Toast on Lenox — Restaurant in Atlanta

If you are interested in getting "lectured" about "rules", you can go to this place. I made a reservation for a group of friends meeting after a long time, but the manager's arrogance and incompetence just ruined the whole mood for us. Manager Ms. Kristina/Christina loves bossing customers around going on her own little power trip. We arrived to the location on time, only to learn that the sole parking option is a valet parking down the street. After we go there and wait for the sloth-speed valet for our parking, we arrive at the restaurant 15 minutes late. But half of the party was at the restaurant on time - just that the manager won't give them the table until the entire party has arrived. Apparently, this rule didn't apply to all customers because I saw a person entering in front of me when the rest of their party was seated. So I ask the manager where this rule is mentioned, and she points to the menu first page, which obviously I wouldn't have dreamt of reading beforehand. It is not mentioned anywhere in the reservation confirmation email. The valet is not owned by the restaurant. So point to note, your reservation is only held until 10 minutes (contrast this with the industry wide standard of 15 minutes).

After half an hour of wait now, we head to our table. But Ms. Manager decides to give me a whole lecture. She calls me hangry, tells me about how I should "behave" because I was angry and this is a family friendly restaurant. Some people, when given the slightest of power and authority, just let that get to their heads. I spent almost $250 as a customer to get some service. I am not sitting here to be lectured by the manager after an issue has already been done with.

Anyway, coming to service and food. Food is fine. Service is slow. Took them an hour to get our food. Servers are sweet but lost or overworked. They serve us water in dirty cheap plastic glasses. We asked for a heat lamp since it was cold, never got one. Another party sitting beside us asked for a heat lamp, never got one either.

If you don't want to spoil your weekend, just avoid this place. There's tons of nicer options around for brunch. Me or my friends (or their friends) are definitely not...

Food was good and consistent as I've been to the Lenox location. Both locations are a bit chilly to me. Service is inconsistent. Lenox customer service from my experience was better. The staff was more attentive. I set a reservation for 2 at midtown, was seated at the smallest table there, so I asked to be seated in a booth as there were 4 open. The lady at the front said she'll go check if I can move but they're typically saved for reservations ( I had a reservation, although it was only for 2). I knew I was going to order a large amount of food as I like to try multiple things. For 2 people I ordered shrimp + grits, catfish + grits, alacarte lobster cake, 1/2 order of fruity pebble French toast, 1/2 order of strawberry shortcake French toast, a waffle, order of chicken sausage and a side of extra grits because it's never enough in the shrimp and grits but always enough with the fish and grits. So the lady that said she'd check never followed up to at least say that she couldn't accomodate the change of seats, she walked by us multiple times then proceeded to do something with silverware. I proceed to ask the waiter could he followup about the switch because he obviously just took my order for what was enough for 4 people and had to have known it wasn't going to all fit on the smallest table in the restaurant. My friend I was with suggested I wait to see how they'd rectify the issue once all the food start coming out. We were then repeated to a 3 seater table by the window which was decent space wise but I know the plates are huge and I don't work there, so again I had to combine things due to space. Meanwhile, I'm still watching 4 booths remain empty (by the time I left, there were still 2 empty). What truly annoyed me was that a party of 2 came in and were seated at a booth when the smallest table in the restaurant that I was initially seated at remained empty. As for the atmosphere it was cold and I literally swatted gnats and a few flies the WHOLE TIME. I conversed with the table beside us over gnats as we both were swatting the whole time. I've never been to this location aside from today but I'll definitely...

I am one of the most layed back, reserved individuals but today was nothing short of terrible. I have patronized both locations for years and enjoy the food. I walk into the establishment feeling blessed and placed my name on the list to be seated. The host tells me it will be 45min and I reply 'cool'! 45min into the wait I see a party of 4 being seated( i have a party of five) and I say to myself , ' we are going to be next.' I patiently wait and minutes later I see more parties being seated. I walk back up to the hostess and ask when will our table will be ready. The hostess replies to me that Toast takes online reservations over walkins and that she has no more tables. I ask her why wasnt i made aware of this 1 hour ago when i walked in.Her rebuttal to me was ' she don't have any tables and there's nothing she could do'. She told me that I would have to wait an additional 20min for a table. I'm a little frustrated but I'm trying to be understandable..I like supporting black business. So I tell my party the news and we wait. 5min later the manager comes out and announces to everyone that we have to wait outside in the cold/or in the car until a table is ready if our names are not on the wait list. I say to myself ,'ok we are on the list',and we have been waiting patiently for over an houre. The manager approaches me and asked for my name. I tell her and she replies' you are on the list but was a walk-in , so you will have to wait outside '. I reply to her that we walked in over an hour ago and was not aware that online reservations took priority over walk-ins( As I explained to the hostess about 10min ago). Now at this moment I am a little bit frustrated. The proper way to correct such a mistake would have been to take accountability, apologize and offer some sort of accommodations. I understand that this is a 'black establishment ' and I really like supporting but this was just ridiculous. If I were in a ' white establishment ' I would have thought I was being discriminated against. My goal of this review is to shine light on a mistake that could have been addressed properly and I probably wouldn't be...