Kau — Restaurant in Greensboro

08/16/24

We are sad to see the new changes at KAU, and even more sad to have lost one of our favorite places to eat

To start, we arrived at 5:50 and saw the new "seat yourself"sign and went to go look for a seat. They have also downsized their seating, so we waited about 10 minutes before a nice couple waived us over and gave us their table, we sat down at 6:00

We waited until 6:15 until a server came and started to clean off our table, spraying us with their cleaner in the process and walked away.

The same server came back at 6:20 and asked if we wanted waters and what she could get us started with and we put our order for the appetizer in.

6:30 comes around and we are finally able to place our order for our entrees.

6:40 and our food arrives, we still have not received the appetizer and ask the man who brought us our food if they forgot about the appetizer.

He goes to check on our appetizer and I start to take a bite out of my food, the food is bland and dry. The guy comes back out with the appetizer and we ask if we can just have it to go at this point because the food came out before the app.

6:45 another server asks us if we are doing alright and we respond with "eh, not really" we did not ask for a manager but that prompted the other server to go get a manager.

6:49 We speak with a manager who does not give us his name and asked us what was wrong with my food, and I told him it was bland and dry, he apologized and said "it usually comes out pretty standard, good, not sure what went wrong with yours" and offered to replace it. I declined since my experience has already been negative tonight.

I asked manager (I called and got his name) Doug why they decided to go with a first come first serve concept. He replied "well a number of reasons but staffing and the numbers didn't make sense" I told him it was an odd for a sit down restaurant because it seems like everyone is fumbling around trying to find a seat, us getting our seat because a nice couple were finished with their meal, our server indirectly spraying us with their cleaner, and the quality of the food not being the best.

Doug then was argumentative about our feedback and stated "you should let your server clean the table before you sit down so then you don't get sprayed." I informed him that the first come first serve concept was confusing since we had been here before and it was not like this, and that we had people walk in front of us to grab a table, so we didn't want to lose out on another table we sat at the first one offered to us and did not know what we needed to do to get our servers attention.

Doug was very dismissive of our feedback and said "we will see you next time." In a patronizing tone

To close out the night around 7, we paid for our bill and noticed that the suggested tipping prices were off, they have it ordered from highest to lowest starting at 25% and going down to 18%, which is reverse from what usual POS systems usually do. Additionally, it stated the suggested tip was based of a bill of $49, instead of my actual bill of $39. This is a predatory practice, greedy, and very scummy.

Doug was inconsiderate, treated us like an inconvenience, and shows he does not take constructive criticism well.

We cannot recommend KAU in the current state and will be informing our social groups that it should be avoided until they make some changes.

Doing a little more digging into the most recent reviews, and from reading some other reviews, it looks like the owner will respond only to positive feedback, and when they do respond to negative feedback it is absurdly retaliatory.

It also looks like these changes were made due to laying off their staff, which is sad that the owner is now sacrificing their quality to fulfill their short term lust for greed.

I really do hope either management at KAU see the issues and are taking steps to fix them, or I hope the patrons start to notice the decrease in quality and stop attending, so management is forced to make...

My reviews for this location are never consistent. The first time I came it easily could have been a 5- star experience however since that first visit it has progressively gone down hill. The review today is in regards to my visit on 08/12. I was extremely excited because we had not been in a while. We gave the restaurant an unpublished 1 star review about 4 months ago and figured it was a bad night for them so we gave what was once one of our favorite places a break. Upon our visit we had about and hour and a half wait which was fine because we did not have reservations. We were thrilled when the wait ended up being about 35 minutes. Upon being seated we preserved drinks, appetizers and our meals all at once. We enjoyed our beverages and appetizers after an hour we were still patiently waiting for our food. The server came over to state the food was backed up. That announcement should have been made prior to us patiently waiting an hour. Again we waited patiently. The couple beside us (white race) were outraged and requested a manager. The manager came over to their table and enthusiastically let them know their meal would be comped. The manager asked them if they wanted anything to drink and again enthusiastically let them know it was being comped and asked them if they were sure that they wanted nothing else. While the manager was conversing with the couple our food came out. I marinated on what I over heard for A few minutes but was disappointed because we too had waited an hour for food. The manager came over again so i pulled her to the side to address what I heard. She said that I needed to let my server know and I advised obviously he was aware. She came back to us and stated that there was a 20 minute gap in between our order times and the table beside us. That made no sense to me because I received a call after I was well into enjoying my bacon and soul rolls. I spoke with the discrepancy to our waiter and he reported that all the food cannot be put in at once (the couple beside us did not order an appetizer), so our food order was not put in until the appetizer was received. I again spoke to the manager and she advised she could give us a “little discount”. We got the bill and the 2 appetizers had been comped. We didn’t complain about the long wait and were still shafted in comparison to the white couple beside us. We did not go out anticipating a hand out however I am big on being fairly treated and that is not what occurred. We shall not return. The rating was made up solely off of the customer service. Also, they add on 20% gratuity which is fine however please check the math on your bill. We were charged additional money… but because of the experience we left it as is. I hope they enjoy the over charge because those were our last dollars...

3rd visit here. Lunch date with wife was ok. Good service, decent food but overpriced. Visit before was drinks at the Deck Bar, which is covered and nice to relax outside with friends. This is why we went last week.

This time was Friday apps and drinks with friends. We wanted to sit at the Deck Bar, but 3 different staff members said the same thing "It's closed because it's raining", and quickly walked away. We went to the back bar and mentioned to the bartender that this response was illogical, as the Deck Bar has a full roof and roll down garage doors making it "rain proof", and making the staff look incompetent for all repeating this nonsensical response. She clarified that they were actually short staffed, so the team assigned to the bar was pulled inside to work the upstairs section, and THAT is why the Deck Bar was closed. It would sound better to say you're short staffed rather than tell guests they can't sit under a roof because "it's raining." Just goofy.

The apps we got were sub par, and that's being polite. The collard greens dip was a spin on a spinach dip. Add collards to cheese, heat up, add toast points. Hard to mess up, and tasted like cheese dip. No flavor of collards or seasonings whatsoever. Who has ever seen a spinach or artichoke dip shared with friends not get completely devoured? We all had a couple of bites and left over half the gross dip untouched. The chips were decent.

The chicken egg rolls had chicken in them, but also no seasoning, and were almost burnt. The brisket nachos were what we were most excited to try, but they came out with a mountain of chips, 2 giant scoops of pre-bought cole slaw from a bucket, and exactly 2 tablespoons of actual brisket meat hidden inside. Basically this was slaw nachos with a tiny brisket topper. Between 4 of us only 2 of us actually got to taste the brisket, because that's all there was, 2 chips worth of meat. A total rip off. The bartender didn't even ask us why the apps were barely touched (should be a huge red flag to a well trained service staff!), she just took the full basket of slaw soggy chips and uneaten cheese dip away. After having mind blowing brisket nachos at Taco Mama's that lasted 2 meals with a ton of brisket meat for less money, these guys aren't even in the competition. The ambiance is cool if you just want drinks, the food is overrated and shows a total lack of standards or care for the customer. There are 100 better restaurants at this price point or below within 10 minutes of this place. $150 for 6 beers, 2 glasses of wine, and 3 blah apps for 4 people. Not worth it. Spend your money elsewhere, or just have drinks in the Deck Bar. Just don't bother going if...