Little Rey — Restaurant in Atlanta

This was my first time to Little Rey with family and friends and family. It appears to be a very small chain with just a few locations and this particular location is tucked into an office park locale. I would imagine it can get quite busy during the day and weeknights after work but on our Sunday evening visit it was not busy at all.

The atmosphere is charming and welcoming with plenty of seating indoor and out. Additionally, there is a gravel area with seating for additional conversation after your meal, or a place for kids or adults to play giant Jenga. There were also two ring and hook games although one was missing the ring and they both used a stiff metal cable vs a traditional cord. This area was quite nice but it would benefit from a few additional games.

We sat outside on this particular cool and dark evening and found the lighting to be sufficient and the seating comfortable enough to enjoy a casual conversation after our food.

If you happen to need the restroom and you're sitting inside, just know that you'll need to step outside and around the corner to find them.

The menu isn't large, but our party of 5 adults and 6 kids ordered across the board from a chicken sandwich, chips and queso, tacos, and I enjoyed a bowl of pazole rojo. The general feeling is that the food was fine but there were no real standouts save the salsa bar. My partner's tacos were fine but the meat seemed lightly to possibly unseasoned. She ended up going to the salsa bar to find some spicy ranch to add a little flavor. For me, the pazole flavor was fine and it was served with all the appropriate add-ins of cabbage, lime, radish, jalapeno, and cilantro but the cup served was so small I couldn't possibly add anything until nearly 1/3 of the soup was consumed. Pazole also has hominy as and ingredient and in this particular cup there were so few pieces that I could've probably counted on one hand. Again the flavor was fine, but this is not what I would expect both in quality and portion for $7. Speaking of portions and prices, the portions are on the small side and the prices, maybe rightly so given the location are a bit on the higher end of what I would expect.

The one stand out to me beyond the vibe of the space was the staff. They really were quite friendly, welcoming, and happy to answer any questions about ingredients, spiciness, or dietary restrictions.

If you're looking for a chill location with some Mexican inspired food I'd recommend it. If you're coming with big appetites, on a budget, or looking for big flavor, you might want to save Little Rey for...

(Edited and updated score of 2 stars after restaurant response) While I didn’t get a call as the restaurant noted below, they did refund my order. I appreciate that although I didn’t expect it. More importantly I hope they address the take out process.

Regret writing this - but while the food is excellent and we love it, the service is quite lacking. Had a takeout - got there 15 minutes after ordering and the lady said wasn’t ready yet. Sat right in front of the window. And waited, and waited and waited and waited. 30 minutes later finally went back to the window to cancel the order - the girl says “oh it’s right here and has been here awhile”. Really? I had been sitting right in front of the window the whole time (along with a few others who also got fed up). Per the ticket it literally showed up 2 minutes after I first went to the window. Not like the other Little Rey where they call out takeouts…. I guess they expect us to keep annoying them and pestering them every 2 minutes???? And sadly, seems Fry group doesn’t much care. I tried to reach out privately to give them a chance to address this, but they never followed up. While we tend to love all the Ford Fry restaurants, and probably have been 50+ times to various ones in Atlanta, we also had a bad experience at Little Sparrow that they basically shrugged off. Didn’t used to be this way...

Update 5/15/2025

I’m not entirely sure what is going on with the quality of the food at this restaurant, but it has substantially gone down in the past month. I can only assume that this may be due to the rising costs to operate a restaurant that are now being passed on to their consumer. I am a very simple order. I usually get two Carne Asada tacos. I’ve noticed that they recently removed one of the tortilla shells. There’s only one now. I actually don’t mind this because I don’t care for two tortilla shells however, the food has been cold and the portion size is at least 50% less protein. I also did some research on the last few receipts and it looks like the prices in just two months have gone up and down a few cents. It used to be really consistent and now I feel like I just don’t know what I’m getting or how much I’m paying for it which is frustrating. I called to speak to a manager on duty about a week ago about it just to inquire and he had no answers for me. It seems like things are changing in real time.

This place is so fantastic. It’s very easy. There’s something for everyone and it has a casual and inviting environment if you choose to dine in. I had a mix up with my to go order (my fault) and the staff were all so kind in helping me get everything sorted out. Thank you so much to Kasey for her wonderful...