Habitat Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Atlanta

I visited Habitat on a Thursday- ladies night, depending on who the lady is. This would have been my second time within the same month attending on ladies night. Both times I sat at the bar and was serviced by a male bartender by the name of DAVID. This time I brought a guest with me. My guest ordered 2 food items, a shot, and a margarita with a flavor. She was notified it would be an upcharge, and that was not an issue. Once we finished dining, we asked to close out. They use the electronic machine that is brought to you to insert your card. My guest and I were paying cash for our separate tabs. Our complete individual totals were shown to us. My guest paid, I counted out cash + tip, and as I was handing the bartender the cash, he said, "Wait, I forgot to charge you for your margarita." I paused for a second not understanding how after receiving a final total, literally in the process of holding the cash out for you to take from my hand! He begins to say that he forgot to add the margaritas on both tabs, but since he already took the cash out of my guest's hand and not mine, he can go back and add it to my tab. He proceeds to say, "I could add go back and charge your friend for her drink but I'm going to be nice and not, but you have to pay for yours."

I immediately understood at that point that this was personal! I asked to speak to the manager, JOSHUA. While explaining myself, the bartender continues to insert himself into the conversation. "SHE HAS TO PAY FOR HER DRINK! YEAH, I FORGET! BUT I REMEMBERED BEFORE I TOOK THE MONEY OUT OF HER HAND! I COULD STILL MAKE YOUR FRIEND PAY, BUT I DIDN'T! The manager then says I have to pay or give the drink back. I did just that, once I returned the drink I explained how hurt I was from the boldly blunt racist discrimination.

Being that that WHITE guest that was with me was not charged, did not pay for her drink that was more expensive than mine, and was still able to keep her drink. While I, a BLACK woman is being told to pay or be forced to have my drink taken. Once the manager clearly understood the blatant unfairness, he then told the bartender to return the drink to me because they as a restaurant can not do that. About allowing one customer to benefit from the bartender's mistake. The bartender proceeds to say, "I don't see how this is right to let her have the drink. " I was shocked to see an employee questioning the manager's final call in front of a customer. I appreciate the manager acknowledging the discrimination and correcting it in the end.

I was very hurt by the whole situation, but like I said this is my second time within the same month that I have come to the bar. While there, this same bartender DAVID, serviced me and a few others at the bar. Offered all those at the bar a shot, including himself, while excluding me. I don't in any way ever expect anything free so I did not see any issue, but upon this last visit, he made a mistake but going out of his way to ensure that the other patron received a comp item and not me. Was just disrespectful.

I have been coming to Habitat for years, since the first week they opened, and used to enjoy the establishment, but after the treatment in the last 2 visits. I must say there needs to be a meeting on their customer service delivery ASAP. Who knows how many other customers this bartender has...

I can’t give much grace with this post. Service and food was very average, if not less than, which is odd considering there were hardly many tables filled during my visit. I have worked in the service industry for years and have never seen a business use some of the practices they did. At one point, our server came over to tell us they “needed us to leave” as they had another reservation coming in 15 minutes. Around this time we had likely been there for about an hour and 15 minutes, however, the first 30 to 45 minutes of our visit was just us waiting for our server to come back and take our actual food order. At the time we were asked to start leaving, we were still ordering drinks and finishing food. As a service industry worker, you do not tell people to leave, especially when they are still buying items. You rearrange your reservations and table predictions and find a more subtle way to get the group out (I.e. asking if anyone wants dessert and when they reply with ‘no’ asking if they’d like the check). On top of this, when our server did bring the check, we were not allowed to split it. This would not have been much of a problem had he originally brought us a printed ticket. Instead, when bringing the check he brought a small manual computer where you could not see everything that was on the bill. As he was about to hand it to the girl who was paying, he clicked the ‘other’ option and handed it to her for her to input her tip amount. This server did not inform her or anyone at the table that we had already been charged a “large party gratuity”. Essentially, we got screwed over, kicked out, & paid a man an extra $40 for poor service. Would...

Went for Cinco de Mayo to meet a friend for an 8pm reservation. Upon arrival security advised we head up the stairs to be sat. We walked up the stairs and stood by the sign that clearly says please wait to be seated. We stood there for quite some time and there were people standing behind us waiting as well. They had a band playing right by the stairwell and it was a bit crowded which was expected due to the day but no one came over to assist us. A lady that was sitting down eating walked over to tell us the hostess was standing inside the restaurant and she wanted to make sure we were aware since we had been standing there for a while. We went to find the hostess inside and she said she couldn't find the reservation. My friend that made the reservation showed her the confirmation email and the hostess said she was sorry we missed our reservation because there's a 10 minute grace period. When we explained that we had been standing there waiting to be sat she just said she was sorry. I didn't want to get upset nor ruin the experience so we went to the bar to grab a drink to come up with a game plan since we couldn't dine. A gentleman told us we could come in front of him to order our beverages. There was a black male and 2 white females behind the bar and they literally never acknowledged us. At this point I was beyond annoyed and told my friend that we should just leave and go to a place that provides better customer service because the experience was getting worse and worse. The only positive was the kind funny security at the door. Maybe the staff was overwhelmed but I'll never make excuses for poor customer service. Won't...