experience, drinks were overpriced and watered down, we ordered wings- 4 wings for $20, and they add gratuity, for terrible service.

Another night there was a guy singing RnB (no issue with that) except that he was walking around with a bucket or something asking for money, on top of patrons already having paid to get in, purchasing drinks, eating, etc.

Then, last night, Friday Aug 1st. was the worst . I started looking on the website to reserve the couch around July 25th, for the 1st. I wanted to reserve from 10pm until 12pm, after the band. There was no option to select anything except the 8-10 event with the band. I reached out via their chat on the website, to ask why the 10pm event wasn't on the site and how to reserve for that. NO RESPONSE! I continued to check for the 10pm event, it never was on the site. On July 29th, I had my friend to check the website to see if I had overlooked it. It wasn't there, and they never responded to her either! I reached out again via their chat. NO RESPONSE!!! Then I reached out via the email on their website directly Monday, July 28th to ask again about the 10pm event/slot. NO RESPONSE!!! So since the 10pm slot wasn't there, we purchased the 8-10 Thursday, July 31st at 7:57 am (the 10pm event still was not there) thinking they'd honor it given I had tried reaching out on several occasions. They did not. We arrived at 9 39, to be told that at 10 we'd have to get up. When I explained to the girl at the reception that the 10pm event wasn't there and I had reached out, she argued "I promise it's there!" AMAZINGLY, it appeared, sometime after we had already reached out and purchased the day before. It DEFINITELY WAS NOT THERE at least up until 7:57 am Thursday, 31st. I want a refund but since they do not respond, I'm sure I won't get it! Very unprofessional! I will be contacting the BBB to report your bad...

The atmosphere was great. However, the service was trash. I know this review will not mean much after seeing the passive responses the owner gave to the low rating reviewers. The owner definitely needs more attentive staff and more cooks. If the number of guest are outweighing the employees capability, common sense tells you to prepare for it. I was excited about going for the first time. Arrived at 7:30PM for the poetry night and ordered my food. 9PM creeps around and I had to physically go to the server to tell her to take my food off the tab because she never came back. Not to mention, when I found her, she was standing right next to the bar, eyes low, and slurring words smh so unprofessional. Judging by the previous reviews, this is a common thing and the owner is doing NOTHING about it. Spoke to a manager to report the poor service I received and he laughed about it. Gave a poor excuse by saying they had to wait for the fish to thaw out. He must have been drunk, too. Do you not know how to properly prepare your establishment after being open for a month now? How much time does it take to get it right? I should send the Health Department by to check things out back there in that kitchen, too. The way this establishment is running, IMPROV will have all of their customers very soon right across the hall, and we'll see another business there. That 18% gratuity is going towards an open bar for the workers and the rest is going in the owner's pocket. It's definitely not going to the servers, cause they only have 2. Bottom line is, they don't care if they're still...