TEUTA — Restaurant in Birmingham

I’ll start the review by saying the food here is really good. I’ve tried a breakfast skillet and a salad and both were awesome. However, their service is horrendous.

I was there with a bigger party. And inbetween serving our party, food was going out to other tables. 10 minutes later all of our party was served. That’s actually unacceptable. All of the food for one party should go out at the same time. The next complaint was the waitress didn’t come to check on us at all during the entire lunch. She never filled our waters or asked if anything else was needed. Then when it was time for us to get the bill, she removed plates 2 at a time, and disappeared for at least 5 minutes between each set of plates. She went to take another tables order, went to the bar and chatted with a coworker for 10 minutes (yes I timed it), and then came back and we had to ask for the bill. It took about 30 minutes from when she took our first empty plates to finally finishing collecting plates then giving us the bill.

She also did not communicate that 20% gratuity was added to the bill. And the handheld payment method was suggesting another set of increased tipping without that being explained.

If you go here, just know that it’s going to be a long while before you can get checked out. And you probably are on your own for requesting if anything is needed including boxes, water and the check.

They are newer so I hope they can get this...

I gave the hostess my name & phone number to be added to the waitlist for a table for 2. The hostess said that the wait would be an hour or less, which is to be expected for this beautiful new brunch spot in Birmingham (side note: restaurant was half full; they clearly weren't properly staffed). We walked around downtown for 55 minutes, when I received a text that I had been removed from the waitlist...because they "ran out of food." I am giving Teuta 2 stars (rather than 1) because this is a new business and I can empathize with the hiccups associated with that. However, several decisions could have been made to avoid this situation. Poor planning on their part resulted in us waiting for an HOUR to be told we could no longer dine there. Why a business would open KNOWING they are understaffed and have an inadequate food supply is beyond me. I would have rather been turned away with honesty, that they were completely overwhelmed so that we could have gone somewhere else to eat, and visited Teuta at a later time. This was so...

My friends and I had one of the worst dining experiences I can remember at Teuta. The bill for our group of four came to $150. Instead of simply splitting it or letting us sort it out, the restaurant charged three of us $50 each, and then charged our friend $80. That’s $230 for a $150 bill. When I went back to raise the issue, the staff were completely uncooperative and dismissive, even telling me to “go ask your friend for the money.” That is not just bad service — it’s dishonest.

To make matters worse, the food was nothing special. Our friend ordered the salmon toast, which came out laughably small — a minuscule piece of bread with a few scraps of fish that wouldn’t fill a child. For the price we were paying, it felt insulting.

At this point, TEUTA might as well stand for: Trickery Embarrassing service Unfair charges Tiny portions Arrogance

Dining out should be about good food and fair treatment. Instead, we left feeling cheated and insulted. Save yourself the frustration — there are plenty of honest, better-run...