Soul Vegetarian No. 2 — Restaurant in Atlanta

I have been to some poor restaurants in my time, but Soul Vegetarian No. 2 really takes the cake. I really wanted to like this place. I love soul food so was really looking forward to a vegan soul food restaurant so close to where I live, but it wasn't to be.

We walked in the door, and it was not immediately clear what to do so we grabbed menus off the counter and started to look at them ourselves. A young boy, about 13 or 14, comes by and asks to clean our table so we let him. Not thirty seconds later, a second young boy about the same age does the same, and we tell him the other boy just cleaned our table, to which he breaks down in laughter.

So we decide on what we want to eat. It's not immediately clear how we order so we get ready to go up to the counter and let them know what we want. Well, it turns out, those two young boys: they are our waiters. One of them brings us some lukewarm water to drink and then comes over with a tablet to take our order. He proceeds to argue with us about the names of dishes on the menu because apparently they are called different names on the tablet.

We proceed to wait, and wait, and wait. We watch the chaos going on around us with people having extremely long wait times and others not getting the food they ordered. After we'd been waiting about an hour, a large group comes in and is immediately turned away, being told that they're closed for the night because they're out of food. This is 7:00 pm, an hour before their posted close time on the door. We continue to watch this scenario unfold several times, including sending a disappointed child home empty handed because they were out of ice cream cones.

My partner and I, at this point, are unsure what to do, wondering if they've just forgotten about us and whether we'll get any food. No employee has talked to us in all this time. My partner tells me that part of him wants to just go somewhere else but another part wants to see what will happen. Finally, an hour and ten minutes into our wait, the kids bring us side salads, which we had forgotten even came with our dinners. And, oh, what a disappointing side salad: chopped lettuce topped with sprouts and a dressing that I'm still not sure what I ate. I never knew it was possible to serve a poor side salad before, but there you go.

An hour and twenty-five minutes into our wait, my partner is brought his dinner. He is immediately told they're out of the potatoes he ordered so, instead of asking if he'd like something else, they just give him a second of the disappointing side salads. His tofu cutlet was barely seasoned and very bland, disappointing on every level. The broccoli that came with his meal was fine, but, I mean, it's hard to mess up broccoli.

An hour and thirty-five minutes into our wait, my meal finally comes out. My country-friend steak is the highlight of both of our meals, definitely one of the strong suits of their menu. My collard greens were fine but, once again, that is a side that is difficult to mess up. What wasn't fine was the macaroni and cheese, which tasted like it had been drenched in nutritional yeast. Now, I have nothing against nutritional yeast, but the after-taste of it lingered for hours after our meal. I have tasted better vegan macaroni from the frozen section of Kroger.

We both had to ask for our cornbread, as did several other patrons. It seemed the kid waiters didn't know cornbread comes with the dinner meal.

To their credit, they gave my partner his meal free because they were out of the potatoes he wanted, but it was still inexcusable. Horrible service, very mixed food, and an extremely long wait time mean we will probably not be back. Which is sad, because I really wanted to find an excuse to like this place. But, alas, I have no clue why it has as high reviews as it does on all the internet sites. Avoid this place...

The experience I shared at this restaurant with my wife was less than desirable. Service was slow, food was fresh but not flavorful, it was just vegan...nothing special. I had the country fried steak, collard greens, corn on the cob and a salad, my wife had the crispy tofu, steamed broccoli, and sweet potatoes, they ran out of mac and cheese so we did not get to try that. We also had an order of onion rings as an appetizer. Before we even ordered there was a group of people asking for a refund because the food they were served did not meet their standards, anyway, starting with the salads and appetizer, the salad was romaine lettuce with one cherry tomato and one cucumber slice each cut in half and a fork full of bean sprouts, borrrring, oh and it took 45 mins to get the salad and another 10 for the onion rings. because the kitchen literally cooks one dish at a time. The onion rings were fresh and lightly breaded as advertised, I really like onion rings in general so that is why I gave the food a 1. After waiting for almost an hour for the entrees the food arrived hot, but bland, the corn on the cob and the collard greens smelled like they were cooked in the same water and smelled like it was the same water everything else was cooked in for the entire day, I would describe it as water that you cook broccoli in and let sit for a few hours, less than pleasant. Throughout the meal because I sat next to the counter where the water was I repeatedly refilled my own water which is whatever, no big deal but my seat gave me the vantage point to see directly into their kitchen where after my meal I looked through the service window and saw the cook chowing down on something, right where the food passes through to the dining room, that is a big NO NO in terms of a sanitation violation. I passed on dessert after seeing that. The bathroom was clean, the ceiling needed some tile work, but the scene just looked dated, no effort into the decor. As for the service, too much to go in about on the service but I'll hit the highlights for you, neither server looked like they wanted to be there, I got my own refills and extra napkins, food took way to long to be prepared, and I generally didn't feel welcomed. I will sum my experience up by saying this, I have eaten at the Sunflower Cafe, the food, atmosphere, and service is much more inviting and enjoyable. I will not recommend nor will I return to this...

This place is hit or miss. You never know what you're gonna get when it comes to the service. Most times, the service is bad, especially if you get a female server. It's a shame that a place with such good food has such iffy service.

Food was tasty, service was bland. The server was not attentive at all. This was my first time here, so when I went in, I didn't know if I should wait to be seated or seat myself. The server didn't say hello or anything. I finally just sat myself. Even after that, it took her a while to even give me a menu. It took a long time for me to get my water too. Then, when she brought my food, my side salad had no salad dressing. She said she was going to get the dressing. I was finished with my entrée before she brought me that dressing, and that was only because I had to flag her down for it. So yeah, wasn't at all crazy about the service. But, that BBQ battered cauliflower was good! I also enjoyed the collards. I would give them one more try in hopes that I would get a different server.

UPDATE: The service is horrible! They are too inconsistent. I was driving over there, and figured I'd call my order in to save some wait time. How 'bout, they put me on hold for over 14 MINUTES! I made it all the way to the restaurant and they STILL had me on hold. After the long hold, I had no intention of ordering, I just wanted to get there and show the manager how long I'd been on hold. I was told no manager was there, and when I told the server I'd been on hold, he said, "Ok.", as if to say, "What do you want me to do about it?" Then he said he'd been busy taking orders. I told him that's what I was trying to do, then I asked why within 14 minutes, someone couldn't just say "Be right with you." I hate this place! The waits are too long. The food is good, but I'm not gonna put up with bad, nonchalant service. Get some...