HOBNOB Neighborhood Tavern — Restaurant in Georgia

I came in one evening after browsing online at home and stumbling across a promotion online to become a Hobnob Rewards Member. There was an incentive in place that grants you a discount on your bill. I figured this may be the perfect place to go and enjoy Thursday night football.

I come in and sit at the bar, there are two patrons already present. A woman greets me fairly quickly and gives me a menu. I order an old fashioned and watch the game as I wait. Found out she wasn't the bartender and she passed my order along. Although the restaurant was really empty with about 6 tables total (which includes myself and the other 2 at the bar), it took about 10 mins to get my drink. And, when the bartender returned to the bar he greeted and checked on the guys already seated while ignoring me. Again, super quiet bar not sure of the logic here. Makes 0 sense on why he'd walk past me when it's apparent that I was the latest to arrive and was sitting there with a menu. I grab his attention by saying, "Excuse me, can I please order?" He said, "Yes"..and everything moved forward as it should.

I had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, which were okay. Definitely not the best in Atlanta. I ordered the mac and cheese with salmon as my entree and it was completely charred. Even as the bartender put the plate down he had a look that read ...wow that's burnt! But, tried to play it off and give it to me nonetheless. I continued to look at the food and quickly decided that I cannot allow myself to eat it. I got the bartender's attention and told him that both the fish and mac are burnt -- I can't eat it. He takes it away to get me a new one. When it returns they've cooked the fish to the expected standard, but kept the burnt mac and cheese. I'm annoyed, but at this point, extremely hungry. I start rationalizing the fact that I have the rewards discount that I will receive on the bill, I'll just use that to justify what I should've had comped due to the poor preparation of the meal.

When it was time to close out my check, I state that I'm a rewards member and wanted to use the discount. The manager on duty told me that I couldn't. It needed to be for my next visit. This was 100% baffling to me. I didn't sign up for rewards while sitting in the establishment. I did it hours prior from the comfort of my home, this IS my next visit. She pretty much said sorry, that's how it works. So then I felt it was time to recap the extremely poor service and overall experience had that night, in addition to the poor execution of the rewards system. She apologized and added a 10% discount which equates to $2 off of the salmon mac. I definitely felt that it should've comped. 85% of the meal was still on my plate when I closed out for the night.

It's a shame that it was such a bad experience for me. I was hoping that I could add it into my short list of restaurants I frequent often. I don't plan on returning. And, if anyone ever suggests that we go there, I'm going to summarize this visit and tell them that we need to...

Upon arrival we were seated immediately at a table. The atmosphere was nice with the decor. My friend and I began to look at the menu and wait for our server. We never received a server and I had to go to the host stand to let them know. The lady at the host stand, started serving us. After she took our order because we knew what we wanted after sitting for so long A server came up to let us know that she was our server. I saw all of the other tables in the restaurant getting amazing service so I am not sure what was wrong with my table. My espresso martini came out after a pretty long wait. It was very sweet and was not strong at all. The presentation definitely was not there. There was no foam at the top it look like someone just poured espresso liquor into the glass. Luckily after noticing, I was not a fan they discounted it in the tab. My friend and I’s food came out. The food was pretty un flavorful. I have to admit I wanted some comfort food so I did order chicken tenders and fries and there was nothing special about them. My friend ordered the wise guy burger, and she said that her bread was stale and the amount of sauce they put on the burger caused it to be soggy. At this point, we were so disappointed we did not really eat our food and even when we were asked if we needed to go boxes we said no and just left it. I also do not like the way they take payment and hold a tip screen right in front of you while they are standing there. I dropped my tip down to 15% because we had a service that was not worth that much of a tip. I’ve then realized they discounted my drink therefore the tip was including the subtotal of $30. So for chicken tenders that were $17 and the espresso martini I ended up tipping five dollars which I felt was very generous for the service that we were provided. My friend also said that she felt extremely pressured that the server is holding the tip screen in front of your face watching you. This experience was pretty...

Overall I give a two because I had the worst service experience today. I am by myself, so I just wanted to sit at the bar and grab lunch and maybe have a glass or two of wine. The person next to me was by herself and she had not been greeted when I sat down, I sat there for a good 5 to 7 minutes before another couple walked in and at that point, the bartender who had not acknowledged or looked at us the entire time walked over to the couple and said hello, and started chitchatting with them they were friends, no acknowledgment that was sitting there. The girl that was sitting next to me already got up and walked out because she had already been sitting there for so long that she was over it. I went to the host stand where nobody was standing there and waited for another minute or two and A server came and finally took me to a table. Her name was Tae, she was lovely and she went and got my glass of wine herself from the bar because the bartender let my tickets sit there for another 8 to 10 minutes now I’ve been in this restaurant for 20 minutes, and I have nothing in front of me except for the water that Tay has finally brought me. she was the only redeeming point of service that I had. The food is decent here and if you live in this area, you know that SMYRNA and Vinings are not known for having good restaurants so in the limited capacity that we have I come here because it’s consistently decent food. I probably will not come back because today was really really really obnoxiously horrible and nobody ever even came over and said I’m so sorry. We heard that you sat for so long. Can we buy you a glass of wine, can I get you a dessert, can we just assure that you might want to come back frequent our business. I worked in the restaurant industry for 20+ years and everything that happened in the service capacity today at the bar was unacceptable And reason for me to maybe just go to Bartaco when I come over to this area and get...