Highland Bakery Downtown GSU — Restaurant in Atlanta

I want to first state that I LOVE Highland Bakery. Their location on Highland Ave is great. I have only ever had positive experiences there, however, the downtown location is a mess. I work at GSU so it's exciting for me to be able to walk to one of my favorite Atlanta restaurants, but my last 2 experiences have determined for me that I will not return.

Today I went by to order a hummus sandwich with no tomatoes, no onions, to eat there. I wait 25 minutes, they start calling for a to go order that's ready, so I walk up, 3 of the staff are huddled around the pastry case talking, when they notice I am standing there I let ask if that's my food and I had ordered my food to eat in the restaurant. I take my food, sit back down, and the sandwich has onions on it, the cheese is cold and hard, and 2 of the other items that were supposed to be on there are not. This was really disappointing as I had spent nearly my entire lunch break waiting. I took the sandwich back up, let them know it was wrong, and requested a refund. There were no apologies offered and I left because I did not have time to wait for another sandwich to be made. Very disappointed as I had a similar experience the visit before, but decided to give them...

Used to be my go-to spot, twice a week, for several years--until they changed ownership. The menu changed (they got rid of the best sandwich: the Hill Grill). The food is not great, especially for the price. I spent $20 for a fried chicken sandwich that was mediocre at best--it was so dry and tasteless I didn't even finish it. The place is not very clean (boxes out, clutter on the counters, and a general look of untidiness). But mostly, it's the staff. Every time I've gone in, they treat me like I'm a bother. I'm very nice to service staff (I worked in the service industry for many, many years), but they are SO RUDE. They have no hustle and no sense of awareness about what needs to be done. They never say hello or smile. The last time I was there (which is the last time I'll ever go!) the girl practically threw my cinnamon roll at me WITHOUT A WORD after I asked nicely if I could have it since I'd been standing there waiting on it for at least five minutes and there was only one other customer in the place (and that customer was in line AFTER me). They won't make it long with such terrible service and overpriced,...

I visited this location for the first time today (11/12/18). My Mango Tango smoothy was tasty and made quickly. It's a convenient location being in the same building as all of my professor's offices. The staff was neither friendly nor unfriendly towards me, but they did seem very unhappy to be there. They were certainly ready to go home when I ordered my smoothy at 4pm.

I wonder if that is due to the quantity and volume of the country music that was playing. Typically most cafes have easy listening music playing at a reasonable volume, not this establishment. During the 30 minutes I was here the lineup consisted exclusively of country music being blasted at a level that would make a bar in southern Georgia proud. (Loud enough to hear through my headphones.)

Hopefully if you visit this location you're planning on a quick in and out. Otherwise you'll probably be as ready to leave as the employees by the time your coffee cools...