Rumi's Kitchen Avalon — Restaurant in Alpharetta

This is the second time my group has been treated terribly by the workers here. The first time I came we were forgotten about and something was finally done after 30 minutes. Today I came in a group of 8 people. From the beginning, our server was not welcoming which we could understand because it was extremely busy- the food was good as usual. When we got to the checks she said that she would try her best to split it. After two tries, the everyone’s check was messed up. None of the orders matched up with the right person. We were just all confused because shouldn’t this have been taken care of from the beginning? We wouldn’t have minded saying what each one of us ordered if that was the problem. The policies might have changed, but not too long ago they split the checks perfectly fine for a group of 5. She then brought us a check of all of our orders combined and split evenly for each and every one of us. Each of us had to pay $48. A lot of us only ordered dishes that costed $12-$28 so it made no sense for them to pay double the amount. She said that this was the best they could do which left us confused, frustrated, and extremely upset. Of course we were talking between ourselves about how this just seemed so unprofessional because is this really the best that y’all can do??? Are you serious?!? Every time she came with a new check she gave us a bad attitude. What made this experience 10 times worse was the fact that we were able to HEAR THEM DISRESPECT US RIGHT BEHIND US. We sat outside right next to where all the servers are and all we could hear was our server talking trash about our group. We heard her call us ridiculous and and we also heard another worker saying no matter what happens, she’ll back her up. As if they knew something bad would happen?? We were able to hear every single thing said about us and our server, Sammy p, was getting every other worker involved. Other servers that weren’t even ours were giving us looks as they passed by which was extremely annoying. Even though the check were messed up we were planning to leave a tip either way, but the fact she started talking bad about us- in front of us, and to every other worker out there- of course we wouldn’t! We were well off our way but the servers were STILL talking about us and we could hear them complaining about US. We waited SO long for our checks and ended up paying them SO WHY CAN’T THIS WHOLE SITUATION BE OVER? She was the one who kept dragging it and as we were leaving they were clearly talking about us and gave us looks. That was what made us get manager. The hostess we asked clearly wasn’t taking us seriously. She was a petite blonde with slick backed hair. She constantly looked like she was trying to hold in a laugh and when we finally got to speak to the manager, she laughed at our backs. When my friend confronted her she tried to deny it?? How can you deny that you were lagging when we heard you and your coworkers saw you. Embarrassing and unprofessional. The manager told us it was unacceptable and said it was possible for our checks to be split after all. We just wanted to get it over with because it completely messed up with our plans. Hopefully something will be done to the workers who treated us terribly because it seemed like every worker outside got involved and only heard her side of the story. She made it so much of a bigger deal. It could’ve ended once the checks were paid. I’m done with this restaurant having unprofessional employees. It seems like when I come here with my friends we are treated with less care. It it because we seem younger or because we don’t have an adult? I will not be planning to come here again. Too much wasted time on...

Rumi’s kitchen at Avalon has on their website that “We assure that the essence of Persian hospitality and Rumi’s love are felt during your dining experience at Rumi’s Kitchen.” As a Southern Italian myself, I know hospitality and food and this was NOT it.

We chose the place to surprise and celebrate an 8-month pregnant friend who loves Persian food. Thus, myself and the two friends I planned this baby sprinkle surprise with arrived before her husband would bring her in to set up the table with a small cake, a small orchid, and a regular-sized balloon that said “It’s a Boy”.

From the moment we stepped in the hostess ran to me saying with an attitude that “balloons are not allowed” and making a gesture with her hand like wanting the balloon right in that moment. Then, she said she would store it into the manager’s office and return the item once we were ready to leave. I asked her to wait five min. so we could surprise our friend and let her see the set up, then we would give it to her. She said she needed to double check with her manager. I asked her to bring the manager as I was willing to explain to her also. However, the friend arrived and she saw the set up and had her surprise and we were truly happy also because in two years we never were able to hang out without the kids as we all are mothers of young babies and toddlers. Thus, as promised, we brought the balloon to her to store.

We arrived, as mentioned, at noon. Friend arrived around 12:20pm. We didn’t see our food until almost 2pm. Despite of that we were happy and chatting and we didn’t mind the slow service. Food was very good (not exceptional). They also took a very long time to see if they could store our very small cake, so at the end when they were ready as we were about to finish our food we said not to worry as we figured that we would cut the cake shortly after.

Once we were ready to leave, as planned since the beginning we asked for the balloon. After which a weird exchange of looks between employees happened, ending up with the manager bursting into laughing with another employee once she’s told we wanted the balloon back. They returned the balloon deflated with a significant cut that obviously was made with scissors and on purpose. But, they kept denying it claiming it was an accident, but never losing their dismissive and their scornful attitude. They quickly handed 20$ at us (in a dismissive manner) and said that it was for the inconvenience.

It’s not about the balloon. It’s about the way in which we were treated, with rudeness, dismissal, and derision almost like we were absurd and ridiculous about even expecting for them to store a balloon that they offered to store in the first place.

This is NOT even close to hospitality, dear Rumi’s and you could cook the most delicious food on earth (which, you DO NOT, you are barely sufficient enough for you to believe you are a high category restaurant, which, again, you clearly showed with arrogance you are NOT), but rest assured that you will never see me or my friends in one of your restaurants. I’m sure you don’t care, but I also don’t care about not staying silent when I see rudeness...

Came to Rumi's Avalon about a week and a half ago for an early birthday celebration!

Service: I usually don't begin my reviews by writing about service, but I feel that this should be seen first. Our actual server once we were seated was wonderful, so this does not apply to him.

My boyfriend made a reservation for us about a month in advance to celebrate my birthday. We arrived to Rumi's about 15 minutes before the reservation and were told at check-in that there would be a wait at the time of our reservation, to which we were confused as to why they even allow reservations if they don't seem to take them seriously. We were seated late and this was very disappointing. If you appreciate timeliness/restaurants respecting your reservations, this is not the place to go, or at least not this Rumi's location. The line was out the door and there were so many people waiting to get seated, I wonder how many of them were also frustrated for the same reason. Very disrespectful, especially to those who may be on a tight schedule and made a reservation in advance.

Drinks: For drinks, I ordered the Love & Poetry cocktail and my boyfriend ordered a Mojito since Rumi's has an open bar. The Mojito was delicious, but I was not really a fan of my drink. The Love & Poetry cocktail tastes very similar to Pink Whitney, just a little more watered down.

Appetizers: For our appetizers, we got the Corn Ribs, along with the complementary Bread and Sabzi. My boyfriend liked the flavor of the Corn Ribs but I wasn't the biggest fan. To me it just tasted very burnt. I always enjoy the Bread and Sabzi though!

Entrées: We ordered the Chicken Barg, which was delicious, and the Lamb Shank. The Lamb Shank was just okay. I would not order the lamb again, but I did like the rice that it came with.

Dessert: We ordered the Chocolate Hazelnut Torte for dessert and we both did not like it that much. I did get a free Baklava for my birthday dessert though and it was very tasty. The portion size of the birthday Baklava is also very generous, as it comes with three large pieces of Baklava and a scoop of ice cream, which is more than enough to share between two people.

Atmosphere: Romantic dimly-lit interior, but something that consistently bothered us was that dishes/cups kept getting dropped and shattering. This happened three times while we were at dinner. Could have just been because of how chaotic it was with the busy crowd that night. Also, I don't know if it was just our seat or if we were near a vent, but I was really cold the entire dinner.

TLDR: Do not count on your reservation being respected no matter how far in advance you make it. Food is mostly good. Probably won't be coming back to...