Carroll Street Cafe — Restaurant in Atlanta

It's actually really sad they run this place the way they do because the food, drinks and atmosphere are very good, but the service is just abysmal. We used to put up with it pre-pandemic but after calling ahead to try to reserve a table on the first nice weather day we'd seen in awhile and being told they couldn't/wouldn't do so but that the coveted outdoor seating currently had no wait time, we tried our luck and showed up within minutes of hanging up. Soon after arriving it became evident there were at least two tables winding down from their meal so we let the hostess know our intentions and waited outside. Unfortunately over the next 20 minutes we witnessed as their incredibly laxidasical wait staff ignored a table with empty plates and untouched ice-melted waters as they sat talking while wearing their masks and clearly awaiting their checks. Finally a different staff member came out with a notepad and asked if we would like to be added to the wait list for outdoor seating and we expressed our confusion after having been told there was no wait list and that it was simply first come first serve. He said that he was making a list now and asked if we wanted to be put on it so we asked if all of the other people who had come in after us were already ahead of us and he said that, no, we would be put at the top of the list. Once we gave our information and he returned indoors we watched as yet another table asked for their check and both tables sat waiting with their cards ready to pay for over 5 minutes. At that point my husband went inside to point out to the gentleman who had just asked about the wait list that two tables were ready to pay their checks and [assumedly] relinquish their tables. But rather than acknowledging that the staff was aware of this and already working on flipping the tables the gentleman simply stared into my husband's face and gave a very sarcastic and dismissive "Yeah... Yeah". Taken aback, my husband came out to tell me about what had happened at which point we decided we didn't really want to stand there more than the 30 minutes we'd already wasted to wait for that low level of service. But once we got my car I realized I wanted to let the staff know that we were extremely disappointed because we had been going there for over 14 years as a favorite date night spot and though we had seen a lack of sufficient service exhibited throughout the years; today really was the final straw for us. I'm not sure why I expected anything else given their track record, but of course the call was also met with unapologetic...

To whom it may concern,

I moved to the ATL/Cabbagetown area about a year an a half ago and have been going to Carroll street cafe at least every to every other week. I have really enjoyed all of my experiences at this cafe, and the food has been excellent.

Tonight, I had a very off putting experience unlikely anything I have experienced at other restaurants, or at Carroll street before.

I ordered my favorite thing on the menu the fillet medium rare, something I treat myself once or every other week at Carroll street. It is a dish I am very familiar with and had several times. Today something was off with the steak, it tasted mealy with mild sour taste. I made the assumption that the steak was overcooked, as I assume Carroll street would never serve spoil meat. I informed this to my waitperson and they were happy to take the food back.

After a few minutes, a white middle age lady with blonde unkept frizzy hair and glasses came over to me to inform me that the meat is medium rare and that I am not allowed to order another steak bc they disagree with my assessment that the meat was inappropriately cooked. This lady, who I assume is the manager, had a very stern tone and spoke to me like I was wrong and did not know what I was talking about. I informed her that I had the dish several times and it does not taste like it usually does so I assume it was made wrong, she asked if I wanted something else but made it clear I could not order the steak again (she made it very clear I did not know what I was talking about) I told her I would take the pesto pasta instead (my second favorite dish on the menu). She then took my new order, and I enjoyed the rest of my meal.

Carroll is by far my favorite place to have a meal during the week and the main reason is that the food is consistently great and the staff is awesome. Someone should talk to this lady about her people skills. If she had come to me with an apologize and an offer to get me something else..that is all I really needed. I did not need to be told that I was wrong and would not be allowed to order another steak again, bc the steak in her opinion was made well.

I was soo bothered by this interaction that I even got the person’s name. According to Carroll Street Cafe Staff her name is Miccha. My hope for this email is that someone really speaks to her about the way that she speaks to people. She is in the service industry and a bit of manners will go along way. I had to apologize several times to her bc she seemed annoyed and aggressive at this interactions.

A concerned...

Here we go again! I don’t know if it be the cooks or the time of day. But I read all the reviews before I went here and everybody seem so happy and had good food. I just knew I was going to be added to those many good reviews but NOPE! So here I am with my raw review, for new comers and people visiting from out of town brunch is not an all day thing here, only on Saturdays. I had no idea I was set on French toast when I got here at 7pm 08/28/2024. So i ordered the shrimp and plantain(TERRIBLE) to much sweet chilli sauce and it doesn’t taste pleasant on plantains when plantains itself have sweetness to them if you’re going to use plantain and add a sweet sauce try the non sweet plantains. I also ordered the Pasta Alburefa or something like that (Horrible) I don’t know if the chef just didn’t care anymore because of the time but the sauce was not saucing. It was very watery with no seasoning. Everything looked good to the eyes but was not tasteful at all. My husband ordered the steak sandwich, he said that the sandwich bread was very touch and the meat was rubbery. But he ate it because he was hungry lol, he didn’t eat the salad he said it had no dressing. We weren’t offered dressing utensils nor napkins and I also sent back my drinking cups because they were stained. The martini espresso was a recommended drink so I tried it and I didn’t like it…to much coffee and idk I was just trying something new with that one I’m not a big fan of cold coffee anyways. But yeah I only give honest reviews as raw as I can I will never lie. I was expecting something different, I did tell my husband I’ll give brunch on Saturday a try but dinner here I will...