Negril ATL — Restaurant in Atlanta

I wanted to like this place. But so much went wrong. First surprise was admittedly (hopefully) not their fault. I had googled "bottomless Mimosas" and this restaurant popped up, so I was bummed by the inaccurate online representation when I arrived and found that bottomless mimosas, or even free refills on anything, were not on the menu (3$ for a 12oz can of cola). Additionally, Google rates the pricey-ness of this establishment as "$", meaning cheap, not $$ or $$$. So imagine my surprise when it actually cost 62$ for a party of 2. y'all tell me, am I wrong for thinking a restaurant rated cheap (1 money sign) should be $30 or less for 2 people?

For the sake of disclosure, my charges were: French toast - $13 Shrimp n grits - $21 12oz cola x2 - $6 24 oz Mimosa - $8 Auto gratuity - $9-10 Total came to $61 and some change. (We were charged for 2 cokes though we only got one, so we asked for the 2nd coke that they billed us for to take with us to-go, since it came in a can. Fancyish place with $3 canned cokes... Lol). Excuse my digression to text message lingo.

Anyways, that 62$ included an automatic gratuity of 18%. I have NEVER seen an auto gratuity for a party of 2. There was no warning or mention of the auto-grat, except on the final receipt. Ironically, I am a big tipper and would have left more than 18%, even in spite of my complaints in this review, had I not been rubbed the wrong way by the auto gratuity.

I could have forgiven the above transgressions had the employees been friendly. All of the patio seating was clean and unoccupied, but we were made to wait while other patrons were seated inside. My companion sat herself on the patio as we waited for our seat, and the hostess told her to get up from her seat and to stand and wait by the hostess stand where there was no seating. The hostess gave us no explanation as if it was a totally normal ask and a completely ridiculous thing for a customer to sit while waiting.

One reason we asked to be seated on the patio, was it was a nice day, and we imagined we could enjoy our Mimosas at Sunday brunch and smoke a cigarette (we had not yet realized there were not bottomless mimosas on the menu). There were no signs against smoking, but after finally being seated, I lit a cigarette, and as if I was specifically being watched (again patio was empty and their were no non-smoking signs) within milliseconds someone appeared from inside the restaurant to tell me I could not smoke on the patio and to go to the parking lot to smoke.

Basically, my complaints boil down to no notice of policies (such as the auto gratuity and the no smoking outside) as well as unfriendly hostesses, wherein their directives and my encounters with them were unfriendly and alienating as opposed to welcoming. I very distinctly got the message from both hostesses, as well as the other employee I interacted with, that my business was not wanted. Darian was my server, he was funny and, unfortunately, I am not exaggerating when I say that he was the only nice employee I encountered. I give him a pass for not informing me of the auto gratuity because I've been a waitress and understand that it could be restaurant policy/beyond his control to add the auto-tip (often, restaurants can remove the auto-grat on request, however, I was not notified of the auto-grat beforehand).

Also, 10$ to park or 20$ to valet. Waited in line at the parking meter for almost 20 mins in the line to pay for parking before having any interaction with the rude hostesses.

In total, a very bizarre experience, though my French toast was good ( and at $13 was the cheapest entree on the menu, with most entree's costing close to/above $20). I did not intend to write an essay, but wanted to be honest with my experience. My advice: order the French toast TO-GO or via ubereats (if they participate).

TLDR: order the French toast TO-GO or via Ubereats (if they participate). 18% AUTO-GRAT on a party of 2. Rude hostesses. 10$ self-park/20$ valet. Should be rated $$ or $$$ NOT $... no smoking on patio, no...

I went to Negril Village Atlanta for brunch. It was my birthday and my friends flew in to spend my birthday weekend with me. I initially went to Atlanta for work and extended my stay for some birthday festivities. My friend wanted to do brunch at Negril Village and I figured our last day in Atlanta will be perfect because we can eat and then head to My Fair Sweets, then to the airport. She said some ladies recommended the place and told her they had the best brunch. To my surprise the food was good but not great.

It is supposed to be Caribbean food, so you will see an assortment of dishes from various islands. I am Jamaican so I decided to try the saltfish fritters and ackee and saltfish plate. I think if you haven't had real Caribbean food, you may like the food but I thought it needed more seasoning. However, that wasn't the major issue. The major issue is we arrived at 12:55 pm and didn't get our food until 2:30 pm. We asked for the manager six times during the course of the wait period and he never showed. Eventually, the food came, along with my fritters (appetizer). By the time the food arrived I was very HANGRY because I didn't eat that morning. We got up late, rushed to pack and check out and headed straight to brunch.

The reason they get three stars and not one is because the next shift manager came and rectified the situation for us. He didn't know what was going on but he handled it. They lose points due to poor parking situation, good but not great food, a manager that refused to meet us, and automatic 20% gratuity. I should decide how much I want to tip. I was in a party of three so it is charge for everyone not just large parties. The problem with automatic gratuity is many times servers give sub par service because they know they are getting a tip regardless. The fact that people who came to the area and notice we didn't have our food but the server is completely clueless tells you how poor of a server she was. While, she wasn't terrible and she wasn't the worst I have had, she needs to do better.

A positive is they had live music which was great, however, it didn't help that I noticed they started when we arrived, took a break, ate, and then did another set, and we still didn't get our food. There is nothing worse (restaurant wise) than being hangry, seeing other people get food before you, even though you have been sitting there, and then being ignored by the manager. I hope the manager who helped us gets promoted and the one who didn't get's fired because he should not be in that position.

Ultimately, we didn't make it to My Fair Sweets because after we ate, and spoke to the next shift manager, it was 3:30 pm and my friend needed to get to the airport. My car was locked in the garage across the street (FYI, even if it says open, do not park there because it is probable open for an event). The good news is, she made it in a couple minutes before they closed the gate and unfortunately she didn't get to check her bag. Luckily, CBP didn't notice the item she wasn't supposed to have in her carry on.

To summarize, don't eat here before a flight, if you had authentic Caribbean food you will not be impressed, don't park across the street, the live music is great, the ambiance is nice (somewhat upscale), there is not much AC so be aware if you have high blood pressure, and hope you have a...

The restaurant itself is very nice on the inside, I believe the owner was at the hostess stand at the front, he was very friendly and welcoming. My friend and I were excited to try this place as I have wanted to go there for a while, the seating was very close together and we felt a little uncomfortable being right up on two other tables on either side of us but we eventually settled in and everything was fine. Our waitress came over and immediately seemed the little off but we were very pleasant with her. I ordered the oxtail with rice and peas and cabbage and my friend ordered salmon with vegetables and mac and cheese, she wasn't aware that the mac and cheese was an additional cost as she thought that she could substitute it for one of her other sides but, no biggie...she paid about a $12 extra fee for that. Her salmon came out pretty much raw on the inside and she had to send it back because there was no way she was going to eat it, she enjoyed her vegetables and said the mac and cheese was okay. When the waitress brought her salmon back, it had jerk sauce on it instead of curry that she originally ordered. The waitress acknowledged her mistake so my friend tasted it to see if she'd just keep it so as to not be too difficult. She tasted the sauce but still didn't like it, so the waitress told her that she would just bring her more curry sauce out instead of taking it back since it was drenched in jerk sauce. My friend tried to eat the salmon but the mixture of the sauces was not what she wanted so she didn't eat the salmon but enjoyed the rest of her meal.

My food was OK, the oxtail was seasoned but to me was missing a bit of salt and I'm not a salt person, the rice and peas were a bit dry but the cabbage was okay just a little under seasoned as well but the plantains were delicious! We're not huge drinkers so we didn't get a drink. When it came time to pay the bill, the waitress came over and said that we couldn't split the check where I pay for what I ordered in my friend pays for what she ordered. My friend asked to take her salmon off the bill since she didn't eat it, the waitress immediately got an attitude and said that she couldn't take the salmon off. My friend reiterated that she didn't eat salmon and the waitress said that she couldn't vouch for that because she didn't see it. I told her that the table busser had literally just come to the table and took away all the food and could tell her that the salmon was still whole and uneaten, she stated fuming stated that she "was not going to argue" and had a very bad attitude. I told her that the salmon was messed up from the beginning and even when she brought it back it was still messed up with the wrong sauce. She threw her hands in the air, sucked her teeth, had an attitude and stomped off to go and change the bill. What grown woman clearly in her late 30s to 40s acts this way about something so simple? When she came back, she aggressively put the receipt on the table but tried to be nice-nasty about it and told us to have a blessed night. We paid the bill and that was that. As we were going upstairs to use the restroom, the waitress bumped into my friend and didn't apologize or anything. This might not have been intentional but it just seemed a bit off. I would probably not go back there and wouldn't...