Never Enough Thyme — Restaurant in Alpharetta

Mixed bag here. Some very good highs some very bad lows.

I came at 11:30 and ordered a fried grouper sandwich and a side of Italian cucumber salad.

What worked here: great service, it was counter order, the woman was friendly, quick and informative. Fire time was fine, about 8-10 min, fine for fresh fried fish. The bun on the sandwich was griddle cooked, a lovely touch, and fresh and fluffy. No smooshed bread. A+ for no smooshed bread. The grouper filet itself was phenomenal. Contrary to what reviewer Tom says, you can absolutely mess up fried food and people do, constantly. This was irresistibly crispy, and the grouper was flavorful and fresh and well cooked. Loved the fish.

What needs improvement:

The cole slaw on the sandwich was soggy, watery and soft. It’s clearly from a tub, and one that has been around for just a bit too long. Cole slaw is not hard to make fresh to order, you just mix cabbage and dressing in a prep bowl. 30 seconds of work and 1 extra small dish to fix this.

The cucumber salad was unbearable. I couldn’t even take a second bite and I knew the first bite would be a labor of love for honest reviewing. Here’s the thing: vinegar is a denaturing agent. If you soak something in vinegar or any strong acid, it will tenderize and eventually cook. Always. This is literally how ceviche and pickling works. Leaving any salad in an Italian style dressing is asking for bendy, floppy cucumber. And this was no exception. Look at that sad little slice. He deserved to be crispier. Again. 30 seconds of work to toss some cucumber slices in some Italian dressing.

All in all the fire time was already so quick, I don’t see how they couldn’t invest 1 minute in fresh prepping cold salad ingredients, it would have made this a 6/5 for me. Instead I couldn’t eat half my meal and the other half made me sad to see one of the most perfectly prepared fried fillets I’ve ever had drenched in cabbage fluid. I think you guys have a ton of potential but please fix this, every new restaurant is taking these steps so they’re a necessity to continuing competitive service.

I would note that this place may be suffering from “doing-too-much-itis”. Their menu is 2.5 pages long and they have 5 soups on hand at all times, and the place has so much going on that I just gave up and asked the woman what was good. Long menus and tub-slaw shortcuts go hand in hand. Maybe look at whether paring your menu would help free up some emotional energy for better prep and some fridge space to not be prefabbing...

If you have morals stay away from this place. I will not complain about the food at this restaurant because I am honest. I am a former employee who they tried to cheat out of close to $200(all overtime hrs). They tried to say the pay period ended on Saturday even though I was told it ends on Sunday, the paycheck says start period 6/17 and end period 6/30(Sunday). When I printed out my clock out slip Sunday night it said I worked 56+ hours. On my check and they didn’t give me credit for Sunday claiming the pay period ends on Saturday even though that’s not true according to the schedule, what I was told in the beginning, the stamp on my check, and my end of the week hours started over on Monday. Last night I called Chef and told him what was going on and he assured me he would fix it and everything would be fine even if he had to pay it out of his own pocket, two days ago he told me I was doing just a fine job and he looks forward to teaching me to be a better chef, I have this sent text from two days ago. Yesterday was my last shift and the whole night Michelle the owner was giving me dirty looks because I complained about not getting all my money that I was owed. Chef Rob who said everything was fine and has constantly told me I’ve been doing fine and he has never reprimanded me had called me a couple hours ago when I was enjoying my 2nd day off since I started To let me know he hast to let me go because he doesn’t feel I’m up to standard even though he left me there alone the other night and trusted me to lock up the place and when I spoke to him on the phone last night to tell him about the pay being wrong he said don’t worry everything will be fixed. I did not work again since and all of the sudden I’m under performing? I have poured my blood, sweat, and tears into this place and I never stop moving I was a phenomenal employee. To try to cheat somebody out of their overtime when you own restaurants and your husband is a pilot is disgusting and wrong. Plus restaurant workers don’t make a lot of money for what we do and it’s hard work and these people have more money than God and try to screw me? Please do not dine here, The owners are dishonest and I quit a job to come here and now I have no job and don’t know what I’m gonna do even though I’ve never once been reprimanded for anything or written up for anything just because I asked them to make my money straight. Feel free to contact me directly through Facebook to learn more ...

I recently visited their Main Street (Alpharetta City Center) location. I ordered the vegetable plate to go. The description shows several vegetables listed so I thought that it would be healthy and light. When I got home and opened the packaging for the dish, I was very disappointed. First of all, this dish in no shape, form, or fashion worth the $8.95 + tax that they charged. Second of all, the vegetable plate did not include all of the vegetables listed in the description and some vegetables that were included were old and over cooked. Thirdly, the dish looked like slop to me. It was about four vegetables (two of them potatoes) all cooked together on a flat top (from what I could discern). The potatoes were burnt, greasy, and the rest of the mixture was just a dry lump of overcooked / old veggies. I could not eat it..Why don't they just offer a normal vegetable plate with a variety of vegetables individually cooked and take this concoction /slop off of the menu (looks like scraps, from plates, that need to be thrown out). Who knows..maybe that is what I was served (i.e. scraps). I visited this restaurant several years back at their Mcginnis Ferry location. At the time, I had only a salad which was bit bad, but then again it would take an idiot to mess up the preparation of a salad....maybe I should have just gotten a salad at this Main Street location....because this "so-called' vegetable plate (i.e. slop concoction) that I was served looked like scraps. I was highly disappointed and...