J. Christopher's — Restaurant in Georgia

We used to love this place when we lived at Hamilton Mill but have since moved to another county. One morning we decided to return to our old brunch spot.

Service was absolutely non-existent. Our waitress literally took our order .... that was it .... EVER.

And even worse she was not very capable at taking our order. My wife ordered a Belgium waffle and an order of bacon. The waitress replied "Can you find that on the menu for me?". Um ... ok.

When the waffle arrived it had the bacon crumbled on top of it. We waited and waited to see if the waitress would come by so we could ask for that side of bacon and a waffle without the bacon crumbled on top but we never saw her again. Eventually my wife just ate that waffle partially.

And of course nobody brought syrup. And having never seen an employee during our wait to fix the waffle issue, I eventually went to the girl at the hostess counter (did not catch her name, young girl with blonde hair and glasses) who was extremely friendly and got us some syrup immediately.

Had to ask another passing employee to refill our drinks as they were empty for our entire meal. It was that hostess again.

During this entire ordeal I noticed that the waitress handling the other side of the area we were seated in was knocking it out of the park. She was hustling. Visiting every table constantly, taking care of their needs etc. My wife and I both commented "Wish we had her as our waitress".

I eventually flagged her down and told her we were having bad service but were extremely impressed by her service she was providing to her customers. I asked for her name specifically so I could mention her in this review.

"Alexia" is how I think it is spelled. She had long braids is about all I remember. But this young lady ... whoever manages this restaurant, keep her. She busts her tail out there.

So came here to give it 1 star but I am giving it a little extra star for Alexia and the hostess. You two young ladies were great. Our service otherwise...

Honestly, quite disappointed - and was close to walking out. We were sat promptly, as there were only 2 tables sat in the entire restaurant. Social hour with 5-6 servers was occurring at the bar area. As we were sat, we were told a server would be with us in just a minute. 10-15 minutes later, no one even acknowledged us. A server, closing out a tab for a table close to us, walked by twice and never looked at us or said a word. My husband finally walked to the front, witnessed social hour still occurring at the bar, and asked if someone was coming to take care of us. The server who sat us responded, “ Oh yeah, you are at table 25 right?” No sense of urgency that a guest - literally the only table in the place at the time as the other two tables of guests had left - had been waiting without any service for much longer than necessary. My husband and I come here quite frequently. Over the past month we have been here 3 times and the customer service is seriously lacking. I completely understand this industry has been hurting since the pandemic. My husband worked in the restaurant industry for 18-years and we have complete respect and understanding for the struggles it is facing being short staffed. If this place had been busy, majority of tables sat, servers running around - that would be one thing, but when you are the ONLY table and the majority of staff are sitting around conversing with each other, that is unacceptable. The server who did come to our table (Alanna) was very apologetic, took full responsibility, and took great care of us. The food was great. Where this establishment is in need of improvement is management. The past 3 times we have come in here there doesn’t seem to be a manager, in fact, there doesn’t really seem to be any leadership at all. This is incredibly disappointing because we love, rather used to love, coming here at least...

UPDATE: After a couple of emails I was on the phone with one of the owners of J. Christopher's. This exemplary gentleman apologized profusely for my bad experience, put a gift card in the mail, and--most importantly--explained that the tables are currently being refinished to keep up with the increased cleaning demands of COVID. It seems that the disinfectants being used, thanks to COVID, softened the factory-finish on the tables and unfortunately my table was one of the ones that had not been refinished yet. I WAS NOT SCRATCHING DIRT OFF, I was actually damaging the restaurant's table... but that's just the kind of year 2020 has become. I must also add that the rest of the restaurant was spotless. Nevertheless, Mr. Lennon said they used the occasion to reinforce proper cleaning and hygiene techniques with the staff. I'm changing my review to 5 stars because this incredible customer service, attention to detail, and respect for the customer is extremely hard to find nowadays. Well done!

My wife and I left before ordering because the table was so dirty I could scratch off the dirt with my fingernail. And that was after the hostess wiped it with a...