Lagarde American Eatery — Restaurant in Chamblee

I am a local to Chamblee and have been to Lagarde a handful of times, all of these experiences have been fine, however I had never interacted with the assistant manager, JOHN, before.

I went for drinks on Wednesday night and had a pleasant time until I had to use the bathroom. I went to the bathroom and although both rooms were occupied, I heard flush in the one on the left right away. So I waited, after a couple minutes passed I gave a light knock on the doors so that the people inside knew there was someone waiting. A few more minutes pass so I lightly knocked on the door I had heard the flush from again. Rather than say “just a second” or “occupied” the man inside angrily yelled “that’s uncalled for!”. I did not think gently knocking on the bathroom door would be “uncalled for”, so I sat back and hoped the bathroom on the right would become available first! Unfortunately, the left door opened first and an irrationally angry man came out and immediately started scolding me about how rude I was behaving. Thinking this was some unhinged customer I was just shaking my head, until I heard him telling me that he didn’t want to see me at any of his restaurants again. This stopped me in my tracks, because there is no way anyone would act that way in their place of work? So I asked, “sorry, do you work here?”, he confirmed that yes, he was the manager. So I clarified, “and you are yelling at me for knocking on the bathroom door?”. He said yes, and then he said twice in a row that I should pay my tab and get out as quickly as I could. He walked away and I was left stunned. I have NEVER been spoken to like this, especially in what should be a professional establishment. I proceeded to use the restroom and return to my table, where my date literally thought I ditched him due to this man taking so long in the restroom (to be clear the long way is not the problem, take as long as you need! But please do not yell at the person waiting in line when it’s been about 7 minutes with multiple flushes :) ). Our check was at the table when I returned, so I filled my date in on what happened, he graciously paid the tab and we left. As we were walking out, a few of the employees were very sweet and said they were sorry as they wished us a good night (they had seen me crying due to their manager yelling at me). I asked them for his name (JOHN) and whether he runs any other restaurants as he had implied because I certainly would not be visiting them. They said that he does not and they also clarified that although he told me he was the manager, he is really the assistant manager. I thanked them, apologized to THEM because they have to put up with him on a daily basis, and as I was walking out the door, JOHN comes around the corner and yells at me to not ever return. Trust me, I won’t!! Certainly not while JOHN is employed there.

This was a completely disrespectful, shocking and unprofessional experience. As a local who has been to this restaurant before for anything from just drinks to celebrating life events, this experience has immediately taken Lagarde off of my list of recommendations to friends, and I for one have no intention...

It’s a whole list of things I can say about this place. However let’s be professional and it’s story time. Very warm and inviting, does make you feel welcomed when you arrive. Staff very cool and down to earth. Went there for a family member’s birthday drinks to chill. We ordered the calamari, goat cheese, shrimp po boy with Cajun fries, my wife ordered a smash burger and fries. The rest of the table.. I’m not going to get into that, my shrimp..no seasoning neither the fries, completely bland, my wife burger…salty. Another guest at our table ordered a salad without tomatoes because she’s really allergic to it and they gave her salad that should be without tomatoes extra tomatoes on it so she completely switched up her order. Her meal came with fries and completely salty fries. I ordered a mocktail.. every establishment I’ve been to and ordered a mocktail, these be some delicious drinks.. these drinks tasted like Raspberry Kool Aid. I ordered another one because I miss drinking Kool Aid lol. Naw it was horrible, my shrimp po boy was horrible and the bread was hard. Like stale hard. The other guest ordered one too and same results that’s why I knew I wasn’t crazy. One guest ordered fried okra that was on the menu and they informed him they don’t have anymore. It seem like the kitchen didn’t want to fulfill the order idk. I just thought that was weird. I didn’t take any pictures of the food because when it’s horrible I don’t promote it. Staff friendly however too laid back. Especially everything that came out was a miss, either bland or over salty. I’m really fair about my food reviews and you can see from my previous reviews I’m very honest. I don’t respond to management when they reach out because being a patron at food establishments should be respected because we all work for our money and since we choose to celebrate here and food below top tier is horrible. Also my bill, with my wife came up to $170. Just us with 20% gratuity automatic. 🚮 I will not return or recommend. The restaurant looks nice inside though and at a...

So I really wanted to like this place because it started out really good with the hostess. I was seated promptly and observed the interaction with the server and a customer seated next to me. The server was great. She was very personable, explained the menu, gave menu suggestions, introduced herself, asked the guy what his name was, and even asked if the guy had been in before. So as I sat overlooking the menu I received from the hostess I was thinking oh this is going to be a great visit. Customer service is on point. Then my server came over. I had the exact opposite experience as the customer sitting next to me. No introduction, no going over the menu, no welcome in. All I received was "what are you having to drink." I was actually a bit shocked because I had just witnessed the interaction of service with the customer sitting next to me. I almost immediately asked for the same server that the guy next to me had but I thought let me give another chance maybe she is just a bit busy at the moment. Never got any better. Seemed as if she was irritated to wait on me and had better things to do. Food was ok. I ordered the crawfish empanadas and it had very little crawfish. Nothing like you would get in New Orleans. Had an overload amount of corn inside them. Red beans and rice were ok in flavor as well. Drinks were good. I am going to give this place another shot but definitely will ask for the server that had the great customer service. Didn't even get a thank you when my payment was brought back to me. If I'm taking time to visit an establishment and spend money please don't treat me as if I'm getting everything for free or as if you are bothered that I came in. This visit left me highly...