Blind Pig Tavern — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

My husband and his friends visited the downtown location today with 6 of his friends (7 people total). Walked in gave them their name, and waited to be seated only to watch table after table from 4-6 ppl be seated ahead of their group. My husband checked with the hostess to ask about their table she asked again (2nd time) how many people they had and he told her 7 she replied we can squeeze you in a booth or it will be a 45 minute wait. He said okay a booth will be fine. She said okay give me a second. Left for 15 minutes until he had to ask her again and AGAIN (3rd time) she asked me how many were in the party, he said I just spoke with you there’s 7 people. She says it will be a 30 minute wait. They then waited an hour watching multiple groups be seated until he finally got up and asked once again what were we waiting on? She said she’s waiting on three people to leave so she could sit them at their table (after he already told her a booth would be fine). 30 minutes later they were FINALLY seated. The food came out fast and tasted great so props to the kitchen but this location definitely need a better hostess. Bc the blonde one obviously needs help, I’m glad I wasn’t there bc I would not have been as patient or friendly...

So, the burger was pretty good — was so hot that it actually burned my mouth a bit on the first bite (which was great to have food that hot) the veggies on the burger were ice cold which was also awesome. The burger itself was… above average but not incredible. The fries were just… ehh. Not bad but not good.

The server was really friendly but took order, dropped off order, dropped or check and was MIA otherwise (when it was pretty dead for a Friday night). Atmosphere-wise… I’m going to sound a little old here probably… but the music was way too loud. I felt like I was in the pit before the start of a rock show when they’re blaring music and it’s ALL just bass that makes your head hurt by the time the show starts. The bass was loud (more “harsh” than loud but only fellow music people will understand the difference) as a result people seemed like they were yellowing which just made for a lot of noise. I also feel like it was too bright?

Do I recommend it? Yeah you should definitely give it a shot. It’s just not a 5 star for me that I’m going to be shoving people down to get back in and order...

Overall: Meh

I’ve visited this restaurant three times over the last couple of years. Upon entering this time, there was an unpleasant odor, reminiscent of old mop water, mildew, mold, indicating they might not be using clean water for cleaning. Despite this, I noticed they had a 97 on the health inspection, which reassured me, so we decided to stay.

I ordered the pulled pork sandwich while my guest had a double burger. We started with mozzarella sticks, which came with ranch dressing instead of marinara—something our server, Evelyn, kindly warned us about in advance but I still found odd. My side salad was disappointing as it came without cheese or croutons, which seemed like unnecessary cost-cutting.

Additionally, the large signs announcing a new 3.5% fee for credit card payments were quite distracting, adding an extra cost for consumers.

Overall, while I wouldn’t recommend this place anymore due to the various issues, I might still visit in the future. Evelyn was a good server and made the experience...