la Madeleine — Restaurant in Georgia

I had the WORST experience at this restaurant last night. I have been coming to this location regularly for at least 10 years- and have never had an experience like we did last night, hence the 2 stars instead of 1. I love the ambiance, I love the food, and the service is usually so sweet- the French themes are also fabulous to me... but after last night, this place felt like it had changed into a completely different restaurant. The food was great as usual, but the service was TERRIBLE and RUDE, which was such a change from our regular experiences. I was wondering why the restaurant looked so empty and has been struggling worse than others in the area through COVID- now that we’ve visited recently, I’m thinking “no wonder!”... They have a new set up where you order everything (including the a la carte options) at the front before you get your trays (so what’s the point of the trays and display of food if you already have to know what you want before you get to it???) That was no big deal- but when I got to the counter to order, I explained to the manager (im assuming, because they were wearing red while other employees were in blue) I was confused because I hadn’t been back in since they made this logistical change... they just stared at me like I was weird and didn’t explain anything to me... they didn’t even respond, so I went down the line to look at the food, came back, and told them what I wanted... THEN I saw the girl fixing my plate put tuna instead of Caesar salad, when I know I ordered Caesar. I said “if that plate is for me, it’s supposed to be Caesar, not Tuna.” Im assuming she didn’t hear me, which was not her fault- so when she gave me the plate of tuna, I told her it was wrong. There was no one to blame with the masks and everything, I understand it is easy to misunderstand and not hear people... BUT she got an attitude, rolled her eyes at me, and went back to the manager and said “she said she wanted Caesar, not tuna” the manager responded “ok well, she said tuna, but whatever.” (I hate tuna, I’ve never ordered it in my life, nor did I even know they offered it)... I was so shocked at their rudeness. They were the only 2 people in the front, and we were the only people ordering food, so I know they knew I could hear them. The rest of our time ordering, she would no longer look at me, or respond to me, even when I said sorry and thank you (3 times)... this was totally bizarre. It felt like I was being punished or something, when THEY were the ones that got my order wrong??? I really wanted to just leave at that point. We finally got to the checkout- and she didn’t ask if we wanted drinks... she just offered water cups and gave me the total (also super weird) I had to ask for the drinks and then get a new total. Then we got to the drink station with the silverware and there were no spoons... I had to ask them for spoons (which wouldn’t have been a big deal if they weren’t both already INTENTIONALLY IGNORING me) ... then we went to sit outside, but the lights weren’t on? There was another family out there, so I assumed it was still available, and we sat in the dark. The only bright spot was the food and the food runner. He was very kind and would have been a better front of house than either of the 2 that we saw, in my opinion. The whole experience left me upset and embarrassed. I work in the service industry and I have a lot of patience and sympathy for waitresses etc. I literally never complain- but I love the food and I love this restaurant- so I wrote this because something NEEDS to be done about this awful service, or they will indeed continue struggling for customers. I saw the “now hiring” signs too- but nobody is going to want to work with MEAN people. I will definitely come back to try again another day, but that will be after...

Four of us decided to try once again one of our favorite old haunts so we decided in La Madeline and it was a nightmare from start to finish !!!

The owner was training a young girl and she got mixed up with our order which was fine until the rude ignorant owner yelled at us 10 feet away across the counter and in front of other customers that “ theirs an up charge for soup and do you want a salad or chips … we said that’s fine we would like to share a Crouque Messuire and a cup potato and a bowl of cream of mushroom soup …she asked again if we wanted a salad, we said no! I said no salad…. They repeated there is an up charge for the soup, for the third time we said that’s ok. I want a cup and my husband wants a bowl !

She came over to our table very rudely and said “ you confused our girl that we were training and messed up the order 🤬🤬🤬 my husband interrupted her and said we did not mess up the order!

She loudly corrected the poor young girl in front of us and then came to us and repeated the order and it was wrong, so we had to start over which we did and they still didn’t get it right and blamed us !!

We went to our table, furious because of being humiliated like that in front of our friends !

This person had no decorum with people… and certainly doesn’t know that in the hospitality industry, the customer is always right”, and you just apologize !! Instead, we got two full entrées we wanted to share one lg. I got my cup of soup, my husband never got his soup until we quested it …we never got an apologie … instead she came back a 2nd time to the table with A CUP OF SOUP not a BOWL as requested !!!

With our two guests sitting there, She proceeded to explain to me /us, that you had the order so mixed up that the poor girl that I was training didn’t understand what you wanted !

She also stood over her at the cashier while she rang us up and she said “ that’s not the right button”, very ignorant very mean.

She was so rude to the poor girl. I never saw her after that. If I were her, I would’ve walked out !

I showed her the bill and she took the menu out and started showing me how I was mistaken in front of our friends !!! 🤬 I said we were charged for it, and never got his bowl of soup then she proceeded to say that it was an up charge of 2.19 for his bowl and 3.99 for my cup mind you , we both had identical entrées, but mine was cup of Potato soup and his was a bowl of Cream of mushroom ???? We just thought …we’ll never be back here ever again and we’re tired of fighting with them.

I was furious and I wasn’t gonna let her get away with it because it was only $1.91, but it was the principal !!

She was ignorant She’s lucky that I didn’t confront her right there and I would have, if I hadn’t had two friends sitting there, my husband said he would have too !! If this place lasts another weekend, it will be a miracle!

She was rude and insulting and she was the manager ? We will never go back there and we’ll make sure none of our friends ever go back there !!

The sandwich was not even toasted like a regular Crouque is. We were furious and insulted and la Madeleine is not what it used to be and prices are ridiculous. We could only eat the inside soft part of the bread because the crusts were so hard you couldn’t even cut it ! There wasn’t one nice thing about the whole experience!

By the way, there was one couple in there at 5:30 when we ordered when we finished at 6:30 there was no one in there when we left at seven, it still empty. If she’s running it for someone, they better open their eyes ! She’s running it into...

If you have or are considering ordering food from this establishment via #doordash there are a few things you should know. First of all they treat DD drivers with callous disregard that borders on disdain despite all we do for them and yet they still think that we are somehow also at their disposal as auxiliary employees. Yesterday I went to the East Cobb location around 6:30 to pickup an order with 3 items. Despite being the only person at the register and at least 4 employees were present behind the counter I was not even acknowledged by staff for several minutes when an employee finally stepped up to the register, but only to Z it out apparently. Thinking at 1st he was unable to use his hands and his mouth at the same time he did finally address me as he pulled the drawer out to let me know that someone one would be with me shortly. No reason was given to explain why he could not have asked me about my order and in turn relayed that to the other employees stacked up behind him. I've now been waiting 5 minutes and no one has even asked me for the name on my order and it went downhill from there. As I waited, I identified what appeared to be a partially assembled portion of my order which consisted of a quiche, empty coffee cup and a pastry(missing). Having been through this before I immediately realized that the pastry was not with the quiche probably because that pastry was not available. As register boy finished up and walked off machiato man finally picked up the coffee cup and began the 5min+ process of making the machiato and midway through I watched him look over into the pastry case several times with a big dumb look on his face but still no words were forthcoming. Maybe he thought the pastry was going to magically appear but still no one is bothering to inform me that they are unable to complete the order despite the fact that at least 2 employees(and me) are now aware of the problem. Only after Machiato man finishes and yet a 4th employee(emp#1 was whoever 1st assembled this order) starts bagging the item does it occur to anyone to let me know about this. In most establishments that is not an issue but these morons actually expect your DD driver to THEN (after being ignored for 15 minutes, to assume responsibility for not only contacting the customer to see if there is something else they would like but yet a 5th employee now insisted it was also my responsibility to ask the customer about their allergies before allowing them to select an alternative item, using MY time, MY phone and MY patience. Now if these morons had the foresight and wherewithal to communicate this to me AS I ARRIVED it would be annoying but I would be much more inclined to work with them as opposed to them leaving me standing around with my thumb in my aXX for nearly 15 minutes before anyone takes a minute to let me know about issues with the order. In this case I was getting only $1/mile for a 10 mile ride to an apartment complex and wasn't really wanting the delivery anyway but you can be damn sure I did walk right out of that store and unnassigned the order. If you want SERVICE at this establishment I strongly recommend you place your order directly with the bakery because they couldn't give a sh*t otherwise. I assume this is because they do not get tipped on DD orders but maybe they are just a bunch of ignorant frogs which is particularly embarrassing for me as a person who...