Party of 5 — Restaurant in College Park

Let me say this first and foremost… our server was great (Asia) and tried her hardest to help the situation.

It was my birthday yesterday which was stipulated on the reservation and I had heard great reviews and wanted to get that snapper and grits that everyone was raving about. I made reservation for 5pm. We arrived at sat down at 5:02 and started ordering. They didn’t have the snapper so I ordered Surf & Turf… So after about 25 minutes the server says they steak is going to take another 15-20min to thaw and another 10-15 to cook 😫. So she asked if I would like to substitute the steak for maybe the catfish filet. I said sure as long as it came with the Cajun lump crabmeat topping that the steak would’ve had. She says ok. She runs it by the manager who tells her NO give her the catfish and grits but without the lump crabmeat topping (which I would’ve paid for). So as she’s talking to me the manager (using hand signals etc) tells her that I can get the steak because it’s thawed. I should’ve known that if it was thawed that quick they threw my steak in the microwave to defrost (your chef knows better than this and should’ve just 86’d it like the snapper) Ok being patient and accommodating about this situation we wait for our food… NOT ONE TIME DURING THIS WHOLE ORDEAL DOES THE MANAGER COME TO OUR TABLE to apologize for the inconvenience, offer a drink, discount, happy birthday or even another sparkling Saratoga which had gotten flat by now just sitting there… even though the table she was serving was next to ours she never came to our table through this whole ordeal. That’s not the end… my food finally came out! I not only got a steak that had shriveled up, buckled up and hard to cut but instead of the lump crabmeat topping they gave me 3 of the hardest shrimp I had ever seen! PLEASE GET THE MANAGER because now it’s over an hour (there was hardly any customers in there, maybe 6 on our side) and I’m a little disappointed and upset let alone a HUNGRY!! The manager come to the table and after hearing my ordeal (which she knew of because I watched her the entire time we were there) she tried to place the blame on me by saying well since you don’t want what we sent out what do I want her to do! WHAT! I asked her if she would eat it and she never responded, I tapped the hard shrimp and showed her this turnt up steak… she just looked … once again she never offered anything until I just finally said I didn’t want anything at this point because I had been so nice and patient the ENTIRE time. An hr and a half at this establishment just to end up at Longhorn (at least I got a birthday dessert 🤣) Note to manager: I’m highly disappointed because I watched you give excellent customer service to the ladies next to us only to have you be very condescending and dismissive masked behind an upbeat nice/nasty demeanor. I am not only an executive chef and culinarian but have worked in TONS of food establishments and never felt as disappointed in an AA establishment as I was on my...

GREEN ALERT! Julie McGouirk and my new friend Marty Vaden Bohn and I just finished having brunch at Party of 5 in Historic College Park. I am not a brunch person. I love the food. Hate the crowds and the effort...but...I blame Julie because she picked the place and I blame Julie because she invited Marty and I blame me for saying yes. All of this to say I have just gone WAY out of my comfort zone...and the moral of the story is... Let's Do It Again! Y'all. I mean Y'ALL...be prepared for possibly one of the best brunch experience in Metro Atlanta and let me tell you why. Every meal you see pictured here was technically perfect. That's high praise for any establishment but these folks just opened. Jalisa, our server/ambassador for the experience was beyond solicitous and enthusiastic about what she had to offer us and rightly so. I ordered the salmon over potatoes. I am salmon obsessed and was frankly skeptical. I needn't have been. Both the salmon and the potatoes and the scrambled eggs were beyond my hopes...and I finished the plate...a rarity for me even with my stress related weight gain. More on that later. Marty ordered the carrot cake waffles (oh dear lord delicious) and the shrimp and grits (among the best I've ever tasted). And Julie ordered the chicken and waffles. Let me tell you something. I am a fried chicken snob...(I love it that much) and this was THE best fried chicken I've had in Atlanta in memory. Sweet and salty skin and juicy inside. The ONE thing I warn the owners of this incredible establishment is this: Do your level best to negotiate with your landlord for additional space. It's all in the numbers and table turns and if our meals are any indication, you are going to have to set up tents in the parking lots for additional seating and have a traffic cop on Virginia to handle the crowds. College Park is bringing it with great food, but this place deserves NATIONAL recognition. Portions are wonderfully right and the service is better than any other cafe in our town. Yes. I said it. While louder than we like, we could still hear ourselves think unlike at least three of the places I've visited on Main Street and we could actually talk to each other without shouting. I am still not a brunch person, but for Party of 5 I will make...

I wanted to love this place, but truthfully, they lack basic operational skills. I stopped coming after a great first impression because they failed in consistency. Five months later, I decided to give them another try and placed an online order on a Friday, only to arrive and be told that they don’t offer the item on weekends. They let me sit for ten minutes before informing me of this. I don’t appreciate having my time wasted, as I drove there expecting to get the item. If they couldn’t fulfill my order, they could have called me. I also had to go through a lot of trouble to get a refund because they couldn’t process it with the technology they have. The ironic thing is, they had the salmon, as they tried to upsell the same salmon on a bed of mashed potatoes. If they had the salmon, smart business sense would have been to make the salmon sandwiches instead of letting money walk out the door. But instead of trying to make up for their error, they just let me walk away. Do yourself a favor and try it if you can, but do not allow yourself to be too impressed as they are inconsistent and too incompetent to employ sound business practices.

(Update: Management stated that they don’t serve sandwiches on the weekend. FRIDAY is not the weekend. Secondly, in their response, they mentioned that I should have asked for a manager. It was the manager who I dealt with. It was the manager who initially welcomed me to sit down and wait, only to tell me 10 minutes later that they don’t serve sandwiches on the weekend. This is exactly the basis of my review: they seriously lack business and operational skills. Most of all, they only make excuses and never accept accountability. They subscribe to the Uber app, so they need to maintain their offerings there and on any platform to which they voluntarily subscribe. If you don’t offer something you’ve listed on the platform, disable the option and stop making excuses. That’s no way to run a business; it’s how you operate when you’re selling trays out of...