Elmyr — Restaurant in Atlanta

Food has been consistently “just fine” for years… not super flavorful but a solid menu and enough to fill your stomach and grab a drink while in Little 5. Fair amount of vegan/gluten free options. Service varies but until now has never been particularly terrible.

I’m not typically one to leave poor reviews— there’s enough negativity in the world as it is and I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years— but the experience I had at Elmyr on 10/22 after the Halloween parade was frustrating enough that I felt I had to say something.

For the festival, Elmyr had posted handwritten signs outside which said “21+ only.” My friends and I are all women around 30 and needed something to eat, so we decided to head inside. We didn’t see anyone who appeared to be checking IDs or working the door at that moment. There was just a woman and man wearing costumes, holding beers, and sort of just standing near the doorway chatting, hanging out the way that people often do at bars. They looked like normal patrons and honestly, we were on a mission for chips and salsa so we didn’t stop to question anything.

My two friends walked in before I did. After they entered, one of the men at the door— dressed in a pinstripe suit with a matching fedora, holding a bottle of beer— suddenly startled and said “no, no, no— wait!” He then turned and grabbed at one of my friends, pulling on the strap of her bag and acting offended that they had just walked into the building instead of showing him an ID. Invading someone’s personal space and touching their body or belongings without consent is not okay. For her own reasons, the friend this man grabbed is especially sensitive to being touched in this manner.

After the man touched and spoke rudely to my friends, I began getting my ID out. I calmly but firmly (since he was still sputtering indignantly) said, “Okay, but you don’t need to grab her like that. We didn’t realize you were checking IDs or even worked here.” My friend also vocalized her discomfort at being pulled on from behind by a stranger. When we reiterated that we simply didn’t realize he was working the door but would show him our ID, the man reacted with more hostility and indignation. I’m not sure why he was so offended that we didn’t realize he was working the door… but dude, it’s Halloween. You’re dressed up like a 1920s mobster and drinking a beer… and you let two people walk past you before you even remembered you worked here. How were we supposed to know?

During this 30 second (if that) interaction, another man— tall, thin, bald, beige or yellow tee shirt— walked up and said, “What do you mean, you didn’t know he was checking IDs? What the f* else would he be doing?” I have no idea if the second man worked there or not. My friends and I felt super uncomfortable with this hostile conversation and weren’t interested in eating at a business where women setting very fair and normal boundaries is responded to with volatile behavior, so we left.

Honestly y’all, he was just sort of standing there having a conversation and drinking. There was no chair or stool, no line, no nothing to indicate that they were checking ID at the door instead of the bar or table. We’ve never been carded at the door at Elmyr but as service industry folks ourselves, would have happily shown IDs if asked. This whole situation escalated into something completely unnecessary due to these two men’s hostile behavior and refusal to simply acknowledge or even just ignore a mistake one of them made.

To the ownership or management of Elmyr, your food isn’t good enough to have someone acting like this at the door. You should know that word is circulating that mgmt is just as bad as whoever we met at the door— I’ve heard since this interaction that certain folks are boycotting the restaurant due to inappropriate behavior from ownership or management— I have no idea of what nature or if this is even true, but if y’all treat your staff half as badly as your man at the door treated us, it’s no wonder you were the only place without a wait during...

The horrible customer service and disregard for customers totally overshadows the amazing food that is served here. My roommate had been raving about this restaurant for weeks! We were finally able to visit last weekend and actually found seating (a two previous attempts the house was packed). Our waitress appeared, didn't greet us nor introduce herself just asked us what our beverage order was. While making the order I noticed the no separate checks message posted on the menu so I wanted to make sure that the people I was dining w/ clear on this rule. While talking to my friends the waitress cuts me off and says " At this point I just need your drink orders!" w/ a very agitated tone. So we placed our drink order and before we could attempt to order appetizers the waitress sped off. After waiting 15 minutes if not more our drink orders came (didn't serve us just placed the pitcher on the table and left) and we still weren't able to order appetizers because she ran off again. Another 10 or 15 minutes had passed before came for our orders. We orders appetizers and entrees which came out together. We ordered Queso... That could've and should've come out before out entrees. Noticing our unhappy demeanor another server asked if he could assist us. I told him about the horrible service we'd received he replied "Oh" and walked away. No apology just walked away. I couldn't help but notice our server extremely chipper while serving her other tables that came after us. They also received water upon arrival and their food came out before ours did and that party was larger. After our complaint a new server arrived and we never saw the 1st one again. I hate pulling the race card but my friends and I were the only blacks patronizing the places so it's not to far fetched for us to believe her horrible service could've been race related. Maybe she assumed that because we were black not tip would be given. Whatever her reasons for barely serving us my first and probably only visit to this establishment was a HORRIBLE one! I'll be giving my...

Bartender was extremely rude! We had came for a quick bite to eat and a drink. We sat down and never received menus , or water. We asked the bartender if he could make my sister drink sweet and he said no. So we just stuck to regular house margaritas. Any questions we had about the food or drinks. He either didn’t respond or had a nasty response. I don’t know if he had a terrible day but that is not how you treat customers. My sister then asked what type of wines did they have. He said we have white and red. She said what type of white. He said white… Eventually someone else was starting to help us instead. Once we asked for our checks I tipped him $5 even though he did not deserve it! Mind you we still did not receive water. My sister did not tipped. The bartender preceded to ask what did he do to deserve no tip. My sister responded and said he did not deserve it . He got loud and said we were rude and did not tip him in front of the entire restaurant. And said he has to tip out servers . Then he said we need to leave and proceeded to yell at us to leave the bar. I have worked in the nightlife and bar industry for 5 years. I am all for tipping a server or bartender even when they don’t deserve it. But this experience was uncalled for. I thought I found a great bar for me to come to late night . WORST EXPERIENCE EVER WILL...