Virgil's Gullah Kitchen & Bar Conyers — Restaurant in Conyers

I came here with a friend for dinner roughly a week ago, and it was interesting.

As a foodie with a diverse palate, I was intrigued by the menu and pictures. We were briefed on the rules of the place, which I thought was odd, but not too unsettling. There's a reasonable two hour limit and an automatic 20% gratuity is added to all bills if the table totals at least $100. I'm a gracious tipper so I understood this to some extent.

I then learned that they don't have free water, which is something I've never encountered in a restaurant before- and I've been to a lot of restaurants, ranging from small holes in the wall to very expensive ones.

We ordered the "bussin' cornmuffins," "gullah egg rolls," "deviled crab eggs," "slammin' salmon," and a side of mac and cheese.

The "bussin' muffins" had a tasty sweet and buttery sauce on them and were good. They were a smidge dry, but that happens if corn batter doesn't sit long enough to fully absorb water before baking.

I was really excited for the egg rolls but found them to be bland. The skin was perfectly flaky and the internal texture was ok, but it had too much rice and cabbage filler. The sauce was syrupy sweet and overpowering for my taste. There were about 2 little shrimp per egg roll. I highly suggest mincing the shrimp, adding that delicious corn (further down), and serving a completely different dairy based herb dipping sauce. Or at the very least, season the everloving crap out of the filler bits. The "deviled crab eggs" were also bland and needed more seasoning.

My "slammin' salmon dish was ok. It was cooked perfectly, but it needed more sauce, and the sauce needed more twang. Maybe add a small cup for more sauce since the plates don't have lips on the edges to prevent spills, and melt some parmesan cheese or full fat yogurt into the sauce for the twang? It was served with jasmine rice and some fried corn. I wouldn't shut up about that corn. It was tasty, it was sweet, it was well seasoned. I'd probably fight somebody for that corn. My corn-connoisseur husband thought it was too sweet when I brought him the leftovers and I strongly considered attacking him for the remaining kernels.

My friend's mac and cheese was ok. Like most of the food that evening, it seemed to be missing something.

I like to order a bunch of items from new places to get a feel for things, so I can only speak on this particular location. I will absolutely avoid a restaurant if they don't have the bare minimum: a cup of free tap water. The only reason my licensed plumber husband and I could think of as to why they don't serve tap water is if the tap water they do have isn't potable... but they still cook the food with it, and they serve alcohol. I wouldn't return here. That and every dish I ordered was bland. If I had to come back, it'd be...

This quality of food of this place has plummeted completely. Mac and cheese was mushy Wings were cold Salad had old tomatoes While we were there there was a group of cackling hens that were so loud and disruptive. We were with our 7 year old son. These hens were yelling cussing and drunk at 3pm on a Monday?! My 7 year old son yelled to them “can you be quiet” they were screaming so loud they couldn’t hear him. We asked our server Destiny if they could ask them to quiet down. She said they were there since they opened and she could “ask the manager”. The volume of cussing and screaming and cackling was so intense that it made it impossible for other guests to enjoy themselves. The manager should be ashamed. He stood there and said nothing. I asked Destiny to have him come over and he stood over at the register and just had us wait pretending to be busy until we left. No one with children or that want a quality experience will enjoy this place. I originally gave them 5 stars, I’ll never come back again.

This place was soooo amazing! Ridge helped me out during my visit, and he was superb! Calm, and helpful. Nice smile. Very warm. So the food: I started with the happy hour wings. They were sooooo good and hot and fresh. Second, I had the tomatoes. Omg. These were Devine. Hot fresh and flavorful. The corn on top made it special. I smashed these. Next up was the pork chop basket. Pork chop was cool. It wasn’t as good as the wings, but they were fresh. Fries are too big. They should choose a different fry to serve with the basket. Maybe a skinny or home cut fry. Fried corn was next. Kinda sweet. They added too much sugar. But still, southern style, decent. I had the red rice. It was old. Let me be honest. It was about 2 days old. Let’s be real. The sausage that was in the rice had turned bad. I told Ridge, and he acknowledged it, but still had me pay for something that was bad quality. No big deal money wise, but integrity wise, that was questionable. Then, I had the fried okra. It needed to be cut with a knife or just deep throated whole. It was meh. The manager when I can was kinda micromanagy. Lady manager. Friday night. She was really nice to me, but Patrons don’t like to hear you correct your staff about every little thing. Also, there was this thing with a customer about water. They don’t offer tap water. Only sparkling or still. I get it. Especially with the bio lab fire that just happened. Could contaminate the water. But the customer next to me was insistent on a glass of tap water. The lady manager was kinda loud and slightly rude about it while Ridge just tried ignoring the customer and the water request all together. She never got water btw. She wasn’t paying, and they wasn’t budging. I’ll be back, man. This place has amazing food and...

To start off, we were visiting from Indiana and had asked wait staff at the real milk and honey a spot they’d recommend as our last dinner in Atlanta area. Our waitress there and another young lady recommended this spot. We drove the 30 ish minutes from where we were staying to give it a try and it did NOT disappoint.

For starters, we did the krab deviled eggs for an appetizer. Sadly, I did not get a photo of them because we ate them that fast, lol.

For entrees, I did the Afta church plate. I wanted to try the macaroni and the greens. There’s only one persons greens I eat and that’s my dear bestfriend back home, but these greens? I’d almost take the flight back down here to have them again. They were done SO well and seasoned so dang right!! Chefs kiss. The macaroni was done just right too and not dry. It also tasted authentic versus some places using the pre packaged stuff. Now onto my chicken, I devoured the chicken. It was cooked right and the jam sauce was so good. It wasn’t over breaded or over fried. Right amount of breading with seasonings and fried to perfection. My fiance did the smotha’d pork chops. She was gonna do a basket (semi picky eater), but I told her to just give it a try. She was skeptical on the gravy that they used, but once her plate came out… she devoured it. Said that it was probably the best pork chops she has ever had. They weren’t tough and they definitely didn’t skimp on the gravy. She also had the fried corn and kept raving about it. She even kept trying to get me to try it but sadly, I didn’t try it. We did have an order of the cornbread muffins which were so good. Usually cornbread is not moist at places, but they hit the nail on the head with theirs. Wasn’t dry and was packed with the perfect sweet ratio.

Now you’re probably wondering where the heck we packed dessert at.. we’re still trying to figure out the same. T (our waitress; I’m not sure how she spells it so I’m sorry girl) recommended that we try the bread pudding with ice cream. She did a fantastic job at describing it and we went through with ordering it. It came out and it was probably the best way to end our meal there. It was a nice warm breading with the perfect cinnamon and nutmeg ratio. The ice cream also paired really well with it too!

Lastly, T did a wonderful job with making us feel welcome and even chatting with us. She has a very bubbly personality and we loved it!

Also, Shoutout to who I am assuming is one of the management staff members, she was very sweet and spoke with us briefly. She gave us free appetizer cards to come back and see them. It’s the small things that count and we definitely will visit when back...