SmoQ'n Hot Grill — Restaurant in Atlanta

Our group returned to the restaurant for lunch today and unfortunately had a negative experience with our order. As regular customers, we've consistently enjoyed the food here, but the service we received today was disappointing.

Ian and Haoran have already discussed the incident, so I will omit those details. However, I would like to address a couple of points in response to the Owner's comment directed at Haoran:

1. "I have learned that the automatic gratuity for your party was 10%"

Yes. But the cashier said he should have charged us $40 (20%) of the total amount when he talked to Ian.

2. "I have also learned that it took close to 20 minutes for your party to make their selections, during which time the restaurant lost business as other guests waiting to be served lost patience."

In fact, we spent only 6 minutes deciding on our orders for 11 people. We arrived at 12:10 PM and placed our order by 12:16 PM as shown on the receipt. I can provide evidence of our arrival time, but I believe that should be unnecessary.

3. "it was not appropriate for our team member to speak to you in the way that he did…regardless of how abusive a guest is to them"

The cashier actually used the F language first towards Ian, who then responded with the same language. Ian had not engaged in any abusive behavior before this exchange.

To the Owner: We loved your place, and it's sad that we had this experience today. Your reply appears to be based on a different narrative from the cashier, and we wanted to share our perspective on the...

I had high hopes for this place but it was the most disappointing restaurant I’ve been to in my 10 years of living in Atlanta. I know that sounds dramatic but it’s true. I knew immediately that I wanted the Brussel sprouts but the lady at the counter informed me there were none. Next, I asked the best sandwich she said the smoq’n dop special, which is what I wanted so I was excited until she told me there was no brisket…so I went with the OG Rueben. I finally asked for a lemonade but I was met again with bad news, she had to make some (there was a little bit of lemon juice squeezed) and that would take a little while. Now I think I stood waiting for around 10 minutes and not once did the girl ever continue to make the lemonade. Anyways, I finally got my sandwich and it looked NOTHING like corned beef. It looked to be roast beef which confused me because in hindsight after looking at their instagram I DID NOT GET CORNED BEEF! I don’t know what I got but the sandwich was dry and had little to no sauce. I would have taken it back but I was so over the experience I threw half the sandwich away. $20 for one sandwich down the drain. Horrible experience. I do not...

We come down to have sandwiches every now and then. Today they charged us $20 as tips and put it as auto-gratuity. I wasn’t aware of the this charge until my colleague told me.

When I went to the counter to pick up the Togo bags after waiting for more than 30 minutes. Yes, you have to go to pick up your order like in McDonald. The cashier told me that he messed up the order. If he wanted to correct the order, he would have to redo the order, so he let it be as is. I thought he accidentally charged us the gratuity for take out. And he was going to refund us. He then said he should have charged us $40 (20%) of the total amount. What the F. I was upset by his words. It sounded like he was kinda showing mercy by charging less accidentally.

I argued with him about the service he provided to us. The cashier insisted that packing the food was a good service and deserved 20%. Then, I said we would never come back and started writing this review. When I left, the cashier said “go write reviews on Google and Yelp”. I said I did. Then, he yelled, “you sure did, F yourself”. Of course I...