Livingston Restaurant + Bar — Restaurant in Atlanta

Having worked in the restaurant industry for many years as both a server and bartender, I tend to cut both restaurants and staff a reasonable amount of slack. Our experience here was worth a bad review. I'm hoping management reads this and takes the appropriate steps to improve their process. The only reason I am giving it 2 stars is because the food was good. Everything else was bad. We had a reservation for a party of four, we arrived at 5:15pm to eat before a show across the street at the Fox at 7pm. We waited almost 10 mins to be seated (it was not busy they open at 5) it was as if they were not prepared to have people show up when they opened. Our server was nice, we ordered drinks and appetizers, then mains about 10 mins after that. Our drinks took 30 minutes. There were 2 bartenders and the restaurant was maybe half full, so not sure why it took so long. Our appetizers came before our drinks. Waters never refilled and we were never asked if we wanted another round of drinks. I started noticing other tables having issues as well, some pouring their own water. They didn't seem to be short staffed either. The two ladies in our group got their meals at 6:40. Myself and my friend got ours at 6:45. That is over an hour after we ordered our entrees. Keep in mind we told the waitress twice we had to leave in time for a 7pm show. We asked for the check immediately and ate as fast as we could. While waiting I asked to speak with the manager, and I explained to him about the wait for the drinks and food and that we needed our check ASAP. He said he would go get it and proceeded to walk out the restaurant door in full view of our table and never returned. I was seriously considering leaving my license with the bartender and telling them I would come back and pay after the show when our waitress showed up with the check at 6:56. She did comp the drinks and apps, which I appreciated but also expected and would have requested after that debacle. We spoke to multiple other tables in the restaurant while waiting for our check, who were experiencing similar issues. I saw a couple of patrons arguing with one of the bartenders on the way out about their check. If you have a restaurant across from the Fox, you would think they know the show schedule and would be adequately prepared. It felt like opening night at a new restaurant. Again, the food was good, but the service and everything else was poor. Dine there at your own risk, especially if you are there...

Let me say first of all we have dined here before without any problems, usually before shows at the Fox Theatre. We had reservations and were seated promptly. Let me also say the server was really good friendly and professional, no issues there.

The first issue was the menu that was posted online was not the current menu I probably should have phoned them as I do understand this can happen. With the menu they offered currently it left me with limited choices, I do not eat red meat and only like certain seafood, so I ordered a salad and the spicy tomato soup. Now I can handle some spicy foods when I went for my first spoonful of soup I almost choked it was very hot and there was something else in the soup that caused this reaction. I tried it once again and had the same reaction so I put it aside and just ate the salad which was Ok nothing grand. Also we had ordered the chicken entrée it was dry and lackluster. So by the time we walked out of the restaurant is was about $55.00 and we were really bummed out by the dining experience.

We tipped 20 percent but were a little surprised when the bill arrived and the full amount for the soup was on there as the server knew the soup had issues she even mentioned something about it.

I cannot remember in a very long time feeling like I just tossed away money for a meal that was just really not up to standard for this restaurant. I think the fact that the cost of the soup was on the bill handed to us says something right there. We are not big eaters but left the restaurant without really not having a complete meal as we picked at what was in front of us.

Anyway we are troopers and walked across the street to the restaurant next to the Fox and got some good food, this place will be our new dining spot when we attend shows. It offered many options and it was a good meal, dessert was good also!

This could have just been a off night for the Livingston but it was a dining experience that will not allow me to return.

Again this is the first time with a bad experience here. I do not like to post negative reviews and have not done so in a very long time, but I really felt like posting a review would help with the bad dining experience.

This is a lovely restaurant so for any of you wanting to dine there give them a try like I said it might have just been a off night for them, but the menu was smaller in choice selections than I remember in the past from...

Top to bottom, our experience here was pretty awful. As we parked in self parking, we were given the option of “are you going to an event at the Fox for $50 parking or are you a hotel guest,” so we selected the hotel guest option. There were no signs posted telling us what the hourly parking rates were. Also, because there was an event at the Fox today, the typical 3 hour validation you usually get when dining at the Livingston isn’t available. I went to the front desk of the hotel to ask the woman behind the counter how much hourly parking was. She said she didn’t know and I should ask the valet (how’s that for customer service?). At this point, another woman came over who also didn’t know the answer but went to find out. I was told the first hour is $10, 2nd hour total is $15, and $20 for all day, yet when we exited the deck, we were charged $50 for event parking, even though we had selected hotel guest parking.

Now for the restaurant. We had reservations and approached the host stand. After a couple minutes, a server came over and seated us. There were 3 servers taking care of the entire restaurant with a manager or food runner running food. These servers were responsible for setting tables, busing tables and seating people, as there was no host - but there’s an automatic 20% gratuity, which almost always means service is terrible, and this was no exception. After sitting for a few minutes, our server came over and just asked if he could take our order. Didn’t introduce himself, so I’m not able to leave a name in this review. My husband ordered the burger medium, and it came out closer to rare. We had to ask for mayo/mustard as there was none on the burger. There also isn’t cheese or onion on it, and a big part of the lettuce was brown. Nobody ever stopped by the table to check on us once our food was dropped. We had to wait for our check for quite some time, as our server hadn’t returned to even refill our waters.

Clearly I’m not the first one to leave a negative review about this place, but with the number of negative reviews, it’s also obvious management simply doesn’t care to do better, or they would. I wish had read reviews before dining here, but this will be a one and done experience...