Hamilton's On Magnolia — Restaurant in Auburn

My lady was really excited to bring me to this restaurant while we were visiting Auburn and unfortunately this was one of the worst dining experiences we’ve had to date. It started off pretty well while we waited for our table, enjoying the live singer that was performing. He was great. We took two seats at the bar, while we continued to wait and saw the bartender make two drinks that looked delicious for someone else. We immediately decided to try them. Before we could order, another customer paid their bill in cash. The bartender handled the cash money with her bare hands, gave the customer his change and proceeded to continue making drinks - with her same bare, unwashed hands that just handled filthy money. To remain in good spirits, we decided to still order the drinks but forego the fresh fruit garnish that she would’ve needed to touch with her bare hands. Fast forward to us being seated at our table. The floor of our booth was covered with food particles from the previous party. The AC vent above our table began to leak and dripped condensation in my appetizer. When we brought it to our server’s attention, he asked if we’d like him to remove the food - as if MAYBE we still wanted to eat it. He did nothing about the vent. We decided we’d make sure our other food wasn’t near the path of the vent water, as it was after 9PM and not too many other food options were available. We finally received our entrees, which at 1st glance looked delicious. However, the shrimp were salted badly enough to give you high blood pressure and my chicken wasn’t fully cooked. A manager didn’t even visit our table or extend any courtesies. Oh! I can’t forget the rice that came with the blackened grouper and shrimp was from a box and the lobster bisque was clearly from a can. I never write bad reviews, but this restaurant needs to be held accountable for attempting to pass their filthy standards and terrible food off as fine dining. Needless to say, we were highly disappointed and will not return during our next...

Umm... My husband took me here to go out for a date night so I started off with a lot of anticipation and enthusiasm. I was in a good mood, dressed up and looking forward to a nice dinner in comfortable relaxing setting. When we got there there were some younger students and some other people smoking outside so as we walked around the corner to try to go through the front door i got hit with a big cloud of smoke and I hate cigarette smoke and smelling like it all night after just trying to walk in the restaurant. Then inside it was crowded and there was about a 15 minute wait. So I kept thinking its Ok, this will be a really nice dinner. But lets just say the decor where we waited and welcome after checking in were not near as warm as it could have been and then they finally seated us very near the open kitchen. I could see the cooks and even listen to their conversations, and it was just not one of those shiny professional kitchens, that can be enjoyable. But still I kept my chin up like a good sport. Next we start with looking at the menu and I kept reading and re reading trying to find something I would actually want to eat. The menu which I probably should have checked online was totally lackluster for a supposed fine dining restaurant. And then we looked at the wine list and I thought to myself ? What on this menu could possibly compliment an almost $300 Opus One or Dom Perignon Champagne? Certainly not fried green tomatoes or spinach artichoke dip. Blackened Chicken Fettuccine? Anyway I did not complain to my husband but I am warning you the food and choice was a disappointment to say the least. Its a puzzle to me how it remains so popular ? Nice try on my Husbands part but I am being gracious...

I am only giving this review based on the system to get a table at Hamiltons. I was concerned when i looked to book a reservation for Saturday night while in town and realized they don't take reservations-that was a red flag. But the group wanted to show up Sat night and see if we could get a table. When we arrived around 7 you could barely get inside due to all of the people standing around in the small bar area. We were told that you have to stay inside because they only call your name out loud!! We asked can you not text us - there is no room here to stand and wait. No we don't do that. After standing near the back of the bar area and having to constantly move because of staff trying to go and come from the bar -we realized the young girls running the table list were calling out names so softly you couldn't hear them. When we questioned them about how are we supposed to hear our names being called they had no response. We did finally get a table after about 45 minutes. But then you are surrounded by the people waiting on a table- not a relaxing enjoyable meal at all. What i do not understand in this day and age of technology is a restaurant owner treating its customers this way !! Are they watching by remote cameras and enjoying the show ?!! Why not incorporate a texting policy or give out restaurant beepers ? First and last time for us. The waitress even apologized to us. She had come over from the other Hamilton location. She said how difficult it is for the servers to navigate the waiting crowd to serve...